FRIT 7132 Spring

By

Tiffani Thomas

Written description of facility Banks County Elementary School located in Homer, GA located northeast of

Gainesville, GA. It is the only elementary school in the county grades 3-5. Banks County Elementary School is a Title I school in a rural low socioeconomic population. The school has approximately 725 students. The racial breakdown of the school is 89.1%=622 white, 1.8%=13 Multi-racial, less than .5%=1 American Indian, 5.7%=40 Hispanic, 1.8%=13 African American, 1.2%=9 Asian. Currently, 57% of the students at Banks County Elementary School receive free and reduced lunch. The administrative staff consists of 1 principal, 1 assistant principal, and 1 instructional lead teacher. The office staff consists of a receptionist, records clerk, office paraprofessional, and an attendance secretary. The support personnel consists of 1 full-time counselor, and one ½ time counselor, speech therapist, occupational therapy, physical therapy, school psychologist, school nurse, full-time media center paraprofessional clerk, and ½ time media specialist. There are 13 certified 3rd grade teachers, 12 certified 4th grade teachers, and 12 certified 5th grade teachers. In addition to our staff, we have resource and support teachers that include 2 Early Intervention Program (EIP) teachers 2 resource only SPED teachers, and 1 English Language Learners teacher (ELL), we have 4 connections teachers, and 5 classroom paraprofessionals. Overall, we have 52 certified staff and 26 classified staff.

The school is a newly built school that was constructed in 2005. It is a beautiful one story building with 3 wings of classrooms for each grade level. The library is situated to the left of the building with an outdoor amphitheater attached. It is spacious with lots of natural lighting with a vast array of windows. The rows are wide to allow for traffic on both sides of the shelves. The shelves are low so students can see over them and be monitored while they are in the library. The collection statistics includes 17,388 copies. Of those copies, 1,080 are professional material to be checked out by teachers and 796 copies are video/DVD/CD-ROM. The media center houses 2 lookup computers so that students can find resources. It has 6 desktops for multipurpose use.

Description of Photo Tour

The photo tour includes left and right views of the following;

• Main body of the library-notice the lack of computers, empty bookshelves under the right side of library windows, no cozy space

• Resource room-notice stiffness of room and tallness of shelving

• Processing room-notice available space• Media/recording room-notice available space

Photo Tour

Front entrance to library looking to the left

Cont…Photo Tour

Front entrance looking to the right

Left side of Resource Room

Book sets to right

Book sets to left

Ride side of Resource RoomVideos to the Left

More book sets to right

Processing Room

View to the right

View to the left

Media Room

View to the leftView to the right

Survey Data On Environment

Environment

01020304050607080

qu

iet

co

mfo

rta

ble

inv

itin

g

lea

rnin

gfo

cu

se

d

att

rac

tiv

e

Needsimprovement

Fair

Good

Excellent

Survey Data on Furnishings

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

comfortable good condition age appropriate attractive

Furnishings

Needsimprovement

Fair

Good

Excellent

Survey on Technology

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

enoughquanity

21st century accessible goodcondition

worksproperly

Technology

needsimprovement

fair

good

excellent

Survey Analysis

The survey was taken by 3rd, 4th and 5th grade teachers and students (23 teachers and 45 students). The survey was emailed to teachers and the students that entered the library was encouraged to take the survey if they had the time. The paraprofessional in the library aided students with logging onto the survey which was set up on Survey Monkey.

Analysis By Teachers/Students

After charting the surveys the following conclusions were made;

• Environment- overall it is very quiet, needs to improve comfort, not really inviting, it is definitely learning focused, and it is highly attractive

• Furnishings-overall are not comfortable but in excellent condition, not really age appropriate for 3rd,4th, and 5th graders, and very attractive.

• Technology-overall there is not enough, fairly current with 21st century materials, not really accessible by everyone, is in good condition, but doesn’t work properly all the time

Resource:Gliffy.com

Original Floor Plan

Resource:Gliffy.com

Revised FloorPlan

Elements Of Floor plan Modified/Changed

When comparing the original floor plan to the revised version, the following additions were made;

2. Outdoor reading site was established with picnic tables, benches, and trees for shade so teachers and

students can enjoy the outdoors while conducting a lesson or reading for enjoyment.

4. A small table and 2 chairs were added in the corner next to the teacher professional materials. This will serve as a place to sit and review materials without standing.

5. Cozy corner was added near the circulation desk so students may still be monitored. This cozy corner will serve students who want to come into the media center to relax, read, or are rewarded.

6. Individual learning corner was added to aid with students getting mentored or for teachers needed a quiet corner to work one on one or with a small group.

Modification/changes cont…5. Internet café was added in the middle of the library and another at

the entrance which adds 15 additional computers so that the computers in the library totals 24 which could house a whole class on computers at one time. This is a very useful addition when teachers are wanting to research or have internet access in the library.

6. The resource room is now more usable by teachers with low bookshelves that allow them to put their resources on top and preview them on a lower surface. In order to do this, videos were moved to media room. The shelving taken out was moved to the processing room which needed more shelves. The lower shelves are the reference shelves that were located at the back of the library. The reference shelves were moved and are now located in the bookshelves under the windows to the right of the library. As you could tell from the photo tour these shelves were virtually empty.

Facility PoliciesVISITING THE MEDIA CENTER • Parents, teachers, students and community members are always welcome

to use the Media Center. One major goal of the Media Center is to provide access to information for all.

• Students may come to the Media Center with their class as a group or from any class, independently or in pairs. Flexible scheduling is in place.

Students should follow these guidelines: • Know your purpose for coming to the Media Center. • Bring your agenda to use front barcode for checking books in and out of the

library. • Follow classroom and school rules. • Respect others and all Media Center property. • Put all materials away after you finish using them. • Ask for permission to use any computer equipment or websites other than

the automated catalog. • Students should ask permission from the media center staff to use personal

email. • All student computers are monitored by media center staff to assure

appropriate use.

BORROWING GUIDELINES 1. All fiction and nonfiction books (except reference books) may be

checked out for two weeks.2. Books may be renewed once, if no one else has requested them.3. Certain reference books may be borrowed at the end of the school day but must be returned before the first period of school the next day.4. All magazines are for use in the Media Center.5. A limit on the number of books is not emphasized; instead the number of books needed and can be responsibly handled is more important. 6. If a student has overdue books, he/she may not check out additional books until all overdue books have been paid for or are returned.

7. Students are responsible for checking books in and out of the library

Changes To Facility PoliciesIn addition to existing policy for visiting the library• Show the agenda (pass) to a media staff member. • Agenda (pass) should be initialed by classroom teacher• Sign in and out using the sign-in sheet.• Students are not to use social networking sites during school hours.• Websites are closely monitored and educational sites are to be used• Students are not allowed to print in media center unless agenda specifies

this by their teacher• If a student is sent to research, websites need to be listed in agenda or

written down somewhere to keep from aimlessly “surfing the internet”• Teachers need to check the master schedule so times do not overlap if they

are bringing their entire class• The outdoor reading area and amphitheater needs to be reserved in the

library or let the media specialist know when you will be needing the areas

More changes

In addition to the Borrowing guidelines• Teachers are limited with the time they are able to keep

the mobile labs in their rooms• Sharing equipment is required since there is not enough

for everyone• 2 weeks is the longest time allowed to keep mobile labs,

smart boards, and responders at any one time if someone is wanting the equipment

• A student will be charged the full replacement cost for any lost books. Report cards will be held if a student has any overdue or lost books.