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May 2011; includes QR codes linking to videos and web resources.
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1550 OWENS STORE ROAD, CANTON, GA 30115 || 770-720-7600
HTTP://THEUNQUIETLIBRARY.LIBGUIDES.COM
Creekview High School Media Center Annual Report May 2011
Buffy Hamilton and Roxanne Johnson, School Library Media Specialists
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Creekview High School Media Center Annual Report May 2011
Part I: Roles and Responsibilities as Leader s
The Unquiet Library has demonstrated leadership through its focus on helping teachers and
students take an inquiry, participatory stance on learning and by collaborating with teachers
and students to integrate digital, new media, and information literacy skills seamlessly into
content area studies in 2010-11. This leadership is evident in the collaboratively planned
instructional units between the library and classroom teachers (which will be outlined in more
detail in the Teacher and Instructional Partner sections of this report) as well as professional
learning activities and resources designed by library staff.
In November 2010, the library and faculty members worked together to present a workshop on
integrating blogs and wikis into the classroom for engaged learning. What led to this learning
event? In August 2010, Buffy Hamilton reflected on her “ Unquiet Librarian” blog how
the Media 21 learning initiative has not only impacted student learning but has also sparked
additional collaborative partnerships with faculty members that emphasize information, digital,
and new media literacies while providing students the opportunity to think critically and create
content to reflect their key insights and learning. Hamilton’s focus in 2010-11 has been on
brainstorming with teachers to help them find new ways of redesigning projects, learning
activities, and assessment tools to emphasize inquiry, collaborative knowledge building, critical
thought, and alternate ways of representing knowledge; consequently, more teachers in
multiple content areas have been exploring how technology tools for learning like blogs, wikis,
and multimedia web 2.0 applications can support these kinds of learning experiences. Not only
did Hamilton create research pathfinders on the library’s LibGuides platform and provide
technical assistance to support these projects, but she has also provided hands on instruction
to teachers and students in learning how to utilize these tools. Even more exciting, teachers
have gained confidence not only in these tools introduced to them by Hamilton, but they are
exploring other resources for learning on their own and sharing how they are integrating those
applications with the library as well as fellow department faculty.
Dr. Bob Eddy asked the library to develop an hour-long workshop for the November 2
professional development day. Hamilton decided to focus on blogs and wikis for the workshop
since those have been the most popular platforms this fall; in addition, she decided it would be
more powerful for the faculty to hear from their fellow teachers, my new experts in residence,
than just her.
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About a quarter of our faculty arrived at 10AM (some had other commitments to additional
meetings), including principal, Dr. Bob Eddy! Hamilton kicked off the workshop with a fifteen
minute conversation about the principles
of learning and today’s information
landscape that are shaping today’s
classrooms; rather than reinventing the
wheel, Hamilton used Kim Cofino’s
fantastic 21st Century
Classroom slidedeck to facilitate that
conversation with faculty .
The focus was on how learning goals and
benchmarks drive the instructional design
in the collaboration process; rather than
focusing on the “shiny” of technology,
Hamilton emphasized that curriculum and
standards for learning drive technology
integration. The other focal point
Hamilton’s talk emphasized how
traditional and emerging literacies speak
to each other under the larger umbrella of
transliteracy and how integrating these literacies into all content areas is a shared responsibility
we all must take on to close the participation gap.
For the next forty-five minutes, the spotlight was on five teachers [Lisa Kennedy, English; Mary
Panik, Science; Jason Hubbard, Career Tech;
Meagan Biello, Social Studies; Susan Lester,
English] who agreed to help lead the
workshop as they shared their collaborative
learning projects facilitated by the library, the
positive outcomes, and the challenges they
encountered. Each teacher was passionate,
honest, and eloquent as he/she shared the
impact on student learning, tips for replicating
or adapting their projects, ideas for future
collaborative learning experiences supported
by the library, and how they worked with me to implement new strategies for teaching and
learning. The workshop generated discussion and questions that led our session to last about
an additional twenty minutes beyond the planned hour, but not a single attendee left early.
FIGURE 1: PARTICIPATORY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
FIGURE 2: PD WIKI
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These teachers articulating and sharing their processes is the ultimate hallmark of learning as
they are now budding experts who can support other teachers who want to design innovative
learning experiences for students that meld together project based learning, inquiry, collective
knowledge building, and multiple literacies. Hamilton reflected, “I have no doubt that the
teacher perspective they brought to the table today was the most powerful testimonial I could
provide other faculty members; in addition, I included student videos sharing their perspectives
on our presentation wiki (today was a student holiday and they were not on campus to
participate). It was truly a pleasure to solicit the participation of my teachers and to share
ownership of the workshop with these faculty members as their instructional leadership will
help us, the library, scale out these conversations for learning.” As the workshop ended, several
teachers met with Hamilton and Roxanne Johnson to schedule planning time to get started on
new projects to integrate the learning principles and tools explored in the session; the
workshop resulted in new partnerships for student learning during the second semester of the
2010-11 academic year.
