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Running Head: INTERVIEW RESEARCH

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INTERVIEW RESEARCH

Veterans Memorial Middle School is located in Covington, Georgia. It is part of the


Newton County School System. The school opened in 2000 with seventy-six (76) sixth grade
students in four trailers. The new facility opened in 2001 with a full staff and student body of
sixth, seventh and eighth grade students. Veterans Memorial Middle School looks forward to
the educational challenges of the 21st century. Today, the school educates and cares for one
thousand fifty-one students and eighty-four teachers.
Veterans Memorial Middle School Media Center is loved and cared for by Mrs. Leslie
Coleman. She works very hard to bring excitement to reading and technology at the school. The
Media Center is known as the HUB of the school.
Leslie Coleman was named South Metro District Library Media Specialist of the Year by
the Georgia Library Media Association. With this honor, Mrs. Coleman is now entered into the
competition for the Georgia Library Media specialist of the Year Award, which recognizes K-12
library media specialist whose services have resulted in exemplary library media programs.
Mrs. Coleman states there are some obstacles in establishing a great library media
program, such as finding a way to get teachers to understand that they need my services and
becoming creative with the financing to fund projects for teachers and students. She draws
inspiration from collaborating with colleagues, visiting other media centers, and reading
educational journals.
Mrs. Coleman stated that collaborating with teachers on a regular basis, going to them,
and dont wait for them to come to you helps one become exemplary. Also, she has made it a

INTERVIEW RESEARCH

priority to turn the media center into a classroom including the twenty-nine (29) computers and
an active board that she uses daily.
This growing media center houses about fifteen thousand (15,000) books for students and
staff. The media center operates on a flexible schedule. Mrs. Coleman has one full time
assistant and a couple of mamas who volunteer, but she is always looking for a few more helping
hands. The media center had a budget of six thousand dollars this year. The Book Fairs and
donations are always helpful. She keeps scholastic dollars and book fair profits for future media
needs. Also, she and her staff have managed to transform a storage closet into a mini-lab that
houses seventeen (17) desktop computers.
The latest initiative is to integrate Bring Your Own Device as the media center
purchase e-books for students to download onto their own devices as well as the Kindles that the
school purchased.
Teachers are given professional development monthly. Also, technology teams are
utilized to redeliver and refresh various technology tools on Friday. With these meetings a
collection analysis based on Common Core needs, talking with teachers for desired materials and
ongoing assessment of educational needs also drives my budget from year to year. She instructs
faculty and staff by using Learning Focus and Best Practices. As the Media Specialist, she
collaborates with teachers and administrators by attending meetings, team meetings and
inter/pilot program. She try to never tell teachers NO!
She encourages readers by using the one million (1,000,000) word reader contest. With
this contest all the ones who reach the million word count qualify for a chance to win a Kindle.

INTERVIEW RESEARCH

Parties are awarded every nine weeks to the top reading classes. The entire school has a one (1)
hour reading time every Monday and Friday. Students are allowed early morning access to
school technology and resources, the reading bowl, accelerated reader program as well as
teaching lessons on website evaluation, research skills, and app usage.
Mrs. Coleman collaborates with 6th and 7th grade teachers to teach research skills such as
The Big 6. This instructs students how to vet a website and how to properly cite and create a
bibliography. The 7th and 8th grade students are instructed on perfecting parenthetical citations.
A great achievement this year was the Reading Bowl. It has grown from eight (8) schools to
twenty-three (23) participating schools!
Mrs. Coleman strives to provide a high quality program for the students, faculty and staff
at Veterans Memorial Middle School. She stated, As I continue to develop a school-wide and
county-wide media program that truly integrates literacy and technology, the media program is a
vital part of our students educational experience and helps to form the ever critical foundation
for research and information access.
Veterans Memorial Middle School envisions high school ready, college, and career
focused students who are able to think independently, communicate effectively, and demonstrate
their skills to a global audience in order to be successful in the 21st century.

INTERVIEW RESEARCH

5
References

Coleman, L. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.newtoncountyschools.org/veterans_memorial


Great Schools (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.greatschools.org.
Movoto (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.movoto.com/schools/covington-ga/veteransmemorial-middle-school.
Newton County Schools (2014). Retrieved from:
http://www.newtoncountyschools.org/veterans_memorial.
Public School Review (2014). Retrieved from:
http://www.publicschoolreview.com>Georgia>NewtonCounty.

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