Interview #1

Molly Pollock – Field Supervisor

Good morning. Could you tell me your name and the school that you work at?

My name is Molly Pollock, and I am the media specialist at Emanuel County Institute.

What type of degree is required for your position?

So, to be a media specialist, you have to have a master’s degree in Instructional

Technology with a concentration in School Library Media, and you also have to have a
Georgia State Educator’s certificate in media specialists.

What are your job responsibilities?

So, my job responsibilities include doing public relations for ECI. So, I maintain our social
media pages, our school website, and I write and send articles to the local newspapers. I
maintain our media programs, book circulation, helping students find books that are in
their reading levels, promoting reading, and helping teachers choose instructional
materials, such as class novels and finding resources to help them.

Awesome. How are you meeting the needs of faculty and staff during the transition to
remote learning this semester? I know we’re not really remote learning, but I guess if we
were, how could you meet the needs of the faculty and staff?

Well, one way is just being there for them in whatever capacity I can. Making sure that
they have the technology that they need and making sure that they have any online
resources they need - any subscriptions. One of the great things about my job is I can
kind of help provide those resources for the teachers as they need them. I can help
them if they need a document camera set up, I can go do that. If they need help doing a
zoom meeting, I can do that. Just really any technological issue that they need, I can be
there to fix them, and I try to be that in any capacity that I can for our staff.

Yes, you are a huge help. We are so thankful. What are some typical daily activities for your
job?

So, usually what I do first when I come in in the mornings is I put the announcements on
Facebook, on the website. I update the sports schedules on our Facebook website, and
we have that digital marquee sign out front that I put announcements and stuff up
there. I try to make sure that we’re keeping our online presence within the community. I
spend a couple of hours every day just doing that, because that can be kind of time
consuming. I also, you know, help the kids check out books when they come in. I help
them find books that they need, and I help teachers find class novels. Any time a
 student comes in with a Chromebook issue, whether it’s a physical issue with the
Chromebook like keys coming off the keyboard or if there’s a program that isn’t working
and they can’t log in to, I help them with that. I also help teachers with technological
issues as well. For example, we have a teacher that’s doing an online conference in the
next couple of weeks, and I helped her set up her webcam and get her situated with
that. So, those are kind of some of my daily jobs that I do.

Do you have a budget you control? How do you make decisions when selecting your
resources and everything?

So, the media center kind of has a set budget, and that budget is based on the number
of students that we have at our school. Our budget comes from the county. I think we
might get I want to say around $15,000 allocated to our county, and then that money is
distributed based on the number of students that we have at our school. So, you know,
Swainsboro probably gets more money but that’s because it’s a much bigger school. I do
get to kind of pick and choose the items we use that money on. We use our budget for
Chromebook repair parts, for just different media center things, on books, lamination,
poster printer ink, so I do kind of get to make choices as far as that goes but
unfortunately, I don’t get to set our budget. I wish I could.

Have you had an opportunity to impact technology implementation throughout your school?

Well, I haven’t been here very long, but I do like to think that I have, you know, tried to
make a difference with technology use. Part of starting here kind of at the tail-end of the
pandemic is that technology is not only used, but, I mean, it’s necessary. It’s necessary
to maintain instruction time without interruption, and so mainly just while I’ve been
here, one thing we’ve been able to do is we’ve been able to get about ten new charging
carts for Chromebooks, and about 300 new Chromebooks. So, we were able to kind of
cycle those in core classes, and then take those old ones in to our extracurriculars like
our CTAE, all that good stuff. So, I’ve been able to at least, you know, distribute some
other resources to teachers. During COVID, you know, we went to that alternate
learning schedule where kids were only here two days a week, they weren’t able to visit
the media center as much, so I was able to implement a program called Destiney
Discover where they’re able to access our catalog online and then put books on hold
and have books delivered to them so that they’re not interrupting instruction time.

That has been such a huge help. I know my students have – they are wanting to go to the
library this year and having books delivered to them, they think that’s amazing. It’s like a
pizza delivery. They get all excited about it. Does your school have a technology committee?

We don’t have a technology committee. We have a wonderful county technology team,

but I’m actually in the process of getting together a media center committee, which
would encompass technology since the media center here is kind of inclusive of
technology and then also books and print materials.
That sounds awesome. How are technology decisions made in your school?

So, I think typically a need is expressed to the administration, the vice principal or the
principal, and then that is then given to the county technology team, because they are
the ones doing the purchases. For example, we are about to get 8 new touch panels put
in the school, and that was a need that was expressed by the teachers to the admin. So,
that kind of tends to bypass me when it comes to Chromebooks and stuff like that is
more where the needs are expressed to me, but the really big purchases come from
admin and then are sent to the county team.

What do you think is the best part of your job?

The best part of my job is just getting to help people. I love to help people, and teachers
are under so much stress right now not only with COVID but with all the different roles
they have to take on, and if I can do anything to lighten that load just a little bit. I just feel
like that’s a great purpose to my job, and I love reading and I love books so getting to
interact with the kids and help them find something that they’re really going to enjoy is
just amazing.

What do you find to be the most challenging part of your job?

I think the most challenging part of my job is just working within a limited budget.
Because there are so many needs with our students and teachers and because we’re such
a small school, it’s hard to meet all those needs. You know, we have teachers that say well
we don’t have Chromebooks for our class, and I’m, you know, sorry. I can’t do anything
for you right now. I would love to fix that, and right now we’re working on doing some
fundraisers so hopefully we’ll be able to get enough money to purchase books and some
other materials that will help the teachers and the students.

Awesome. Well, that’s the last of the required questions. I do have one more, but it’s only
because I have noticed this school year that you’ve been here the engagement in the library
has been off the charts. Can you tell us a little about your challenges that you have each
month to kind of get students involved?

Oh yeah, so I’ve found that with a lot of kids to get them interested in reading more, I like
to do a lot of competitions. We did one in October that was different homerooms versus
homerooms, and if they maybe 500,000 words they got to come to the media center for a
s’mores party. We’re doing another one in February that’s going to be called Blind Date
with a Book, where they have to check out a book knowing only the genre and the Lexile
level. Anything that I can do just to push that, to get them interested in the media center,
because, you know, when I was growing up the media center was kind of not the funnest
place to go. So, I try to do anything I can just to get them to want to even be in here,
because I feel like if they’re physically in here then they’re going to start looking and the
 books. Anything I can do to get them reading, that’s what I do, so that’s why I do my
challenges because I feel like it actually gets them interested in reading.

It has. They’re very competitive.

Yes, I’ve found that’s the best way to get them to read is to make them compete with each
other.

And you use Google Classroom to communicate with them, and that’s a good technological
way to communicate with them because you’re not able to see them every day. They really
enjoy that, too, being able to check the Google Classroom and their email since it goes there.
They’ve really enjoyed that.

I like having a Google Classroom just to be able to give them information. I do my First
Chapter Friday videos through there. Just any updates and stuff, because if they don’t come
in here all the time, which because of our scheduling I’m not able to see them as much, I’m
still able to be in contact with them and keep them familiar with the media center.

Well thank you so much for letting me interview you, and I will talk with you later.