Task
Find a media specialist who is willing to host you for this semester. (Note: if you want to visit a Gwinnett school, talk with me about it first.) Visit in this media center for 5 clock hours - the time need not be contiguous.  During that time, you may simply observe or you may pitch in and help (according to the host media specialist's desires and your own desires).  Document your experience in a journal.  Collect some kind of visual evidence that you can share with the class - photographs, video, artifacts, etc.  Reflect upon the topics in our class and how they relate to your field experience - and write some of this reflection in your journal. Here are some of those topics - please select at least one of these areas for consideration and comment in your journal notes:
 

• historical and contemporary trends and multicultural issues for children and young adults
• diversity in materials and formats for all age groups, interests, genders, and cultural and ethnic backgrounds
• reference services using traditional and electronic methods to address the needs of all users
• attempts at teacher collaboration and efforts to infuse literature, information, and literacy in the broader curriculum
• efforts toward instilling a life-long love of reading among all users
• the modeling and teaching of ethical rules and responsibilities of legal use of information to the larger school community
• intellectual property, intellectual freedom, confidentiality, and privacy issues
• flexible and open scheduling
• remote access to information
• communication efforts with the larger community of teachers, administrators, students, parents, and local businesses and interest groups
• appropriate uses of technology to promote educational goals and measurable learning outcomes, literacy and research
• leadership and professional behavior in instructional design and assessment of instructional methods
• clear communication which links any or all of these objectives to improved student achievement school wide
• improving effective library policies and procedures which support intellectual freedom, privacy of users, as well as the ethical and legal use of information

• Site information: fill in this form once you have scheduled your visit: host's name, school, and system.
  
• Create a Google Doc for your Journal: use pseudonyms throughout.  I expect this journal to be brief - simply report events and add some reflective writing.
• Visual evidence: one or more items that document your visit(s). Make sure not to show children's faces. Upload or link photo(s) to your Google Doc, or bring to class on the last day, or find some other way of doing this.
  
• Sharing: from time to time, we may discuss these experiences in class. On the last day of close, we will have a "museum walk."
  
• Topical relationship: make sure that at least part of your field experience relates to topics in EDIT 6340 or 6360. This time, you need not address standards explicitly.
  

Submission Format

• Fill in the Field Experience Placement form (if you haven't already).
  
• Create as a private Google doc.
  
• Name your Google Doc something like this: "Jane D.'s Field Experience, EDIT 6340."  In other words, make sure your name is in the title - first name, last initial is adequate.
• Paste the rubric in and self-assess.
  
• When you're finished, submit by sharing only with maryannfitz@gmail.com (as collaborator), and any participating teaching assistants.  Be sure to send the email provided during the sharing process.