Media Center Change

Being new to the Nevada Community School District, I am quite amazed with the teachers and their dedication to do what is right for the students.  They are constantly improving their craft and teaching to keep students engaged and have authentic learning experiences while trying to keep up with this ever-changing world. Change - a lot of people seem to strongly dislike that word, but change is necessary to continue to improve our practice and stay up-to-date with our students' lives. 

The first change - the district has been used to having a full time librarian so having a technology integrationist take over that position has been another change the students and teachers have had to get used to.  One of the tasks I was assigned was to create a vision and redesign the media centers to meet the needs of our students.   

Our Vision:

The Nevada Community School District’s Media Centers are to be learning commons flowing with innovation, collaboration, curiosity, adaptability, critical inquiry, and transliteracy.

Our Mission:

The Nevada Community School District’s Media Centers are to offer forward-thinking instruction, space, and programming that develops innovative leaders who create content that reaches a global audience.

With the vision and mission in mind, a few of us (Jessie McGaffin, a few students, and myself) gave the middle school media center a facelift over the summer.  Not only was there new staff, there was a lot of weeding of uncirculated books and new furniture.  Some of the staff was a little shocked but the students were excited.  Today, the second day of school, we were ecstatic to see a group of boys enjoying the new furniture before school started.

We have to keep in mind that the media centers are for the students and we want to draw them in to be places flowing with innovation, collaboration, curiosity, adaptability, critical inquiry, and transliteracy.

Back of the media center: