Memorandum

To: Julia Wells, School Principal School Improvement Team From: Patrice Toulson Date: October 3, 2011 Re: Wrens Middle School Library Media Program Evaluation The Georgia Department of Education has a library media program self-evaluation rubric which shows how a media center should be run and how it needs to operate on a daily basis. After evaluating the Wrens Middle School media center in collaboration with the school media specialist, we found the following results in the areas of Student Achievement and Instruction, Staffing, Facilities, Access, and Resources, Administrative Support, and Staff Development. There were several areas that we rated ourselves as basic that we hope we can turn into a proficient rating and other areas that we would like to improve on so that we could become exemplary. Student Achievement and Instruction: In the area of information literacy standards being integrated into the content instruction, we felt that we were proficient. The teachers work well with us to ensure that the literacy skills and the Georgia Performance Standards are the backbone of all of our teaching methods. We continuously work with students to teach them how to search for information, locate and analyze the information they find. We are constantly showing them how to cite information they find in order to avoid plagiarism. We work with teachers in order to teach them and the students how to use new Web 2.0 tools. The next area we rated ourselves as basic. We participate in collaborate planning with teachers but we feel that it is normally initiated by the teacher. We decided that the media specialist will begin to meet with each department at the beginning of each month to collaborate and encourage collaborative planning among teachers. Topics that will be discussed will be content areas to determine if anyone is teaching similar content area and any diversity in learning styles, needs or abilities will be included to ensure every child is included in the collaborative planning. In areas 3-6, we rated ourselves as basic. The media

specialist plans and teaches collaboratively with teachers some but not enough to be considered proficient. I think this goes back to area 2. We need to meet with teachers on a regular basis in order to collaborate more and plan together so that the students will not see the media program as a break in instruction but rather as an extension of the classroom. Most students see the media specialist as a helper in locating books that interest them and finding books that help them with their school projects. As far as area 4, the media center really doesnt offer any type of events or activities that appeal to the students. The media specialist has bulletin boards and displays books that she feels interest different students but this is simply not enough. Some areas that I think we could venture into are book clubs, bringing authors in for book signings, and incentives other than getting a chart filled out if they meet their reading goals. My sister works in a neighboring middle school media center and one thing they do to promote the students reading is provide them with popcorn in the media center when they get a certain number of points. She said the students love this. I will start looking for a used popcorn machine in order to purchase and begin this event with the students. We felt that our resources reflect diverse learning abilities but we dont necessarily select resources and inform the teachers of these resources. Nor do we help the classroom teacher develop rubrics for assessing student achievement. I think a lot of the problem in these areas where we rated ourselves basic is because of time constraints. It is difficult to get together with the teachers to do these items. However, we have got to learn to include time for each of these areas. When we begin meeting with the teachers at the beginning of each month, we have got to include time to incorporate all of these issues into the meeting. Staffing: In the area of staffing, we rated ourselves Basic. The main reason that we did this is because the media specialist has gone part-time this year. She also has to perform other duties on a daily basis. She still has her AR reading class in the morning which prevents her from being able to do media specialist functions. We still have the paraprofessional in the media center all day. I dont see how we can improve on this section due to budget cuts and the situation of not knowing what they are going to be doing with our two middle schools in the county. When the media specialist went part time, you told her

that after she retired fully, she would not be replaced. Until this changes, I feel that we will remain in the basic category for staffing in the media center. Facilities, Access, and Resources Overall, in this section, we rated ourselves proficient in four areas and basic in two. In areas eight, ten, eleven and twelve we felt that we were proficient. Our media center, as you are aware of, has flexible scheduling. We are open before school begins, during lunch and throughout the entire day. The students can come at any time as long as they have their teachers permission. However, I feel that we could become even more flexible. I think the students could benefit from the media center being open thirty minutes to an hour after school gets out. Sometimes a student may get homework for that night that may require material from the media center. I also think staying open in the afternoons would benefit the teachers as well. Sometimes they need to do things in the media center and it is closed as of 3:00 p.m. now that the media specialist as gone parttime. We have twelve ActivBoards in our school but we dont have any in the media center. We do use Streaming Videos and the electronic distribution meets state requirements. Until we increase the collaborating and planning along with teachers and making the media center an extension of the classroom, I believe another Activboard would be more beneficial in another classroom. We are proficient in our print and nonprint resources and they are available online to all computers in the school. Every computer in the school is equipped with network services. Destiny is still the online public access catalog that we use and every computer in the school has access to this program. This program is up to date at all times. This is a student friendly program. The media specialist is constantly weeding old material out of the media center daily. The areas in this section that we rated ourselves basic in were the square footage requirements. We were not sure exactly what the requirements were. We attempted to look this up but were unable to locate this information. We feel that we would meet the minimum requirements in this area. We could definitely use more room in the media center but with the question mark of what is going to happen to the two middle schools, an expansion is probably doubtful at this time. The other area that we felt that we were

