Families at LHE Break for Breakfast and Reading!

Each year students and families look forward to the book fair coming to Lyman Hall Elementary. It is always exciting to see the new books, fun kits available, and the pancakes are out of this world! With the help of special area teachers and the front office staff, media specialist, Diana Anderson, welcomed 721 guests to a sit-down family pancake breakfast in the media center recently.

The pancake breakfast is a school tradition. Each child is given an invitation and requested to RSVP for his/her family. The media center is transformed into a fine dining establishment, with table clothes and flowers on every table. Each grade level is hosted on a different morning during the book fair. This enables families to browse for new books and enjoy a peaceful breakfast.

The benefits are two-fold! Since beginning the family pancake events, the book fairs at LHE have seen their profits double. When families feel welcome and enjoy their time at school everyone profits!

LCSS Media & Technology Showcase

I attended the annual LCSS Media & Technology Showcase yesterday and had a blast!  I was able to attend 3 sessions (well, I cheated and went to half of two, but shhhhh don’t tell) – podcasting, media festival and STAR Early Literacy. 

Melissa Roberts and Brittney Mobley of the LCSS Technology Office offered great ideas about podcasting.  Their hands-on workshop was a great deal of fun and I left feeling much more confident in using some of the free resources available to podcast. 

A session to promote the International Student Media Festival was offered by Deborah Hargroves.  Along with media festival tips and ideas, I learned of many free tools available for the 21st century classroom.  It will be so much fun sharing these programs with the teachers and students!  I just know we can utilize them in creating technology projects to submit to this years media festival.

STAR Early Literacy with Ellen Gadberry was the last session that I “sneaked” into and I certainly was glad I did!  I was so impressed with the program.  STAR Early Literacy is a web-based early literacy assessment tool that provides immediate feedback on the development of students' literacy skills.  I am extremely interested in this program for our kindergarten and possibly first graders who struggle with STAR testing.  Very informative session! 

Oh, but I haven’t told you the best part of that day (besides wearing jeans, of course)… I was a winner two times over!  Yes two times!  I won a NEO 2 from Renaissance Learning.  I am so excited!  I am going to put it to great use too!  It is going to travel each month to the classroom with the highest AR points AND testing accuracy at FLE.  How cool will that be for the kiddos?  I also won a book, In One Ear, Out the Other by Michael Dahl from Perma Bound Books.  (My friend Tara suggested I pick this book as my free gift… so, I haven’t actually read the book yet, but I’m sure it is GrEaT!) 

NEO 2

All in all, it was a great day!  Thanks Jaime for organizing the event!

Tracking Student Use of the Media Center

Last year, Mrs. Judy Serritella, the media coordinator for Georgia, requested each district submit a report detailing the number of students using the media centers. Compiling a number for each school was a bit of a challenge, never being required to report that statistic in the past. Each school was asked to do their best to arrive at a ballpark estimate.

This school year, Mrs. Serritella confirmed that each district would again be asked to state how many students have been served by the media centers. Tracking the number of students that visit the media center can be a very taxing and a time consuming task. In an effort to streamline and simplify the process of tracking student visits, our district is beginning a demo of James Maclaskey's software "Library Time Clock 2.1."

The software uses a database system that allows each student to type in his/her id number or scan his/her student id card when entering the media center. From the time a student scans his/her card the system is counting the length of the visit. Each student scans out as he/she leaves the media center.

The elementary schools are using a basic version of the system, "Time Clock 2 Basic". The high and middle schools are using a more advanced version, "Library Time Clock 2.1." The high and middle schools can collect data on the purpose of the visit.

The use of the time clock system does present a new process for students, but many of the students find it fun and quicker than using a visit log. The software also allows media specialists to run reports on the number of visits for any date range.

The number of student visitors is staggering! For example on August 27th the following visits were recorded in the elementary and middle schools that have begun trying the system:

JME- 393; FLE- 315; TCE- 404; MMS- 388

Wow! We knew the media center was a busy place, but now we have the numbers to prove it!

Helen Ruffin Book Club 2010-2011

This year media specialists, teachers, and paraprofessional from elementary, middle, and high schools across Liberty County created book trailers to peek the interest of student readers for Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl. Participants learned how easy video production can be with Adobe Visual Communicator 3.

Several media specialists plan to teach students how to use the program. Liberty County High School's media specialists, Jeff Staggs and Kay Williams, plan to use the program with students to create media festival projects!

Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl Fever!

Thank you to all who volunteered to read and write questions for this worthy cause! Your time will benefit students throughout the school system and even the state! The questions that you create from your HRRB reading selections will be used for student practice, county, regional, and state reading bowl question banks. Your dedication will encourge students to read!

If you would like to learn more about the rules of the bowl, check out this video:

Share the reading lists and rules with your students! Here are a couple of brochures that may help!

