Welcome back to school! I know we've been back for four weeks now, but it's amazing how much there is to do in the media center at the start of a new school year. There's been no time for blogging! We have hit the ground running, here at MPMS, and the media program is going in full force. Some data from our first month back:
We've also been busy meeting with groups of teachers, preparing a budget, and troubleshooting lots and lots of computers and printers. There's much more to do, but we're having a blast working with the great students and staff here at MPMS.
- MPMS has the highest level of staffing for a middle school in WCPSS. We are ecstatic to announce that Mrs. Stephanie Fiedler is now here full time. Hooray!
- We have about 1850 students--did you know we are the biggest middle school in the state of NC? In the first month, we helped all students check out their first books of the year, log into the school network, and log into their student email accounts.
- We have around 160 staff members. All teachers and staff have equipment needs that we have filled (computers, iPads, projectors, SMARTBoards, clickers, document cameras, carts, etc.) Staff members, too, have gotten logged into the network and email.
- Students have checked out more than 10,350 books! We are well on our way to exceeding last year's total of 65,474 items checked out, which was a 22% increase over the previous year. Our students are huge readers.
- The school's Sustained Silent Reading program has gotten off to a good start. Every student spends 15 minutes daily doing SSR. Studies show that free, voluntary reading creates life-long readers and better readers.
- We're getting a core group of parent volunteers together to help in the media center. Last year, our volunteers spent over 350 hours shelving books, assisting students, creating book displays, We're also fortunate to have 20 student volunteers from National Junior Honor Society who help during our busy morning time.
We've also been busy meeting with groups of teachers, preparing a budget, and troubleshooting lots and lots of computers and printers. There's much more to do, but we're having a blast working with the great students and staff here at MPMS.