basic in was the GALILEO searches. We encourage students and teachers to use GALILEO but we still feel as though this is done on a minimum level. We think that most searches are still being done by using Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. A survey for the students and teachers could be a way to determine how material is being searched for. This would be an easy way to determine how many use GALILEO versus search engines. When teachers are doing research projects with their students, we should start requiring the student to have at least one source from GALILEO. The students are never going to begin using GALILEO until we start requiring them to use it. This would also get them familiar with citing a source from GALILEO which they will have to do if and when they go to college. Administrative Support We feel that we are exemplary in the area of having a SMCP to maintain communication among Library Media Specialists in our district. Our SMCP is Mrs. Rabun, assistant school superintendant in our county office. She does a wonderful job facilitating communication among all 6 of us in the county. She encourages and sets up meetings for us monthly to meet together. We feel that we are basic in the area of support received from the principal. I hope this does not offend you. We realize that you have a lot to do as well and it may be all you can do to just meet with us occasionally. We have talked about this before with you and you are confident that all is well in the media center. We appreciate your confidence; however, we think it would be a great idea if you could encourage teachers to integrate library media resources into their curriculum. You could possibly require teachers to include this into their lesson plans on a monthly basis. This should probably be done more than monthly but I think it is a good idea to work with them slowly on this. We dont want to overwhelm them all at once. Category six is a basic rating for us. We have a system media committee but not really a local school library committee. We do have a technology committee that could server in this capacity as well. This committee has been meeting lately because we are updating our five year technology plan. We need to determine if we are going to let this technology committee serve as the local school library media committee and if so, we need to begin meeting at a minimum of twice a year to discuss planning and evaluating the media program. We feel

that we are proficient in the area of having an up to date media policy in place. Whenever this needs updating, we discuss this in our monthly district media specialist meeting that has all six media specialist present along with an assistant superintendant and members of the IT department. In the area of receiving an allocation for expenditures each year, we are in the basic rating. I believe our budge this year for our media center was approximately $ 3200.00. We definitely spend 100% of this amount and could spend a lot more. I dont see how we can move to the proficient level with the economy the way that it is now. This is beyond our control. Staff Development We believe that we rate in the basic level on this as well. Our media specialist participates in some staff development but since she has gone part-time, she is not here to participate in as much. With Web 2.0 tools on the rise, we believe that the media specialist should be learning new tools frequently so she can share them with the teachers that she works with. There are so many new Web 2.0 tools that could benefit teachers as well as students. Again, we know that money is an issue these days as far as being able to send teachers to training but whenever we can find something affordable, we need to take advantage of this type of staff development so the media specialist can bring it back to other teachers so they can take it into the classroom to their students. Results: This Georgia DOE Library Media Program Self-Evaluation Rubric is very helpful in making us evaluate our own media center. As noted above, we have numerous areas that we are basic in and need to improve on. Some of the issues causing us to be basic in some categories are the economy and the unknown of what our county is going to do with the two middle schools. Until it is decided if they are going to keep both schools open, build a new wing at the high school and house both middle schools or close one and merge the two, they are not going to put money into either school and therefore, we will not be able to move from basic to proficient in these areas. Other areas discussed require us to step up our game and do things that we are not use to doing. I know time is a

problem for the media specialist, teachers and administration. However, weve got to make time for these areas because basic is simply not good enough. Our school motto is Whatever It Takes. We need to remember this motto when dealing with our media program. We need to do whatever it takes to get our basics to the proficient level and our proficient to the exemplary levels because in the end, it is affecting our students.