Liberty County Media & Technology Showcase

This year over 100 media specialists and several computer lab teachers from southeast Georgia gathered together to visit vendors and attend workshops.  Attending counties included Liberty, Bacon, Bryan, Bulloch, Camden, Effingham, Glynn, Long, Pierce, Savannah-Chatham, McIntosh, Ware, Wayne, and Wheeler.  The showcase is a free event for attendees.  This year many of the presenters were media specialists from Liberty County!

During the event, Mrs. Mary Peacock, Taylors Creek Elementary's Media Specialist and award winning media festival facilitator, presented lesson ideas for using the iPad with students in the media center to create winning media festival projects. The workshop was hands-on, and participants were able to use the iMovie app during the one hour session.

Middle school level media specialists enjoyed attending a workshop presented by Mrs. Cristina Dover, Midway Middle School's media specialist and winner of the Exemplary Library Media Program for  Georgia, 2012. Mrs. Dover lead participants through a hands-on session with the iPad.  Participants worked with iMovie and learned additional special effects features available through other apps.

High school level media specialists attended a session presented by Mrs. Nicole Lukkarinen, Bradwell Institute's media specialist.  Attendees used, the social web 2.0 app, Voice Thread to create presentations using iPads.  Throughout the year Mrs. Lukkarinen works with students to integrate technology and information literacy skills into media center instruction.  

Dr. Melissa Purcell of Glynn Academy also presented during the showcase on the topic of YouTube and other Web 2.0 tools in the media center.  Dr. Purcell's media program was named an Exemplary Library Media Program by Georgia Department of Education for 2011.  Glynn Academy posts QR codes on many of their featured books which link out to video book trailers.  

Media specialists and computer lab teachers from all levels were interested in GALILEO Support Services' representative Courtney McGough's presentation on how GALILEO can support the Common Core Standards.  Participants logged into GALILEO to participate in this hands-on session.

The showcase provided attendees a chance to meet vendors, learn new technology-based instructional skills, and mingle with like-minded educators.

HRRB Book Club, Phase IV

The summer is almost over!  And with its end comes a new beginning!  Soon students will be visiting the media center again in search of a good book, and media specialists will be eager to introduce them to the 2012-2013 Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl list!

This year during the professional learning course, HRRB Book Club, Phase VI, media specialists, teachers, and paraprofessionals will be armed with new iPad 2 apps and ideas to advertise books. Raps and cartoons will be used to interest students in the reading selections.

Check out the links below to learn more:
Getting Started with Writing your Book Rap-
http://www.divshare.com/download/19192777-7ed
How to use GarageBand on the Ipad 2-
http://www.divshare.com/download/19192776-c34
Create a Cartoon using Toontastic-
http://www.divshare.com/download/19192781-a13
Socrative HRRB Review Questions-
http://www.divshare.com/download/19192783-e31
HRRB Template-
http://www.divshare.com/download/19192779-091

Media Festival Fun!

Each year the media festival gives students a chance to use technology and their imagination!  Students can produce sequential still slideshows, webpages, animations, podcasts, live action videos, or interactive slideshows.  Students' projects are then submitted for evaluation in their school level media festival.  Hundreds of projects are produced in the schools of Liberty County each year, but only projects earning a superior score of 96 or higher are able to advance to the system level media festival.

At the Liberty County Student Media Festival, teachers, media specialists, instructional technology specialists, curriculum specialists, and community volunteers worked in pairs to review the projects using a rubric provided by the Georgia Student Media Festival.  The scores were tallied and each student's project received thoughtful feedback.  The projects which earned 96 or higher made their way to the Georgia State Media Festival.

This year 198 students' projects represented Liberty County at the GSMF. This number included projects from every school in the district and four from First Presbyterian Christian Academy!

Liberty County supplied a total of 20 volunteer judges for the state level festival, which was held in Clayton County on March 26. Teachers and media specialists were eager to help out!  The day of judging started at 8:00AM and stretched on until 4:30PM for some of the judges attending for Liberty County.  

Volunteers worked diligently to help sort and account for the projects.  The scores were recorded and at the end of the day a total of 75 projects for Liberty County earned a superior score of 96 or higher.  First Presbyterian Christian Academy had three projects to earn a superior score also.

The next level of the festival is the International Student Media Festival.  The projects will be uploaded to the ISMF website and scored over the summer.  Projects earning a superior score of 96 or higher at this level of the festival will be celebrated in October in Louisville, Kentucky!

In the near future, May 15 and May 16, the students from Liberty County's schools which earned a superior score at the state level festival will be invited to stroll down the red carpet!  The annual Liberty County Student Media Festival Celebration gives students a chance to view a portion of their project on the big screen with their parents.  Classroom teachers will accept a trophy for class projects, groups of five or less will receive individual trophies, and students whom produced an individual project will receive an individual trophy.

