CPCP Reflection

1) What did you learn about yourself and from this collaborative experience?

The things that I learned about myself during this collaborative experience are, it is okay to take the initiative on things, even if you don't know everyone that is involved in the project. Tiffany, Shea and I were paired up with other members from other cohorts for this project. When we all got into the chat room to present, we all just took charge and we all felt very comfortable about sharing our information with the other group members. As for working collaboratively with everyone in my cohort, I think everyone did a great job on sharing their thoughts and pulled their own weight to get the project done. I would gladly work with anyone from this group again.


2) What did you learn about professional collaboration from this activity?

I learned that professional collaboration doesn't always happen like we plan or hope for it work. We had a one or two members from other cohorts that never showed up to our original meetings for the logic models. I also got the feeling that they were a little clueless on what the whole project was about. We tried to explain action learning/ research and the logic models and some understood it, but some did not. From our point of view we wanted some type of feedback about our logic models, but all they told us was that is looked good. I'm not sure if they knew what to tell us or how to give us constructive criticism on that topic!

3) What can you say about the process of collaboration with other professionals? What was most challenging about collaborating with others? What steps could groups take to facilitate the collaborative process?

Working with other professionals from other cohorts is okay. I would rather work with people that I can see and that I know personally. I think it would not be as hard if the people in the other cohorts were working on the same exact projects and we were all clear on what to do. I felt the guidelines were specifically laid out for us, but with so many people together in one virtual world causes too many technical difficulties. The most challenging thing with working with others on this particular project was not getting any feedback for our logic models. They really didn't know how to make it any better or I'm not sure if they understood it. I know this sounds crazy, but I think smaller groups would be easier. There were just way too many people involved for the collaborative project. It all seemed to work out okay in the end, but no one was able to hear our final product at our last class. It would be great if that could have been cleared up to see if my group saw how her final product came about.

Last Class and ALAR Project Reflection

During our last class we all shared our ALAR projects. I think my group did a great job with presenting everything that must be done to undertake the grant writing process. We realized that many people probably had not even looked at a grant, including ourselves, so we brought a blank grant from the Lowe's Hardware website. It seemed like the easiest to fill out and they offer $5000. We also had our classmates to take the needs assessment survey that Heather conducted with her staff at her elem. school. We took a few minutes at the end to look at the results. I really liked working with everyone in my group. We each pulled our weight and split up all the parts that we needed to work on and typed up our info then emailed to Heather to make our final powerpoint. We met a little early before class last night to go over the final product. I think this project was very helpful to everyone in the class, because I think most people would try to undertake writing a grant themselves. But it really is a group effort or a committee effort. A stronger result will come about, if there is a strong group helping to write the grants.

Group Meeting

Last class my ALAR group met at 4:30 before class and discussed what we want to do for our final product. We have divided up several parts to our project for each person to work on. They are to compile their information on a Word document and then email it Heather who will then put it on to a slide for a slide show. When it is our turn we will present our information. Our activity is having everyone fill out a blank grant and look at an actual grant. Before they do that they will take the survey that Heather had her staff to fill out. We were all a little unsure, but I think it's coming together nicely. I can't believe we're almost finish with this semester!

ALAR Meeting with Dr. Nita

Last Thursday, 11/12/09, My logic model group met with Dr. Nita to discuss our progress on our final product for the ALAR project. This meeting was very helpful b/c I don't think anyone had a clue of what we were suppose to do next. We created a few steps that needed to happen before actually writing a grant. None of us has ever written a grant, so we didn't know what should come first. Our ultimate goal is obtain technology. We decided we needed to make a needs assessment survey for Heather's school to see what kind of technology that they would like the most. Heather got on to that immediately and sent that out the next day to her staff. Someone else is looking up more grants. I am looking into resources for a technology workshop. I found some information on how to use the document cameras and interactive whiteboards. I also found lesson plans on how to incorporate these technology devices. Another goal is to see that teachers and students are doing more action research projects in their classes. I saw a need to have a workshop on letting teachers know what action research is. Jennifer is getting resources for that. We also felt that it was important that a MTAC committee should be formed at her school. So Kim was going to look into how to begin an MTAC committee and to see what should be done first. Overall I think we will be just fine with our final product! We are meeting on Tuesday before our class meeting at 4:30 to go over all of our findings.

Instructional Unit Plan

I have met with the teacher that I want to do my instructional unit plan. She is planning to do a unit on the book, "Blue" after Christmas, so she thought this would be a good opportunity to do some pre-planning. I told her that I had to incorporate some type of research strategy in one of the lessons somewhere. I have a few ideas, but I'm not settled just yet on which one that I want to do. I am going to look through all of the strategies again and find which one will work the best for me.


