2nd Visit to Five Forks Middle School

My second visit to Five Forks was a full day visit. I really enjoyed waking up late and arriving to school at 9 am. There schedule is different from my schools in that they begin at 9:30 am and my school begins at 6:45. So, this was a big plus for me. Mrs. Brown and her clerk greeted me cordially and offered me another tour. Things looked totally different from my first visit in that the media center had been rearranged to accommodate the STEM night. As I toured the media center, I noticed that Mrs. Brown had so many spaces for collaboration. She as clearly defined areas for collaboration while not taking away from the overall use of the space. She has truly maximized every area of her space! Mrs. Brown and I then went into her office to talk. She gave me an opportunity to ask questions. One area that I struggle in is organization. I will wake up and say, "Next week is St. Patrick's Day and I need a display!" Then, I rush and push my students to come up with a display. It can be very stressful. Monica showed me a way to organize my entire year! She has a graphic organizer that she completes that outlines all of the things she does every month. I know it is going to be so helpful for me next year. It outlines which holidays are in every month, which displays need to be created, promotional ideas and events and much more. Thanks Monica, you are my hero!!!! Another organization tip from Mrs. Brown was a cart already stocked and ready to go with materials for teaching. When I have to teach, I am constantly having to leave the class or ask my Library Science Students to go in my office and retrieve items for me. Using Monica's system, I will never have to do this again. Her cart is packed with supplies, folders, timer, treats, and more. This is going to really save me so much time and energy.

Other things that I observed were her QR code displays. She has them displayed on the shelves and they are linked do different APPS that have replaced some of the books which were weeded from nonfiction: thesaurus, dictionary, World Fact Book, etc. This is an amazing idea and it justifies weeding.