Practicum Hour Log

I have almost come to the end of my journey in my quest for my media specialist certfication and my masters!  As I look back I am absolutely amazed at all I have learned over these past two years.  Believe me I  have MUCH MORE to learn, but I have learned so much.  I can honestly say I have enjoyed being a student at Georgia Southern University.   I have been impressed every step of the way with everyone from financial aid, the graduate studies office, Web CT/Blackboard help desk, and most of all the amazing professors at GSU.  I am glad God blessed me with this opportunity.

I have completed all of my checklist items and projects for the practicum class with the exception of waiting on those few videos to load and the presentation of the portfolio.  I have been almost compulsive in checking and re-checking all links on the portfolio to make sure they are all working! I have completed have completed all of my major projects for this class.  All of my items are posted on the right hand side of the blog.
I have also finished my practicum hours (please see the break down of hours under the check off list items)!!

I would certainly have remorse it if I did not add a note of thanks to my amazing husband, wonderful daughter, and precious family and friends.  They have all been so understanding and giving during the past two years.  My husband has had to be Dad and Mom for so many nights and weekends, and my daughter  has been so understanding and patient with me.  I also have to thank our "fur babies" for keeping me company during many late nights in the office.  I cannot thank them enough.  I thank God daily for them.  Other members of my family(and friends) have stepped in on so many occasions, and I am blessed beyond measure to have them in my life.  I give all praise and glory for this opportunity to Jesus, our Lord!

In essence, it has been a tremendous journey!  Now it is time to write the next chapter (or blog) in my life!
Thank You!
Jaime Franks
Psalm 51:10

Finishing my Portfolio

I am pretty excited to say I have nearly completed my portfolio.  I am waiting for TeacherTube to approve my last two podcasts/screencasts so I can post the link, but other than that I am FINISHED!!!!! Wow - what a task. 

Reading Fun Unit and Media Meeting

This week I finished up my reading fun unit.  We read the Lorax and made trees have tongues and we recorded what we think the trees would say if they really did have tongues. We hope our news coordinator will let us put our sayings on the news!  The kids were fabulous and this was also the day Dr. Repman came for her site visit. 
I also attended a media meeting this week (the school's where I have been doing my practicum have had unique years and so the scheduling of their media committee meetings is during a time I could not attend).  SO... I visited the county wide media specialist meeting.  It was VERY educational for me.  They discussed moving the computers and library materials to a new school, ideas for monitoring proper student use of school computers, new web page for the county, new email system for the students, a survey sent from Twin Towers, and meeting times for the 10-11 school year. This meeting helped me remember once again that media specialists have so many jobs outside of the four walls of the media center.

Shadow Days

Wed and Thursday this week I did my shadow days.
Day One - Gray Elementary - I learned a great deal. The MS there taught two classes that day, we checked and in out ALOT of books.  I had the chance to help students find books and I even got to recommend a few too.  In addition to shelving books I had the chance to help re - catatlog a few books(some books had the same numbers as student numbers so that caused an issue).  I was able to work with Sagebrush (normally I have been working with Destiny).
Day Two - Gray Station Middle - This day was a unique day because it started with a grade level meeting with 6th grade.  We then spent a good bit of time working with Ebooks from Follett.  The MS had just ordered her first Ebook so she wanted to know how it worked with everything.  We had to actually had to call Follett and get a little support from them.  I also checked out a few books, shelved some books.  We also had the chance to take an ID picture for a new student.  I had the chance to help a teacher come up with a catchy phrase for a grant writing effort (Donors Choose).  We set up the projector in the tech lab and we also had a chance to try out new computer usage software. 

Almost Finished wth the Reading for Fun Unit

Today and yesterday I spent 2 hours in the media center.  Yesterday I helped process donated material and discussed the montly activities with our Media Specialist.  Today I did the last section in the reading for fun unit.  We finshed it up by discussing our favorite Dr. Seuss book (and why), and what we liked about the book we read, I Will Not Get Up Today. 
Last week we located the spots discussed in the book on tactile maps and marked them with WikiSticks.  Today we posted our thoughts on the class wiki and answered a few questions about our favorite Dr. Seuss book, our favorite place in the World, how we wake up daily, and what Dr. Seuss character we would be if we could pick one.  After the session for a special treat we made extra durable origami cups for our water and we ate BBQ chips.  The cups reminded us of the cold water being poured on the character's head, and the chips reminded us of one of the places mentioned in the book,  Memphis T.N. (they have World Famous BBQ).  A student requested that we read the Lorax by Dr. Seuss so on Tuesday April 13th we will read the Lorax and do something fun (we are just not sure yet what that will be)!

