Pickering H.S. Practicum Hours: October 2-6

IST 972: Pickering High School Journal

10/2/17 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (4)
10/3/17 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (4)

10/4/17 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (4)
Total hours to date: 34.5

Summary of Daily Activities/Experiences:
-Labeled, processed, and organized new student workbooks and textbooks.

- Completed reorganization of non-fiction and biography section. 

-Began working on ordering and producing new signage for the library.

-Helped Mrs. Lebato organize materials to be handed out to the classes when they enter the library.  Bookmarks with database information, flyer of what the library offers, etc.

-Met with middle/high school ELA teacher Mrs. Winn to continue working on lesson plans for the introduction of booktalks.  Decided on a date to start working with students at the end of October.

-Worked with Mrs. Lebato on some introductory training in Google chrome.

-Brainstormed professional development delivery ideas for Google chromebooks and possibly a digital portfolio system for the school.

Personal Reflections:

            This week I was finally about to reorganize the library, or at least the portions I had been working on.  The non-fiction collection is finally in working order and is more continuous and easier to follow than before.  You can already see that students are able to find books easier than before.  Unfortunately, I still think the students that come in to assist the librarian should take more pride in putting the books back on the shelf the proper way.  In fact, the middle school students really need to take more pride in their library period.  It was interesting to watch the middle grades come in to the use the library.  There were really no lessons put into play, but this is only the first week that classes have started entering the library.  If this very interesting, especially since school started mid-August and they are just starting to get into the library.  I also haven’t really seen the students come into to utilize anything for research. 

            As of right now, they have just been coming in to check-out books for recreational readings.  In addition, to having a up and down schedule, most of the classes who do come into the library do so to use the computer lab adjacent to the library, and usually the classroom teacher is the one who directs the lesson.  Most of the time when the students are in the computer lab they are using it to access different programs that the school subscribes to to test students.  For instance, AR, STAR READING, etc.  Some students trickle in to work on projects here and there, but classes just really have not started to come in on a regular basis like at the elementary school.

            Mrs. Lebato did inform me that they were going to be receiving Google Chromebooks in the next couple of weeks.  She was unsure how they worked and had many questions.  She will have a class-set.  I asked her if she was familiar with Google Drive and how to go about setting everything up.  She stated that she was not, but said that she would be attending training about them this Thursday.  I’m interested to hear how the training goes and how exactly they plan to integrate the technology into the curriculum.  Is it just going to be another vehicle to use for testing?  Or are students going to be able to create information with them?  I suggested she consider a digital portfolio tool too that could link up with Google.  Seesaw came to mind, but after looking up pricing she found that it would be too expensive.  We’re brainstorming possible alternatives to use to document student work, something they can carry with them from middle school until graduation.