Danielle Maynard

Task 5 Interview
Jessica Hill, Lucy C. Laney High School

Jessica Hill is the current media specialist at Lucy C. Laney High School. Jessica has been a media
specialist for six years. Her experience working in schools consists of substituting for nine years and
working at the Board of Education for one year. Jessica’s previous work experience includes waitressing,
managing a movie theater, travel agent, sales, childcare, and farming. These experiences have prepared
her for working with teenagers as well as being in situations students have never experienced or heard
of being an urban school. She wanted to be a librarian from the time she was 12 years old, but it wasn’t
until she was in her 30s that she was able to pursue her degree. She pursued a Bachelor’s degree in
Business Management because she wanted to make sure she had a back up in case the education
market was not good. When she went for her Master’s degree, that was when she decided to study to
be a librarian. She used her previous knowledge substituting in libraries to focus on things she knew she
would need to learn. She does wish she could have learned more about funding for schools, and the
intricacies of the limitations. Grant writing is an area she would have liked to be taught in college.
Instead, she relied on workshops and prior knowledge to fill what she did not learn.
Jessica really enjoys collaborative planning. She works with the SPED students mostly because
their lessons need to meet multiple standards across the curriculums for the students to get full
comprehension. She even did a biology plant lesson, and transplanted flowers in the library. She loves to
combine subjects to show how they relate to each other. When she first came to Laney, the media
center had been closed for three years, and no one ever came into the media center. She got the
teachers to come into the media center by buying a die cut machine. She also went to their department
planning meetings to find out what the other teachers were doing, and to figure out how to offer
resources to support their lessons. Once the teachers learned that she was a good resource, they started
to come to her, and they began collaborating to change the scenery of learning by taking the students to
the media center. Jessica says that roles really depend on the administration in the school and county. In
her school, there was a push that the media specialist would support the teachers, and it was taken to a
point where she was basically used as an assistant to make copies, for example. Once her administration
changed, she was able to start putting focus on literacy again. Specific to this year, books are being
purchased for the students that they can keep because they don’t like to check anything out and have it
on their account should it get lost etc. Doing this has already put more books in student hands this year
than she checked out all last year.
To promote the media center, Jessica utilizes the morning announcements and the school
website. She has to be creative and think outside of the box. For example, when she did Banned Books
week, every day she would make an announcement in the morning about different books, genres, or
authors that were banned. She also set up a display in her media center where she placed books on a
table and put caution tape around it. This generated interest from the students wondering why these
books were off limits.
Jessica’s professional learnings consist of learning new technology, safety software, Canvas,
Scholastic Magazines and research skills for students. She believes that she has created an inclusive
space in her media center in that she has something for everyone. She has books on all levels that are
easy to find and available to everyone. She also has games and skill stations for mental wellness and for
mental breaks which includes coloring stations. Her seating ranges from standard seating to couches for
reading. Jessica likes to make sure that her media collection is diverse. She found through her surveys
that her students tend to like physical books more than ebooks. Her sign in desk includes an option for
students to make privates requests such as books, topics, and materials, and those drive her purchasing
and selection process for her media center.
Jessica was really amazing to learn from. Her students are really reluctant readers due to the
fact that they do not like checking out library books. She has shared with me many unique ways to get
students in the library and reading. In the interview, she mentioned the fact that they just end up giving
the students books instead of having to check them out. She does a lot of grant applications and is
resourceful when it comes to cutting costs. She is definitely a resource I will use in the future. She really
wanted me to be able to get involved with the SPED students, and to show how she works with them.
However, with Covid-19 protocols, we weren’t able to do anything in depth. She has really shown me
diverse ways to use the media center for other than just reading and studying.