Homestead High School Hours

2/12/10 Orientation at Homestead High School with Suzanne Zellman, LMS. I began the morning by meeting the IMC staff and learning about the circulation desk and the daily routines first thing in the morning. I learned how to check out computers, and how to monitor what the students are looking at on their computers. I was taught how to take attendance on the computer spreadsheet so they know who was there and on time and who was late. I worked at the circulation desk through the first period and half of the second period. Then Suzanne Zellman, the LMS, took me on a tour of the IMC. She showed me the editing rooms, where students work on AV projects, two of the computer labs, and the processing room. Suzanne and I talked about some of the things she does as the LMS, and talked about what she would plan for me to do in the coming weeks. She has asked me to get the rubric and the check list of things the is stated on the "Things to complete for Practicum" form. I have e-mailed Dennis Allmon and asked for these items. We want to make sure that everything that is needed to be covered is taken care of. 150 min. 2 1/2 hrs.

2/19/10 I began the morning helping at the circulation desk. This involves taking attendance, checking out computers and checking them back in after students leave for class, and monitoring computers in use for any inappropriate web surfing. When first hour began I was sent into the east computer lab to help one of the Phy. Ed. teachers with her class. She needed someone to help trouble shoot students on the computers and to help some of the special needs children. I spent most of the time with one of the special needs boys working on a modified assignment. The second hour was spent with Suzanne discussing some of the things that I would be doing this next week at Homestead. I will be doing a presentation to the freshman health classes, introducing a new online subscription, and helping the students navigate the teachers' bookmarks to other online databases. 150 min. 2 1/2 hrs.

2/22/10 Today I spent most of the time at the circulation desk. I took attendance for the first and second hours, checked out and in computers and text books. Most of the time spent today was at the remote desktop, where I could monitor what the students were doing with the computers they were on. 150 min. 2/1/2 hrs.

2/23/10 Today Suzanne had me exploring noodlebib. She wanted me to take a look at it so I would be a little familiar with it when we took the second hour Expository Writing class into the computer lab. They are beginning a paper on controversial subjects and had me look into some deep web sources that the students could use for their papers. Suzanne presented and then had me log in and show the students the noodlebib website. She explained how it works and manned the computer so the students could see it as she talked. After the class left she talked to me a little bit about the presentation on Thursday. I'll have to make an outline of what I'm going to discuss and then we will talk about it tomorrow. 120 min. 2 hrs.

2/24/10 Today I spent first hour in the computer lab with the same English class that I was with the other day. The students were still working on their papers and citations. I helped with the research and the usage of Noodle Tools. The rest of the time I spent with Suzanne talking about what I would be doing for the Health and Wellness class tomorrow. We also talked about some of the other things that she will be doing with me in the coming days. 150 min. 2 1/2 hrs.

2/25/10 Today I presented to the first two periods of the Health class. I demonstrated how to navigate to the teacher book marks and showed them the free web sites that they could use and then went to the deep web sites that the district pays for. One of them was brand new and that is what I presented to the students. Using the Smart Board I demonstrated how to use the "Teen Health and Wellness" web site and what some of benefits were of using this particular site over the others. Then I introduced them to Noodle Tools for their citations. I went through and explained the process to them, and then I actually made a citation for them and showed them where to find the information that they need for the citation and how they could just copy and paste the information into Noodle Tools. The rest of the period was spent answering questions and helping however I could. By the way the students caught on and were working I think the presentation went well. 150 min. 2 1/2 hrs.

2/26/10 I helped for a little while at the circulation desk this morning checking out computers and text books. Then I was sent to the computer lab for the first hour phy ed class because their teacher was going to be late and they needed someone in there to get the class started on their projects. While there I helped a special needs student get the next part of his project going and ended up staying and helping him after his teacher arrived. The rest of my time there I spent with Suzanne, the LMS, in her office looking over and discussing the practicum check list that Dennis sent. We discussed some possible activities and different things that I might be able to participate in to fulfill some of the items on the list. 150 min. 2 1/2 hrs.

