This week I had the pleasure to interview our very own media specialist. She has been here with us for 4 years. However, she has been teaching and serving students in our community for twenty years. In our building she serves as a teacher, and valuable resource to students, staff and our administrators. She is our Technology hero! This school year she has served as the liaison for parents and staff as the district rolled out a new platform in CTLS that was implemented to keep our scholar learning during the pandemic. She made sure ALL students who needed a device received one. We are very appreciative of her support and dedication to our staff and students. She has been the heart of the building during such an unfortunate time.
During the interview process we discussed her duties, as media center specialist and of course some of the issues and trends in children’s literature. A lot of our discussion was centered around this global pandemic and the many ways she has tried to reach our scholars both virtual and face-to-face. The first issue was the device shortage for the students in our community. The first day of school was August 3, 2020 at the time we were 100% virtual but only 60% of our students had received devices. There was a shortage district wide. Without devices our scholars could not learn. Without devices our scholars lacked daily instruction from our amazing teachers and resources for reading. It was disaster. However, she made a request for Title 1 funds, and it was received. By October 5, 2020, almost 100% of our scholars had devices and was logging in to CTLS every day. While on the subject of Technology I asked her, what type of technology is used throughout the school for reading, and how do you feel about this technology being used for reading? She responded,
“Every classroom in
our school had access to class iPads that stay in the classroom all day. They
also have access to desktop computers that are used throughout the day and each
classroom has an interactive board that's used for instruction. Our students
live in a technology rich world and being able to be educated in a technology
rich classroom better prepares them for life outside and beyond our walls.”
It is extremely important to meet our students where they
are. She said it best, our students live in a technology rich world. So, we
must implement literature through technology. I wanted to know if she noticed
any treads in our building. She expressed to me that there has been a really
strong emphasis on diversity and cultural awareness in children literature. I
think it’s important for educators to address the cultural diversity in the
classroom. We cannot control the capacity of hate in our country but we can
teach our students the importance of equality and respect. Our library has tons
of books and resources available for teachers, students and families. Outside
of that she didn’t want to ignore the concern that many of you may have with
book selections. I know a lot of parents are concerned with the common core or
state standards and if the two have affected the book selection for the library
and or the classroom. Her response to this was,
“I think that in
some ways Common Core state standards have affected the book selection for the
library and class individual classrooms, especially in their nonfiction
selections, but in lots of other ways classics are classics and kids love what
kids love and I think that as a library and I know the individual teachers also
are keeping that in mind so some books are based on Common Core state standards
some plenty of other books are based on student interest in student preference”
As you know we keep our library open on Wednesdays (district
remote day) so that virtual scholars have access to library books during the
pandemic. We keep them open so these students can up with their families and
return books and check out new ones. We also have a book cart outside where
their materials pick up is so that they can freely take books from there. As
far as the resources that have been available to them, there's always their
relationship that Cobb schools has with the Cobb library system where any student
with a Cobb County email address or student number is automatically eligible
and ready to check books out from any Cobb County library. Since the beginning
of the pandemic there has with online resources for our students. Despite the challenges
we have faced this school year, we have not lacked in our efforts to keep our
scholars reading. I will leave you with the words from our sweet media specialist,
“I love getting to work with ALL the teachers and students at my school and supporting their learning through technology. I like getting to watch the students find books that they enjoy and feel successful after reading. It truly warms my heart. The best thing that families can do to have a positive impact on their child's reading development is to simply read with them. It's just about setting aside a few minutes every day to sit down with your child, read a book and also setting time aside for you to sit down and read a book and modeling those reading behaviors. It takes a village.”
Resources
Trending Authors and Books
Rita Lorraine Hubbard, Lesa Cline-Ransome, John Parra, Leah Henderson, Nikki Shannon Smith, Angela Dominguez, Susan Muaddi Darraj, Lyla Lee, Angela Dominguez, Sylvia Townsend
References:
Cobb Summer Reading (2021). https://www.cobbsummerreading.com/
Georgia Department of Education (2021). https://www.gadoe.org/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/Curriculum-and-Instruction/Pages/Children's-Reading-Resources--.aspx
No comments:
Post a Comment