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 * Samuel **** Ogle Middle School **** RAMS **

R igorous A cademic M odel for S uccess

__Introduction:__ Welcome to the Samuel Ogle Middle School STEP Year II Team! I am Pamela Thomas, the Media Specialist for the school. I am also the administrator for the STEP Year II grant, and our team members are: Sinmi Akinbulumo, AVID Teacher (Grades 6-8) Debbie Brown, Chair for Special Education (Grades 6-8) Karen Hibbert, ELL Teacher (Grades 6-8) Benjamin Murphy, RELA Teacher (Grade 6)

Being a media specialist is a dream job to me! I get the opportunity to work with every student, teacher, parent, and administrator in the school building. No two days are ever the same, with many different requests coming in from book selection to equipment needs to teacher training to lunch duty! Participating in the STEP grant has offered me the opportunity to learn new tools & techniques for helping our students & teachers.

__Goals:__ 1. to learn how to make audio & video podcasts 2. to learn how to edit, add music, and mix music with narration for the podcasts 3. to learn how to more effectively & easily establish a wiki and add content monthly

__Title:__ // Lunch Bunch Book Club // (Grades 6, 7, & 8) DATE: once a month on the last Friday of the month during grade level lunches (since January 2010)

__MSDE Technology Standards for School Administrators:__ Teaching & Learning: A school administrator ensures the integration of appropriate technologies in instruction and learning environments to maximize student achievement.

__Description of Project:__ The school library media center is a hub for the school. Teachers collaborate with each other within curricular areas, across curricular areas, and across grade levels. As the media specialist I collaborate with each curricular team to plan ahead for upcoming units of study.

Working with the reading language arts team, we decided to start "lunch bunch" groups to give students an opportunity to read & discuss books that other students also enjoy. We figured this would also extend to the type of genre that certain students enjoyed reading. Additionally, teachers felt this to be another way to encourage more reading overall by students. These reading club groups are student facilitated, with a teacher/administrator in the room for purely supervision purposes and to operate the technology piece of the recording for the students as unobstrusively as possible.

__Reflection on the Project Experience:__ The idea for the //Lunch Bunch Book Club// was a natural extension for some of the students who are ravenous about reading. In particular, the vampire genre inspires & consumes many of my young female readers. This was the most natural of the book club discussions to plan for & execute in terms of the technology integration. There was great excitement & enthusiasm by the participants to be part of the video recording for this grant project.

As for the technology glitches that I faced, there always seemed to be a "trick" that I needed to learn in order to make the final product work. As much as I enjoy the new toys & technology, there is often a learning curve with lots of time needed to "play" and that time is not always available. The STEP Grant technology team provided lots of email and hands-on support throughout both years of the grant.

__Project:__ //Lunch Bunch Book Club//, Grade 8 -- Friday, April 16th

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__ Professional Development: __ The STEP Year II team presented a professional development session at the April 2010 staff meeting for the Samuel Ogle MS staff.