Week of March 15th - 5 hours

I spent time this week teaching my second installment in the reading for fun unit.  We reread our Dr. Seuss book, but this time we actually found and marked the places discussed in the book on a map.  We used wikistix for tactile marking.  We also make cups using orgami and drank cold water from those cups.  In the book it discussed have to wake up to cold water on your head! 
I also spent time putting together my pathfinder for my Poetry unit, and organizing the dates and locations for my shadowing days next week. I spent the remainder of the time putting the finishing pieces on my staff development unit. I added  a survey to my wiki, created users for the wiki and reserved the location and equipment for the class.

Staff Development Unit - 5 hours

I have been working on my staff development unit this week.  I decided to teach the teachers at my secondary site how to create wikis.  The school system is very "collaboration driven".  They want their two middle schools to be aligned so that there is no difference in the curriculum being taught at both schools.  As a matter of fact they rotate their planning times (and schedules) every six weeks to make sure that each grade level is allowed to meet with the teachers in their grade level and subject area once a week.  Teachers with the last period of the day planning alternate driving to the various locations to meet with their counterparts at the other school.  Having a wiki that allows instant collaboration could be a mighty tool for these schools.

Reading for Fun Part I

This week I did my first lesson in my reading is fun unit.  We decided since it was March we should focus on Dr. Seuss.  My first lesson went well, but ALL of my students were totally blind so my two PowerPoints had to be described and in shown.  However, all was fun, the kids were great, and we had a wonderful discussions.  Thankfully, the next session not many of my plans involve any type of sight. I will just use tactile/Braille maps and wiki sticks to mark the locations we discussed from "I Will Not Get Up Today". 

Week of March 1st (5 hours)

I have spent the week working on my Reading for Fun unit.  I made a commercial advertising the unit using Animoto (see the link on the side), and getting prepped for it.  Beginning Tuesday March 9th I will begin my unit. We are doing a three part unit on "I Will Not Get Up Today" by Dr. Seuss. I think it will be a great deal of fun.

Playing "media specialist"!!

I spent three hours this week at GAB MC.
This week was fantastic.  I got a chance to really play media specialist.   I cataloged three more books and found incredible resouces on Destiny.  I also got to meet and discuss my reading for enjoyment unit - Dr. Seuss (who among us does not enjoy Dr. Seuss?)  I had the opportunity to help the math department find books for upcoming "Pi Week" at the academy in March.  I went into Destiny and Destiny Quest to locate books about shapes (we were mainly looking for circles) and I found a good number of items to share with the students.
Overall, I think this was the most fun I have had yet!

Finished with Fiction Inventory!

(6 hours this week)
Yippee!!!!!!!!!!
I finished completely inventoring the fiction section of my primary site.  I went in and properly categorized and when necessary catalogued items.  I need to catalogue five more items to be finished with that requirement.  My role in the invenory process included taking a list (printed from Destiny) and checking off books on the list.  Marking which ones were present, missing, and which ones were extra.  I then had to go into the system and make sure the call  number were correct and to ensure the computer had the proper information for each book in the section.  Many of the books were previously entered as GAB or Large print section.  The current media specialist now has the library set up in a different format.  There is the fiction (high school/middle school) section, fiction (elementary), easy books, reference, Braille book section, Twin Vision section (books in both Braille and print), and an audio section.  My job was to make sure the books in the fiction (high school/middle school) section were cataloged as so in the OPAC (our school uses Destiny). 


I also finished my poster (with virtual component) and my list of 20 websites to help improve the reference section in need at our school.  The MS and I decided to focus on the science portion of the reference section. 
I will start my "order" soon.

Inventory...

One of the tasks my primary media specialist wants me to do is completely inventory and update a section of the media center. I am about 2/3 of the way done whoo hoo! I spent three hours this week working on this task. I hope to be done with the section by the end of next week.

Jan. 19 to 26th

Five hours
During these hours I continued with the cataloging and inventory (as well as some weeding). I observed a high school language arts class from an administrator standpoint)and saw some of their weaknesses already identified by test data.  The media specialist and I then had a great discussion about ways to help obtain information to help these students with this area of weakness.  I also had the opportunity to help students check out books.

Catalog and Weeding

Thursday Jan. 14, 2010 - 1 hour
Finally finished weeding the fiction section of the library and began cataloging books that were on the shelf, but not on the list.  Sunlink is a great resource for these subject headings and book summaries.  Our school uses Destiny, and it is user friendly so far so good.  Three books cataloged seven left to meet the requirement and 20 left to finish the section!!!

Inventory Continued

November 10,11,12
(3 hours total for November) Sorry it took so long to post - I temporarily lost my log in information - aww, but the memory kicked in and was able to retrieve it  - Praise God!)
Continued working on Inventoring the fiction section.  Now all books have new tags as needed, and checked off for inventory.  Began creating new entries for the books not listed on the inventory sheet, but on the shelf.  Use Sunlink for information and LOC for other inventory in putting information into the system. 
Some of our books are very old and we are also weeding too.