Hamilton also initiated and coordinated a professional learning opportunity for teachers
interested in creating a hybrid classroom for 2010-11 by inviting Dan Gagnon, Cherokee High
Social Studies teacher and CCSD Moodle instructor, to provide a 2 hour workshop on Moodle
basics. Hamilton and Johnson, along with teachers Susan Lester, Lisa Kennedy, Deborah Frost,
John Bradford, Meagan Biello, and Brenda Guyer, attended the May 2011 sessions and will be
working with Hamilton and Johnson to
grow their Moodle virtual classrooms to
support the day to day learning
experiences in the face to face learning
environment; in addition, Hamilton and
Johnson hope to utilize the Moodle
classrooms as a new means to embed
themselves in the learning spaces of
classroom teachers and students to
provide richer support for instructional
design as well as formative and summative
assessment of student learning. Hamilton is also working with Kennedy and Lester to
spearhead a 1:1 computing project that will put either a netbook or tablet device in the hands
of selected class sections to pilot a learning environment that will support their work of the last
two years to create a “networked learner” environment in which students are actively engaging
in inquiry, ongoing research, and content creation as part of a participatory learning
environment in which students are sharing greater ownership of learning goals and content.
FIGURE 3: MOODLE TRAINING, MAY 2011
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The library was recognized in August 2010 as one of two “exemplary” high school media
programs in the state of Georgia (please see
http://www.theunquietlibrary.libguides.com/exemplary for more information). Library Media
Specialists and GaDOE staff select the recipients based on
the school’s written application, the
principal’s narrative, a possible telephone
interview, and a probable on-site visit. This
program is an opportunity to describe how
the Library Media Program is meeting school
improvement goals and improving
student achievement. Use a free QR code
scanner to read the QR code to the right to
see a video of Hamilton and Johnson
accepting the Exemplary Media Program 2010 award.
Hamilton and Johnson also demonstrate leadership through by continually growing their
professional growth through traditional and emerging learning spaces. Johnson utilizes
professional journals like Booklist and professional list servs, including the Georgia Library
Media list serv, to stay current; in addition, she has attended district media specialist meetings
this past year; she was also recognized as Teacher of the Month in December 2010.
Hamilton, whose instructional leadership was reflected in her being one of six finalists for CVHS
Teacher of the Year 2010, uses professional journals as well as
Twitter, Facebook, Skype, and RSS feeds in her Google Reader and
iGoogle learning spaces to connect with educators and librarians
around the world to grow her professional knowledge and practice;
she also speaks nationally and internationally as a keynote speaker
and workshop presenter at library conferences. Hamilton was
recognized in March 2011 by Library Journal for her work as a “change
agent” in the profession in the 2011 edition of Movers and Shakers. In
addition, Hamilton received additional professional recognition as:
2011 American Library Association (ALA) Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) Cutting
Edge Library Service Award
2010-11 GLMA/GAIT Georgia Library Media Association/Georgia Association for Instructional
Technology School Library Media Specialist of the Year
National School Boards Association Technology Leadership Network "20 to Watch" 2010
Tech and Learning's 100@30: Future Leader
FIGURE 5: EXEMPLARY PROGRAM
AWARD
FIGURE 4: AWARD
VIDEO
FIGURE 6: MOVER AND SHAKER
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Part 2: Instructional Partner
During 2010-11, The Unquiet Library has been
guided by three essential sets of questions as we
have contemplated the work in our collaborative
partnerships with teachers and students?
1. What did they (your patrons or those you
serve) learn through your library program and the
conversations for learning you facilitated? What
do you hope they will learn in 2011?
2. How do we know what they learned? What
tools did you use for assessment? Did the patrons
engage in metacognition and self-reflection on
what they learned?
3. How are you privileging and honoring what
they learned? Where are their stories of learning
shared in your physical and virtual library spaces?
