I came in to the library to find Shawn. She was in her office speaking with a student about the student's personal laptop which had been infected with a virus. The student was asking for help to fix the problem. And Shawn--along with another teacher--were the only tech support in the school. Shawn agreed to take the computer and wipe the virus and add some virus protection with the parents help. All of this took just a few minutes, but the look of relief on the student's face made it clear that this good deed would be remembered and appreciated!
Seconds later I was enveloped in a hug. Shawn was so welcoming and excited to begin our work. Immediately, we began a tour of the library and introductions to staff members. As we walked around Shawn periodically stopped to talk with students, give more hugs, smiles and words of encouragement. It was evident that she is extremely integral to this community and she takes her responsibility to each student and teacher to heart. She is a fantastic example of how to make yourself indespensible to the broader school community and truly embed youself into the fabric of the instituion.
It was time for morning assembly and we rushed in just in time to watch the middle school students do their contest. The sixth graders won the spirit category hands down. And Shawn made the announcement that there would be not ONE, but TWO author events this spring. On Feburary 15th they will be welcoming an author panel that will include Marie Lu of the Legend series and Andrea Cramer of the Nightshade series. And on Febuary 22nd there will be a second author visit from Rosemary Clement Moore.
When we came back to Shawn's office, we started to brainstorm possible practicum projects and discuss which library chores I could be of service participating in. Among the many ideas that were offered were genre labling, display work, website design and updating, Read-a-like blogs, book talks, IT lab maintence, and of course general student support. I loved all of these ideas, and I hope to work on each of them during my hour fulfillment. But we decided on the Read-a-like, web blog as the primary goal of my practicum experience.
The web-blog will be called "Star Shelves" and it will actually encompass five different blogs all focused on a different genre or reading area. Shawn decided on the following names: "Read a likes," Nonfiction, Rediscoveries (classics), and Fiction. We also agreed that we would promote these blogs (once they were up and running) to the students in their language arts classrooms and offer incentives in the form of itunes gift cards (subsidized by the activities fund) and extra credit in their classes.
Having separate blogs for each genre was important because Shawn wanted to be able to Email each blogger separately. Student posts will be directed to the drafts folder--where a supervising teacher or staff member can review the entry and offer any suggestions for improvement before automatically uploading it to the blog. I am thinking we may need to discuss what if any limitations or parameters we may need to set as a guideline for postings. This will likely need to be articulated up front on the blog page so that students will be aware of how their entries will be reviewed as well as a general writing guide so that they know what to write about in the scope of each entry.
