Learning through Books, Media and Technology

ARTICLES THIS ISSUE:

Information literate? These Students have information power!

"We're learning, but we don't mind!"

Lots of little kids --- lots of things going on!

Building a collaborative network --- from university to local community

Shared vision, shared teaching

Budget crunch? Teamwork makes resources do double duty

Collaboration, participation, and technology

Partners for change

Redefining the library media center

Happy collaborations based on research as a process

Success through independence, integration, and interruptions

A Good Ideas encore!

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Building a collaborative network --- from university to local community

Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School

Collaboration at Bravo High School begins with a unique partnership with the USC School of Medicine. USC faculty members joined with educators to develop an innovative program to foster scientific literacy and broad educational goals. A cooperative applicaion to the NIH then resulted in a Science Education Partnership Award, providing additional financing. Now it is up to the active participants to give inner-city high school students all the special help they need in reaching their goals of eventually building a career in one of the many possible health professions.

Even the school site is unique --- a five-story building in the midst of a Los Angeles business district. Each classroom has a computer terminal giving it access to the library card catalog and to other resources. The library media center itself has six such terminals as well as many other electronic tools. The collection is especially designed to support research in science and medicine, varying from literature and biographical materials to specific scientific data.

Bravo is very new, beginning its third year of operation this fall. Lynne Barker, library media teacher, has been on the staff for one year. New materials, equipment, and orientations have kept her busy so far, but she has observed that the library media center has already become a sort of student commons; making it the physical core of the school plant. Lynn has laid the groundwork for full collaboration with fellow staff ,members by being as responsive as possible when teachers inform her of assignments, and by continuous in-service efforts. She has tried to demonstrate her value as a teacher and as an expert on materials and research methods, and she has an inter-disciplinary perspective --- one of the stated objectives of the curriculum.

If the potential of Bravo High School is realized, the collaborative spirit will reach beyond the building itself and into the surrounding community, into the public arena, and into the business world, in a significant effort to give to students what they need to succeed as adults.

• Bravo Medical Magnet School (Grades 9-12, enrollment 1,700)
  1200 N. Cornwell Street, Los Angeles 90033; (213) 236-0180
  Dr. Rosa Maria Hernandez, Principal
  Lynne Barker, Library Media Teacher
  Los Angeles Unified School District