Planning for the Scholastic Book Fair

Today, Mrs. Deep and I began to plan for the Scholastic Book Fair. Mrs. Deep has been participating in the Scholastic Book Fair for 6 consecutive years. Mrs. Deep has had a lot of experience with setting up and running the Book Fairs. Mrs. Deep stated that she likes to use Scholastic instead of other organizations for the book fairs because they are very organized, keep detailed records of purchased items, and offer incentives for schools who allow them to come set up their book fair. This year, because Mrs. Deep has used them for 6 years in a row, has earned $100 dollars in Scholastic Dollars. These Scholastic Dollars allow her to buy and get items for the library for free! Over the years, Mrs. Deep has gotten book shelves, rocking chairs, and various inspirational posters for free using the Scholastic Dollars. Another incentive that Mrs. Deep earned for the school is a $5 off coupon that she can give to every teacher in the school.


Mrs. Deep also explained to me how she has learned to set up and run the Book Fair so that it is less stress on her. Mrs. Deep prefers to set up the Book Fair and have it open on a Friday. Then, she will close the book fair early on the last Friday. Mrs. Deep also asked teachers to only allow the students to come to the book fair during their rotation time, not in the morning. The morning is reserved for parents who wish to stop buy and purchase items. Additionally, Mrs. Deep will request for 4th and 5th grade students on Principals Honors (All A's with a 95 or above average) to come and help with the sells in the morning. This gives Mrs. Deep the freedom to still help other students and teachers within the library to check out books, answer questions, and run reports. Mrs. Deep also said that the first book fair does not bring in as much money. The library can earn 25% of the profit. However, the second book fair that year, they earn a little higher percentage. Also, Mrs. Deep looks at what books are being bought and sees if they are Accelerated Reader books. She checks to see if they have a quiz that goes along with them. If they are popular, they are an AR book and have a quiz, she uses the money from the second book fair to purchase the books to add to the library's collection.

I also helped Mrs. Deep to create the newsletter to go home with the students. Mrs. Deep logged into her Scholastic account online, and we went to the premade form under her account. We edited the dates and the times to fit our needs for this book fair. Mrs. Deep also explained the new eWallet purchasing procedure that was implemented last year. Mrs. Deep allowed students to pay with checks/cash the first 5 years she conducted the book fair. However, last year she explored the Scholastic's eWallet option. Parents/guardians could create an account online, create an eWallet with a certain allotted amount of money, and the child would be able to purchase items from the store without having to keep up with the check or cash. Mrs. Deep explained that when she logged on to her account in the mornings of the book fair, she would receive an email saying that a parent/guardian purchased an eWallet. She would print out that eWallet booklet, with the bar code inside, and give it to the child. When they were ready to check out, she would scan the bar code, and the money would be deducted from that eWallet. At the end of the book fair, the eWallet would expire.

I look forward to working with Mrs. Deep in the Book Fair within the next few weeks. I feel like this will be a great experience and that it will allow me to work with more of the library's patrons. I can't wait!

Reading Enrichment Unit

This week I conducted the Reading Enrichment Unit. I used the data from last year's USA Test Prep Assessment to identify the group of students who had a definite weakness in a particular area within the Georgia Performance Standards. The majority of Mrs. Stones homeroom, fourth grade student, struggled with planets and the solar system. Therefore, I created this Reading Enrichment Unit to help supplement their learning and increase understanding of the planets and the solar system.

I used my knowledge of the students and Mrs. Stone's knowledge to conduct the learner analysis. While creating the Reading Enrichment Unit, I made to to adhere to the accommodations and needs of the students. The first day of the unit, we read the book, The Planets in our Solar System by Franklyn Branley. I also had a planet presentation to accompany the book. Students really loved being able to see the planets as we read about them. They were facinated by how different they are from Earth. On the second day, we learned how to use information ethically. This was an important day for the students because they are required to be able to use information from online and print resources ethically. They also would need this information to be able to effectively create their presentations at the end of this unit. On the third day of the unit, I taught students how to use Galileo and Destiny to locate information on the web. Students practiced locating information on one subject and shared with the class what they learned. Additionally, students worked in their groups to find a book in Destiny that would correlate with the planet that they selected. Students went to the library and located the book so that they could read and create their presentation on that book. Finally, the last day of the unit, student read their book in their groups. Then, they browsed Galileo to locate information on their planet. As a group they created a Google Slide Presentation on their planet. Students shared their presentations with the class at the end of the class period.

