Summary of What I Learned Over All

Throughout my practicum I gained experience in various areas of librarianship.  Some of the tasks that I completed were as follows:

-Created posters
-Laminated teacher's requests
-Withdrew students from Destiny and Accelerated Reader
-Ordered supplies for repairs
-Cataloging-Added copies of books to Destiny, created and printed barcodes (as well as trouble-shoot and make inquiry with tech support), affixing labels and barcodes to books, affixing AR color-coded stickers
-Teaching-Substitute teacher for library (emphasis on classroom mangement)
-Utilized Mimio board in instruction
-Public Speaking, Outreach-Special speaker for women's hygiene for 3rd-5th grade
-Created a vodcast of how to use Destiny for finding books
-Selected books on Mackin
-Provided bibliographic assistance
-Observed inventory practices
-Deleted books from system after weeding
-Checked to see if new AR tests have been created for books that were purchased without one
-Changed the pad on the Ellison machine
-Changed the film roll on the Double Roll Laminator
-Changed the paper on the Poster Maker

Week of April 22

The librarian told students that today is Earth Day.  She informed the students about the protective layer that shields us from the sun, the Ozone Layer, and let them know that it is being destroyed by pollution.    Pollution is caused by the population growth, more trash, and industrial pollution.  Some animals are becoming extinct or on the verge, which means they are dying out.  She is really good at simplifying a topic for the students.  She also uses personal anecdotes.  Such as when she let them know that years ago when she was a girl, they didn't have landfills, they put the trash into gullys and burned it in the country.  She let students know about Gaylord Nelson, who in 1969, changed laws to protect what goes into our air and water.  Then she highlighted various ways students can help the Earth.  1.) Recycling-to make something new out of a used product 2.) Bike Riding- protects the Earth from gases released by vehicles 3.) Energy Efficient Cars- use electricity and not gas 4.) Wind Energy- windmills used to create electricity 5.) Plant Trees- trees take out bad air and release good air.

Some other suggestions she made were to turn off lights when not in use, turn off games, and shut doors of refrigerators to keep cool air in.  She taught students a new word--ponder.  She explained that they would need to ponder what was being done in a color sheet she gave them (think about).  On the color sheet, people were doing things to help the Earth on Earth Day. 

Ms. Hinton will often times receive funds from students to pay for lost items.  These deposits must be periodically taken to the office to deposit in the bank.  She says keeping a receipt book is crucial.  When a lost book is found, the receipt book will help her to make refunds promptly.

For example, a book came back after having been lost and paid for on December 15, 2011.  The money needed to be refunded so we searched through her old receipt books for info and money paid.  She told me that we cannot take checks from parents, only cash  and that money is refunded in check format only.  She indicated that it takes quite a long time to get checks in from school district.

Some little tips she gave me for the printers, is that in order to save ink and revitalize a cartridge that seems to be running out, you take it out and shake it, then put it back in and voila, back to printing with full ink.

She taught be how to create posters.  This time I was able to print some on my own.  First I placed the item to be enlarged face down on the scanner, press the scan to button 3 times then press scan button.  Continue scanning if more than one item needs to scanned in a series until done.  She told me to leave a little white around the poster while cropping, then auto adjest it and click yes twice.  Go to properties and remove margins to save paper.

Week of April 1-8

This week Ms. Hinton focused on Living and Non-Living.  She read books to the students that talked about this topic.  She asked the kids if we breathe? eat? move? change or grow?  If yes to all then we a Living.  She talked about plants and how they move to sunlight and make their own food.  She also talked about places where people live such as a city, the rural area, or small towns. 

I did not have much time in the classroom this week, due to substitute teaching.  I came in an hour everyday I subbed.

Week of March 25-29

This week Ms. Hinton instructed me on how to process books.  She writes the barcode number on inside of all books, in case the cover is ever missing on a book.  The checkout log shows the barcode number on books missing it.  That way if you know who had the book, you can check to see which book was checked out.  It is important to check to make sure the correct cover is on books.  If not, it is necessary to take action. Either return to company or delete from collection.  Some of the books were bought even though there was not an AR test for them at them time.  Now that they have a test, AR stickers needed to be added to the books.  Specifically, the Obama books.

We learned about pre-processing and such in LIS 408 recently.  Even if someone does the processing for you, you must pre-process by providing the vendor specs for your library such as Sears or LCSH, automation system, barcode number range, position of barcode, and how you want the call numbers to be labeled.  There is usually a cost per item for processing to make items shelf-ready.  But the advantage is that all you have to do is put marks of ownership on them. (Pace, personal communication, April 8).

Ms. Hinton says she likes Follet better than Mackin for ordering books. I didn't get a chance to work with Follet, however, I did work with Mackin one week.  She had me to order books based on the list of books the faculty requested.  It was a slightly confusing site.  It provided, however, a key for determining what the abbreviations mean. 

Ms. Hinton informed me that she would be preparing a folder with information about reboxing and replacing damaged books.  I have yet to receive that information, but I plan to ask her soon.  She also told me that she will be printing out directions for how to print AR labels and barcodes.  She explained the new AR test components to her classes and to me.  She says that from now on there will be more than one question on the page as students take the test and that there will be added vocabulary tests.

