Laurie Bennett

FRIT 7739
Technology Program Administrator

Part A: Program Evaluation

Executive Summary
The Media Center at Fannin County Middle School is a more traditional media
center, with a few computers for student use, but it does not act as a particular
technology center. It is run by one media specialist, Mrs. Laura Evans, and one
paraprofessional, Mrs. Betty Jo Corn. It is available to all students, faculty, and
administration. The media specialist offers support for students who are visiting the
center for recreational reading, school research projects, or bonus time for finishing
classwork early. She is also available to help teachers find resources to use in lesson
plans, whether it be for technology resources, or just research outside of the
classroom textbook, such as video clips or movies. The media center website is
maintained by the media specialist and is admittedly a work in progress. Plagiarism,
copyright laws, and digital citizenship are presented and enforced on a regular basis
with both teachers and students. The media centers stakeholders are serviced by
the daily operations of the center. Information was gathered through interviews with
the media center staff as well as observations of the daily activities firsthand. A
suggestion for improvement is to obtain more computers in the actual media
center, as they were often at full capacity with only 6 computers in the actual media
center and the rest of the school computers in the carious computer labs
throughout the building. A second suggestion is to encourage the students to
access more resources via the internet, such as magazines. This way, the students
will have more access to them from home computers, rather than just in the media
center in print format. Internet resources did not seem to be emphasized for
research during my visits.

METHODS
While constructing the report, multiple methods of data collection were used.
Data was collected from interviews from the media specialist and Media center
paraprofessional (Appendix A), observations of the media center (Appendix B), the
media center brochure, and from the school website.

CENTER CONTEXT AND GOALS

The media center at FCMS is more of a traditional setup, with a few computers
added in. It does not serve as a technology center, as that role is filled more by the
4 computer labs located throughout the building. The media centers role is to
promote literacy and a love for reading. It also serves as a resource for research in
various formats, but still focuses on hard copies of resources, such as dictionaries
and encyclopedias. The media specialist, Mrs. Laura Evans, takes pride in the
welcoming atmosphere of her center and the close relationships she has formed
with all of her students. She takes student requests and interests in mind when
ordering new books, and she also promotes a love of learning by providing books in
a variety of subjects. She monitors the Reading Counts program that is a schoolwide reading program that involves reading books and taking comprehension tests
to collect points in the Language Arts classes of every student.
The stakeholders of the media center are students, staff, parents, and
community members. The DESTINY program is an online card catalog that is
accessible to anyone in the community with a password. The students or teachers
can access the media center collection through DESTINY and place books on hold
for when they return to the center to check them out. The students can check out
books and magazines and the teacher can check out books, magazines, televisions,

DVD players, and movies from the media center. Teachers sometimes check out
carts for various uses as well. Mrs. Evans keeps inventory of the working equipment,
as well as inventory of items that are being prepared for transfer to storage, such as
the outdated overhead projectors.

CENTER ACTIVITIES
As the media centers main fundraiser book fairs are held 3 times each year. The
center also has a game section for students who are finished with classwork early
and dont want to read for a short amount of time. The games are still educational,
but they help foster the welcoming atmosphere that Mrs. Evans is so proud to have
in her center. The students know to put up all the game pieces when they are
finished, or they risk losing the right to play the games. It was not unusual to see
small groups of students quietly playing chess or Jenga in the games section of the
media center.
The media center has close ties with the public library, complementing its
collection. The local historical society also brings in collections a few times a year to
display to the students as well as the public. There is also a puzzle table that always
has a puzzle being put together. Any student can take a seat and put a few pieces in
it until it is complete, then a new one will begin.

STATISTICS

The media center is open Monday-Friday 7:30am-3:30pm, which is a countywide policy.

Students must present an agenda with a teacher signature to enter during
class time. Each student must sign in when they arrive, according to their
grade level and what time they entered.
The media center averages 100-150 students each week.
Teachers can sign up a class to visit the media center on a first-come, firstserve basis. If a class is scheduled, then individual students would be asked
to leave first if it got too crowded.
Most A/V equipment is already located in each room, except movies, which
can be checked out by the teachers.
Any student exhibiting disruptive behavior can be asked to leave, but I did
not witness this happen at any time I was observing.
There are 6 computers in the media center, with 2 others that are utilized for
the catalog program DESTINY. The two extra computers can be used as
regular computer I needed for standardized testing purposes.

Students can check out books for a 2-week period, and renew them 1 time.
No fines are given for failure to return books, but any lost books must be paid
for before report cards will be released.
Mornings are the busiest time of the day, and the beginning of the school
year is the busiest time of the year.
The most common requests from students are the next book in a fictional
series, usually one that has a movie out about it.
The center has several comfy chairs and sofas that have been donated over
the years. These are the less formal areas where most of the walk-in students
tend to sit and read leisurely or play games.
The center only received 75% of the yearly budget up front, and usually does
not end up seeing the other 25% that is held back, which gets used for
unforeseen repairs or replacements of more expensive items. This year, Mrs.
Evans received her remaining 25% of the budget for the first time in 3 years
at this school.
The center also receives funds from SPLOST money and from the 3 books fair
held each year.

EVALUATION
The FCMS is a lively and inviting place for students to visit and work. Mrs. Evans
commitment to having a welcoming atmosphere is evident in her warm personality
and close relationships with all of the students who visited during my observations.
She knows all of the students by name and there is a mutual respect between her
and the students. Reading and learning is valued here and the students visit for
many other reasons than just coming in during class projects. It is clear that the
media center is a place the students enjoy visiting. The technology offered by this
media center is outdated. With only 6 computers available, it is not a place for a
teacher to bring if an entire class needed to research internet information. In
addition, Mrs. Evans admits that she is not highly trained in technology methods for
curriculum use. Another area that needs improvement is the state of the building in
general. It is a very old building and needs to have updated facilities with more
room for technology to grow as it becomes more available. Another area that needs
attention is the Reading Counts program. The books often arrive before a test is
available, so the media staff is constantly cross-referencing to check for books that
have tests available for points. When a book has a test, it receives a green sticker
on the spine, but many books without green stickers actually do have tests and the
students must look the book up to see if a test is available if it does not have a
sticker. A better program or method of matching books and tests needs to be
created or implemented to make this program easier to navigate, especially since it
is a program that is required of every student in the school each year.

APPENDIX A
Media Center Interview Questions:
1. What are the hours of operation?
2. What are the check-in/out procedures?
3. Who staffs the center and what are their responsibilities?
4. What services, activities, and programs are offered by the media center?
5. What services are offered to the local community?
6. How many computers are in the media center?
7. What are the limitations or needs for improvement?
8. What are the future plans for improving the media center?
9. What are the missions/goals of the media center?
10.Who are the stakeholders and how are they invested?
11.How do you promote the goals and activities of the center?
12.How do you work with the teachers in their curriculum plans?
13.What is the busiest time of day/year?
14.What are the typical requests from students and teachers?
15.What is the average number of students who visit each week?
16.How does the center support student success?
17.What centers/stations do you have set up in the center?
18.What is your budget?
19.What outside sources also provide money to the center?
20.What are the centers strengths?