Middle School Library Media Specialist Interview #2
Middle School Library Media Specialist Interview #2
Middle School Library Media Specialist Interview #2
Task 5: Interview
Lancaster Middle School
The media specialist at Lancaster Middle School is Raquel Hewitt, and she has 15 years
of experience. Before being a librarian, she taught in the classroom for 4 years. Her past job
experiences have prepared her directly and indirectly to become the media specialist she is today.
Being a teacher for 4 years, working in the prison allowed her to be able to have an order of
things. Raquel chose to pursue a degree as a media specialist because of her childhood. When
she was a child, her parents said she would be a librarian. Mrs. Hewitt kept encyclopedias in her
room, and her sisters would have to check them out. Then she would check to see if they wrote
in them once they returned them. She felt like she became a school librarian on a fluke. TWU
(Texas Woman’s University) had a grant and they were only taking 15 students, but they had
thousands of applicants. Her school librarian encouraged her to apply. Raquel was in the
beginning of her semester in college to get her masters in Reading, but she was just beginning
and some of those classes could transfer over. The number of applicants kept going up because it
was free. They called her after two interviews and they said she was in. She was very surprised
and was not expecting it, this was not my career path. Her educational preparation was a little
different because she worked in a prison before working in a school letting. It prepared her to be
a school librarian because it taught me that I would need a behavior management plan for
students in the library. She was also an instructional coach, and remembered that she wanted to
make things that she taught purposeful for others to use. That has been ingrained in her. School
management was something that was not taught while pursuing her masters to become a media
specialist.
When it comes to cooperative program planning and planning with teachers, Mrs. Hewitt
tries to keep herself involved as much as she can. She plans with them at least once or twice
every six weeks, and gives them resources that they can use. The resources are currently digital
so they can share with their distant learners. When it comes to teachers, she would develop a
strong team approach, and that would get some reluctant teachers to utilize the library. For
example, before she would approach a teacher, she would look at that grade level’s TEKS
standards. Then she would share resources with the teacher and mention the standards to get
their attention. The reluctant teachers would be interested in the conversation when they see that
she knows a little about the standards they are currently teaching.
The role of the library in the overall reading program revolves around our staff. Raquel
believes that older teachers or more seasoned teachers see the value in reading tangible books.
The new teachers or inexperienced teachers would just go with the curriculum. The new
curriculum does not have that many books for daily reading. She has to make them see the value
of daily reading. Now that Lancaster Middle School has started the district Benchmark this
week, the teachers who have had their students reading online, and reading from their class
library will notice those students' grades will be higher than those that have not been reading.
Also, their scores will be higher than those that don’t have access to read, or students not pushed
to read. It will be like a show and prove. Mrs. Hewitt has students that are reading on a 3rd or
4th grade reading level and in order to promote appreciation for the use of materials in the media
center, she uses online resources. She would share my school library Bitmoji page on the school
website and through her Google Classroom she would allow students to read online. That is how
Mrs. Hewitt hosts a professional development for a cluster once every six weeks. They
go over text shared items, any new items that technology has rolled out, and how to troubleshoot
with the Promethean Boards. She would find an app and share to be shown on the Promethean
Board. She would do all of these things school wide. Whatever she finds she can roll it out for
When it comes to continued professional growth, Raquel feels that she is not a good
librarian. She feels that she is an excellent resource because she has to help everyone at the
school, but there are things she could do better. Mrs. Hewitt just doesn't have the time or the
space to do it. She knew she could do better in her collection development, but because they
don’t have enough funding to buy a collection of things. Media specialists at Lancaster ISD are
not able to do that, so they would have to chop it up, because it’s a smaller district. She needs to
develop her professional skills on being more organized, because if someone else came after her
then they would not understand what was doing in the media center.
Mrs. Hewitt would describe the media center as a space for all learners in the school
community. She would have a lunchtime group that likes to create and have debates. She would
have an inclusive space where the socially awkward kids, athletes, and kids would all go. She
would have never thought that they would talk with each other outside of the library. Some of
the students struggled in class, and may need more SEL (Social Emotional Learning) or more
hands on activities. They know they are free to come into the media center and talk about
whatever they want to talk about. They would pick topics and they would talk about current
news on CNN or what happened at school. At the same time, students have been creating things
for the past couple of years. They have been making blankets and quilts for the senior citizens at
a nursing home in Lancaster. Mrs. Hewitt and the students help in the community, and at the
To ensure that she has appropriate resources for all learners in middle school, she would
pull TEKS that need to be covered. She has life skills and an autism unit that have very low
performing students. When she got to the middle school, there were a few easy readers. She had
to purchase more to cover that population because the number of students grew. Ms. Hewitt had
to order accordingly based on the population. Raquel reiterates that students go to my school
library Bitmoji and click on the digital book to read. She would encourage teachers to tell their
students that are home to read online books. That is how she would include reading and
instructional materials in both print and digital formats that represent multiple perspectives and
There was so much information I learned from interviewing Mrs. Hewitt. When I become
a media specialist, I will have knowledge of the TEKS on every grade level at the school I would
work for to support all teachers and students. I would write grants to get print materials in the
media center so all students reading levels were on the shelves. I would use my creativity and
knowledge from being a teacher for 15 years and host professional developments that both new
and seasoned teachers would need support. I learned that the library is a common area where
different students would come together. Therefore, I would make sure that there are many
tangible resources available. I would contact stores in the community and ask them to donate
things for the media center. My perception of the school library media specialist profession is to
not only work in the media center, but to extend to the community and stakeholders. I should
use my knowledge of being a homeroom teacher to learn the curriculum of each grade level. I
would need to step outside of my box and approach teachers and discuss their current unit and
gain their trust. I would also make the media center resourceful and have teachers come in and
select the books they wanted. I would schedule book talk with an author, I would have students
do book reviews and share them on the school’s website. In conclusion, Mrs. Hewitt has shared
a lot of information that I will take into my future of becoming a media specialist.