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 time counselor, speech therapist, occupational therapy, physical therapy, school psychologist, school nurse, full-time media center paraprofessional clerk, and 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

ContPhoto Tour

Front entrance looking to the right

Left side of Resource Room

Book sets to left

Book sets to right

Ride side of Resource Room

Videos to the Left

More book sets to right

Processing Room

View to the left

View to the right

Media Room

View to the left

View to the right

Survey Data On Environment

Environment
80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 inviting quiet comfortable attractive learning focused

Needs improvement Fair Good Excellent

Survey Data on Furnishings

70

Furnishings
60

50

Needs improvement

40

Fair

30

20

Good

10

Excellent
0

comfortable

good condition age appropriate

attractive

Survey on Technology
Technology
60 50 40 30 20 10 0
enough quanity 21st century accessible good condition works properly

needs improvement 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 doesnt work properly all the time

Original Floor Plan Resource:Gliffy.com

Revised Floor Plan Resource:Gliffy.com

Elements Of Floor plan Modified/Changed

When comparing the original floor plan to the revised version, the following additions were made; 1. 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. 2. 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. 3. 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. 4. 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 caf 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 Policies
VISITING 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 Policies

In 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.