We use tools like Google Forms, video, blogging
at WordPress, Poll Everywhere, information
dashboards created with Netvibes, multigenre
elements, wikis, Google Docs, and digital
portfolios as formative and summative
assessment tools. We share stories of learning
through our library YouTube Channel, our student
work SlideShare account, our library blog, class
Wikispaces pages that we facilitated for teachers
and students, and our mulitmedia monthly
reports hosted at LibGuides to showcase student
work and to share videos of students telling their
stories of learning; in our physical space,
students’ work was shared throughout the library
through assorted displays and “walls” of hanging
student work to showcase their learning artifacts.
By focusing on what students are learning, we
learn from their insights—what is working and
not working with my teaching methods, emerging
“I never dreamed I would try some of the most cutting-edge
technological advances in communication and education that I
have this year. If it were not for our media center the “Unquiet
Library” and the techno maven, Buffy Hamilton, I wouldn’t even
attempt it! With her expertise, patience and constant
encouragement I have learned more this year through our media
center than I have since my Teach 21 days! Ms. Hamilton’s
excitement incorporating modern media into the classroom is
positively infectious. She had me completely captivated when we
began Environmental Science first semester with our Wiki Project
of the Gulf Oil Spill tragedy. The students were so excited to
begin the year with such a nonconformist learning experience.
We all learned new things from each other every single day.
The next adventure was aboard the Joides Resolution off the
coast of New Zealand. Yes! You heard me right!
FIGURE 7: LIBGUIDE PAGE FOR SKYPE VISIT
My Earth Systems classes and I arranged a Skype session with the
loving guidance of Ms. Hamilton. Many of us had never tried this
before and were so eager to be a part of this new exploration.
The scientists aboard the JR were drilling over Hot Spot areas for
core samples of volcanic material. We were treated to a real time
tour of the ship including the research areas, labs, and the core
drill itself. For approximately an hour the students were able to
ask questions and interact with these scientists while they were
on the job doing actual scientific investigation. What a thrill!
With Ms. Buffy’s support I wrapped up the year with another
Wiki Project for my Earth Systems classes on Natural Disasters.
Because of my previous experience, I was able to be more
prepared, organized and helpful to my students. I also believe
their performance was much better this time and they learned
much more than I would have imagined. They thoroughly enjoyed
this project and were begging me to allow them to continue on
with another topic!
Of course none of these wonderful activities would have been
conceivable had it not been for the brilliance and creativity of our
Media Specialist. As teachers and students we are blessed with a
county that treats education as a top priority. They allow
education entrepreneurs like Buffy Hamilton to purchase the
equipment and software which supports the art of technology in
and out of the classroom. In my 13 years of teaching I have never
encountered a more helpful or knowledgeable colleague than
Ms. Buffy Hamilton. What I have learned from her will stay with
me throughout my entire career. “
Mary Panik, Science Department
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“As a teacher who is somewhat
challenged with the recent explosion of
technology, Buffy’s help has been
invaluable to me as I integrate
technology into my classroom in an
attempt to prepare students for the
world that awaits them. Buffy goes out
of her way to prepare student- friendly
pathways of research and to assist the
teachers along the way.”
Katy McManus, Foreign Language
Department
patterns of gaps in understanding, student strengths, and new topics for exploration.
By paying more attention to what students are learning, we have a clearer insight into how we
are applying the ideas and principles of learning, multiple literacies, and information fluency
we’re reading about in journals, blogs, Tweets, and professional books as well as concepts
we’re dwelling in more deeply like participatory librarianship-learning and transliteracy. In
2011-12, student work, learning artifacts, and stories of learning will take an even more
prominent place not only in our monthly multimedia
reports but also in each research guide we create in
collaboration with teachers and students.
So what are some of the key learnings of
Creekview High School students in 2010?
Here is a sampler:
How to effectively use social media tools,
such as blogs, wikis, and social
bookmarking to reflect, share, and
collaboratively construct knowledge.
How to use cloud computing and social
media tools to organize information
resources, to collaborate with classmates,
and to share their learning process within and
outside of our school community.
How to create their own subject guides or “research
pathfinders.”
How to represent key learnings through traditional texts and new media.
How to more thoughtfully and purposefully evaluate traditional and emerging authoritative
information sources
How to use writing as a tool for reflection and metacognition through individual learning
blogs.
How to demonstrate digital citizenship through the ethical use of information and through
the use of tools like Creative Commons licensed media.
How to engage in inquiry based learning as a community of learners.
How to create an individualized personal learning environment or information dashboard for
curating resources on a topic of interest or research using Symbaloo and Netvibes.
How to use eReaders and eBooks to support a love for reading.
How to discover an expert on a topic, evaluate that person’s credentials, and conduct a
professional interview with that expert.
