BY BILL BITTAR
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
SOUTHBURY — Rochambeau Middle School history teachers taught eighthgraders about the “Roaring ‘20s” last year, then David Fildes showed how multimedia tools could bring the decade to life.
The library media specialist helped students search for information, evaluate it and create web pages embedded with video clips of the music and flapper fashion of the era. This
collaborative relationship between library media specialists and classroom teachers has worked so well at Pomperaug High School and the district’s middle schools that Region 15 is bringing it to the elementary schools this year, according to Kelly Lyman,
assistant superintendent of schools.
“Our students are bombarded within the digital world,” Lyman said. “We have a responsibility to let
Jan Martellino, a new library media specialist at Pomperaug Elementary School, will work closely with teachers and students to use multimedia for class projects.
them know how to evaluate that information and use it for their learning goals — and the library media center is the core within our schools that can provide this support.”
Before the change, Lyman said, library media specialists taught their own classes on how to take advantage of books, eBooks, computers, search engines and other library resources.
Jane Martellino, the new library media specialist at Pomperaug Elementary School, said research shows the new approach of applying media center sessions directly to class work enhances learning by making it more meaningful, timely and relevant.
To free up media specialists to collaborate with teachers on more projects, administrators had to change class schedules to allow for the flexibility, according to Lyman.
For instance, Fildes said he used to teach an information research class to sixthgraders and another class for
eighth grade.
Last year, those media center courses were dropped.
“People don’t have to work around it,” Fildes said of his schedule. “Now I can work with two eighth-grade classes at the same time, so a project can take five days instead of 10 days.”
Aside from assisting students with research and providing a variety of platforms to share information, Martellino said multimedia makes learning fun.
“Instead of regurgitating information, children are creating,” she said. “They’re making video and eBooks. There’s an incentive when you know you have an audience. I think it’s rare to not have a student engaged with the right tools.”
Contact Bill Bittar at bbittar@ rep-am.com.
“INSTEAD OF REGURGITATING INFORMATION, CHILDREN ARE CREATING. THEY’RE MAKING VIDEO AND EBOOKS. THERE’S AN INCENTIVE WHEN YOU KNOW YOU HAVE AN AUDIENCE. I THINK IT’S RARE TO NOT HAVE A STUDENT ENGAGED WITH THE RIGHT TOOLS.”
JANE MARTELLINO, LIBRARY MEDIA SPECIALIST AT POMPERAUG ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
What a school thinks about its library is a measure of what it feels about education.
–Harold Howe