BY TRACY LEE TATE
Times Staff Writer
The last decade, with the advances in technology and the increase in accessibility and affordability of technology has created many changes in local school districts and has brought about just as many changes in how students are taught and how they learn.
Books were once the mainstay of schools, but now they are less apparent in the learning environment. One place in a school that has been radically changed by the digital world is the school library – now the media center – and the school librarian – now known as the media specialist.
At Union County High School this year, the School-Related Employee of the Year works in the media center, helping students navigate the digital world in search of knowledge.
Wesley Smith is a 2015 UCHS graduate. He said he has always been interested in working in education and helping young people, so it seemed the thing to do for him to start substitute teaching soon after graduation. He started out at Lake Butler Middle School as a ESE aide, then after two and a half years he transitioned to the media center for another two and a half years. He then moved to the media center at UCHS, where he has worked for the past two years.
His title is media library aide, a position that has replaced that of a librarian at many schools. He runs the library, serving as a tech liaison between the technologies on hand and the students. He is also the coordinator of the school’s mental health curriculum, the debt collector, has his own period in the virtual school, is the textbook coordinator for the dual enrollment program and serves as a senior sponsor.
Smith said he thought at one time of becoming a band director – he plays clarinet, saxophone, baritone and percussion – but that did not work out, although he still supports the band whenever he can. Currently, he is working on a degree in psychology with the desire to become a guidance counselor. Until then he said he was happy in the media center, where he is in a perfect situation to get to know the students and develop a long-term rapport with many of them.
“Coming to the high school from the middle school made it possible for me to know students through much of their education,” Smith said. “I have worked with the seniors this year since they were in the fifth grade, and the juniors since they were in the fourth grade. It’s nice to see them grow and be able to build relationships with them. It’s a unique perspective for me, seeing the school system from the other side and the process of how things get done, since I have moved from being a student to being a staff member. Also unique is having many of my former teachers as colleagues. It’s nice to move from a student/teacher relationship to a co-worker relationship … and I finally get to call them by their first names. ”
Smith’s sister is a junior at UCHS and he is pleased that he has been able to be “part of her journey through school.” The siblings eat lunch together most days and enjoy having each other close by.
As for being selected as the School-Related Employee of the Year for UCHS this year, Smith is very appreciative of the vote of confidence from his peers.
“I am very appreciative of my peers for selecting me as SRE of the year,” Smith said. “I feel that it is based on the relationships I have built with them here at the high school. I value all of them as peers and friends and hope to spend my entire working life here – I don’t want to go anywhere else.”