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How to create visually interesting presentations (presentation zen) that are content rich and
how to deliver those insights effectively to their peers.
What does this picture of learning look like in terms of the AASL Standards for 21st Century
Learners?
1.1.2: Use prior and background knowledge as a
context for new learning
1.1.4: Find, evaluate, and select appropriate sources
to answer questions
1.1.6: Read, view, and listen for information in any
format in order to make inferences and gather
meaning
1.1.8: Demonstrate mastery of technology tools for
accessing information and pursuing inquiry.
1.1.9: Collaborate with others to broaden and deepen understanding
2.1.1: Continue an inquiry based research process by applying critical thinking skills to
information and knowledge in order to construct new understandings, draw conclusions,
and create new knowledge.
2.1.2: Organize information so that it is useful
2.1.4: Use technology and other information tools to analyze and organize information
2.1.5: Collaborate with others to exchange ideas, develop new understandings, make
decisions, and solve problems
2.1.6: Use the writing process, media and visual literacy, and technology skills to create
products that express new understandings
3.1.1: Conclude an inquiry-based research process by sharing new understandings and
reflecting on the learning
3.1.2: Participate and collaborate as a member of a social and intellectual network of
learners
3.1.5: Connect learning to community issues
3.1.6: Use information and technology ethically and responsibly
4..1.2: Read widely and fluently to make connections with self, the world, and previous
reading
4.1.3: Respond to literature and creative expressions of ideas in various formats and genres.
4.1.6: Organize personal knowledge in a way that can be called upon easily.
4.1.7: Use social networks and network tools to gather and share information.
4.1.8: Use creative and artistic formats to express personal learning.
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In the last academic year, The Unquiet Library has continued to help our students create a
learning environment larger than just our library; several students reflected, “…my
learning environment is the world.” Students learned ways of connecting and transacting with
information through many modes and points of access as well as strategies for organizing those
resources and creating content. Students learn that the library is a place where questions and
risk-taking are valued and that their contributions to conversations for learning are respected
and valued.
This focus on student learning is reflected in our mindmap of program goals and themes for
2010-11 created in Mindomo (available at http://bit.ly/lJRn8q). Although we fell short of
incorporating gaming into instructional partnerships for learning and hope to
revisit that goal in 2011-12, we succeeded in our efforts to implement
ereaders with our Kindle program (see
http://www.theunquietlibrary.libguides.com/kindles for full text and
multimedia documentation), our focus on student content creation, greater
student reflection and evaluation on the use of specific information sources,
an increased emphasis on students creating alternate genres of learning
artifacts, mobile resources for learning, and the increased presence of the
librarian as an embedded co-teacher in the classrooms of with our FIGURE 8: MOBILE LEARNING @
THE UNQUIET L IBRARY
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collaborating teachers. The library cultivated richer
partnerships with a pool of faculty that built on the
pedagogical principles of the Media 21
http://theunquietlibrary.libguides.com/media21 ]from 2009-10.
We also met our goal of taking a more active role in the
assessment of student work. While we
continued our previous work in helping
teachers develop rubrics and evaluating
student work, the library placed a greater
emphasis on formative assessments in
2010-11. The use of tools like the shared
assignment dropbox in NoodleTools,
presearch graphic organizers, peer review of digital research
projects, discussion and commenting tools in
Google Docs, and more specific video and
written reflections (with more specific
scaffolding by the classroom teacher and librarian) by students were new
strategies we incorporated into the learning process.
We also introduced Flubaroo to English teacher Lisa Kennedy, who incorporated
the grading script into a Google Form she created for her final exams, a
summative assessment, in May 2011. Not only could Ms. Kennedy get the results
of her exams quickly, but we discovered we could easily generate an analysis of
each test item and use the data not only to reflect on student learning for this past semester,
but we realized we had collected data we
could share with the students’ upcoming
senior English teachers in July to help the
department pinpoint student strengths and
weaknesses.
In addition, the increased number of student
projects shared openly and transparently via
Wikispaces and Google Docs has increased
dramatically this past academic year;
consequently, the opportunity for peer
review and for other teachers to see student
work is a powerful one.
“The school library
media program is
guided by regular
assessment of student
learning to ensure the
program is meeting its
goals.”
