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Schools

Q&A: William Wirt's Media Specialist, Stacey Montgomery

Patch spoke with Wirt Middle's Media Specialist about what the job entails.

With budget cuts on the horizon for Prince George’s County Public Schools, media specialist positions are in danger across the county.

Stacey Montgomery, the media specialist at William Wirt Middle School, is working hard to break the stereotype of the “typical, old-school librarian with little glasses down on her nose” by incorporating technology and research skills into the work of the students and teachers who come to the library for more than a reading experience. She has been a media specialist since 1992 and has fallen in love with the work that she does every day, though she suspected that some people don’t understand what she does.

Montgomery also helps with the school's Communications, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program (CSTEM) and is pursuing her master's in bilingual special education at George Washington University.

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Patch sat down with Montgomery to talk about what a media specialist is and what the position entails.

Riverdale Park-University Park Patch: How did you get started in this career?

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Stacey Montgomery: When I was in Hampton [University], I had to write a thesis and it was “The Use of Televisions in Elementary Schools.” At the time, televisions were the big thing to have in your classroom, or to integrate, and as a result I found out about this career called “media specialist.” You can teach the kids how to love books, you can teach the kids television production, which is what we did this morning (we were doing the morning announcements) and teaching the kids how to research. All of that came together in this one little cool job called media specialist.

Patch: Can you tell me a little bit about what a media specialist does? What is your day-to-day like?

Montgomery: It’s very busy. Very, very, very busy. There’s one of me and basically, I see kids all day. I see teachers all day — they’re asking for assistance in research. Sometimes I’ll teach a class, and if it’s a class, basically for the most part I’ll see all of the classes that day for that particular teacher. So all day I’ll possibly see a social studies class, and I’ll teach them research and whatever the research project is. I’ll teach them how to do the research from [the topic] all the way to completing the project and evaluating it.

Sometimes we’ll have students that come down during lunch to work on project and so they’ll sit at the computers, they’ll come in and check out books, so I help them in whatever way they need. Teachers will come in and they need assistance with locating whatever resource they may need. Other days, I may be editing footage to be able to put on the morning announcements. I’ve taught different teachers in the building how to use the camera, how to use iMovie. Other days I may be in a meeting, talking to some people about the lessons they want to do with me here in the media center. I always collaborate with teachers to plan and teach lessons here.

Patch: Do you think that the media specialist position is undervalued?

Montgomery: 100 percent. From the first day I became a media specialist, there has been a level of disrespect that has been unbelievable. From compensation, meaning how much you’re paid — when teachers were given specific financial incentives, media specialists never qualified to get those financial incentives.

[At another school, I was not given an extra stipend] because I was a media specialist. I was not viewed as an instructional member of the staff. They just thought I was a clerical person — not to say that there’s any disrespect to that position, but I was saying everybody thought I was pretty much a book guard. But we actually teach people how to use the information in the books. We teach students how to access the information — how to love information and so it’s definitely undervalued.

Currently, there’s a program called FIRST, in which teachers do special projects and [are] paid extra for it. I don’t qualify because I’m not considered a teacher. And that’s a problem. So, undervalued, and then to top it off, when we’re being looked at right now, when the salaries and the different people in the county are being cut, they’re looking at people that are “non-instructional."

Every school I’ve been in, [teachers and administrators have] been very supportive of the media specialist, but it’s just beyond. You know what I’m saying? Beyond — that controls the finances. That’s where the disrespect comes in. The policies.

Patch: Do you think that it’s because they’re not here seeing everything?

Montgomery: I think they really just don’t have a clue. They don’t know. I think if they saw everything that is done — there’s so many phenomenal educators from school-to-school that I think it would be an eye-opener to just get a chance to see some of the things that I’ve done. There’s not a lot of disrespect from anybody immediately, it’s just funding. They’d cut the media budget in a heartbeat. They’ll cut [the] media specialists’ position. It’s just the position that is disrespected, not me personally.

Patch: If they were to cut the media specialist position, how would they replace all the things that you do?

Montgomery: Well, last year they cut the aide position that I had and it’s been crazy this year. Well, if I’m not here, I guess they’ll find somebody else to do television production; I guess they’ll find somebody else to maintain or monitor the circulation of books and resources. I guess somebody else will have to teach them how to do research. But I doubt if it’s going to be at the quality or the level of excellence that I think I offer.

Patch: Do you think that if there were fewer media specialists, there would be more computer-based learning for the students?

Montgomery: No, because that’s what we do. We do computer-based learning. We do technology. We do print, because they read the books; non-print, which would be anything audio-visual and digital; that’s what media specialists do. We’re not just book people. And to say that the media specialist position is being cut, you’re cutting the person that actually does the technology because that’s part of our standards.

Patch: What would you say is the difference between a librarian and a media specialist?

Montgomery: A media specialist teaches.

Patch: In the event that the media specialist position is eliminated, what would you go on to do?

Montgomery: Because technology is what I do as a media specialist, from the books to the technology, I would probably look at more opportunities to do technology. So I would figure out a way to continue doing what I do, but just in a possibly different location. I think [the schools] might even share media specialists, but it’s going to be a horrible mess if they decide to do that between schools. So I guess I would look at that — I don’t know. 

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