This Reading Enrichment Unit was a very rewarding experience for me. I was able to help supplement and increase understanding of the students' weakness. I had a great time with students and they really enjoyed being able to read more about the planets that they were interested in.

Online Staff Development Analysis

The Online Learning Module was created to supplement and improve the county's technology needs just as the Face-to-Face Professional Development workshop. However, the Online Learning Module was intended to be given completely online. I found this assignment very challenging, yet also very rewarding. I stepped out of my comfort zone and created a module that was intended to be completed fully online. I had never done this before, so it was a new experience. I actually found that creating the online module was fairly simple and easy to do once I got started. I believe that the Online Learning Module would be more effective than the Face-to-Face Professional Development workshop because the Online Learning Module adds flexibility to the lesson. The staff can complete any portion of the module at any time that is convenient to them. They can also easily go back into the lesson to reread or watch the lessons to help them to become successful and understand the learning objectives. T

I found that the teachers that completed this workshop did very well with their Symbaloo webmixes. They used a variety of tools in their webmixes. Addtionally, the feedback that I got back with the Google Forms survey was very positive. The teachers especially liked the screencast video because it helped them to create their own Symbaloo step-by-step. I did find that some teachers did not use the markers to help separate and organize their webmix. However, if the whole webmix is only intended for one subject or topic, they wouldn't need the markers. The link to the Online Staff Development and a summary of the feedback from the workshop is provided below.


Online Staff Development Module

Thematic Display

This week, I've been helping Mrs. Deep with the Media Center's thematic display. As stated in the earlier posts, the theme for the school year is "The Achiever in Me". This is basically a red carpet/Hollywood theme. Mrs. Deep and I sat down a few weeks ago and sketched out the displays that we wished to create. One display, the one I've helped work on this week, is located in the window/show case to the left of the entrance when students, teachers, and parents come in. It is really important that this display matches the theme and looks organized because this is the first thing that people see when they walk in the school. I was honored to be able to help create this display.

First, I had to tear down and get rid of the display from last year. I didn't think it would take long, but it took me nearly an hour to do that! The paper kept tearing and leaving hunks on the wall. It is also very difficult working in that small window space. However, I finally got it! Then, I cut out the letters, stars, and backdrops for the display first. Then, we put them up using a variety of adhesives. I thought that two sided tape would work just fine, but Mrs. Deep laughed at my notion. She said, "Dear, you may want to break out the hot glue for this one!" I had a really good time helping to create this display. Before I broke out the hot glue, I took a string of lights and taped/glued them to the wall. Then, I put a black background on the entire back wall. Then, I went back to cut small holes for the lights to poke out. I will put my stars around these holes so that it looks like they are actually shining!

I'm not finished yet, but I will post the finished product next week! I plan to have all of the letters, stars, and other materials in place by Wednesday.

Weeding Procedures

Today I met with Mrs. Deep to discuss weeding procedures at Telfair County Elementary School. The procedures are listed below.

If a book is damaged beyond repair
1. Weed the book and take it out of Destiny
2. Write down the bar code in the Weeded Items Notebook (explained below)
3. Throw the book away

Mrs. Deep keeps a Weeded Items Notebook to store old bar codes that can be used for books that are entering the library's collection. Mrs. Deep stressed to me the importance of never, under any circumstance, have a book or library item that has the same bar code as another item. She said it creates a HUGE headache. For example, if you have two books that are exactly the same, you need two different bar codes. If they have the same bar code, you cannot tell which student is responsible for which book. She said that in the past, students would lose or damage their book and then just find someone else who had the same book and take their copy. There was no way to prove that this happened because they had the same bar codes!

If the book is weeded due to inaccurate info, age, or if it's not a curricular need
1. Weed the book and take it out of Destiny
2. Write down the bar codes
3. Offer the weeded books to teachers
4. Save the books and give to students/parents at the school's Open House and/or Academic Night

Mrs. Deep then showed me how to weed the book and take it out of the system on Destiny. She did not have any books at the time that needed to be weeded, but she said that when she did, she would call me so that I could go through the entire process. I'm so grateful that she offers the weeded books to the students, teachers, and parents. I know it is a hassle to hold and store books, but I know that there are many who really appreciate the opportunity to acquire the books that she weeds from her library's collection.