3/1/10 I began the morning checking out computers to students and entering magazines into the computer. Then I was sent to work with Ann Meehan in the workroom to learn how the high school processes books, and all the extra things that Ann does before the books are put out on the shelf. The processing process is similar to ours, with the slight differences in where the books are stamped for possession and where the bar code number is written. The part that Ann does that I don't do is the actual checking of the Mackin cataloging with the actual book. All books received are termed "standard." She, like my librarian, Alice, changes the category to whatever the medium happens to be, such as, book, paperback book, AV, etc. Alice usually does this. Ann also checks the Mackin subjects against the subjects listed in the book. If the book doesn't have the cataloging information, she goes to Mackin online to check them. Ann was just starting to show me the AV materials and was going to show me how they handle those materials when Suzanne, the librarian, came in to talk and we talked for about half and hour about cataloging in general and some of the differences in what we do at the elementary level compared to what they do at the high school and college levels. Hopefully I'll get to go back with Ann again tomorrow and do a little more processing. 150 min. 2 1/2 hrs.

3/2/10 To start the morning I checked out computers to students before school and at the beginning of first hour. Then Suzanne sent me back to Ann again in the processing room to show me more of what they do with videos, new books, and video lists. She also showed me how she does her requisition forms using an Excel spreadsheet, and ran through some of the steps that she uses to make the spreadsheet. Ann let me help her generate the bar codes and spine labels for the new DVDs and then we had a little time left to do a couple. Suzanne came back and we discussed, at length, the need for the assistants at the high school, the student/assistant ratio at all the schools and the need for consistency in what volunteers would have to do now with the loss of most of the library assistants. I also spent an extra half hour today with the technology people discussing budget and the cost of some of the supplies that everyone just takes for granted. Next year big decisions will have to be made at the school I am at now as to whether we want to place limits on the amount of color printing that can be done, or having to allocate more money for ink and special need light bulbs, and where we would have to take money from in order to do that. There is certainly a lot to think about. 180 min. 3 hrs.

3/3/10 This morning I went directly to Bev Lange, who is the media person for the high school. I've been anxious to get to work with Bev, because I wanted to see for myself exactly what it is that she does. I had an idea, but I came no where close to knowing all that she does. We started out by going to one of the math classrooms to check on a mounted projector that the teacher was having problems with. Just doing this I learned that the projector has a place where you can actually see how many hours of life the light bulb has had. We discussed bulb life when we got back to the workroom. Right now, when any one in the district has an LCD light bulb go, we call Bev and she can usually get one for us in a timely manner. She is retiring this year and there will no longer be anyone in the district that will be doing that sort of thing, so we will all have to fend for ourselves in the future. She showed me the vendors she uses for bulbs, and that led into an in-depth discussion about how she enters everything, from bulbs, to wires, to Smart Boards and everything in between, into the computer. She showed her records to me and explained how she enters all AV equipment into the computer, and explained that the reason she enters things the way she does is so that she will be able to generate lists about any piece of equipment or accessory, and knows where in the building where to find it. I was blown away. It's incredible the amount of equipment and supplies she handles all the time. She took me on a tour of the recording studio and explained that all the equipment in there is also under her care. I had no idea what the high school had and was able to offer the students. I'm still in awe. I'm hoping that I will get to work with Bev again tomorrow. Monday we have a date to go to the district conference room and she is going to show me everything that is in there as well. This has been by far the most eye opening day of my practicum. I'll never again wonder why they need to have more than one assistant in the IMC at the high school. Today again I was able to stay for an extra hour. 210 min. 3 1/2 hrs.

3/4/10 I spent the morning again with Bev Lange, Audio Visual person. She gave me an overview of equipment maintenance and AV supplies. Yearly, she cleans all computers, overhead projectors, LCD projectors, and any other equipment used in the high school. She also orders all bulbs for all projectors, and any miscellaneous materials that go along with any of the equipment. Bev went over her reservation process for using the media carts, projectors, cameras, and any other equipment. Bev not only services the high school, but also the district office, the athletic department, and recreation department. Before I left she took me down to the Egelhoff conference room. There they have everything that could possibly be needed for any kind of presentation plus equipment for showing the meetings on the local access TV channel. 120 min. 2 hrs.

