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DEERWOOD ACADEMY LEARNING COMMONS

Teaching and Learning with Care in the Learning Commons

Greetings Deerwood Faculty and Staff,

Welcome back to another fantastic year at Deerwood Academy! I am very excited to begin collaborating with you and helping your students to become critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, skilled researchers, and ethical users of information. This year's district wide Media Services theme is "Read More Books" and we intend to do just that! We had an outstanding year last year and I know that we will be able to achieve even more this year! With your support, Deerwood Academy had the top winners in the district for the Buzzer Readers Competition and our students visited Georgia Tech to attend a Women's Basketball game! We also won the district's March Madness Reading Competition and were gifted a $1,000 book stipend AND an Atlanta Hawks Pep Rally! We hosted the "Greatest Reading Show on Earth" and Reading Under the Big Top, our annual Pumpkin Storybook Character comp and parade, had fun with International Dot Day, Read Across America Day and much more!! We got students excited about reading and I can't wait to explore even more amazing ways for our scholars to sharpen their literacy skills and enhance their love of reading! Please don't hesitate to ask If you need assistance with anything at all. Stop by, or email me at drrice@atlanta.k12.ga.us.

Deedre Richardson Rice

Media Specialist

Learning Commons Passes and Hours of Operation

Media Center Passes and Hours of Operation

8:00am-2:00pm daily. Students may visit the Learning Commons, with teacher permission, throughout each school day from 8:00am-2:00pm.
Teachers may send 4 students at a time throughout each day.
All students must be in class for morning announcements and morning routine. Please do not send students during this time.
Teachers who would like to visit as a class, will be asked to sign up for a time via the link provided.

ALL STUDENTS MUST HAVE THE OFFICIAL PASS TO ENTER LEARNING COMMONS! I will distribute passes to new teachers next week. Please email me at drrice@atlanta.k12.ga.us.

August Monthly Focus: Media Center Orientation

Media Center Orientation will begin August 14th. Please look out for the sign up sheet, which will be sent to your emails this week. Topics to be covered include, but are not limited to: Book Care, Checkout, Behavior Expectations, Procedures, Understanding Fiction/Non-fiction/Biography, Accelerated Reader, Myon, Lexile, Finding Right Fit Books, etc.

MEDIA CENTER POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Students are always welcome in the Learning Commons! Whether it be to read, study, research or collaborate on an assignment, students may utilize the space accordingly, with a pass from their teacher.
Students may return books to the book drop at any time during the day.
There is a two week checkout period for books. Please do not allow students to keep longer than that. Students may return books to the book return at anytime during the day.
Pre-K and Kindergarten students must initially leave books in teacher's classroom instead of taking them home (unless special arrangements have been made with Mrs. Rice.)
Students who lose or damage books, must satisfy any applicable fines before being able to checkout additional books. They may read books of their choice inside the Learning Commons.
Pre-K, K, 1st and 2nd will check out one to two books per visit.
3rd-5th grades may check out two books per visit.
Teachers may checkout up to 10 books at a time. If I am unable to check them out to you, please leave the books on the circulation desk with your name on them and I will bring them to you.
Please refrain from bringing food or drink (water is acceptable) into the media center.
If chairs or tables are rearranged by you, or your class, please place them back in their proper space before leaving.

Morning Announcements

Please click here or save the link below to your favorites in order to access the DNN Morning News Show, which is live-streamed each morning on YouTube beginning at 7:45am. The morning show will begin being broadcast the week of August 26th. Link: https://www.youtube.com/@deerwoodyoutube8585/streams

Makerspace Magic for your Scholars!

We have an amazing Makerspace in our Learning Commons for scholars to build, create, design, invent, code and enjoy! Makerspaces boost critical thinking skills, can serve as a great way to support a lesson as well as encourage collaboration and personalized learning. Each Monday, students will have an opportunity to explore the Makerspace! Teachers can use it as a way to reward behavior and academic achievement or collaborate with me to create activities that support curriculum being covered in your classes. Options are endless. Let's discuss! :)

Atlanta Hawks Reading Challenge

The Atlanta Hawks Check It Out Reading Challenge has officially started and runs until September 1st. When students K-12 check out and read five books, they earn one (1) FREE youth ticket to a select Hawks game during the 2024-2025 season. When students complete the Challenge, they need to visit https://www.nba.com/hawks/community/checkitout and have a parent or guardian fill out the registration form. An adult ticket must be purchased along with the youth ticket. Participants will begin receiving their tickets after October 31