Hey, look! It's the Library Lady!

Such was the exclamation I heard this week out on the football field during our first fire drill of the new school year. :-) This enthusiastic young man was one of the first 6th graders to be introduced to the media center this week. On Monday, student media center orientations began with a frenzy! Sixth grade students were the focus the first part of this week, followed by 7th and 8th graders. By the end of next week, EVERY track 1, 2, and 3 student will have visited the media center and most will leave with their first armful of literary goodies of the 2010-2011 school year.

We approach student media center orientation differently each year . . . tweaking the format from the previous year and making an informative, yet succinct presentation. Sixth graders are watching a 15-minute VoiceThread presentation featuring DRMS students in various sections of the media center, showing items for check-out, and demonstrating procedures to follow during your visit. Students then explore the media center as they discover exciting titles to check out.

Seventh and eighth graders will take an online media program survey. Questions pertain to students' previous experiences during the research process, reading preferences, and use of Web 2.0 tools. This data is used during decision-making process by the library media staff throughout the school year. Students will then check out books for the very first time this school year.

The most important part of library orientation is allowing students time to explore for reading materials that interest them. This is a valuable time that allows me to have individual conversations with students about their reading, students interact with each other and excitedly share favorite titles and authors, and students discover new materials of interest as they browse books on display.

All teams will visit the media center every three weeks to return and check out library materials. During future visits, I will share books with students through booktalking, share information on book awards and reading contests, and highlight online reading tools that foster reading appreciation.

-Ms. Z