Empowering Learners, Guidelines for School
Library Media Programs,
American Association of School Librarians, 2009
FIGURE 9: NOODLETOOLS
FOR ASSESSMENT
FIGURE 10: V IDEO
INTERVIEW ON GRAPHIC
ORGANIZERS FOR
ASSESSMENT
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Part 3: Information Specialist
Technology integration/inclusion in instruction
Technology continues to play a major role in library instruction at Creekview High School and
transparency of our practice at The Unquiet Library. In addition, we continued to tap into the
powers of Wikispaces, YouTube, Flickr, LibGuides, WordPress, Facebook, and Twitter to
communicate with our patrons and to facilitate
instruction. Our media center blog, “The Unquiet
Library Blog”, continues to be popular. We use our
blog, Facebook, and Twitter accounts for posting
announcements, favorite resources, podcasts, videos,
and RSS feeds to our favorite resources. Our
LibGuides portal,
http://theunquietlibrary.libguides.com, is our primary
platform for creating research guides/pathfinders for
every collaborative project we create with teachers
and students; LibGuides is the cornerstone for
housing our instructional resources and information
sources for each collaborative project.
Use of electronic resources
Our databases are valuable information sources for
our students providing organized information portals
to reference articles, periodicals, videos, podcasts,
primary sources, images, and statistics. Our Gale
databases are accessible 24/7 through a regular
computer or through a mobile device with the free
Gale AccessMyLibrary mobile app. We now feature
over 300 titles in our Gale Virtual Reference Library;
additional library purchased databases include Gale
Global Issues in Context and Gale Literature Resource
Center; the Cherokee County School District provides
our students access to Gale Discovering Collection
and Opposing Viewpoints in Context.
“The library’s staff and
resources support my
world literature class
with expert instruction
in the use of digital and
print materials. The
only reason we can
infuse our classes with
web 2.0 tools is
because of our library.
Our students are
beginning to
understand how they
will be expected to
learn and to
demonstrate what they
have learned all
because of the
teamwork between the
classroom and the
library.” Susan Lester, English
Department
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August, 2758
September, 1464
October, 2533
November, 2554
December, 1015
January , 3090
February , 3818
March, 4447
April , 2506May, 1425
Total, 25610
Gale Database Usage, 2010-11
Although our GALE databases continue to be very popular for student research, usage dropped
by approximately 10,000 sessions in 2009-10. In 2007-08, our total GALE was 37, 752; our total
GALE usage was 35,948 for 2008-09. Our total GALE database usage for 2009-10 was 36, 950;
this year’s usage is 25, 610. Reasons for this drop in usage may include but are not limited to:
The introduction of the Sweet Search Engine for Students across multiple subject areas, which has been popular with many students
The introduction of the district provided Facts on File streaming video database
Continued usage of Google News
A shift in some research assignments from teachers that traditionally relied more heavily upon Gale Virtual Reference Library
A decrease in the number of science and social studies teachers utilizing library resources in 2010-11
An increase in research assignments in which the library and classes utilized EBSCOhost databases from GALILEO, Georgia’s state virtual library
The increased utilization of print resources in research assignments
A decrease in the number literary criticism research assignments
Usage by database sessions included:
Gale Opposing Viewpoints: 5,563
Gale Global Issues in Context: 3,979
Gale Virtual Reference Library: 10, 443
Gale Literature Resource Center: 3303 Gale Discovering Collection: 1,605
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Total circulations,
83119th Grade,
3848
10th Grade, 1502
11th Grade, 1712
12th Grade, 1560
Total circulations
9th Grade
10th Grade
11th Grade
12th Grade
2010-11 Circulation Data
We will share this 2010-11 Gale database usage data with faculty to determine which resources
we may need to update or discontinue to in order to meet the information and curricular needs
of our school. Although we are somewhat surprised by the drop in the Gale resource usage, we
also recognize that we are incorporating a broader range of traditional information sources and
emerging authoritative sources into research assignments.
Circulation Data
Our circulation trends for 2010-11 are somewhat consistent with the circulation data for the
last two years. Our ninth grade patrons continue to show the greatest number of checkouts;
however, for the first time since we opened, senior circulation is comparable to that of
sophomores and juniors. Please
note this data does not take into
account the number of books
read on the Kindle eReaders.
We saw another slight drop in
circulation in 2010-11 to 8311
from 8595 in 2009-10; we believe
this decrease is related to the
continued waning popularity of
anime, manga, and graphic novels
with the students. We will
continue to actively solicit input
from our students and teachers as
we strive to grow a print and
digital collection that reflects the
needs and interests of our
patrons.
