Certification Reflection

I entered this program uncertain that I was selecting the path best suited for me.  Since I have an engineering background, I was initially drawn to teaching middle grades math or science.  However, I wanted the opportunity to impact more students.  I also believe that information literacy skills are as important as any other skill that students must master to become productive contributing members of the twenty-first century information society.  The information world has evolved to a more democratic experience, in which anyone can contribute any information of unceratin veracity to the world wide community.  Participants must be capable of assessing, evaluating, and synthesizing that information in personally meaningful ways.  What a great time to become a Media Specialist to teach these skills to our future leaders!   The School Library Media (SLM) program at the University of Georgia is rigorous and has been excellent preparation for the media specialist profession.  The program is built upon the American Association of School Libraries' (AASL) principles and standards.  From the beginning of the program, we learned how to construct the foundation for a successful media program.  We learned to define program goals, missions, and visions and to develop a tool to gauge program progress.  Every subsequent concept has been tied to this framework.  My internship was a wonderful first hand experience in how all the parts of the media program support these goals.   I am truly excited to begin my career in school library media.  I consider it a privilege to work with young people and help them learn life-long skills to construct their own knowledge.  My goal is to build a media program that engages students to pursue learning about topics personally relevant to them while still supporting their curricular achievement.  I look forward to creating an interactive learning environment with artifacts based on curricular standards that stimulate and extend classroom learning.  My love of reading and learning motivates me to share these skills and motivations with students and faculty alike to prepare them to succeed in our information age.