Media/Tech Annual Report 2014-2015
Green Leadership and World Languages Magnet Elementary
Media Classes
A general outline of the topics I teach is found here.
I teach a fixed schedule of 4 grade levels every week, and rotate with the Guidance Counselor who teaches the other two. However, my course load was somewhat higher this year due to the changeover in Guidance staff. There were no Guidance classes for the weeks during the maternity leave and the time it took to hire another Counselor. The other Specialists took on some of these extra classes when they could, while I covered the rest. Also, for a seven week period during the last three months of school I covered 5 grade levels per week due to a heavy duty load for the Counselor.
Collaboration
True partnership is difficult in a fixed schedule situation, but there is a lot of informal coordination with the teachers in supplementing their current curriculum activities, especially research projects.
I was able to integrate some technology with Mrs. Bauver's 5th grade class biographies by facilitating a ChatterPix presentation using iMovie.
MTAC Committee
An MTAC committee was established with the first meeting on October 27, 2014. There were quarterly meeting after that. Members include: myself, Chris Shearer, MSAP Technology Coordinator, one teacher from each grade level (Kirkman, Kelley, Hurst, Faison,Wade, Bauver), plus P. Gray, W. Bateman, B. Kelley, and parent representative Kevin Smith.
Accomplishments of the committee:
- Introduced and reviewed functions of the MTAC committee and state of the Media/Tech program.
- iPad deployment: 2 mini class sets were deployed - 1 with 1st grade, 1 with special ed. Demonstrated several free apps, that have now been downloaded and utilized with class sets and Language iPad carts.
- Reviewed an eWIse research process using the iPad
- Approved a method of delivering persoanlized staff development on iPad use in preparation of coming 1:1 deployment.
Circulation and Use Statistics
Compare to 2013-14: 18,105
I believe circulation when down by about 1,000 this year was due to the loss of before-school checkout that we had at the regular campus last year. It is more difficult for the students to access the Media Center from the classroom buildings here at the modular campus.
Collection Management Statistics
- Donations: 156 (a librarian friend of mine in NY collected new books for our library over the summer of 2014 from NY Book Expo, and other librarian connections. This is a one-time event).
- ALA Conference Bonus: 27 (I obtained these books for free, some with author autographs, while attending the American Library Association conference).
- PTA Donation from Bookfair: 26
- Wake County Public Library Book Sale Event: 118 (I try to fill in holes in the collection with this source - popular books that regularly have to be replaced e.g. Dr, Suess etc.)
- Lost/Damaged Book Fund: 24 (I use this to purchase the current NC Children's Book Award nominees, and the current Caldecott/Newbery/Coretta Scott King etc. Medal and Honor books).
- 2013/14 Magnet Mandarin videos: 8 (Somehow did not get cataloged with the Mandarin books last year).
- Formerly Lost books: 7
- 2014-15 MSAP Grant: 1,423 (Multicultural theme)
Grand Total: 1,789
Books Removed From the Collection
- Books not returned or paid for by students in 2014-15: 100
- Fines received for missing/damaged books: $435
- Books removed from the collection due to long term loss or damage: 616
- All Green ES identifying marks must be redacted and the record removed from Destiny for each book before disposal/donation.
Total Removed: 716
In-House Cataloging
Any book that is not obtained from a vendor requires a lot of processing. For each book, this involves:
- Creating a catalog record in Destiny
- Generating, printing and applying and taping barcode labels
- Generating, printing and applying and taping spine labels
- Stamping with school name
- Applying mylar jackets
All books obtained from donations, PTA book fair, WCPL book sale, and conference gifts require this in-house cataloging process.
Total number of books cataloged: 327
Shelving
17,027 circulated books had to be re-shelved, in addition to all the books that were taken off shelves and not checked out. We have no parent volunteers - only Susan Hatch for about 2 hours per week, and Carson comes in for 2-3 hours per week when she can be spared from the office.
- Carson Monteith shelved for about 48 hours this year.
- Volunteer Susan Hatch shelved for about 17 hours this year.
- In addition to the help given by these two individuals, about 4 hours per week were spent shelving by either Melinda Darling or myself this year, which comes to a total of about 120 hours per year.
Total approximate total time spent shelving: 185 hours.
Other volunteer hours (spent applying book jackets, stamping and other processing of books): 24 hours.
Collection Inventory
A complete inventory of the entire collection was conducted over 4 days. An inventory requires the physical scanning of every book in the library, and then the books that are unaccounted for must be marked lost and deleted from Destiny if they have been gone longer than the most recent 2 school years. This inventory was completed before the entry of the 1,423 new MSAP multicultural books in order to make Destiny as clean and true a reflection of the collection as possible.
