When I enrolled in the Valdosta State University Library and Information Science program in January of 2010, my professional goal was to obtain my Master’s degree with media specialist certification and secure a job as a media specialist. My hopes were to find that job in a middle or high school, as I have been teaching in grades 8-11 since 2005. I have since become very attached to my current school, Seminole County Middle High School, and would be thrilled to be able to fill the media specialist position for our school when our current media specialist retires.
This would be my first position as a media specialist. However, my years of teaching language arts and literature are a great asset to the media center and will assist me greatly in making the transition from teacher to media specialist. My teaching experience thus far, including my familiarity with curriculum, will also be a benefit to my future as a media specialist and will help me to create a strong media program, wherever I am employed. I feel that my coursework and knowledge gained through the MLIS program at VSU also have more than prepared me for the responsibilities and duties that will accompany a position in a media center. During my internship, all the courses I had taken and all the knowledge I learned in them coalesced into a surprisingly fluid transition from classroom teacher to media specialist. I was able to take the skills and techniques I had learned in my own classroom, add the information and skills I learned through Valdosta State, and apply all of it to cataloging and organizing the media center while still teaching and assisting the students who visited.
Should I be unable to remain in my school system for whatever reason, I will use TeachGeorgia.org to search for job opportunities and to post my resume. In applying for jobs, I will use the noted preferred method of initial contact and maintain phone and/or email contact thereafter. I will emphasize my prior teaching experience, as well as the knowledge I gained in pursuing my Master’s, when applying for jobs. In particular, my Capstone and other examples of my work should demonstrate my abilities in the media center.
Through professional development opportunities, such as the Georgia Department of Education webinars and the Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA), I will continue to learn about the pertinent educational issues each year, such as the new Common Core Georgia Performance Standards and the Georgia College and Career Readiness Index, and how they relate to the media center. Also, I will continue to read professional publications such as School Library Journal, as well as materials that the students would also be reading. This will help me to maintain a current and relevant collection based on curricular needs, as well as student interests. The professional learning opportunities will also assist in maintaining my certification as a teacher and media specialist.
In two years, I hope to see myself preparing for my second year of running a school media center. Hopefully, I will have learned much from my first year as a media specialist and have ideas for how to do things even better for the second year. Also, I can imagine I will have plans for how to make a more efficient media center that will better serve the students and faculty. If I do obtain a position at my current school, I already have ideas for how to better the current collection and its arrangement, how to advocate the media program to the school and community, and how to obtain grant money to assist in the currently nonexistent budget. Two years from now, if I am in that position, I would imagine I will be doing my best to make those ideas reality.