Wednesday, May 14, 2008

End of the Year Craziness

We are officially in the midst of the school year craziness. Awards ceremonies, textbook inventory, planning for next year and of course the end of the year crunch of getting all library materials returned.

As of the end of today we have 26 more (student) books to be returned (or paid for) and 5 school days left.  Last year the school had only 3 books that were not returned or paid for.... it's not looking good for us to break that record this year.  At this point, I'll be happy with single digits.

As the end of my first year here closes I am trying to reflect on what worked, what didn't and what I want to accomplish next year.  In a school this big, where I am the only media specialist, it is sometimes hard to do all that you want to do and I have found this out the hard way sometimes.  
*  I think that my storytime offerings were a BIG hit and that when I did something a little different, like science in the media center, the teachers (and kids) loved it.  

* My reference challenge worked out well for the 4th graders, but I need to get more 5th grade teachers on board next year.

* My changes to the morning news show were also well received (basically, I made it shorter), but I am trying to figure out a way to work with kids on a more project basis using video and video editing on the computer (using Windows Movie Maker, sadly, my district as a No Mac's allowed policy)

* I would like to work on staff development a little more next year, especially in the technology area since we are getting ready for a big shift in our technology (projectors in all classrooms and all new computers in the building).  

* I would also like to collaborate with teachers more on projects.  It took me half the year to just get all the teachers names right, never mind reach out to them to collaborate on things.  I think I have found out who the "receptive" teachers are and I will target them next year.  

* I am already working on next years Reading Raptors reading program and am in the process of contacting some authors for author visits to our school for next year and I am REALLY excited about that.

I will admidt that as much as I love my job, I am pretty excited to sleep in and get to tackle the stack of books I have been waiting to read this summer.  

Tomorrow I will post about my summer reading program and about my summer reading blog (for kids).



1 comment:

teacherninja said...

Sounds like a great year all around! This blog is a big help to me as I'm getting ready to start classes in August to become a media specialist myself. Thanks for doing it. Also: what are "reading raptors"?