The mission is to support student achievement by providing resources, and guidance with accessing and evaluating information, and to nurture an environment that contributes to a love of reading.

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The media specialist will….

• Collaborate with educational community and provide curriculum support, with current instructional tools and resources
• Provide access of information to all students
• Differentiate instruction of information literacy skills to ensure students know how to access, evaluate and use information.
• Assess, collect, and evaluate data on student achievement as it relates to the media center and information literacy skills
• Advocate for students and develop plans to meet students’ needs
• Research and seek out new resources and technology that meets students’ needs and the curriculum
• Remain up to date on available technology and provide training of technology to educational community
• Encourage all to be life long readers by knowing her population of students and finding creative ways to encourage a love of reading
• Manage and train all media staff in order to support student achievement
• Be available to all students and the educational community being served.

Intellectual freedom:

The media center staff espouses the American Library Association's definition of Intellectual Freedom, which is "...the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored."

Click here to view more on intellectual freedom:

American Library Association Information on Intellectual Freedom

Selection criteria:

The media center staff is charged with providing appropriate instructional materials to support the curriculum and the individual needs of our students. Materials are selected in accordance with the MCPS Evaluation and Selection Policy.

Click here to view the mcps evaluation and selection policy:

Montgomery County Public School's Policy on Evaluation and Selection

Access to library materials:

The media center ensures that all students and staff have access to information, both print and non-print resources.Through flexible scheduling and collaboration with teams, students develop skills in selecting, accessing, and evaluating information in a variety of formats, including, print, non-print and electronic (online) sources. The Media Center also contains a wide selection of recreational reading materials to appeal to a variety of tastes and reading abilities.

Meet the Media Specialist

My name is Heather Hess, and I am the staff member responsible for the media program at Rock Terrace School . I have been teaching reading, science, and social skills at Rock Terrace since 1999 in the middle, high, and upper school programs.

I LOVE to read everything!

Meet the Media Assistant

My name is Russell Blake. I have worked at Rock Terrace for 3 years. My hobbies are swimming and hiking. I will be in the Media Center to help you check out books.