Rules and Procedures Brochure (Publisher)


Elementary and Middle Brochure
http://www.divshare.com/download/12059499-bba

High Brochure
http://www.divshare.com/download/12059498-f72

Need More Information about the HRRB? Read the Liberty County Handbook:
http://www.divshare.com/download/12110024-aad

Read the Georgia Framework for the HRRB:
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/hrrb/files/EBC2B357E3DC4C5FAC0B055B05E84111.pdf

If you are taking the professional learning course for the HRRB, the presentation is available here:
http://www.divshare.com/download/12059500-e3b

This is a great rubric for video production!
http://www.divshare.com/download/12059501-e00

This handout helps students begin the book trailer production process:
http://www.divshare.com/download/12060070-0a9

Use this template to create questions for the bowl:
http://www.divshare.com/download/12107697-da0

Accelerate Reader in Liberty County- Our Journey

Liberty County and Accelerated Reader have been cozy friends since the days of floppy disk quizzes. The friendship has been a positive one in most cases. Students enjoyed reading and quizzing. Earning points motivated some students, and enabled moments of celebration for the shining readers in each elementary and middle school. As time has passed, AR and LCSS have grown and adapted.





This year has been a banner year for growing and changing when it comes to Accelerated Reader and LCSS. Prior to this year, media specialists, teachers, and students were point driven. Students earned recognition on their ability to earn points alone. Thanks to a wonderful staff development session through Accelerated Reader, LCSS learned the importance of quality reading practice. LCSS also learned that Accelerated Reader can be used as a tool to encourage and celebrate readers of all abilities. Individualized goals, instead of points alone, have helped to motivate and enable all students to succeed. The staff development also taught the media specialists in Liberty County that the classroom teacher is an important part of the successful implementation of AR.





After the professional learning session with Accelerated Reader trainers, LCSS media specialists knew that they had a lot of work ahead. The first task at hand was to retrain the school staff and students on their core AR practices and beliefs. To do this, the participating media specialists gathered to create presentations, handouts, and training materials to share with teachers, students, and parents.




Each media specialist, and in some cases instructional coaches, met with school staff to present the new ideas and practices. Teachers were taught the importance of individualized goals. Teachers learned how to set goals using student STAR Reading results. Teachers learned how to conduct status of the class, and the importance of an average of 85% on practice quizzes was stressed. Helping students select books on an appropriate level became more significant. Celebrating student success for reaching goals became a focus, not just recognition of points earned.





At Taylors Creek and several other schools, students can see their zone of proximal development on their shelf marker.


Some teachers adopted the new ways of using AR more readily than others. In some schools the transition has been more gradual. There are some teachers that do not want to set the goals. In those cases the media specialist set goals for the students each nine weeks. Convincing teachers to buy in is still a goal to pursue this coming school year. In several of the schools teachers have embraced and taken ownership of student goals, quality reading practice, and status of the class.







In the hallways of Taylors Creek each teacher has a big ice cream cone on the wall near their door. Students earn a scoop with their name for each 100% they earned on a reading practice quiz.


Participants in the professional learning course were asked to document the transition in their schools to show how implementation was impacting teachers and students.







Mrs. Lynn Walker, a literature teacher at Midway Middle School, contributed this quote.



"Since beginning the process of individual goal setting in the AR program, I have seen more students strive to meet the goal set for them with their input. When the same goal was set for all students in the school, many students were finding it difficult to attain. The first quarter of individual goal setting seemed to be successful for those students who were already reading a lot. Many of my students' goals have been modified for the second quarter in order to allow them to be successful. If these minimal goals are achieved during this quarter than a solid increase will be set for the next quarter. As students are allowed to be successful with small steps, I can see them wanting to continue to read more. I think that the individual goal setting is the best way to reward students since not all students will attain the same level. This process seems to be working well."

The journey has been one full of enlightenment and hard work. When comparing the performance of students from last school year to this year it appears the work has paid off.

Elaine Walker, the media specialist at Joseph Martin Elementary, filmed this teacher testimonial about the new changes to Accelerated Reader.

Media Festival Student Celebration 2009-2010

Students and parents strolled down the red carpet May 10th, 12th, and 13th as they entered the Liberty County School System’s Performing Arts Center to attend the Media Festival Celebration. Poster-board paparazzi were held back behind stanchions as families, teachers, administrators, and board members enjoyed the Hollywood themed decorations and star- studded walk of fame. Cameras flashed and smiles abounded as attendees entered the theater to watch two minute snippets of students’ projects on the wide-screen. The stage was a flutter with anxious students receiving Oscar statuettes and certificates in honor of their accomplishments. Students from Button Gwinnett, Frank Long, Joseph Martin, Taylors Creek, Liberty Elementary, Waldo Pafford, Jordye Bacon, and Lewis Frasier Middle School were honored over the three nights.
Each year students in Liberty County use their creativity and technology knowledge to create computer -based projects such as web pages, podcasts, live action videos, animation, sequential stills, interactive stills, and photographic essays. The projects are entered in to the school level media festival, and only the projects that score a superior score of 96 or higher advance to the county level media festival. The projects are evaluated by three judges at the county level media festival and promotde to the Georgia State Media Festival if they earn a superior score.
Nine hundred ninety-two projects entered the Georgia Student Media Festival this year. One hundred-nine of those projects advanced from Liberty County. The festival was held April 30th in Jonesboro. Each of the projects was evaluated and scored by volunteer judges from across the state of Georgia. Fifty-five projects were scored superior and earned the right to advance to the International Student Media Festival. The Media Festival Celebration made the students producers of the advancing fifty-five projects feel like stars!

May 10th project previews are from Button Gwinnett, Liberty Elementary, and Waldo Pafford.

May 12th project previews are from Jordye Bacon and Taylors Creek.

May 13th project previews are from Frank Long, Joseph Martin, and Lewis Frasier Middle School.