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WELCOME TO THE WIKISPACE OF: KYLE GREENWOOD---LIBRARY MEDIA SPECIALIST
=__My Story__: = I grew up in suburban Philadelphia in Thorndale, PA. I spent my entire scholastic education career in the Coatesville School District; an area that beams with pride anyone who graduated from there. From this day forward, I will always be proud to be a Red Raider. Pride in your community, a trait that I believe everyone should hold. My first adventure away from Thorndale, started in Hazleton, PA, where I attended the branch campus of Penn State University in 1997. After two years, I transferred to Main Campus. I experienced the best 2 1/2 years of my life in State College and associated with some great people.

Upon my return to Thorndale in December of 2001, I began to search for a career. After four years of schooling at a superb institution such as Penn State, I figured that I would be a shoe-in for a primo job in broadcast journalism...WRONG! After a few failed attempts at landing a decent position, I gave up on the career and chose another path, the hotel industry. Having worked in banquet services for a number of summers, I thought that maybe I could be a hotel mogul like Donald Trump. I was luckily hired by Homewood Suites, a Hilton hotel, near Philly. During my three years there, I received a crash course in what the corporate world was all about. Even though I grew professionally through great management, in the end I knew that this career choice was not for me.

I had always wanted to become a teacher, ever since I was in elementary school. I think History, especially of the American variety is the greatest subject to study. Getting past all of the dates, American History should be appreciated by all ages. Our past is all that we have that is common from person to person and generation to generation. The fact that I was in a career that interested me less and less each year, and painfully going through a failed relationship, I knew this was the right time to fulfill my original career choice of being a teacher. At 25, I relocated to Kutztown University and became a college student all over again. It was quite different going through college again with pupils who are quite younger than me. I constantly reverted back to the notion of "Did I act like this college?" thought on a daily basis. However, I made some lifelong friends at Kutztown. The experience was quite the positive one, sociologically. In the midst of working to obtain my History certification, I utilized a skill I learned at Penn State, "its not what you know, its who you know." I made a contact through my Dad who commented that I should be a librarian during a informal discussion at a baseball tournament for my brother. This man happened to be a former librarian now principal. He explained to me how technology, an area that I had great interest and some experience in is revolutionizing the school library program. I never considered myself to be librarian material. I thought those people were only bookworms who knew how to keep people quiet and led terrible social lives. On the contrary, librarians are the exact oppposite. We are universal when it comes to education. We serve a purpose greater than people understand. Half of time in our jobs is spent showing other professionals that we matter and libraries are essential to the platforms of education. Two years after arriving at Kutztown, my time was gone and I graduated with a 3.5 GPA and a PA state certification in Library Science. It was quite an accomplishment considering that I felt that I was an underdog in the eyes of the program, having arrived from another area of discipline. I felt I had to work extra hard in order to prove myself to my professors and advisors. Adversity makes a person stronger when successful in the end.

=**__MY FAVORITE QUOTES__**:= "Hit hard, hit fast, before they hit first."---Alexander the Great

"The saddest thing in the world is wasted talent."---//A Bronx Tale// "May the wind be at your back, the sun upon your face, and may the winds of destiny carry you aloft to dance with the stars"---Irish Proverb =__Education:__= 1997-Coatesville Area Senior High School, Coatesville, PA 2001-The Pennsylvania State University (B.A. Journalism) 2007-Kutztown University of Pennsylvania (Library Science Cert. K-12) =[|Kutztown University Information Technology Portfolio]=

__**[|The Keith Curry Lance Studies: Importance of School Libraries in the Educational Process]**__
Dr. Lance is the foremost expert on the impact of libraries on the educational system. With technology expanding at a rapid rate, print is sadly becoming obsolete. Administrators are faced with heavy decisions in the era of No Child Left Behind along with the rigors of test preparation measuring success of an individual school on whether the library is a vital piece of the puzzle, suppporting state standards found in the various curriculums, or extra space without the services of a certified media specialist.

Upon mention of school libraries, old line of thinking has not changed to the contemporary line. What do you actually need to learn from the library? Oh library, the Dewey Deciminal System, right? These are inquiries all too familiar. A librarians job is focused more on marketing and promotion than it is with the actual content and usefulness of the mass information provided to the user and the meaning behind its use and knowledge of those areas.

The skill of information gathering is highly underrated. As our country attempts to play catch up with India, China, Japan, Sweden, and even Iceland (92% literacy rate) in the race to produce the next generation of professionals, the library is generally overlooked for assistance.

__**Purpose of the Library Media Program**__
==The goal of any library media specialist is to provide maximum services to each individual school from both print and electronic sources. Libraries are the hub of any particular school. They are also quickly becoming the beacon of the educational process. The age of the white haired librarian extending an index finger to quiet the crowd is dead.==

This Wiki will provide for the educator and the student the resources needed for all to be lifelong learners. For what we strive for is to be lifelong learners and leaders of a particular community. =__Professional Experience: __=