Library Media Tech Talk

Far too often educators attend professional development that fails to model current best practices. How many times have you been bored to death in required meetings before school begins each year? I want to take a moment to recognize our administrative team for thinking out of the box and breaking out of the typical teacher training. I'm also grateful that they chose to use the school library for these meetings! You will read a reflection from Lakeside Assistant Principal, Mathew Thornton (@Mat_Thornton), later in this article. This is significant since Mr. Thornton is a former student of mine who also happens to be one of my bosses! English Language Learners Present In Their Native Language Mr. Thornton asked Mrs. Melody Steiger, our ESL teacher, to invite some of her students to present to faculty during August professional development. The resulting session was one of the most effective I have witnessed in my career. Melody had her learners present to the faculty in their...

Last year, I wrote an article about the importance of annual library reporting to school administrators. I have tried to send some form of an annual report each of the seven years I have served as a school library media specialist. Remember that your bosses are viewing data constantly. Principals and superintendents see value in budgets, test scores, student enrollment numbers, and even faculty absence statistics. When you send a report to them, it gives a snapshot of what you are doing in the library. Many people tend to think this is a waste of their time, but I disagree. Many times over the past seven years, I have had both superintendents and principals talk about our statistics. They remember these numbers because the statistics reflect usage of many different services. This gives a return on their investment! If you don't share these numbers with them, how will they know? I converted our annual report to a .JPG file, so I could easily display it here on the blog page. (...