Processing MSAP Grant of 1,423 Multicultural Books
- Books came processed from Mackin (but with wrong school address label)
- Entire existing collection had to be (in some areas repeatedly) shifted to make room.
- 191 Bilingual Spanish books had a bright orange "Espanol" label applied and taped.
- Teachers came in to review and shelve the books in a Donuts for Dewey party
Technology Management
Click on each to see the complete list of heat tickets:
Quarter 1 Total 155
Quarter 2 Total 114
Quarter 3 Total 54
Quarter 4 Total 37
Total Heat tickets/help requests: 360
New Technology Received
iPad Air2 Tablets - Teacher & Languages iPads - MSAP Grant - 110
Apple TV - MSAP Grant - 15
Bretford iPad Carts for World Languages - MSAP Grant - 2
MacBook Pro - MSAP Grant - 2
iPad 4 - school funds - 5
Lenovo ThinkPad T540p (for Principal) - 1
Peripherals
Logitech z200 Multimedia Speakers - 7
Headphones - 30
10 ft Cord Surge Protectors - 19
Laptop Batteries - 3
Blackbelt Protection Bands for World Languages iPad 2's - MSAP Grant - 60
Blackbelt Protection Bands for classroom sets iPad 2's - school funds - 17
iPad 2 protective cases for Teacher iPads - school funds - 15
BENQ replacement lamps: 9 (Normally $165 each obtained free by donation)
iPad Deployment
Last year, there was only 1 shared iPad cart for World Languages because there were no protective cases for 60 iPads. This year, 2 iPad carts with 30 iPads each, that were received from last year's magnet money, were supervised with Apple Configurator by Chris Shearer, MSAP Technology Coordinator. Free Apps were downloaded, and carts were distributed to the two Spanish classrooms. Now each Spanish language cart is shared by only 2 teachers, and the Mandarin teacher has the original one cart for herself.
2 sets of 5 school iPads were distributed. One set went to first grade, and the other to Special Education.
Transition to the New Computer Hardware Inventory Application
- CHWI is a web-based inventory tool used for maintaining an interactive list of all desktops, laptops, mini-laptops and tablets in WCPSS schools.
- We completely updated the CHWI inventory with all new staff and room assignments. (Many of the desktops were scrambled in the transition to the modular campus so the serial number of every desktop on campus had to be checked and matched to the correct room number on the inventory).
- Serial numbers, model, operating system, use code, assignment, purchase order number and date, primary use, and notes were entered in CHWI for the 110 new iPads and 60 unassigned iPads that were received last year, and also in the Destiny Library Management system.
Software
- LanSchool was upgraded to be able to work in the Windows 7 environment and was installed on all of the Computer Lab desktops.
- TitlePeek - This feature was added to the Destiny Online Catalog through a PTA Grant. It allows the user to see a picture of the book cover while searching the online catalog. This will provide easier access, especially for the younger students, and allow them to be more independent users of the library. The PTA has agreed to fund feature this every year.
Equipment ERD
- Miscellaneous outdated/non-functioning equipment (DVD, VCR, TV, Tape players, ASUS Tablets: 30
- Desktops: 4
- CRT Monitors - 22 (all were switched out with donated used flat screen monitors)
- Total Items: 56
BENQ projectors returned for warranty replacement: 5
Professional Development
- NCTIES Raleigh 2015 - Sessions Notes
- NCSLMA Winston-Salem 2015 - Sessions Notes
- ALA, Las Vegas - 2015 - Notes
- WCPSS ITMLS Convergence, Cary, Fall 2014 - Notes
- WCPSS ITMLS Convergence, Cary, Spring 2015 April 8 Notes
Member: Northern Area School Library Media PLT - focus
Member: Elementary SLMC - agenda
Member: NCSLMA, NCTIES, ALA, AASL
Media Assistant
We had the wonderful good fortune of having a Media Assistant for the last three months of the year. Melinda Darling came at a crucial time with the MSAP Grant materials arriving all at once, and the changeover to the new Hardware Inventory. I don't know how it would have gotten done if she wasn't here. In the short time she was here she was able to do the following:
- Cataloged 307 books
- Applied book jackets on 43 books (about 5 hours)
- Scanned the entire collection to complete a full inventory of books - 4 days
- Shifting books to make way for new Multicultural books - 4 days
- Cataloged and inventoried 110 iPads
- Shelved books an average of 4 hours per week.
- Assisted in all media classes with supervision and taking care of the check-in and out, allowing me to have class centers and provide more support with readers advisory.
- Did all the clerical work of generating and sending out overdue reports and notices.
- Touched every desktop on campus and recorded serial numbers to verify locations in order to update new CHWI inventory.
- Created book displays.