More Hours - 2

Media Visit (12 Feb) Elementary


I logged four hours on this date visiting the above mentioned media center. I chose this media center because it is in a different county and I could make use of furlough time.

This was my first experience in an elementary media center and I was quite impressed as well as surprised by its environment. Upon entering the media center you are welcome into a jungle-like setting where the lights are warm and inviting. I have taken a couple of pictures of accompany this narrative to share the environment.

Most of our day was spent checking out books for student participation in Accelerated Reader. Ms. Murray revealed that she checked out on average 400 books a week. It seems that most of the students participate in AR and that teachers are strong advocates of this reading program. As students came in and return their previous book, Ms. Murrah greeted each by name. She shared with me that she works hard to commit each student’s name. The students seemed genuinely excited about starting another book. They knew the AR level and quickly went to the specific shelves to select their books.

In addition to checking out books, we also helped teachers who wanted to show videos during the lunch period. Teachers have the opportunity to take their students back to the classrooms for lunch and watch a video. Since this was the Friday before Valentine’s Day many of the classes were having celebrations, so a Valentine movie was perfect. The media center has the capability of showing three movies as any time; the teachers just have to ask for a specific video.

Several teachers came in during the free time while students were at specials to talk about book issues with Ms. Murrah. Since she has been the media specialist, textbooks, including reading program selections, are included as part of her job. At first she found this difficult to handle; however, she found that if she went to the grade level meetings and knew what they were doing, she could offer more assistance. Considering the different reading groups included at each grade level, this seemed like quite a task.

Ms. Murrah’s additional tasks include school technology. She is the webmaster for the school website and is expected to assist teachers with their individual pages. When teachers can’t bring their students into the media center, Ms. Murrah takes the media center to them. She often finds this necessary in order to make sure that all students has fairly equal access to the media center.

What surprised me most about my conversation with Ms. Murrah was her budget. While I am accustomed to a school with a 20,000 yearly budget, Ms.Murrah revealed that she only has $2,400 to purchase new print resources. I noticed that the books in the AR section of the media center, 1/3 of their collection, were quite worn. Many of the books had writing in the books and the bindings were torn. Ms. Murrah is able to purchase additional resources for the media center with a book fair. On average she raises approximately $1,500.

I thoroughly enjoyed my elementary media center experience. So much so, that I am considering moving into that area. This was a level of enthusiasm that was contagious and I wanted to be a part of.