Objective: Instructional Partner

Indicator: Candidates acknowledge the importance of participating on school and district committees and in faculty staff development opportunities.

Reflection:

Media Specialists play many roles in education. In addition to heading the Literacy Committee, being a member of the Leadership Team, and participating in the countywide material evaluation and selection meetings, I also help our staff development teacher by providing training to staff members. At the beginning of each school year, teachers greet our new online databases with great enthusiasm, but after a couple of months into the school year, I found that very few used them as resources for their lessons or their student projects. After talking with our staff development teacher, I asked if I could be put on the schedule once a quarter to introduce and demonstrate some of the new cool tools we have available. The artifact I have selected shows the agenda for one of our meetings. I scheduled time in our computer center and introduced teachers to the online database Culture Grams, a database providing cultural, economic, and geographic information about countries around the world. I worked with teachers as they navigated the database and I asked them to think about how they might be able to use the database to enhance their curriculum. We discussed possible projects we could develop together and came up with some great ideas: 7 th grade cultural diffusion in Africa, Caribbean countries reports for Spanish, Latin America photo gallery contest. Providing opportunities for staff development encourages teachers to utilize the media center resources with confidence and success.