February 7

February 7, 2013

Every Other Thursday, you’ll get this short, fun, relevant newsletter.  It will contain a quote or smile about the library and those who love it, an idea you can use to promote your library or reading in general, a Common Core implementation idea and occasionally a shameless plug for the programs I offer.  Enjoy! 

If you have missed any previous EOT issues, you can read them all at http://smartlibrarians.blogspot.com/.

Library Quote/Smile

I put this “What the world thinks I do” slide show together for a Media Specialist training event I did recently in Albany, GA.  Enjoy and feel free to use it or share it as you see fit!  It’ll take 90 seconds to read it. Maybe less!  http://tommyjohnspresents.com/whatido.pdf

Promote (From the “Promoting the Work of the Media Center” Section of 45 Ideas in 45 Minutes)

Make a Media Policies and Procedures Brochure and spell out the rules and regulations as well as the purpose and services offered.

There are many reasons having a Policies and Procedures Brochure for students and staff is important, but the main reason is that if you have it written down and approved by administration, you can use the P&PB to help you work effectively.  For example if the P&PB says that you will laminate on Mondays and Thursdays and that all requests for lamination must be in by 1:00, you don’t have to apologize or explain (or change your schedule) when someone comes in on Tuesday and “has to have this laminated right now.  Can you stop what you are doing and take care of this for me?”  Another example is that if the P&PB says that all technology requests must be in two full days before it is needed, you can begin to push teachers to plan ahead.  Remember the sign you wish you had in your library over your desk:

Poor planning on your part     does not constitute an emergency on my part.

The P&PB is a tool, not a ball and chain.  Use it to help you manage your work, not to restrict your ability to get the job done.

You can have the P&P as a printed document or online.  You should go over it in staff meeting when you introduce it and in pre-planning every year. And you should abide by it.  If you don’t enforce it, you are wasting your time.

Here are some samples to get you started.

http://www.liberty.k12.ga.us/MediaPage/Handbook/handbook.htm

http://www.aea10.k12.ia.us/media/mediacenterbrochure.pdf

http://www.accessmyschool.com/atmourning/handbook.ppt

http://www.hcbe.net/media/238602/microsoft%20word%20-%20mcmsmediahandbk1011.pdf

http://fvms.peachschools.org/sites/fvms.peachschools.org/files/imce/media_center_handbook.pdf

http://wces.ucps.k12.nc.us/Media_Center/MediaCenterBrochure.php

http://www.bhs.rcschools.net/lmc/

http://www.flanaganhighschool.com/pages/FlanaganHighSchool/Departments/Media_Center/Media_Center_Brochure

Common Core Connection

I have really enjoyed The Teaching Channel (www.teachingchannel.org) and the resources they offer.  Subscribe for free and you will find lots of stuff that you can use!  Turn your teachers on to this great resource and become a hero! 

Here is a link to a very insightful video on teacher evaluation - https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/measures-of-effective-teaching-observation.  Enjoy and share!

Shameless Plug

It’s time to start thinking about THE BIG TEST!  Whether your elementary students take the CRCT or the Stanford Achievement Test and the Alabama Reading and Math Test, I have a show for you!  We Can Do This! is a Big Test PREP Rally that gets your kids excited about doing their best on the test AND gives them strategies and tips to help them excel on this important assessment. 

Using interactive media, magic, puppets, and old fashioned question and answer, we look at sample test questions, talk about preparation and strategies for the testing days and discuss the importance of the BIG TEST for your students, teachers, and school.  Admittedly, most of the 45 minute assembly program includes stuff your teachers will tell your students, but there is something about having a magician tell them that really reinforces what they have heard. 

Here’s what some of your colleagues said about I Can Do This!

"All of the information was extremely relevant to the CRCT. The strategies were the same ones we have been stressing to our students, but I think it helps to hear it from someone else and in another format."

Carrie McAtee, Mimosa, Elementary School, Roswell, GA

"We just had Tommy Johns perform his CRCT assembly program, 'We Can Do This!' for the entire school and he was great. 'Awesome' was the comment of one of our teachers!

Tommy is very professional and entertaining. He weaves magic and puppets into important messages about preparing and taking the big test and the children loved the program. This is just what our children needed after taking benchmark tests; a positive, upbeat message. Another teacher commented that she really appreciated the fact that the assembly was academically oriented."

Karen Liebert, International Studies Elementary Charter School, Albany, GA

"The students heard from you some of the same things that their teachers have been telling them. I think it's a good reinforcement."

Helen O'Brien, Level Grove Elementary School, Cornelia, GA

If you are only testing some grades, I can bring a different show for the other students to fill up the half or full day of programming you need. 

 

Let me know how I can help!

 

Encouraging kids to read, I am
Tommy Johns
Educational Entertainment Specialist
www.TommyJohnsPresents.com
tommy@tommyjohnspresents.com
Call (770) 640-6509 or Toll Free at (866) 490-READ