Media Center Nirvana

I’ve just been to media center nirvana and it was lovely and soul crushing at the same time. Will I ever be able to pilot a ship as glorious as the one I toured today? Probably not, but that doesn’t meant that there weren’t wonderful things to glean from the Media Specialist. At said Nirvana school there are about 450 kids, all of whom are in the 4th and 5th grade. As you know schools are at one of 3 levels: K-5, 6-8, or 9-12.

There are joys and drawbacks of every level, but with a specialized group such as this there is little drawback. The kids are old enough to read on their own and young enough to still enjoy books as a pastime. And because of the demographics there is only a small portion of reluctant or slower readers.

The school runs on a fixed/flexible schedule with 45 minutes set aside each week with each class for scheduled instruction in the media center. This seems like an ideal situation, but the pilot of the ship explained that 45 minutes wasn’t enough time to dig deeply into the lessons. A great tip that was offered: Set aside time to visit the classrooms and teach information literacy skills inside the classroom setting. The children will be more focused and more likely to regard the information as necessary.

With a $10,000 budget the center was stocked with state-of-the-art Mac computers and a stable of ibooks for use in the classrooms. The newest and most engaging titles for young readers were displayed prominently across each shelf with sections highlighting the standards-based subjects. Student work hung from the ceiling and plastered the walls and children came and went unescorted, but almost regally composed without the usual running, jumping and screaming that you sometimes see in other schools.

While there isn’t a reading incentive program in place just yet, there are the usual media center activities taking place. A book fair was held which did very well, probably (another tip) due to the timing. It was held at night during a winter program so that it became a part of a larger group of school activities. Parents as well as students could be involved.

Having visited other schools this place seemed to be heaven, though I’m sure there are potholes in heaven too. For instance, the media specialist is also the part-time instructional technologist and full-time purchasing agent. As purchasing agent the media specialist is responsible for the entire school’s budget and that can be daunting.

May I be blessed with shining, happy kids who like to read and whose parents taxes grant me a $10,000 book budget. May I send my kids there too. What was most exciting though was the fixed/flexible schedule. I think that is the best of both worlds. I wonder if it could be applied to Middle School.