I have sooo many thing that are do within the next two weeks and I feel like there is not enough time!! I need to rearrange and prioritize what should come first!!

For the logic model...I compiled a list of grants that are available for my group, but we really don't know where else to go from here. I hope it will all come together. I don't think we're the only ones that have just left that project kind of hanging in the air for now. We'll see....

Online class

Last night we had our online class meeting in Qwaq. I only got signed out four times! At least the computer didn't go completely crazy. Anyways, we met and discussed the Standards for the 21st century Learner. We had to compare the standards to a previous lesson that we've done with a partner. My partner was Kim and we used her lesson on Wild Weather Patterns. We found that many of the standards automically go with and pair up with the lesson. If they didn't go with the lesson it allows you a chance to improve your lesson. We also talked about our instructional unit plan. The assignment for this is to get with a classroom teacher and plan a lesson around a common theme and it must involve the research process as part of the lesson. Before getting our instructions on this we were split up into groups again to research and discuss certain research strategies that are available for teachers to use with their students. My teacher that I chose wasn't aware of the Big 6. I can definitely see this as something that my media coordinator could use to teach other teachers in our school about. I'm not sure if she's even aware of this opportunity. My teacher that I'm working with is going to do a unit on Conflict using the novel Blue sometime after Christmas break. We are hoping to make a really good collaborative opportunity for my media coordinator as I plan this lesson ahead of time with her!

CPCP group

Tonight I had another meeting with my CPCP group. Shea, Tiffany, and I presented are logic models to the group. First we told them what a logic model is and how it's used for the school library media program. Tiffany pulled up a copy of our logic model and we all took turns explaining the model. Some had questions about the action learning project part of the model. One asked is it like action research. We told them yes, but actually putting the research into action. Seeing an area that needs to be changed, added to, or a problem in a library and trying to do all the actions that will help fix it! Shea and I explained the action learning project that we did for Dr. Rob's class. One person asked how this is implemented for students. We just said it's according to what area that needs changing and who it applies to the most. Shea and I had projects that dealt mostly with teachers. They all seem to understand the process and the steps that must be taken in order to achieve the ultimate goal of the logic model. We couldnt' get our worksheets to load, so Tiffany emailed those to everyone. NOt everyone showed up to our meeting. One girl hasn't been to any of our meetings and hasn't responded to any of the posts. But we chose to just keep moving on without them and to jsut keep them informed through the zone discussion boards. We're all a little unsure of what we are suppose to do next.

Logic Model Meeting

My logic model group met on Tuesday, the 20th right before the Impact discussion. I missed pretty much everything that was discussed and decided on b/c my computer froze. We met in Qwaq and my computer can not handle when too many people get in the program and start loading up documents. One of the group members emailed the completed worksheets of the strategy and objective. I haven't heard when we are meeting next or where we should go from here. I need to check on that!

Last Class Online Meeting 10/20

Last class we began cross program collaborative project with MSA students, other MLS students, and ITC students from Appalachian. This first hour was suppose to be for everyone to listen to members from the Impact Panel. Then we were suppose to pull out into our groups which included students from each graduate area. Of course technology didn't cooperate for the first hour and put us behind getting started, so all we were able to do was listen to the Impact Panel and asked them questions about the Impact Model. I had major computer problems b/c I met with my group before hand in Qwaq and the program froze my whole computer. I ended up going Tina's house to hear the Impact discussion. Impact is pretty much a grant that helps provide technology to school library media centers. My question was does schools have to show proof that they are using the grants for what they were intended for. Their response was no they didn't have to show any proof or evidence of using the model within their school. This was a pretty neat discussion to hear about the model. I actually do not know if my school is an Impact school. I would say not since we don't have a hard copy of the Impact model. Overall it was a good learning experience!

Literature Circle 2

I like how my last group organized our topic cards. Someone just created on topic card for each chapter and we commented on them. I remember one chapter was all about understanding. I remember being the kid that always raised their hand and said, "I don't understand." I guess I just didn't get it. I always had to be shown over and over again how to do things. But once I practiced it several times, I eventually got it! As an educator now I feel like I need to do more things to help children think critically about things. Sometimes that's easier said than done! These last few readings from this section was much easier to read than the last.

Logic Model Meeting & Last Class 10/13

Last Tuesday my logic model group met to look at everything we typed up on our logic model. We decided on what arrows to needed to go where. I was the one that typed up the information, and guess who had trouble getting into Qwaq to show everyone the information...ME! I finally got on there and everyone was able to look at the chart I made. Tiffany ended up retyping the whole thing so we could put the arrows in it after we talked about it in our meeting. When we got to our next class meeting we found out that we were a little too broad for our logic model. We had too many goals although we knew which goal we wanted to focus in on the most. We are working with Heather's library for our model. She would like to see more use of technology within her library. One strategy we want to obtain this goal is to write a technology grant to purchase more technology like document cameras. We are not going to actually write the grant, we just have to help Heather obtain all the materials and background information for the write grant. So we're all going to look into some different types of grants and meet again before class next Tuesday. We'll see how this goes...

