Collaboration with the Media Specialist

Two of our wonderful special education teachers came into the Media Center and wanted ideas of what to do for a meaningful project for the students in their classes. They wanted a foundation of tangible sources before they dove into databases. I shared various project outcomes that were unique and didn't resemble a term paper. We decided they were going to come up with a brochure on a renowned African American person, from a prescribed list so they wouldn't all grab the same name. The students had the first lesson on reference sources that contained information, how to fill out a form to cite their sources, and how to take "fast and dirty" notes on what is presented. We mapped out the brochure like a storyboard, to show them main ideas to organize each area. The next lesson will be a demonstration of the databases that are appropriate and how to gather images from google. The students also saw how to save information and send it to their spps school email account, using their username and password. When you present a lesson, buy-in from the students comes in the form of what they are interested in learning. It was cool to see them move incloser to the LCD projector so they could see what was happening!