Sedgefield Elementary School Media Center - Essay Example

MEMORANDUM The School Board, Mr. ____, School Principal Mary Hardin, Resource Specialist September 7, 2005 I would like to relayto you the progress that we have achieved so far at the Sedgefield Elementary School Media Center, specifically along the lines of planning, leading, organizing, and controlling. We would like to create an effective and productive partnership with you in all of our initiatives. Sedgefield Elementary School Media Center has started its action planning for advocating the state program Promoting Literacy for the 21st Century, which is a state-wide initiative. The support from our staff is just overwhelming, and they are ready to lend strong support to our state’s literacy program. However, they expressed a concern on the more active involvement of educators and industry leaders in the state-wide effort of improving the public school curriculum, with the current emphasis on high schools. They have also informed me that they would want Sedgefield to be among the first schools to have its teacher-training program updated, and its learning and assessment systems enhanced. The group has already finalized its action plan to reinforce participation with this program, focusing on their critical role as media specialists in promoting information literacy. They also stressed their strong intent to take an active, collaborative role in specific initiatives that require the center’s support. Another matter which is worth noting is the group’s plan to strengthen our corporate social responsibility efforts. We have decided that while our role as library media specialists may seem remotely connected to corporate social responsibility, we can in fact, create a noteworthy impact, especially in the realm of education. Towards this end, we have already set our objective and action plans for CSR programs that have a particular relevance to education, for the latter half of the year. We have agreed that through these programs, we are not just helping the underprivileged through scaled-up corporate giving or through financial assistance – rather, we are implementing programs that are directly and meaningfully linked to our mission; that is, ensuring that students are successful users of all types of information. We have also discussed our progress in encouraging the enjoyment of literature and to fostering the development of higher-level thinking and research skills in students. More has to be done about transformation of education in our elementary school from knowing facts to knowing how to find, access, interpret, and evaluate information; and aid our students in developing life-long learning skills. These areas for improvement have been thoroughly addressed in the new plan. Still related to our CSR efforts, we thought of forming tie-ups with learning centers in less fortunate countries that have an obvious lack of learning resources. The focal point of our program not only covers financial or material assistance to these learning centers – rather, the program will also allow our children an appreciation of other cultures and peoples. The next thing in our agenda was a grand plan for our library’s compliance to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Together with our library specialists, we have outlined specific courses of action with regard to compliance to NCLB, especially since the law did not spell them out. The points that we addressed are the need to ensure our students’ reading and math proficiency; and towards this goal, spell our clearly and unavoidably the role that the media specialist ought to play to make this possible. We have reminded each other to constantly approach reading specialists and department heads to be more aware of their needs, and provide them with sufficient reading options, create an awareness of content standards, look for opportunities for partnerships, and collaborate with other libraries within the community. Off hand, we have already come up with valuable suggestions for integration into the learning center’s course of action, including a literacy campaign promoting visits to local public school libraries, reading marathons for raising a literacy fund for less fortunate counterparts, and participating in the distribution of library cards for kindergarteners, among others. Over the last half of the year, we have been successful that our role as librarians and media specialists in learning is valuable. Now more than ever, parents of our students have commended us for guiding and instructing their children with regards to Internet access and electronic databases. We have been effective at reinventing ourselves, and this has obviously boosted the morale of the group! Another area of progress is our selection process for purchase in our collections. The final guidelines for the process have already been laid out, and there are fewer uncertainties about the value of our most recent selections, brought about by the more accurate process. Teacher feedback from the surveys we have deployed indicate that these new selections are supportive and consistent of these teachers curriculum. We have adopted the following guidelines in our new selection process: Thoroughly investigate the claims of audiovisual software producers; Be aware of the many options available, and avoid selecting those first few items found in catalogues; Be familiar with the educational context in which the material would be used; Recommend teacher training when necessary to ensure the effective use of software; Cross-compare with other libraries on the merits of software before making a final decision of purchasing. So far, all our media specialists have shown time and commitment to thoroughly analyze materials vis-à-vis the school curriculum needs. We have also discouraged