A Week Full of Visitors

A week in the Media Center is nothing short of crazy with a circus act. Always.

Monday morning we put the Media Center back together from Friday night's coffee house,  I had a book celebration/makerspace day with my favorite ESE kiddos (we celebrated 3 SSYRA books they've read, built whales and boats with Playdoh, made Popsicle bookmarks, and built tree houses), delivered Chickfila lunch to the winner of our campaign sign contest, and I had some pretty important visitors. Our Assistant Superintendent and my School Board Representative showed up at the end of the day to announce that I've been selected as a District Finalist for Teacher of the Year. There were six teachers chosen: one elementary and one secondary from the north part of our county, the central part of our county, and the south part of the county. I'm the secondary south area representative. Six chosen out of over 4,000. That's CRAZY!!! I can't even begin to fathom how I ended up on that list. There are so many incredible teachers here in our very large county. I'm so incredibly honored.

Tuesday I had Ms. Ross's classes scheduled for book check out and we were disguising gingerbread people as book characters. In the middle of the day, this group of professionals show up and sit down and get comfortable and our tech guy tells me the room is his from 12:30-3:00. Wait...what!?!?!?!
Yes, we had to relocate to her classroom and send kids two and three at a time to check-out books. Which means I had to tell those kids from memory where the books they wanted were and make suggestions for them off what I *thought* we had in. There was a South Area Tech Training scheduled in the Media Center that NO ONE told me about and was not on my calendar. It's was a misunderstanding and some miscommunication and everything is good, but it was definitely a curve ball. The worst part is that I have an autistic student that comes to see me everyday during his lunch and he couldn't find me and got really upset. I always warn him when I won't be there so he is prepared and knows but in the midst of all the crazy, I forgot to let him know. He had a meltdown and I felt really bad because that could have been avoided. I failed to take pictures of their gingerbread people but they are decorating the Christmas tree that's in the Media Center right now. Also, check out Ms. Ross's book log for this year. #readersgonnaread

Wednesday I had our amazing Tech Integrator and hosted Ms. Rich's Civics classes and we went on Google Expeditions to see all the places Alexander Hamilton was based on what they've been learning about. We traveled to Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. The kids LOVED it and thought they were so important that they were the very first group of students at our school to get to use this equipment this year. I was also able to get all of our administrators in there and participating throughout the day so they could see what a valuable educational experience it was. In the middle of the first group we also had to run an infrastructure trial for the testing platform. I was a little worried about a big group coming in for me to run a testing trial with them while the other group was doing Google Expeditions but it worked and it was smooth sailing.

Thursday was another infrastructure trial and set up for Career Day. I also got updates on the next steps for the Teacher of the Year process. Yikes.

Friday was the 31st Annual Career Day at The Great Southwest. We invite people into our school to speak to our students about their careers. We have so many guests that there is a speaker for every single classroom. All of our guests gather for breakfast and coffee and then a Keynote in the Media Center that is pumped out through video feed to all the classrooms. Once the Keynote is over, the speakers are escorted to their classroom location and the speak to the classes about their career, what they do, and what it takes to do that. We also treat them to lunch cooked by Chef Poole and Mr. Thorstensen and served by our students. I had a former NFL player, our School Board rep, a City Councilman, Police and Fire Rescue, Kona Ice, chefs, real estate agents, doctors, pilots, and all kinds of amazing people in my Media Center for our Keynote and then I got to host the Youth Pastor from my church and his intern, Dario. It was so cool for the kids to find out what kind of training you need to have a job like that and how he choose his career. It was so interesting!

So what's next?

Monday (!!!!!!!!!!!) a committee of people will come watch me teach for 45 minutes, interview me, three of my peers, and my principal to see if I'm what everyone says I am. I was told that there has never been a winner from my school and I don't think (but I might be wrong) that there has ever been a Media Specialist win. Someone came in and mentioned to me that I have one shot to show them everything I do. It's a lot of pressure. A lot. How on earth am I supposed to show them everything I do with kids and teachers in one 45 minute lesson and some interviews? I can't. That's the answer and I'm not going to worry about it. I'm going to teach exactly how I normally would and answer their questions as honestly as I can. I've chosen three teachers that I think can show the collaboration that my position allows and that I'm a real teacher too. It will either be enough or it won't. I'm not here to prove I'm better or worse than anyone else. The only thing I care about them seeing is engaged learners. I want them to see what a Media Center really looks like. I want them to see the classes in there, the collaboration, the random stray students that come in for all kinds of things throughout the day, the teachers that stop by and need me on their planning. I want them to know that WE (not just me) work hard and are doing good things for kids. I want them to see I have the greatest job at my school and why Southwest is The Great Southwest and not just another middle school.