Shelving Returned Books

This week, I've helped Mrs. Deep shelve the books that had been returned. Mrs. Deep have been VERY busy this week with testing Kindergarten students on the K-2 Literacy Program. I offered to help with the testing for the K-2 Literacy, but Mrs. Deep requested that I help her stay caught up with shelving books. Mrs. Dickerson, the parapro for the library, handled the Fiction books this week while I took care of the Nonfiction books. We had a LOT of books being returned this week. I'm guessing that students read their books over the last week when we were out due to the hurricane. I guess they didn't have any other options since the power was out!

Personally, I love shelving books. I get so busy and caught up with all the work and activities that are going on in my life. However, when I shelve books, I'm able to take a jump back into my own childhood. I pick up a book to return it to the shelf and I can remember reading the same book when I was younger. I also love interacting with the students in the library during this time too. Most students will ask you to help them find a book that they will enjoy. I love the challenge of being able to be part of the reason why a child learns to love to read

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Visiting the Wheeler County Middle/High School

I am SO very grateful for the opportunity I had today to go visit Mrs. Renae Evans at Wheeler County Middle/High School. I saw a side of school media that I have never seen before, and I’m in love! Mrs. Renae runs and organizes her library much different than the libraries I’ve visited in Telfair County.
The Wheeler County Middle School/High School Media Center serves 712 patrons. The library has 15,152 books in its collection, 16 desktop computers, a conference room, a quiet room for students (with computers), and a STEM room. Mrs. Evans claimed that when she became the media specialists, she had a lot of cleaning up to do. The books had apparently not been weeded in a while because the average publishing date for the library’s collection was 1983! Oh my stars!

The first thing that I picked up on that was very different in the library was that students really WANTED to spend time there. The library was definitely not a quiet zone and the students interacted with each other, myself, and Mrs. Evans during their visits. In the morning, Mrs. Evans has the AR store open to the students. Students may also come in an play educational games on the library’s desktops, play some board games that are present on the tables in the library, work on the puzzle on one of the tables (once finished, she glues it and displays them on the wall in the library), and/or check out books. As soon as the library lights came on, students came flying in!

While students were coming in this morning, they kept asking for lunch passes. I later found out that these lunch passes were for students to come in after eating their lunch to check out books, read, collaborate with their peers, or play educational games. Isn’t this great!? Mrs. Evans said that she allows 20 per grade to come in during their lunch time. She said that she had to start doing the lunch passes because all of the students were wanting to come in all at once.

The layout of the library is the most impressive part to me. When Mrs. Evans became the media specialist, the bookshelves obscured a lot of the view in the library. Mrs. Evan’s nicknamed some portions “lover’s lane” because students, especially high school students, would try to go behind the tall bookshelves and have some alone time. Mrs. Evans collaborated with the woodshop and art class to help her get a new layout of the library. They chopped the bookshelves in half, making them shorter where she could see students, and placed the remaining tall shelves against the wall.
The single-handed best idea I’ve heard today was “genrefying” the Fiction books. Instead of having books organized by author’s last name, the books are organized by genre. This makes locating books an easier task for students, and it has really increased the circulation of the books. Mrs. Evans stated that the circulation of the books went up over 50% when she genrefied her library. I definitely plan to genrefy my library when I become a media specialist.

Teacher requirements vary between the middle school and high school students. Most middle school teachers require students to check out and read one book from the library and one book from the classroom library every two weeks. The high school Reading teachers require students to check out two books from the school library every two weeks. Mrs. Evans will allow a student to check out more than the required books if they are a dependable student. For example, if they are responsible and do not damage the books or lose them, she will let them check out an extra book. If they are not responsible, she will only allow them to check out one at a time.
Wheeler County schools are high-poverty. The school does not have as much funding as Telfair schools do. Mrs. Evans stated that she does not make much money at all through the AR store or Book Fairs. They do not have any kind of budget for the school libraries. When they need or desire something, they have to go to email people at their Board of Education, describe the item, and state how it relates and applies to the school and state standards. Mrs. Evans gets a lot of her funding through grants. She says that she writes and applies for grants almost every month. She has received grants from the Dollar Store, Home Depot, and Jimmy Johnson Technology Grant. She said that it was very important to try to apply for as much grants as she could to try to help keep her library a float and make sure that her patrons had access to the materials and resources that they need. When she does purchase books, she tries to purchase them through Permabound. Permabound is a company that has a lifetime warranty on their books. If they get ruined, all she has to do is call the company, provide the bar code label for the book, and they will ship her a new copy of the book. She said that this is something I definitely want to use when I become a media specialist because it has saved her a lot of money.

