Wednesday, August 29, 2012

And... we're off!!

Our first day of orientation started today. By this time next week, I will see all 970 of our students! It is quite a challenging year so far. The media center has solo staffing this year, so we need as many parent volunteers as we can muster. My primary role is providing collaborative teaching and learning projects to support the new Common Core curriculum in the classroom.
What does that require? Full-time clerical work. Hours of technology troubleshooting. Staff trained in technology and literacy support. Are you ready for a challenge? Please contact ldextre@wcpss.net if you can give your time to volunteer.

On a happy note, our orientation, which started with sixth grade classes today, went quite smoothly. We had some great comments from students on their exit tickets:
"What I liked about the media center is all the interesting books and how much room there is."
"Two things I liked about the media center were that you can still check out books if you loan something or donate something [take-it-or-leave-it]. Also, you can check out almost every book."
"I think the media center was really fun, and it was a comfy place to be in."
"I liked the library here. It had a lot of good books and I like the bookmarks they had."
"Checking out the books was slow. We need two librarians."
"I love the way they really give you a choice in the media center with all those books all organized all neat. Good job, library staff!"
"I like that you're allowed to sit anywhere you want in the media center. I also like that you are able to keep your book for three weeks."
"I love the way everything was set up and the anime books. They need a lot more anime books."
"I really liked it. It's so different from elementary school. It's bigger and better. I loved it!"
 Trying to maintain our previous level of service with 60 hours less of help each week will prove to be my biggest challenge in my career. How will I handle it? With grace and focus, remembering that student literacy comes before plugging in cables. Involving parents in their child's education by listening to advice and allowing them to lend a hand for displays, project setup and resource support. Collaborating with classroom teachers to create a meaningful, fun project will trump paperwork piles, technology fix-its and laminating. 

 I will hope that we will again see a state IMPACT model standard, along with a national school learning environment to support the needs of our Common Core teachers and learners. Teacher librarians can't do it alone, but we sure work with remarkable efficiency and a welcoming smile anyway.