Doubletree Disney Hotel - Lulu is journeying through Polk County visiting some of her Project LEAD students. I always thought Project LEAD meant something like, "Library Educators Assisting Discovery." Boy was I wrong. It is a project to recruit 30 exemplary teachers and turn them into "LEADers" as school library media specialists.
Lulu was awarded a $1,000,000 grant by the federal government and FSU to fund 30 scholarships to build a model program of creating school library media specialists that are also school leaders. There is a strong need for certified school library media specialists. This August - the chosen teachers will graduate from Florida State University with a masters degree in library and information studies and the state teaching certificate as a media specialist in the field.
Each candidate took a prescribed list of courses (45 credits) offered by the FSU School of Library and Information Science. All of the courses were offered over the Internet online - with tuition and fees covered by the grant.
The project candidates were already successful teachers in Broward - Polk - Leon - Pinellas, Santa Rosa and Gadsden Counties. Already several of participants have been recruited to be school library media specialists.
A second grant has been awarded to follow the progress of the "Project LEADers" to see what effect the program has on the their success.
Next week - we visit the Broward County participants. The "we" means I carry Lulu's bags.
The pictures show Lulu and the almost successful candidates from Polk County.
1 comment:
It was great to see you! I'm so glad you came with her. I was hoping you would.
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