Secondary Site Visits

So, I got to spend some of my comp time at work and leave for two days to visit both a middle school and an elementary school. Last Tuesday, I visited West Jackson Middle School and spent the day with Laura Miller. I evaluated her biography section. She had an expansive biography selection. My only complaint is that it was very old. The newest book was about Michael Jackson. They did not even have a biography about Barack Obama. I asked Ms. Miller about this and she said that she has not been given any funds for the last three years. That means that she has not been able to buy any new materials and that includes books.

I really liked the setup of the media center. Every part of the room is visible from the circulation desk. That makes it very easy to supervise while working. I was impressed with all that Ms. Miller did while I was with her. She is in charge of taking pictures for the yearbook, monitoring the students in the Media Center, monitoring computer use, checking out and checking in books, and many other things. She does not have a parapro and that makes her job even harder. I enjoyed my time at WJMS.

On Wednesday I got to visit West Jackson Intermediate School. This school serves third through fifth graders. I loved the time that I spent at WJIS! I feel like I could work in an elementary school. While I was there, Mrs. Tucker had a lot going on. She was running a Scholastic book fair. I got to watch her give book talks and work with the teachers. She knew every student by name and what their reading level was and what books they had checked out. It was amazing. Mrs. Tucker is retiring at the end of this year. I hope that whoever takes over for her is amazing as well.

I helped Mrs. Tucker with checking in and out books. Her system is great! She has the barcode scanner set up so that the student can scan the barcode on their student id, then scan the book that they want to check out while she watches. This helps the process go a little faster than usual. I was really impressed with my visit to WJIS!

I realize now that I would gladly work in either an elementary or high school, but I would rather not work in a middle school.

Practicum hours.

So, I have been really sick for the last two weeks but I did manage to get some hours for my practicum completed!

I was a moderator at the Northeast Georgia Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl Regional Competition at Clarke Middle School in Athens. Usually I coach a team, but this year I have not had time because it is my last year of school. While I was not an official coach, I still ran practices with the team at my school occasionally.

I was a moderator for the middle school competition because I did not want to jeopardize my high school teams chance of winning. My duties included reading the rules before every round, reading the questions and deciding whether the answer given was correct or incorrect.

I had a lot of fun! I have always loved Reading Bowl and I missed being involved this year, so I was really glad to be able to volunteer. I was so proud of my county at the Award Ceremony. Two of our elementary schools got first and second place, our middle school competed admirably and our high school got first place! That means that our two elementary schools and the high school team will compete on the 26th at the competition near Statesboro! I am going to that competition. I have made myself available to volunteer, but I have not been asked yet.

I hope that my team continues to the next competition!

Practicum.

So, this semester is already starting to scare me a little bit. I have known that it was coming for three years, but I never really knew how to prepare. Also, I have less time to work on my school work because my job has changed and I have work that I have to bring home sometimes. This is going to be a crazy semester, but I am blessed to have the support of my administrators and faculty. They are amazing!