Tuesday I'm on a field trip with our music students (yay!!!!!). Wednesday I finish and submit our Follett Challenge video and application. Thursday I have a SAC committee meeting and Lara's kids for checkout and makerspace. Friday I have the GAPP kids again for checkout and a Jason Reynolds story contest, and our front office luncheon. Oh, and District Communications is coming to video me teaching Friday. It's also my oldest daughter's #EpicEleventhBirthday next week which has nothing to do with school but definitely impacts my week.

I told you. It's a circus, always. But it's my circus and I love it!

Also, if you could be so kind as to let me know how one dresses super professionally but in a way that you can still crawl in the floor with robots and not have the kids ask why you are dressed so fancy, I'd love to know.

Author Visits

When I first became a Media Specialist, I heard about other schools having authors come to their schools for a visit. My immediate thoughts were that it would be awesome to do that but...

1. How do you know these authors/get in touch with these authors?
2. How do you pay for a visit like that?

Some schools or districts may work differently, but in my school in my district, I am given funds from the state to purchase materials that circulate (books, maker space materials, etc.) but I can't spend it on anything else. Any other funding needed for things such as basic supplies, processing materials, prizes, promotional materials, events, etc must be fund-raised.

My first year in the Media Center I connected with a local author named Jaimie Engle and we brought her in for Literacy Week. We paid for her to come for the day and we ran four sessions of kids through the Media Center. We worked with our Culinary Department to feed her a nice lunch and used our Young Author's Club to work the event for us.  It was a great event and the kids enjoyed the visit a lot but I think they would have enjoyed it a lot more if they had read her books before the visit. It was still a really awesome day and a great way to get my feet wet.
                                       
Last year, my second year in the Media Center, I met Christina Diaz Gonzalez at our annual FAME conference. She has several books out that are amazing but her book Moving Target was one of our SSYRA books for last year. It is SUCH a great book and my students loved the series so very much. When I started planning our 20 Book Challenge celebration day, I reached out to her to possibly schedule a visit. She lives in Florida so that definitely helped with the cost. Christina was so gracious and incredible with us. We got to have a special author lunch with Christina and all of our finishers and then we did an author session where I brought in other students as well. Even better, I was able to share her with another local school and we were able to split the cost. The students absolutely loved her and it was so much fun!

This week, in my third year as a Media Specialist, we were able to host Newberry winner Kwame Alexander, the DAY his new book Swing launched. If you've read this blog at all, you know how much our students LOVE his books so this was a really big deal.

Kwame and I met years ago when he was the Keynote speaker at a small conference I helped with. He had just published Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band and He Said, She Said was about to come out. P.S. He was just as dynamic then as he is now. We met again at my first FAME conference and he remembered me. The Crossover was an SSYRA book that year and as my students fell in love with it, I began to share that with him on social media. We continued to run into each other at conferences and I continued to share with him on social media. I was able to get on the launch teams for Solo, Rebound, and Swing. Kwame is such an awesome guy and he truly loves kids and wants to make the world a better place. When the opportunity came up to start the tour at our school, I knew I had to make it happen. He has been so gracious with me and so good to our students.

In just two days I was able to find enough support and raise enough money to fund the visit. TWO. That is how much our staff believed in this and wanted to make it happen for our kids. This is the biggest thing I've ever tried to pull off. Ever. I was so nervous and so worried about all the details and not letting anyone down.