Ethical use of information in all formats (Teachers and Students)
We continue to use our mini-lessons and individualized citation
assistance with NoodleTools as a springboard for conversations about
ethical use of information and intellectual property. The use of the
assignment dropbox feature this year has provided another medium
for the library to provide individualized virtual feedback to supplement
the face to face assistance we offer teachers and students. In addition,
these mini-lessons are a medium for discussing forms of plagiarism and
academic honesty.
FIGURE 11: NOODLETOOLS FOR ETHICAL
USE OF INFORMATION
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“I am very excited that my students’ zen presentations
were thoughtful, organized and demonstrated mastery of
the content of their research paper. The use of images
reflected their knowledge and forced them to delve into a
complete understanding of the research. When polled
about whether they found the experience helpful to their
learning, they were all in agreement that this was much
better than a PowerPoint/poster or any other type of
extension of the project.”
Deborah Frost, English Department
Our mini-lessons on presentation zen style PowerPoints and Web 2.0
tools such as Wikispaces, Glogster, Animoto, and VoiceThread have
been authentic vehicles for discussing copyright rules related to
digital images, music, sound, and other creative works. We have
continued our instruction on Creative Commons licensed multimedia
in 2010-11 across subject areas in the context of research
assignments and content creation mini-lessons.
FIGURE 12: PRESENTATION ZEN RESOURCE
PAGE
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August, 221
September, 156
October, 173
November, 184
December, 60
January , 111
February , 169
March, 221
April , 181
May, 101
Total, 1577
August
September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
Total
Class Sessions, 2010-11
Part 4: Teacher
Collaboration and Research Projects (Teachers and Students)
We served 1,577 class sessions between August 1, 2010 and May 20, 2011 in our media center;
this number represents a new high for the library program. While our peak usage had been in
October for the last two years, August and March were our busiest months with 221 class
sessions each.
In spite of the loss of our full time clerk due to district budget cuts, we continued operated on a
flexible schedule during 2010-11 with library hours of 8:00—4:00 daily. The addition of a
teacher duty during the second half of lunch and a rotating schedule of clerical help from our
school secretaries, along with a student helper two periods of the day, helped us to maintain a
flexible schedule although full time help from a clerk designated solely for the media center was
missed as we saw an increase in the number of class periods in which scheduled three to four
classes at a time. Although students were able to visit without a lunch pass during all three
lunch periods first semester, continued behavior issues, primarily with freshmen, caused us to
require students to complete a pass before coming to use the library at lunch during the second
semester. August, September, October, and March were our busiest months for student
visitors during lunch or class sessions.
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We have continued to create research guides with LibGuides for
every collaborative partnership with teachers and students.
Research guides may include:
Teacher and/or librarian handouts in PDF format
Rubrics or assessment tools
Widgets that serve as gateways to research databases or
other district information sources, including the Facts on File
video database
Recommended web resources
Examples of student work
Video tutorials
Featured books from the print collection or virtual collection
Content area and information literacy standards
Photo galleries from the learning experience
Video interviews with teachers and/or students
A widget for our library blog to point students to the latest
library news
Our LibGuides pathfinders have received over 63,000 hits in the first
six months of 2011 alone; this platform is popular with students and
teachers. LibGuides is an important resource in the library’s
collaborative efforts to facilitate teaching and learning with the
Creekview community.
We have openly documented our collaboration with teachers and
students once again this year through the use of multimedia
monthly reports generated with LibGuides; all monthly reports for
2010-11 may be accessed at http://bit.ly/bggFoS . Each monthly
report includes:
A traditional text report with monthly library program highlights, visitation data, circulation data, database usage, and a list of all collaborative projects with teachers
Student video interviews
Teacher video interviews
Links to every collaborative research pathfinder for the month
A photo slideshow of the month’s activities in the library
Special videos that may have been created for that month’s report or a special library event
Links to the posts for the month from the library blog as well as Ms. Hamilton’s professional blog
“The Unquiet Library played a major role in helping my Honors World History students this year. As a Creekview teacher, I was able to collaborate on a few projects throughout the school year. Before administering these projects, Ms. Hamilton and Ms. Johnson set up LibGuides pathways that played a vital role in the success of my students! These pathways included TONS of recourses (Fiction & Non-Fiction books, Databases, Internet links, etc), final product examples, how-to guides, project guidelines, and rubrics. Ms. Hamilton and Ms. Johnson were always there to help answer questions and lend a hand! As a result, many of my students WAY exceeded my expectations.”
