School BFFs

All through my college education classes, I remember professors telling us that when we got our first real jobs that we needed to befriend three groups of people: the secretaries, the custodians, and the cafeteria staff. I wholeheartedly agree with that advice, and I followed it. The secretaries have pulled me out of binds more than I care to admit. The custodians have waited until the last possible moment to clean my room during the summer in order to let me get things done. The cafeteria staff calls me when they’ve burned some school pizza because they know it’s my absolute favorite. In the past five years, I’ve found that my college professors left out another very key person to befriend: the media specialist. In our media specialist at Johnsonville High School, I found my school BFF, and after reading Wren Middle School’s Media Specialist’s blog, (Hi, Kristen, I know you in real life!) I realized that the media specialist is very much a secret weapon in any school…or rather they should be.

What’s the job of a media specialist? In some people’s eyes, they check out books all day long. I can say from firsthand observation that they do check out books…all day long IF they support students in their reading. If not, they really might not have to do much of this at all. If this was where a media specialist’s job ended, you could sign me up today, but I have been to the depths of the media center, and I know what all happens there. Did you know that in most schools the media specialist becomes the Miss or Mr. Fix-It for all things technology? A light bulb in a projector goes out, send it to the library. You think your computer has a virus, send a student to get the media specialist. You can’t make your printer print? You can bet the media specialist can.

Again, if this were all that fell into a job description of a media specialist, it might not be all that time-consuming, but this is barely the beginning. In addition to that, media specialists teach lessons. They teach about research, digital literacy, video software, presentations, and more. They teach students about reading and how to find a book and how to put it back in the proper place. Then they inventory and replace the books the students put in the wrong places. Media specialists laminate things and update webpages and air the morning announcements. They constantly read to stay up to date on what kids want to read, and they talk to kids (lots of kids) every single day. Media specialists know the names of every single student in the school because they teach them all. They work with teachers to schedule library time, and they don’t always get to eat lunch. Our media specialist at JHS never stops. She’s checking out books, fixing technology crises, answering phone calls, playing Channel One, recommending books to students because she cares enough to know what they like, and making sure the library runs like a well-oiled machine. She is a busy, busy woman.

A phenomenal teacher on the left, a super media specialist on the right

Media specialists are super heroes; there’s no doubt in my mind. I am so thankful that Johnsonville has Wendy Calcutt who works her magic every day to get students reading and computers computing and keeps the high school world running. Make sure you thank yours for the work he or she does…where would your school or your students be without it?