Day Four - Planning and Flexibility

While everyday is busy in a school library, Thursday's schedule at Pine Street does leave a little more time for planning and projects.  I completed work on the Library Home Page by adding bios for Lee Anne and her assistant, Veneal.  The web page serves as the virtual home base of the media center and I feel it is important for media specialists to create a presence for parents and the larger community.  The school website is designed using a pre-set template and is not very flexible.  However, there is room to add a Flickr feed to create a digital slideshow of the library.   Pine Street really encourages student involvement in the creative process,  Perhaps we could have students take pictures of the library "in action" and then add the photos to Flickr. 

Lee Anne has given me the go-ahead to develop a reading program/voting display related to the South Carolina Book Awards.  We are focusing on the Picture Book category as more students have read/will read these titles.  In preparation, I printed cover art of all the nominated titles and cut out lots of hearts to decorate the voting bags.  I have also been familiarizing myself with the books.  I will do book talks related to many of the titles and then explain the voting process to the students.

It was fun to watch the Thursday 2nd grade reading group as they recorded their "final" product.  Lee Anne posted the audio file to the common drive so that teachers could play this for students.  One girl hoped that the recording would "go viral" - pretty media savvy for a 2nd grader!  Next week the class will begin their research project and I have compiled a list of pirates to focus on as I design a Pirate Pathfinder.

Lee Anne showed the video, "The Snowman", to her Kindergarten classes.  "The Snowman" has no dialogue, only music. Lee Anne uses this video to guide a discussion about the role that music plays in setting the tone of the film.  Analyzing the elements of a movie is a good way to incorporate media literacy skills into a school library program.

A 2nd grade class worked on searching and finding materials using the online catalog.  They needed a little help with spelling, but overall did a good job at finding books on their own.  I would love to see Destiny adapt the catalog to be more forgiving on spelling errors - maybe adding suggested spellings or choices for students.

This week has shown me the importance of planning and flexibility for a successful school librarian.  Lee Anne meets with diverse groups of students and has specific activities or story times planned for each group.  Being prepared and knowing what comes next is essential.  At the same time, librarians must be flexible: a class might show up late or teachers might need assistance immediately.  It will be important for me to "go with the flow" and handle whatever comes my way.