Brenda Guyer, Social Studies Department
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Although we have collaborated with slightly fewer teachers in
2010-11, we have once again seen an increase in the quantity and
depth of our collaborative research projects with teachers. This
year’s collaborative partnerships have been more intense and
sustained. We have worked with a core group of faculty who have
worked with the library to take incorporate more of an inquiry
stance on learning and to cultivate more of a participatory
learning environment as the boundaries between classroom and
library have begun to dissolve in these extended partnerships for
learning. Topics and skills included but were not limited to:
Cloud computing tools such as Prezi, Dropbox, and VoiceThread
Google Sites, Gmail, Google Docs, Google News, Google Alerts, Google Books; a heavy emphasis has been placed on Google Docs in many content area classrooms
Weebly for website creation
RSS feeds
Symbaloo for information management/information dashboards
Multigenre instruction
Evaluating forms of social media
Database instruction
Creative Commons License---what it is and how to evaluate a license for using a work licensed under this agreement
Presentation Zen design and presentations
Citation creation and management with NoodleTools
Social bookmarking: Evernote
Collaborative knowledge building and learning portfolios with Wikispaces
Blogging skills (etiquette, appropriate commenting, privacy settings) in Wordpress and Tumblr
Skyping with authors and content area experts
How to locate, correspond with, and interview an expert on a topic for primary research and how to vet an expert with Google searching and LinkedIn.
Video skills with Moviemaker and Animoto
Using Flip cameras For a complete list of subject specific topics, visit each monthly
report at http://bit.ly/d0oeMJ .
“Working with you and
the media center is
always a wonderful
experience. I always walk
away with some new
knowledge in some new
media style used for our
presentations and
projects. I love how it
takes the students, and
myself, out of our usual
comfort zone by getting
away from using the old
tried and true methods of
putting projects together
that tend to become
boring and mundane. We
may run into glitches here
and there but there has
never been anything you
guys couldn’t fix and keep
moving smoothly. You
and your staff always
provide EVERYTHING
need for my classes to
use and organize their
work with these new
programs and delivery
media. That keeps the
stress off of the teacher
and the fear of trying
something new minimal.
I would encourage every
teacher, no matter the
subject are, to work in a
project in the media
center. We can all benefit
from it. “
Jason Hubbard, Career Tech
Department
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Professional Development Trainings and Conferences Attended
Buffy Hamilton and Roxanne Johnson Cherokee County School District Media Specialist /CHAMPS 2010-11 meetings
Buffy Hamilton, American Library Association Annual Conference, Washington, DC; presenter
Buffy Hamilton, Internet@Schools West and Internet Librarian, Monterey, CA; presenter
Buffy Hamilton, ALA Midwinter, San Diego, CA; presenter
Buffy Hamilton, keynote speaker and featured speaker at four state school library conferences and the Quebec Library Association, Montreal, Canada
Publications
“What Kind of Teacher Are You?”, May/June 2011 issue of Knowledge Quest, Buffy J. Hamilton
A sidebar companion mini-article on the social media streams and Learning Commons for AASL 2011 in Alice Yucht’s “Conference-Going Strategies, Redux” in Knowledge Quest, Buffy J. Hamilton
“Creating Conversations for Learning: School Libraries as Sites of Participatory Culture”, May/June 2011 issue of School Library Monthly , Buffy J. Hamilton
Hamilton, B. J. (2011). School. In R. D. Lankes, The atlas of new librarianship (pp. 368- 70). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Press
“Are librarians missing the point on libraries”, ALA Direct, May 18, 2011
"In age of digital, she keeps library relevant", April 30, 2011 issue of The Atlanta Journal- Constitution
The Kindles Are Coming: Ereaders and tablets are springing up in schools—and librarians are leading the way, School Library Journal, March 2011
Cutting-Edge Library Award Goes to Buffy Hamilton's Media Center, School Library Journal, January 26, 2011
ALA recognizes four library programs as top cutting-edge services in second annual contest, American Libraries, January 5, 2011
“Digital and Media Literacy Action Plan” featured in the November 17, 2010 issue of American Libraries Direct
“Kindles Arrive at The Unquiet Library” featured in the November 10, 2010 issue of American Libraries Direct
"Unquiet Library Has High Schoolers Geeked" , June/July 2010; "Next Steps" column by Brian Mathews, American Libraries
Service
Roxanne Johnson, Challenged Materials Committee, Cherokee County School District
Buffy Hamilton, GLMA Communications Chair
Buffy Hamilton, Social Media Chair, 2011 AASL National Planning Committee; Interdivisional Committee on Information Literacy (AASL/ACRL); ALA/OITP Digital Literacy Task Force; ALA Learning blogger
Buffy Hamilton, School Library Monthly Advisory Board and Library Media Connection Advisory Board
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Part 5: Program Administrator
Management of media staff, program budget, equipment and facility
Program Budget
Our total budget for the 2010-11 year was approximately
$23,000; this amount does not include our local school account
that is set up for monies collected through fines and donations.