Children's Book Week Celebrations in Liberty County

The nation will be celebrating Children’s Book Week on May 7-13; however most of the schools in Liberty County took time out just before Thanksgiving to celebrate the importance of literature in the lives of children!

Children’s Book Week is the oldest literacy initiative in the United States, starting in 1919. The idea originated with a librarian from the Boy Scouts of America, Franklin K. Matthiews. Matthiews toured the country in 1913 promoting the idea that a week should be set aside to promote children’s literature. The cause was taken up by the American Booksellers Association and the American Library Association in 1916 as a result a Good Book Week with the Boy Scouts of America was born. This event later evolved into Children’s Book Week! The Children’s Book Council was established in 1944 and took on the responsibility of overseeing the yearly event. Originally celebrated in November, the national event was moved to May in 2008 by the Children’s Book Council.

Most Liberty County Schools continue to honor the November schedule and encourage students to participate in fun events throughout the week. During the week students enjoyed wearing crazy socks to show how crazy they are for reading. Many students wore sunglasses to show it is cool to be a reader. Students cozied up to a good book on pajama day and enjoyed guest readers. Many students even donned a hat to school to celebrate books.

Students were challenged to read throughout the week. Students at Taylors Creek read enthusiastically to earn 1000 Accelerated Reader Points during the week in order to earn a “Gotta Keep Reading Rally!” with Dr. Rodriguez and Dr. Scharnagl taking to the roof of the school to celebrate the accomplishment. Students are Frank Long read to reach individual classroom goals set for Accelerated Reader point and percentage goals for the week. Classes reaching their goals earned popcorn and a movie. Jordye Bacon elementary challenged each class to strive to earn the most Accelerated Reader points and the highest quiz average for the grade level in order to win a pizza party. Students delighted at Waldo Pafford to see Dr. Bacon and Marti Stephens get a pie in the face after reaching the school’s reading goal. Mr. Anderson, Liberty Elementary principal, challenged students to read over 4,000 books during the week. Mr. Anderson celebrated the reading accomplishment by taking a ride in Coastal Electric’s sky bucket!

Students at Button Gwinnett, Joseph Martin, and Waldo Pafford Elementary culminated the celebration with students dressing as their favorite book characters and parading through the school.

Several schools in Liberty County enjoyed author visits sponsored by the Live Oak Public Library during the week. Yvonne Moss, author of The Butterfly Princess visited Lyman Hall Elementary. Author, Doug Paul visited students at Midway Middle and Lewis Frasier Middle. Midway Middle School students in Mrs. Swinson’s class enjoyed interviewing Mr. Paul to learn about the demands and duties of a published author. Students at Waldo Pafford enjoyed meeting Nicole Harrison, author of Oscar’s Odyssey: Lost in Space. Joseph Martin students enjoyed a school sponsored visit from author Kay Heath.

One thing is certain; students in Liberty County enjoyed a variety of activities and will look back on their experience with fond memories, hopefully while reading a book!

HRRB Teams

How many students are on your team? Please list your school name and number.

Students from Liberty County Schools are International Winners for Media Production!

Each year students in Liberty County select to participate in their school level media festival competition. Possible student project types include: webpages, podcasts, sequential still presentations, interactive still presentations, and live action videos. Projects are scored using a detailed rubric by volunteers, and only superior projects advance to the next level of competition.

Hundreds of projects are entered each year, but only the superior scoring projects advance to the state festival. An even a fewer number advance to the International Student Media Festival, where project entries are submitted from counties as far away as China and Israel!

The International Student Media Festival was held in Jacksonville, Florida November 9- 12. Sixty-eight projects from Liberty County were deemed winners at the festival. Of those sixty-eight projects, eight were selected as Judges’ Favorites! Only 10% of the projects in the entire festival are awarded this extra honor. Five students from Liberty County received the prestigious Best of Festival Award. Less than 1% of the projects entered in the festival are awarded this honor!

Students selecting to attend the festival were able to participate in hands-on workshops on topics such as video editing, digital photography, multi-media storytelling, stop-motion animation, podcast production, and using iPads for media production. Families attending the festival were able to participate in the awards assembly where students received medallions and certificates.

Visit http://www.ismf.net/video to view the outstanding student projects and to learn more about the International Student Media Festival!

GaETC- Exemplary and Exceptional Library Media Program

The Exemplary Media Program is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the work that is done in the media center. Each year the schools in Liberty County take time to review the rubric. The school level media committees evaluate their programs. This year Midway Middle School and Joseph Martin Elementary were reviewed and rated highly by the school media committees. Both schools were nominated for the state honor.

Midway Middle School's program was named one of the exemplary programs in the state!

Today the exemplary and exceptional winners for elementary, middle, and high presented at the Georgia Educational Technology Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Exemplary Library Media Winners were Janelle McClure, Cristina Dover, and Shawn Hinger.