The weeding policy is also much different at Wheeler County schools. First, Mrs. Evans deletes the book from Destiny. Then, she places the books on a bookshelf outside of the library for students to take for free. After the books have been outside for a month, she calls the prison to see if they would like the books. The books that are left over go to the Art teacher. Now, I sort of cringed when she told me at first what they do with the weeded books, but I quickly regained my composure! The books that cannot find a home are given to the Art teacher to make crafts. One craft that students really enjoy making are the giant letters made out of the books (the r and e pictured below).

I asked Mrs. Evans what the hardest part of the job was to her and she stated that she just had 10,000 jobs to do and she was all by herself. She claims that the jobs are never-ending and that she can’t seem to ever get ahead. However, the most rewarding part of her job is that she gets to help teachers and students. She especially loves helping a student discover their love for reading!

Online Learning Module with Deep

Today, I showed Mrs. Deep the Online Learning Module that I created for Practicum. I asked Mrs. Deep to pay special attention to the embedded sources and the assessments to ensure that the module was going to be effective. Mrs. Deep was very impressed with module. She stated that she had not really used Google Sites before, but she said that it looked wonderful! She remembered the teacher objectives that were on the syllabus and knew that they were also the ones that she approved for the Face-to-Face Staff Development. Mrs. Deep moved through each lesson on the module and she became REALLY excited when she got to lesson two. Lesson two is where I created the instructional screencast for the teachers that demonstrates how to create a Symbaloo. Mrs. Deep was ecstatic! She loved that I created a screencast of the steps and not just that I had screenshots of the steps. She stated that she has a room for teachers in the Media Center just for screencasts, but she can't seem to get teachers engaged in using them.

When she got to lesson 3 of the module, where I assess the teacher's understanding of the concepts, she was thrilled. The teachers are able to go back in the lesson from this page so that they can follow along with the video and create their Symbaloo. She was also very impressed with the evaluation page on the module. The Google Form that I embedded in the module allows teachers to give me feedback on what they believe went well within the module, how well they believe that the module was organized, as well as appropriateness of the staff development to them. Mrs. Deep asked about how I would receive the data from the evaluations (she's not very familiar with Google Forms). I told her that when teachers respond to the Google Form evaluation, I can access the form and it gives me anonymous data and the responses that each teacher gave.

Mrs. Deep did recommend that I add the steps in writing up under the instructional screencast for creating a Symbaloo. This is a fantastic idea! This way, teachers can watch, listen, and read the instructions to insure that they are able to fully understand how to create their own Symbaloo. I look forward to hearing from the teachers and seeing the Symbaloos that they create!

Face-to-Face Staff Development

On Friday, I delivered my face-to-face staff development on the Web 2.0 tool called Symbaloo. Previously, I conducted a needs assessment with Mrs. White, the technology director for Telfair County schools. Together, we determined that the faculty members in our county lacked knowledge of how to further expand their access to educational resources. Therefore, we decided to help develop their knowledge by developing a staff development workshop that introduced Symbaloo. I created a content outline for the workshop, Prezi presentation about the benefits of Symbaloo for teachers and students, and instruction sheet for how to create their own Symbaloo.

I was thrilled to do this face-to-face staff development. Symbaloo is a great Web 2.0 tool to use in education. It was a great experience to be able to share my knowledge of the tool and to help them see the benefits of using the tool in their classroom. I was very satisfied with the teachers’ responses to the staff development. After giving the staff development on Symbaloo, I had several teachers that asked me to stay and help them further expand on their Symbaloo webmix. They had several questions regarding student use. I’m confident that they will use Symbaloo in the future to help organize their educational resources, share resources with the students, and allow students to utilize Symbaloo for class projects.