3/5/10 I began the morning by checking out computers and text books out to students before school. First hour I took attendance and printed. I spent the rest of my time today with the Library Media Specialist, Suzanne. We began discussing the cataloging. She spoke of her philosophy about cataloging. She demonstrated how she uses Wiscat. She did an example for me and fortunately for our purposes, the record came up wrong and she was able to show me why it is always important to check everything that is imported, even things like Wiscat. We talked about professional journals, the ones she particularly likes to use, and why. I also asked her how she knows about all the new subscriptions that are always coming out and how she finds out about the new technologies. That's actually how we got on the discussion of journals. She gave me a few to take along and look at, mostly technology journals. 150 min. 2hrs

3/8/10 This morning started out with me at the circulation desk. I checked out and in computers before school and then during first hour. I also did the first hour attendance. The rest of the time was spent wit Suzanne in her office discussing the budget. It really amazed me at everything that she has to order and how much more money she gets at the high school. We talked at length about how she orders and how she gets requests from teachers. Then we started talking about Common School Funds and that got us to talking about how a big chunk of the funds is going to be spent over the next couple of years. Not sure I totally agree with this, but the kids need this stuff. 150 min. 2hrs.

3/9/10 I began the morning again working at the circulation desk, checking out computers and then taking attendance for first hour. When Suzanne got back she had me go to a computer and check out some web sites that she got for me, sites all for librarians on Twitter, blogs, etc. She also wanted me to check the addition to the Weyenberg Library's collection called Overdrive. Overdrive is where, on the Weyenberg website, people can go to find audiobooks, ebooks, iPod compatible ebooks, and MP3 ebooks. She asked me to specifically check out the iPod compatible books because she just bought some iPods and wants to have them available to the students that want to load books to. I started out looking mostly for books that would be of interest to high school students and actually found more for them than I found that I would actually like to read. I'm not quite finished with this project. She wants me to spend the majority of my time on Thursday exploring further and possibly uploading a book to the computer to see how easy or difficult it is to work with. She also wants me to write something up that could be used for publicity for Overdrive. For the last part of second hour we talked about Overdrive a little bit. She also wanted to show me some of the things they use to promote the library, fliers and such. 120 min. 2hrs.

3/10/10 Again I began the morning at the circulation desk doing the usual routine of computers and attendance. The Suzanne had me working with Bev Lange again, the AV person. She had to set up one of the conference rooms for an all day meeting of the Science curriculum committee. We had to set up the media cart. She showed me how she hooks the laptop computer cart up to wireless and fortunately there was a problem that I had happen to me a couple of weeks ago and showed me how to fix the problem. She also wrote up the instructions for me to bring back to school. When Suzanne got back we again went into her office to talk things over. There were some things she wanted to show me on the computer about our automated system, Alexandria. There were a few really cool things that I can use at the grade school level to help the children in their searches that she probably wouldn't use at the high school level. At the moment this feature on only available on the in school computers. With the new update that we will get this summer, the students will also be able to access this feature from home on the web version of Alexandria. I think that I will use this new feature for my class lesson that I have to prepare for my cataloging class. 150 min. 2 1/2 hrs.

3/11/10 I Began the morning as I do most mornings, working the circulation desk checking out computers and text books and started to take attendance. This morning Suzanne had me explore more about a new service we have at the Weyenberg Public Library in Mequon. Its called Overdrive and it comes to us through the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium. I was given an iPod and given leave to play with it,figure out how it works and then download an audio book to the iPod. I began by perusing the books, looking for books that I thought would be appropriate for high school students. I chose Beowolf. After hooking the iPod up the to computer I started the process of borrowing the book and putting it on the iPod. But, as I started to load I got a message that the iPod needed a software update in order to download the book. The software update failed and I never got a chance to finish because my time was up for the morning. But I will write up a short report to let Suzy know how things went. I think it will be really cool if they can get the update going. 120 min. 2 hrs.

3/12/10 As usual I began the morning by checking out computers to students before school and at the beginning of first hour. Suzy had me try again to load an audio book onto an iPod from OverDrive. Again it asked for an update for iTunes. This time the update worked. Then Suzanne had me help her do some updates on the computers in the east computer lab. It was a chance to use my admin codes. Then Suzanne and I, with Bev Lange discussed some of the changes in the IMCs for next year. This is my last entry in my practicum blog, for I have finished my 40 hours here at the high school. Suzanne and I are going to have a phone conference sometime early next week as we ran out of time today. 120 min. 2 hrs.