We decided the visit would be in the Media Center and we'd put 200 students in there. We've never tried to put 200 kids in there but my Head Custodian is amazing and said he'd help me move all the furniture out and we'd make it happen and that's what we did. We announced to the staff he was coming and Follett and our awesome rep, Sherri Smith Dodgson, donated 100 copies of Kwame's books to our school. I handed them out to teachers like they were Halloween candy. Then, we announced to the students that he was coming. I told them that the first 200 students who successfully logged one of his books in our 20 Book Challenge would get to be in the Media Center. The rest of the school would get to watch through a live camera feed.

His books stay checked out anyway but we had kids coming in every day looking for them. We had two teachers do read-alouds with it and gave their students the opportunity to log the book. My team and I scored these responses until we were blue in the face. I did lessons with the classes on how to answer a prompt, what a response that wouldn't be accepted looked like, what a good one looked like, and how to fix their response if they didn't actually tell me anything about the book. I was up until 1 in the morning many nights scoring responses and giving these kids individual feedback so they'd know if they got in or not.  Monday morning we published the list and the visit happened Tuesday.

I decorated the Media Center to reflect the themes of the new book. We got copies of the book for all 200 kids. Our Art students made incredible banners to welcome Kwame and Randy to the school. Our Show Choir kids created a routine and performed "Be a Star" at the start of the event. We got the Mayor there, lots of important District people there, and District Communications came. I had more volunteers than I've ever seen before and it was THE BEST DAY EVER!

Days later, our whole school is still taking abut it. The kids loved it. Every single student I asked said it was way better than everything I said it would be. It was also such an incredible learning experience for me. I got to work closely with his booking agent, Carmen, who is awesome and I also got to work directly with his publishing company to make sure our books would be there in time. I got to meet the marketing person for a local independent bookstore and she is amazing. I planned and coordinated with another Media Specialist, Ana Woodbrey, who went in on the visit with me. I got to bounce ideas off so many people. The greatest thing I learned is how much support I truly have from the entire community and how much our staff believes in me to do good things for our kids.

The photos and videos from the event are so incredible. Rachel Horst, one of our District Communications people, did an amazing job capturing the pure joy on the faces of these kids. It will be something I will always remember.

While I've only been through three author visits, I feel like I've experienced and learned a lot. If you are looking to host an author visit for the first time here are a few tips:

1. Don't be scared to try!
2. Reach out to authors. They are AMAZING! Really. They love kids and they want to come to your school. 
3. If you can plan well in advance, do it. 
4. Do all the fundraisers all the time so you have money in your account for times like this when a crazy opportunity comes up.
5. Believe in yourself and your abilities to organize and run an event.
6. ASK FOR HELP! 

Y'all. It took a village to make this visit happen and I'm so very thankful for everyone who helped. It makes everything better when we all work together. 

Chorus and Coding

Last week was filled with students logging books for our author visit, us scoring their responses, book check-outs, and then I got to spend TWO days with our Chorus students and their amazing teacher, Ms. Nuetzel.

Why was Chorus in the Library? Why not?

We did one activity with most of her classes and then a completely different activity with Show Choir. We had a blast!

Activity 1: Soundtrack of My Life

The students had to choose a song to represent their past, one for their present, and one for their future. The students were required to find a video for their song, write 5-8 sentences explaining why that song fits that time of their life, and include an image. The project itself was Ms. Nuetzel's idea. I worked with the kids on the technology aspect and they used Google Slides for their project. I helped them set it up, showed them how to embed videos and images (and how to properly use them!), and showed them how to add fonts, change their backgrounds, add animations, etc. They worked on this for two class days and started presenting them today. They had some really great projects and it really allowed them to open up and share how music impacts their lives.

Activity 2: Show Choir

For the students in Show Choir, we wanted to do something different with them so I pulled out the Ozobots and showed them the basics of using Blockly (many had used it before) and this class of young ladies had two days to learn to code their Ozobot and program it to dance. Then, we had them join forces with another group and code both Ozobots to do the same dance. They worked on choreography through coding and even added in formations. It was SO much fun! We had some really great results too.

I love working with Margi. She's so wonderful with her students and so very knowledgeable. She also isn't afraid to try something new and loves to collaborate. While she was with me, we planned out a Coffee House night that Chorus is hosting and they are going to have it in the Media Center since they've outgrown the Chorus room.