suspending judgment to those who do official reviews of a wide array of materials. The suggested process is then undertaking the preview, subjecting the material through teacher committee review, and gathering student feedback; these are very critical communication lines through which we can shape the curriculum through his direct influence on the selection of materials. To solicit more support, we have started the campaign for reinventing the role of the library media specialist, showcasing our various roles: being an information literacy teacher for students and staff; a reading advocate whose role encompasses book talking down to presenting reader’s advisory; and an information manager who chooses the apt print and electronic resources then successfully demonstrate these to teachers, students and parents. The response to our bulletin board postings and message boards have been very encouraging. Still in purchases, the Board may probably consider drafting a clear policy that will decrease the probability of purchase of specific contentious titles from being questioned. While such a policy may not guarantee that such titles will not be questions, they do increase the likelihood that such controversial titles will be reviewed and evaluated for retention in the school collection. We have also started our collection mapping process, which permits local resource communication among pubic libraries, schools, and local curriculum planning committees. We are expecting several positive outcomes once this project comes through; among them an improved focus on reference and periodical section; a wide array of contents of collections among schools; an assessment of the numbers and variety of material in chosen areas of the curriculum apart from literature, science and social studies; and direction for the update of professional development collections for teachers. We have also started weeding out from our collection, and assessing whether or not our selection supports our curriculum; and a long-term plan for acquisition, with feedback from our teachers. We have also started programs for maintaining or enhancing the motivation of our librarians and our library media specialists. We have just scheduled a seminar on Statistics and Data Analysis, to help our library media specialists keep up with NCLB compliance requirements of understanding student achievement data for monitoring improvement areas. Other school librarians have taken the initiative to take workshops that teach them how to integrate information technologies into the school’s science curriculum. Several sessions on information literacy with teachers and students are underway this month and the next. This will happen along with mentoring programs where more seasoned librarians will assist our librarians in the use of technology and in communicating with their counterparts. We have also taken more active roles in our local curriculum committees to ensure that they we have a say in governance and are accountable for the outcomes expected of us. Our end goal is to be able to demonstrate the value of our programs as a critical part of our school curriculum. We have also drafted plans for extending our efforts into advocacy programs that affect our school as a whole – its relationship with student achievement – and ultimately, its impact on literacy as a whole. We also plan to participate at the district planning level; we have already drafted budget allocations as regards NCLB and similar programs. We have also finalized Sedgefield Media Center’s plans for networking and curriculum mapping. Surely, our involvement in these initiatives will allow a vivid change in our school library, as we join resource sharing networks. We are also considering interlibrary loans; for extensive use by students, teachers, and even school administrators, once they are made available. They may also use these to access materials for homework and presentations. To launch an effective advocacy for promotion of literacy in our state, a Literacy Advocacy Committee was formed to oversee the activities related to this drive. Spearheading this initiative means drafting concrete plans concerning teacher training and assessment systems at the high school level; perhaps for optimized impact, a 3-year long-term plan ought to be presented to guarantee coherence and consistency in planning and governance. We will also establish measures such as monthly progress reports, for monitoring, raising awareness of progress at the School Board level, containing details on the initiatives to which our learning center has lent support. For the corporate social responsibility aspect, we will partner with the School Board to brainstorm on which type of effort may be implemented and the time frame for each. Logically, these plans shall also specify the level of involvement of each of the parties – teachers, students and librarians. To magnify the impact of these corporate social responsibility efforts, the Sedgefield Elementary School Media Center will initiate the formation of a consortium of learning centers with corporate social responsibility as a focal point. What are your thoughts on this? To monitor progress and compliance with regards to the No Child Left Behind Act, the Sedgefield Elementary School Media Center, in partnership with you, has began conducting internal audits of the efforts that are implemented towards this thrust. Through concrete empirical studies which present the effectiveness of teaching and learning methodologies and their impact on student performance, we will be able to determine those which are better at improving reading and math proficiency among our students. Naturally, this has been done in partnership with our teachers and students. Along the process, learner and teacher issues are surfaced, with the