The library media center houses resources for students and staff. These resources should be available for patrons to research or check out at any time throughout the day. The media center houses books on shelves and digital books to download and read online. Our media center includes two green screens, computers, iPads, a Smart Board with data projector and conference area. 
​A flexible schedule is the best – and most important – aspect of our media program. Because of this flexibility, students are able to come early, throughout the day, during lunch and late afternoon to select resources to read and check out.  They bring Chromebooks to repair. They check out a loaner Chromebook if they forget to bring their unit. They manage shelves as Shelf Managers. They create digital projects or record segments for the news show. They study. Often, students produce segments to promote new books, sports, club events, weather, Boxtops promo or how-to download an eBook. Students may also use Chromebooks or any computer to create grids in @flipgrid.  
Media collections should be managed by highly qualified professionals with a library media degree. Why? Because we know the rules and laws about publishing, patron privacy, citing resources, and organizing books so students may FIND them easily -- without cumbersome labels that might confuse some of them. We know there are different types of licensing for digital books so we purchase those that will not disappear after a limited number of checkouts. We purchase digital books (as many as we can find, anyway) that have "Instant Access" for multiple downloads that can be kept on devices and used for as long as patrons want to use them.  We know how to skillfully communicate with all patrons. We know how to promote reading and how to promote the media program. We know how to collaborate with teachers and administrators. We know what to do to help struggling readers or those with higher Lexile scores, find books on their reading levels. We  know to weed outdated titles and watch for guaranteed bindings that fall apart and request for free new ones from publishers. We find useful websites, apps and other resources for staff and students and share tips on how to use them. We maintain inventories for books (media center) and equipment (entire school). We troubleshoot Chromebook and computer issues and write technical notes, box those packages, and send them for repairs. We seek out grants to fund more books, devices or programs for all patrons. We keep books in order and show patrons how to use the Call Number to find titles using the digital card catalog. They will need this skill to find items in high school, tech school and college libraries. We greet patrons with kindness and offer them a safe place to find the joy of reading without being graded or judged.
Just my thoughts @bravesread. Til next time... #readforjoy!
--GS

Professionals love to earn badges. Think @Flipgrid, @EdPuzzle, @Google, @DiscoverEd (and so many more). Students need encouragement. They need kind words. They need recognition. Badges. Printed colorful badges that showcase their names and talents... Why haven't I thought of this before?
As a former newspaper editor, I wrote articles and designed pages that recognized accomplishments and news events. I manipulated fonts, graphics and words. I really love fonts, graphics and design!
So, this year, my brain finally pushed this idea to the forefront and I began creating simple badges for the Shelf Managers, which just said Shelf Star. The students liked that. Other badges were also simple: #FixedIt (for fixing something), #NewBooks (for helping process new books), #BookCart (for helping empty a full cart of books and putting them on the correct shelf), #BookTalker (for recording a book trailer on our Flip Grid). 
For #digitallearningday and #readacrossamerica, I created "Secret Badges" after Charlie (Shelf Manager, Media Committee member) suggested it. What a great idea, Charlie! The Shelf Managers designed some of them. To thank them, I created updated shelf labels with their name and a graphic of an animal reading a book. These are very small and go on the shelves they really want to showcase. I've got to make more of these! 
The Secret Badge Event continues through next week. They are in plain sight. Really. When found, the student signs the back of it, spins for a prize and I hide the badge again. There is a Secret Badge hidden in the Symbaloo @bravesread. There will be a good prize for this one! Students may earn @flipgrid badges when their project is approved for #flipgrid #newbooks #favbooks. I'm about to create a badge for #boxtops and offer prize spins for that, too. 
Badges provide an opportunity for me to recognize students and to tell them how much I appreciate them for using and learning about the resources in the media collection. I make the badges quickly in Word and print to the color printer. And now, these students know how to create a graphic in Word, too. I'll share steps, in a later post, about how to make badges with a program already on most computers.
Til next time...
GS