CHECKLIST ITEM #7 - AASL/ALA MEMBERSHIP

Getting my AASL/ALA membership has been quite an adventure.  I moved the requisite $71 to a membership and dues budget line for the media center.  Then I had to request a check for the $71.  The budgeting software crashed for to or three weeks.  When that came back up the check was sent.  I did not hear anything for about a month.  I continued to ask our book keeper to check on the status of the check.  I asked her once again today.  She called the AASL/ALA membership line.  They told us that an email was sent on November 11.  I never received an email.  They transcribed my email address incorrectly.  I was able to login and change my email and password this afternoon.  I cannot wait to explore the many resources that are available through these organizations.

3D PRINTING @ THE BOLT

I set up a Makerbot 3D printer today.  It is the next step in creating a media center makerspace.  When the students from the class I am working with on the makerspace saw me printing a bolt I asked them what we should call the space.  Many different names were tossed about.  One of them mentioned the shortened for of our school's name.  We call Thunderbolt Tbolt for short.  One of them suggested "THE BOLT".  Ding, ding, ding...we have a winner!  The next step will be to go back and add this name to the flyers they were making to advertise the makerspace to the rest of the school.

HIGH SCHOOL

My practicum day at Islands High School was very similar to last week at Coastal Middle.  The funny thing is that the high school used to be Coastal Middle School.  The high school took over the school about six years ago.  The media center has changed little since then.

Ms. Beedle and Ms. Kicklighter welcomed me with open arms and  were willing to answer my many questions about their daily activities.  I inquired about student IDs, budgets, and technology.  They have some neat security cases for their Chrome devices.  Each of the six cases housed ten chrome books.  The cases would lock and each one had power to charge the devices.  The media staff just finished processing the devices the day before I arrived.  I was able to assist them with a problem they were having with the cases.  Each one was placed onto a metal cart that used to support an overhead projector.  The carts have a lip that makes it difficult to open the cases.  I discovered that there were adjustable feet on each case that when unscrewed would allow the door to open unhindered.  I was glad to be able to help in some way.

There was a good bit of student traffic during the day.  A few of them were checking out books, but for the most part they were in the MC for the computers.  They would come in to type a paper or print documents.  A small fee of ten cents per page for B&W and twenty-five cents per page for color was charged to the students.  However, the staff let many of the students go without paying.  It appeared as though these student were regulars to the MC.  There was also a group of students that came through from time to time for a creative writing class the clerk, Ms. Kicklighter, started.  She has ten or so students that are shooting for the goal of 30,000 word each.  Each day they come in to record their new totals.  IT was nice to see a staff that worked so well together.

MIDDLE SCHOOL MANIA

I did my first day of practicum outside of my school today.  I spent the day at Coastal Middle School.  It was like going back home.  Coastal was one of my sites when I worked for the district's Instructional Technology Department.  I spent countless hours working in and around this media center for close to five years, but all of this time was under a different media staff.  The new staff, like the former, is awesome.  In fact, the Media Specialist was nominated as teacher of the year for her school.  That is pretty cool!  Most of the time this honor goes to a classroom teacher, but Mrs. Kemp deserves it.  She has turned the media center from a place to check out books to a place where students want to hang out.  She started a new project this year where students can come in before the homeroom bell rings.  There were fifty or so students in the MC the day of my practicum.  It was neat to walk into a room that is normally full of patrons paying ID fines to find the room alive with activity.  She said that she has gotten some push back from some staff members about her morning group.  She told them that she would prefer to have the students in the MC  rather than wondering the halls.  Great idea!  The kids must like it as well, because they were in the MC with no air conditioner.  It was a bit hot.  In an effort to cool the room down they sent out an email for fans in the media center.  They were flooded with people walking in a cheering for the media center.  Gotta love middle school humor.  After the fist bell rung, the fine folks from Scholastic dropped off her book fair materials.  I jumped right in and helped her set up.  After all, I just had my book fair the month before.  We did a variety of technology trouble shooting after lunch while talking about her budget.  She gets her budget allotment each year like I do, but she is also supplemented by book fines and IDs.  She told me that a parent complained about her son having to pay for temporary IDs.  Mrs. Kemp let her know that the IDs are mandated by the district and that she has to pay for them.  I believe her exact words were, "We are self-sustaining".  Overall I had a great visit.  Mrs. Kemp helped me to see several things that I could do in my Media Center.

POLL RESULTS

I am happy to say that the winning student ID design was Option 2...the one I liked the most.  The results speak for themselves.

Almost 60% of the staff members that voted choose the second option.  There are just two more hurdles before I can print student IDs.

1. The SIS or Student Information Systems group has to connect the PowerSchool database to my ID computer.
2. Student Pictures need to be uploaded to PowerSchool.

The picture disk is being delivered to school this Wednesday.