Standard+2.2++Effective+and+knowledgeable+teacher

//** Reflection - AASL Standard 2.2: Effective and knowledgeable teacher **//

Being a collaborator is probably one of the most challenging aspects of being a media school specialist, especially in an elementary school setting where the media specialist usually has a fixed schedule. However, the benefits of collaboration far out weigh the obstacles, and should be made a number one priority. Over the past four years in our school, I have put collaboration at the top of my list, and have worked to build relationships with classroom teachers in all grade levels. This collaboration effort has paid off with many successful projects in which classroom teaching has been enhanced as well as staff and student motivation. In our ISTC 789 Practicum and Portfolio in School Library Media we were asked to provide a reflective journal about how we had collaborated with classroom teachers in our school. This reflection opportunity allowed me to take a look at the work I had done over the last four years as well as to analyze my strengths and areas in which I needed to improve. By looking as this reflection, one can clearly see that a majority of my collaboration has been done mainly with grades 3-5. This is due to the fact that I was a fifth grade teacher prior to becoming a media specialist, and was quite familiar with curriculum in the upper grade levels. By having this prior knowledge it has allowed me to easily integrate the use of the Big6 Problem Solving and Research Model with the students as well as the staff. An example of this collaboration effort is shown in the 4th Grade Lesson Plan on Famous Marylanders that is attached as artifact # 2. Realizing that working with the upper grade levels had been a strength for me, this past year I turned my attention towards working with the primary grades. As a part of the media curriculum for the 2010-2011school year for grades K-2, I expanded upon my lessons in regards to the use of the Super3 Process for research purposes only. Using a new resource book that I purchased for teaching the Super3 Process, primary students explored how to complete each step of the process by completing every day problems such as analyzing weather forecasts, determining how to mix colors for an art project, and what to do when you get a cut. These lessons were very successful with the primary grades and have provided the students with necessary skills in regards to information literacy that they will need in the upper grade levels. In addition to collaboratively working with teachers on research projects for exhibitions, I have also been instrumental in supporting the development of background knowledge for our students. Within our school improvement plan, one would find that lack of background knowledge is mentioned across grade levels as a root cause for deficiency in reading scores for our students. Realizing this was a major factor in our school, this year I implemented a new book display strategy for our school media center. Since a majority of the stories that our students read in their reading series are fictional stories, I decided to create non fiction book displays for each grade level that related to the fictional stories that they were reading in their reading series. I did this by pulling up the stories in each grade level for each reading unit and then searching our catalogue system for non fiction books that would relate to the topics discussed in the stories for each unit. From there I emailed each of the staff members making them aware of the displays and asked them to encourage their students to check these books out when they came to the media center. Furthermore, I also encouraged the students to check the books out by doing book talks and showing the students what books were on display. It was amazing to see how well the students responded to these displays. They were excited to read additional material to content that they were reading about in their classrooms. Supporting instruction that is going on in each grade level classroom as well as collaborating with teachers is where I feel that we can make the most impact upon student learning. Even though there maybe many obstacles that stand in our way to make such projects and learning occur, it is our job as media specialists to try to overcome these obstacles and to diversify our instruction to ensure that the staff and students are motivated and eager to obtain the goal of lifelong learning.