Essay On Pete Program

I have been a librarian since 1998. After obtaining my Masters in Library and Information Sciences, I worked as a children’s librarian for my suburban/rural fringe area of Aiken County. I have also taught Multicultural Children’s Literature as an adjunct professor for the University of South Carolina in Columbia. I undeniably feel that working with children in the field of library sciences was my calling. The opportunity to work in the Aiken County School District came available. As a mother of four school-aged children, I felt that my talents could be utilized there. I was given the option of enrolling in the PACE program for employment. The PACE program allowed me to obtain my SC teaching certificate while working in the school system.

Coming from the public sector and striving to instill a love of reading in my patrons, I found that PACE gave me a challenge to incorporate state standards into my lessons. The biggest obstacle with reconciling the PACE program with the field of library media specialist was the inconsistencies between the classroom teacher format with the library media center. The media center is in a unique, changing position in the school where technology and literacy mesh. The media center can either focus heavily on technology or focus on literacy. It depends on the goal of the media specialist. Even with consistent direction from administration and the district, the media center is in a void. There are currently no consistent standards or curriculum guidelines for the media center. However, the media center does have defined guidelines for service to the student. The student is given access to books and information through the media center. The change from the term library to media center is even confusing. With the advent of electronic books and a heavy concentration on computers, the media center is in limbo. PACE has given me the basic skills to organize my lesson planning through best practice, differentiated instruction, and

The American Association of School librarians is the national organization for leadership for school librarians. I often incorporate the AASL’s library standards with the SC Standards when creating my lessoning. Both sets of standards emphasize the need to provide a framework for inquiry. The AASL’s first standard specifically encourages students to become independent learners by giving students the skills to gather and research their own information. This goes hand in hand with my research them lesson plan. I give the students instruction on valid information sources from reliable sources. I teach the students how to find within these reliable sources information. I teach them how to take notes on this information. As a part of my first-year induction period, Aiken County School District has asked me to create a collaborative lesson plan for a certain grade level. I have been working with the fifth-grade team in creating lessons that incorporate social studies research. This goes hand in hand with my inquiry standard. I teach the students research skills, while incorporating the library skills of catalog searching, locating books on the shelf, and note taking