LM_NET 09/30/99: No Subject

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Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 10:33:09 -0400
From: "Bruton, Jamae" <BrutonJ@PBHS.BREVARD.K12.FL.US>
Subject: SEC:  Freshman Orientation

        Someone asked about freshman orientation and although I replied
directly to that person, I feel strongly enough about orientation that I
though everyone in high school might be interested.
        I have been a high school media specialist for 25 years and did
freshman orientation for about 5 of those years.  I stopped because no
matter how I presented the orientation or how entertaining I tried to
be, eyes glazed over after about the first 2 minutes.  After talking to
hundreds of students and teachers, I decided to stop orientation and
give research talks when a teacher assigned a project and scheduled
classes in the media center.  Every talk is project-specific and
includes only the sources that will help with the project.  Depending on
the grade level, I might include general topics such as checkout
procedures, location of sections of the media center, etc., but not very
often because I have a printed brochure with all of the general
information about the media center.  Before every research talk, I ask
for a show of hands of those students who have never been in our media
center and give one of these brochures to each student who raises
his/her hand.  Believe it or not, most students will read this if they
know that I am not going to go over it and yet will hold them
responsible for knowing the policies and procedures.  It is amazing how
attentive students are to the research talks when they know they will
have to use the information to complete the project.  Most research
talks last only about 5 to 10 minutes and are done as a PowerPoint
presentation.  The English teachers did not like eliminating orientation
at first because that was a day that they did not have to plan the first
week of school but after experiencing how much easier research projects
are with the research talks and how the attention improved, they are
happy to skip the orientation.



Media Specialist
Palm Bay High School
101 Pirate Lane
Melbourne, FL 32901
phone:  407-952-5900
fax:  407-676-2891

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