Natalie Weatherman's Page

Over the course of the semester I have grown in my understanding of what a media specialist is and does. Prior to this class, I was still under the assumption that a media specialist dealt with literature and promoting reading within a school. While that fact does remain true, media specialists should also be teaching research skills, promoting reading within the school, maintaining a collection of paper and electronic reference materials, leading staff development on technological advances/changes, promoting collaboration with teachers, analyzing the use of the media center and its resources to see how it is/isn't meeting the school's needs, tracking student scores for lexile levels, and the list could go on.

In addition to learning more about what a media specialist does on a daily basis, I have grown in my ability to teach research skills to students. Before this class, I didn’t really see where my students were struggling to find information. I was assuming they had more skills than they actually do. Through our discussions and research on various ISP models, I overhauled a major research assignment that my students complete on Spanish-speaking countries. I spent a lot more time working with the kids on how to find effective and reliable sources. I also gave them more guidance in the presentational portion of the assignment. I had always assumed that by 8th grade students would be familiar and comfortable with programs like PowerPoint and Word, but there were many that needed instruction on how to make a PowerPoint on top of the new research skills and information they were in charge of finding. With some small changes in the research process, my students have been more successful in their research and their enthusiasm for the project hasn’t been lost yet, which is saying a lot for 8th graders at this point in the year.

Not only do I understand my own students’ ability levels better, I also understand how long it can take them to put a PowerPoint or Photostory together. After using Photostory for the ISP assignment, I was ecstatic about how simple the program was to operate but shocked by the amount of time needed to really get a polished final video. I have used that knowledge to also adjust time schedule and due dates for projects to allow students more time to get their assignments finished.

The Web 2.0 part of class was a huge eye-opener for me. I thought that I was pretty technologically savvy before this class, but I have learn about new programs and web tools that I didn’t know existed. I have learned how to set-up a Wiki page to allow my students to communicate with Japanese students. I have started my first blog, which also allows me to access discussions surrounding media centers, young adult literature, and information literacy. One of the simplest, most useful web tools is del.ico.us. I absolutely love the features of this site; I can access my favorites from anywhere by going there. It has been a huge time saver. The Web 2.0 portion of class has taught me that I will need to be continuously learning and researching new technology tools and programs that will work for my students and colleagues.

I am also excited that the media specialist is supposed to be such an integral part of staff development. There are so many helpful tools and tricks that I have learned that other teachers might benefit from learning. I also know that I can learn from working with them. I know that I will ideally work in a school with a flexible schedule which will allow teachers, media specialist, and students to work with collaboratively with one another to plan small and large assignments and projects.


I wasn’t sure if I was ready to give up “teaching in the classroom” to be in the media center, but through the discussions and reading in this class, I have come to the realization that effective media specialists are teachers, as well as researchers, critics of information, collaborators, and statisticians. I am looking forward to a new classroom filled with resources, technology, and collaboration. Teacher librarian will be my title.