librarian looking into which areas she can contribute to. The results of the trimestral audit shall provide benchmark data on degree of compliance to the NCLB. Post-program evaluations shall also be conducted, covering the suggested programs of a literacy campaign promoting visits to local public school libraries, reading marathons for raising a literacy fund for less fortunate counterparts, and participating in the distribution of library cards for kindergarteners, among others. We also wish to constantly collaborate with you, members of the School Board, teachers and students. As the role of technology is gradually being acknowledged in the district, and the need for information literacy becomes more pressing, there is a greater need for librarians to provide direction and leadership. The wide use of software for improving learning methodologies may be underway, the use of which requires the support and key role of librarians. For example, the Big 6 software used in study conducted in a private school catering to kindergarten to twelfth grade students, has been significantly effective at helping them accomplish unfamiliar tasks with complex content, acting as a metacognitive scaffold. We have made real headway in terms of technology, particularly in the use of software and databases. The following are the specific goals and objectives drafted by the group previously, which they wish to continue pursuing apart from those mentioned above: Goal 1: The library media program will continue providing an information skills curriculum with skills integrated into and supporting the school’s educational programs. Objective 1-1: The Elementary School Library Media Specialist will integrate media skills following the curriculum guideline into one unit for each grade level per semester, with corresponding teacher feedback. The total number of units will be 12 by the end of the year with two per grade level. Goal 2: The library media program will continue provide a library media center, which facilitates access to information that encourages and fosters the development of higher level thinking skills and enjoyment of learning. Objective 2-1: The Elementary School Library Media Specialist will facilitate reading programs such as the Star Program to measure reading growth by semesters and the Accelerated Reader to enhance the reading program. The goal for the scores on the Star Program will increase on an average of .5 per semester. This program allows students to pick books, which are within their individual reading level. An increase of ten percent of books read by students over precious years will be the goal. The specialist will encourage students to read by offering prizes each semester for points accumulated in the Accelerated Reading program. Goal 3: The library media program will continue providing policies and procedures, which guide program development and management, ensuring equity and freedom of access to information and ideas. Objective 3-1: The Elementary School Library Media Specialist will continue to follow and post policies and procedures as outlined in the Policies and Procedures Manual. These will be posted in the library, handbooks, faculty lounge, and newsletters to parents. Goal 4: The Charlotte Mecklenburg School District Policy and Procedure Manuel will still be complied with for encumbering funds, for tracking a request for purchase order and the resulting purchase order, and for the payment of invoices. Also, a plan for long-range plans for projecting budget needs for the upcoming school year and the procedure for reporting this projected budget to the administration. Objective 4-1: A spreadsheet page for each library account shall be kept, entering the budget amount for each account on the speed sheet, setting up folders for purchase orders, entering appropriate information on the speed sheet when purchase order is requested and money is encumbered. The packing slip shall be checked against items received and sending the packing slip for payment, if order is complete. The spread sheet shall be corrected to reflect the actual amount of the invoice. The item shall then be added to the collection. Means of monitoring progress along these objectives have also been put in place. Both quantitative and qualitative means are employed. For instance, audits and surveys are our sources of information for post program evaluations. Moreover, the technical and soft skills development of our librarians are also be stringently monitored, ensuring that they are competent at encouraging students to learn, and at assisting teachers for effective lesson / curriculum delivery. In particular, monitoring tools for each of the following strategic areas have been drafted: advocacy for state programs that promote literacy; responsiveness to calls for corporate social responsibility; compliance to the No Child Left Behind Act; and the degree to which they leverage on their roles as strategic partners. Moreover, post-program measures on staff development may also be established. Apart from the quantitative measures, we are using qualitative data in clarifying areas which need to be improved, particularly through one-on-one interviews or focus groups with the respective parties involved – librarians, teachers, and students, surfacing all issues that they might be facing during program implementation. This holistic approach allows for more valid recommendations for program enhancement. In reality, we cannot draft hard and fast rules for the implementation of these programs. Surely, we will be surprised at how these will evolve as we immerse ourselves at each step of the process. The most important thing, perhaps, is the good will to be the best at our craft, and to have a good strategic game plan to begin with. With this, half the battle has been won. Read More