To add a copy of a book to the system, first put the barcode on the book close to the spine, vertically to allow for ease during inventory, then click on Barcode under Catalog on Destiny and click edit to change barcode.  Look for the book with no copies, and click add copy, then enter new barcode number and the price of the book.  She let me do this to several books until I was a pro.  I enjoyed this week. 

Week of March 4-8th

This week I worked on my vodcast project for LIS 491- which is an instruction course.  I had some complications getting camstudio to work on a particular computer in the library for several weeks. So, the tech people assisted me.  We found a microphone and headset and I was able to do it well finally.  I ended up getting 100 percent on that project where I demonstrated how to use Destiny Catalog to search for and select books to check out at the library media center.

Ms. Hinton told me about the Ellison machine and how to work it, and change the pad on the machine.  She said if it has already been used on one side previously, then it doesn't last as long as if it is a new pad.  She taught me how to use the tools to clean out some of the places where paper builds up on the cutters, such as the ghost's face, the pumpkin's face, and the tornado. Used the awl to get the extra paper out.

She taught me how to make posters.  You select the large printer, select paper size E, landscape or portrait depending on the poster, fit to page, and select print. 

I learned about Glog, a site for creating webpages based on a template.  It seemed like a great site to create.  The teachers at my school love to create posters for the walls, classrooms, calendars and events.  My book says that huge posters can be made using this machine for parent-teacher association night, high school sports events, or banners for a school store that lists the items and prices available (Morris, 433).

Week of February 17-23

Ms. Hinton read a book about Presidency.  She told the students about the importance of checking the copyright date on a non-fiction book.  She noted that the book was printed before the last election.  It was eleven years old.  So she indicated that some of the information in the book is dated, but it was only one piece of information that had changed, so she decided to keep the book for now.
This correlates to what I am learning about weeding in my Media Center course.  We learned that the term weeding means the same thing in library terms as it does in gardening terms; to "eliminate unsuitable or unwanted".  I probably would have weeded out that library book.  But she fully explained to the students that that date was the only thing outdated in the book.

In one of my goals, I had stated that I wanted to weed the collection by 30% in the next 5 years.  However, Dr. Haynes said that it would be difficult to measure whether or not the goal had been met in terms of percentages.  Our textbook says that it is recommended that "5 percent of a collection should be weeded each year (Morris, 451)."  So, perhaps I was a little far fetched in my percentages. The book also mentions that the weeding process is often unique to each library media center due to differences in curriculum, student population, and teaching method (Morris, 451).  I did want to repair a certain percentage of books as well.  The book says, "be aware that it is impractical to keep everything (Morris, 451)."

So, I need to ask Ms. Hinton her process of discarding weeded books.  She had mentioned something about sending them to classes after they had been removed from the collection.  I had mentioned to her, that I would like to repair some of the books if I stay there.  So, Ms. Hinton was able to order me a few repair supplies for next year.  I am kind of worried about being able to apply for the job, due to the fact that I do not have enough money to pay off tuition at this point.  Budgeting problems and other expenses have made it difficult for me save the necessary money to pay school off as promptly as I had hoped.  So, I am faced with the opportunity to possibly shadow someone next school year in hopes to keep my experience up-to-date and take note of any changes in management, or possible shadow at another school.  Of course, I will have to have my bill paid off before I can do so. 

Week of February 10th-16th

I observed Ms. Hinton’s class for the week.  She read Clifford’s First Valentine’s Day by Normal Bridwell and Franklin’s Valentines by Paulette Bourgeois.  After reading the books, she had made a color sheet of her African Dwarf frogs; Flipper and Flopper (class pets) that she allowed the kids to color.  She informed the students that she has had them for four years and she hadn’t expected them to live even one year.  She told them her regiment for feeding them was only a pinch, on Monday and Friday.

I subbed for Ms. Hinton this week and the focus was on President’s Day.  So, I kind of followed her example about ad libbing while reading.  I let student’s know about President Lincoln and George Washington.  I was able to use a visual aid to show the students the timeline.  So, they learned that George Washington was the first President and Lincoln was the 16^th.  They checked out books and colored a sheet with President George Washington on one side and a word find on the other.  Discipline problems were very few in the lower grades this time.  The Principal had come in to observe me and said he liked what I was doing with the Kindergarteners and that I did well managing them.

She informed me of setting ZPD’s for students.  She said that the Star Reading test is given by teachers once at the first of the year, the middle of the year, and at the end of the year.  She believes it’s best taken in the computer lab with a proctor, rather than in the individual classrooms where teachers might be influenced to help students.  The way students are added to Destiny is by lunch numbers and homerooms. 

 

She checks Renaissance everyday to make sure no kids are locked out of the AR tests.  She indicated the importance of saving everything that you change on Renaissance in order for changes to take effect.  One of her guidelines was do not delete a class without unenrolling students first.  To unenroll past students:

1. Go to students

2. Edit multiple school enrollments

3. Select student’s name

4. Check unenroll and Apply

I learned these steps by doing on the computer. I unenrolled about 40 students whose names were never removed from my school, even though those students had gone on to 6^th grade.

 

One thing I really enjoyed this week was watching Ms. Hinton teacher reasoning, inference, sportsmanship, probability, and deeper thinking skills using an online game version of Tic Tac Toe.  She really got the kids to think.  It was evident when a student didn’t think through their moves, however.  But I believe the class as a whole benefitted from the experience and learned to think things through.