Day 12 - Busy Day at The DHS Media Center

As expected, Thursday was jam packed with activity.  Melanie went over budgeting, requisitions, and purchase orders with me, but, as she advised me, each school will have its own unique requirements and steps for budgeting and spending.  Once I have my own library, I will need to make good friends with the school bookkeeper so they won't mind all the questions I will ask them!

Mrs. Shepard's class completed their Destiny Quest book reviews. I briefly went over copyright and citations and then the class  moved on to the next phase of the project: visual book reports.  Visual book reports are a mashup of text and images that represent the major themes, symbols, and or characters of the novel.  I think the students will enjoy the creative freedom of this project and I am excited to see their final products.  Cathy will work with us on the final day and provide needed guidance on the graphic design aspects of the visual book report.

Teen Read Week (TRW) festivities continued with library trivia and  special guests, Travis and Heather, from Spartanburg County Public Library's teen library staff.  Many students stopped by during lunch and won t-shirts and other cool swag for showing their SCPL cards.  See more TRW pictures and details on the Cavaliers Read! blog.

Events like Teen Read Week are a great way to create a "buzz" around your library program and to get students excited and inclined to think the school library is a hub of fun and activity.

Day 10 - Halfway There

http://cultureofyes.ca/2012/02/02/what-is-west-van-talking-about-checking-in-at-the-midpoint/

Tuesday began with an multistep student project.  Cathy is helping an art class create narration files to go along with a physical and web based display of student created artwork, a virtual art walk.  Using Audacity, students recorded narrations, exported the files, and created QR codes linked to the files.  There are more steps involved, but the process should be worthwhile once the art and audio are linked.

Melanie discussed my midpoint evaluation with me and we identified checkpoint items that I still need to complete.  For the professional development component I am planning to offer a Media Center 101 session to any student teachers at Dorman this semester.  Another idea is to offer training on using Destiny Quest.

Cathy and I met with Mrs. Shepard to finalize the plans for next week's curriculum unit.  I am excited about the project and hope the students enjoy creating digital book reviews and visual book reports.  I am also happy to have Cathy assisting with some of the more technical elements of the project!  She has done visual book reports project before and has some great tips in this blog post.  We will add in some information technology instruction related to citing images.

Melanie and Cathy attended EdTech this week and I look forward to hearing all about it.  As I am posting after the big crosstown rival game, I must acknowledge that the Dorman Cavaliers beat my home school district team, the Spartanburg High School Vikings,  42-35.  Hope I don't hear too much gloating on Tuesday!