Thematic Display Planning

Today Mrs. Deep and I discussed plans for and materials needed for her thematic display. As stated in the earlier blog posts, the theme for this school year is “Achiever in Me”. This theme is basically a red carpet theme. Together, we sketched out a design that we were both satisfied with. Then, we identified the materials that we would need to get the job done! She made sure to inform me that I don’t need to buy anything with my personal money. She stated that the funds for the displays come from the AR Store profit. I’m excited to get started and help put up our display! The sketch of the displays are shown below.

Taking Down the Motivation Wall

Today I helped Mrs. Deep to take down last year’s Motivation Wall and save some of the blue ribbons that were already on the wall. The Motivation Wall showcases students in 3-5 who are on or above their grade’s lexile level. The students take the STAR Test three times each year. Once the student has made it to their lexile level, Mrs. Deep puts their name on the wall with a blue ribbon. Each time that year that they stay on or above their grade’s lexile level, they earn another blue ribbon. The Motivation Wall is located outside of the school’s lunchroom. Therefore, every student and teacher in the school sees their accomplishments each day.

Teacher Cut-Outs

I helped to cut out letters for a teacher today using the Eddison Cut-Out. I mostly cut out letters for two sayings: "Show Stopping Readers!" and "Featuring: Red Carpet Readers". I found that the easiest way to organize and do the cut outs is to write down each of the letters used in the phrases and the number times that letter was used. This was a LOT faster than doing one letter at a time, word-by-word. This took forever!

Assisted Classroom Teacher-Bulletin Board Paper

Today I assisted a classroom teacher in obtaining some bulletin board paper from the library. Mrs. Deep keeps the bulletin board paper in the back of the library. Unlike the middle/high school media center, she does not have a stand for the rolls of paper to stay on. Also, the school buys a certain amount of paper each year for the Media Center. To cut down on waste, Mrs. Deep asks teachers to measure out the amount of paper and the color they need. The teachers will write the amount and color down on the paper and give it to Mrs. Deep. When she, or the parapro, have the opportunity, they will get the paper ready for the teacher. This ensures that the paper is being used responsibly and that it is not going to waste. Today, I cut out and delivered 4 sections of bulletin board paper. The green and white paper needed to be 10 feet long. The red and yellow paper had to be 5 feet long. Now, this sounds fairly simple, but when you don't have a stand to use it can be more challenging. Most of my cutting was done on the floor of the Media Center! With larger pieces of paper, it was hard to make sure that the paper didn't tear while trying to cut it.

AR Store

Today I talked with Mrs. Deep about the AR store as well as helped her work the stand. The AR store hours are 7:30-8:00 in the morning. Also, students can come to the AR store during their recess and rotation time. The AR store is the busiest in the morning, but she is also very busy during the 1st graders rotation time. It’s a balancing act trying to work the AR store as well checking out books. The AR store includes many different school items that can be used in class. Some of the items are listed below:

Erasers
Pencils
Pencil Cases
Earbuds
Color pencils
Crayons
Rulers
Water bottles
Bouncing Balls for recess

The AR store helps to fund the AR parties for students who meet their AR goal (at least 10 points and an 80 average). The AR parties consist of either pizza, cupcakes, snow cones, or ice cream and soda. Mrs. Deep said that the AR store profits more than enough money to help with the parties. The companies that she purchases the items from are: TNT School Supply, GEDDES, Positive Promotion, Jones School Supply, and Oriental Trading. She announced that she uses many different suppliers because she ensures that she gets the supplies for the least amount of money possible. Most of these suppliers have the same items, but the prices are different.

Shelving Returned Books

This week, I spent the majority of the time assisting Mrs. Deep put the returned books back on the shelves. Mrs. Deep was not here two of the days this week and she got very behind on reshelving the books. Therefore, to be useful to her, I helped reshelve the books. This is a daily activity that a media specialist must do. If you wait too long to reshelve the books, the patrons of the library may miss out on the “perfect book” because it was back behind the check-out desk. As a media specialist, I will ensure to stay on top of my duties and make sure not to procrastinate with returning the books to the shelves.

Additionally, I helped clean up the library and shelve books that had been put on the top of the bookshelf. Mrs. Deep has a policy for the patrons of the library. If they take a book without using their Sammy (placeholder), or if they accidentally remove the book, they can put the book above where they got it on top of the bookshelf. This helps patrons to not just stuff the book back in the incorrect place and order on the bookshelf. This helps to keep the library organized!