Our purchases included:
Additional fiction and nonfiction titles requested by
students and faculty (approximately 1000 + new titles)
Junior Library Guild subscription
Additional titles added to the Gale Virtual Reference
Library
Renewal of Gale Global Issues in Context
2010-11 Print periodical subscriptions based upon student
and teacher requests
Renewal of database access fees for GALE Literature
Resource Center and GALE Virtual Reference Library
Bookmarks and posters from ALA
Two new displays pieces of furniture
Ten Kindles , ten Kindle covers, and 130+ student
requested Kindle eBooks
Book display materials
Additional steel book trucks/carts
Two iPads for administrative and teacher field
testing
Media Center Staff
Our media center is staffed by two fully certified media specialists, Buffy Hamilton, Ed.S. and
Roxanne Johnson, M.Ed. Ms. Hamilton and Ms. Johnson share the responsibilities of teaching
while Hamilton primarily handles the lesson plan design. Johnson maintains the integrity of the
card catalog and coordinates all contests and special displays while Hamilton maintains the
social media presence for the library and the administrative tasks.
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Media Center Program Activities
Our media center patrons have enjoyed many exciting and fun
activities this past year. Highlights include:
National Teen Read Week festivities and Teens’ Top Ten
Voting
New displays featuring Peach Book Award and Teens’ Top
Ten nominees/winners/honor books
Poetry Month celebrations
Skype visits with author Allan Stratton as well as Skype visits with research scientists off
the coast of New Zealand and an emergency room physician
Presentation Zen in the library
Promotional contests
Kindle eReader program
Hosting of the Harlem Renaissance Museums for Ms.
Carden and Mr. Lawson
Hosting of the
Annual Spring Art Show
with Ms. Linda Nicholson
and her students
Exemplary media program open house
Continuation of the Media 21 program with a second
cohort of sophomores
Introduction of alternative research tools, including
the search engine SweetSearch for Students
2010-11 Inventory
We have completed inventory of our collection as of Friday, May 27; the inventory will be
finalized on Wednesday, June 1, 2011. This year’s inventory reflects a minimal number of
missing or unaccounted for materials. We also used inventory as an opportunity to complete
the first official weeding of the collection since the nonfiction and reference collection
contained materials that were aged or no longer timely; most materials weeded were related to
outdated career information, science/medicine, and current events.
FIGURE 13: SPRING ART SHOW V IDEO
FIGURE 14: HARLEM RENAISSANCE MUSEUM
V IDEO
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Part 6: Program Goals/Future Directions for 2011 -12
We will need June and July to fully process the strengths and weaknesses of the program, so we will not
formally articulate or outline program goals/themes and action steps until late July 2011. However,
here are initial ideas that are informing our thinking and practice:
Increasing our presence as embedded librarians in our
educational partnerships with teachers and students through face to
face means as well as virtual learning spaces.
Developing a systematic set of information literacy
benchmarks all students should be able to demonstrate at the end
of each grade level.
Utilizing new tools for curating information and
intensifying our efforts to help students cultivate their own
curation skills as they cultivate a personal learning environment.
Taking a larger role in helping teachers explore
strategies that will support students’ ability to generate ideas
and take more ownership of developing research projects and
learning plans based on Jim Burke’s book, What’s the Big Idea?
Taking a larger role in helping teachers in all content
areas develop digital writing projects through a variety of
mediums and exploring the concept of the library as a digital
writing workshop.
Continuing our efforts to participate more in formative and summative assessment of student
work as part of the learning experience.
Developing workshops for teachers to help them tap into the power of social media and cloud
computing for professional development.
Expanding our eReader program by adding additional Kindles and color Nooks to our collection
as we hope to pilot a subscription to Overdrive, a subscription eBook service that will allow
students and teachers to check out books digitally and read them on their own devices or on a
library circulated device (such as a Kindle or Nook).
Facilitating more independent and student selected reading through collaborative classroom
partnerships as well as library supported initiatives.
Increasing our participation of student bloggers who will write regularly for The Unquiet Library
blog.
Incorporating gaming as a tool for formal and informal learning; we hope to pilot a gaming
project aligned to the AASL Standards for 21st Century Learners.
Utilize ethnographic research to analyze trends and challenges in the library program.
A continued emphasis on student meaning making and content creation.