Last Class

During our last class session we started out with some lecturing, which Dr. Nita rarely does. After that we got into talking about Logic Models. Basically it is having a plan for your Media Program. MC's should always have some type of goal, whether it is to do more collaborating, increasing student learning, or more use of technology in the classrooms. We are divided into three groups. Each group already has someone that is in a library. We are working with her to figure out the goals that she would like to see happen in her library. We look at objectives and strategies and data that will help her get to that goal. If Media coordinator's don't have a goal, then their program will die. MC's have to be advocates for their program and for the students and staff of their schools! It is my job to type up all the points that we made for our logic model. We will then take one of the goals and try to do all of the objectives and strategies and find data to help reach that goal for our action learning project.

Literature Circles 1

During our second class meeting we were shown our literature circle groups for the text reading. We have been divided into different groups with our cohort and another cohort. Dr. Rob is teaching the other cohort for the 5080 class. We all have to meet in Qwaq in our appropriate workrooms. My group for the first session read all of our material and planned to meet back at a later date from which the assignment was given. As we began reading the material we would post a note to the board for others to read and comment. Some of the reading I found to be very hard to read and understand. I thought it was just me, but after speaking with others, I wasn't the only one. I like the idea of the literature circles because it's making us actually read the material and discuss it! And it's great to see what others are thinking about what we read. The text that I reading the best is from the IMPACT Model and the empowering learners. I have to read the Impact Model online b/c my MC doesn't have a copy. Maybe I'll print one out for her one day! The Impact Model is sortive like the MC's "Bible". It tells everything that the MC should be doing in the NC school system. The empowering learners book is a smaller version and more of a national standard of what MC's should be doing in any school. I am definitely going to hang on to these documents!

Change Game

Last week in the 5080 class we played the "Change Game". It was kind of hard to understand at first, but once we got going with the process it all started to make sense. I still think it's kind of funny that our last class all we did was eat Olive Garden take out and play a board game! But the board was definitely about what we've been reading about and the role of Media Coordinator's. The way the game worked was we were split into three groups. On the game board we had a list of names ranging from school board peopoe, elementary teachers/personel, to highschool personel. We were trying to make a committee that would help with more equality within schools and to teach children about this subject...I think... Like I said it was sortive of confusing at first... Anyways, we had to earn "student benefits" and well my group was the group with the least amount of student benefits, so we didn't win that part. The game made us all realize how hard and time consuming it is to make changes with any areas in schools. There is a lot of "red tape" to crawl through before you can ever make any progress. The game was set up to be played with a time limit. The first time limit represented one year, the next timer was for two years. We finally began making progress with our committee at the end of year two. I think my group listened to each other and our ideas pretty well. If something didn't work, we would try something else. As a whole the entire class voted that Dr. Nita should play again once she teaches this course for another semester!

Interview Paper

This past saturday I finished my paper/ reflections on all of the interviews that I had to do for class. I also was able to do post my comments on the topic cards in Qwaq. The paper wasn't that difficult once I got started with it. We were to look at some the text information that we've read and compare that information with the analysis of our interviews. I felt like a had enough information to compare to the IMPACT Model. That text was the main text I used in my paper. I sortive felt as my "aha" moment was when my principal felt that a media coordinator should not be doing much technology. I'm not sure if he realizes that is major part of being a media coordinator! That's why we have technology graduate classes in our program! He also wasn't so keen on flex scheduling for the elementary level. He was once an elementary principal. The teacher that I interviewed feels like by teaching math/science it is harder to collaborate with the media coordinator, but hopes to more in the future. I interviewed a media coordinator that is at the local elementary school where I live and she works on a fixed schedule. She would like to have flex for the older students 3-5, and fixed for K-2 if it were possible. This was an interesting assignment to get different viewpoints.

Just getting the ball rolling again!

Well last week I emailed the three people I want to interview. For one of the people I had to send the questions home with them b/c an appointment was made during our original meeting time. And I'm meeting my principal Thursday morning before school and I'm going to an elementary school near my house to interview a media coordinator. Tonight I was able to get on the Qwaq program. The program actually worked pretty well for me. I hope it continues to work well! I read a chapter in the School Reform book and I started to do the topic card but I wasn't sure if I was at the right one since it had Dr. Sanders name on it. So I'll have to check on that, but answering the topic card won't take that long. I hate that I have to put off the "paper" about the interviews until the weekend, but I'm kind of late getting to all of my interviews. OH well, at least it still won't be last minute!! Until next time....