Brittany Alexander

Interview #2

I interviewed Lotunja Wright from Jonesboro Middle School. Mrs. Wright is my middle

school supervisor.

Mrs. Wright has been working at the Jonesboro Middle School Media Center for fourteen

years. Mrs. Wright’s job responsibilities are to ensure that students have reading material and

technology. She has to make sure that the students have access to reading materials during our

virtual setting. She makes sure that the students are able to sign into their classrooms. In the

building, she tries to make sure she gives her students a safe environment for the students if they

need a break from their teachers. Besides her daily responsibilities, she makes sure to meet the

needs of her students and parents. To meet the needs of her students and parents during remote

learning by making sure the students are able to log into their classrooms and claim their

accounts on RapidIdentity. She makes sure to answer any questions from the students and

parents by email or phone. Due to the pandemic, she created a Google Classroom that has

information/resources for the students to look at as well as an interactive Bitmoji Classroom. She

also created a Book Club for students so that they could discuss different books during the

pandemic. Mrs. Wright gave an example of what a daily activity would look like. Mrs. Wright

makes sure to contact parents to let them know that students’ laptops are ready to be picked up

from the school if they have laptop issues. She also makes sure she goes into classrooms to teach

lessons and how to use different resources and websites. In the building, Mrs. Wright gets her

news crew started in the morning. She will make sure to help students by checking out books and

helping students with any research project. She makes sure that answers any calls that the Media
Center receives. She makes sure to host her classes in the Media Center. She also makes sure that

she checks on the Computer Lab and keeps the technology up and running.

Unfortunately, this year Mrs. Wright has not had an impact on technology

implementation because the county takes care of making sure all schools have the same

technology. Over the years she has by picking out the different technology she believed her

school would need and should have in the building. She informed me she was the one who would

have to order laptops and desktops. Like all Media Specialists, Mrs. Wright deals with good and

bad things about her job. The best part of Mrs. Wright’s job is the students. She loves to see the

students fall in love with reading and not think it’s only for school. She informed me that it is

important to read the books so that I can recommend a book to my students. The most

challenging part of Mrs. Wright’s job is getting the students to read. She said it feels like you

have to do backflips to get them to read. Also, another challenge is that everything falls on her in

the Media Center, she was used to having a paraprofessional, but now she is by herself.

Overall, after interviewing Mrs. Wright I see that she truly loves making sure her students

are reading and finds it very important that her students have a book in their hands. She showed

that you have to find interesting ways to engage your students so that they truly love to read. I

found it very impressive that she started a Reading Club for her students so that they could keep

reading during the pandemic. I thought it was interesting that she started with a small number of

students and now her club is increasing with students’ involvement. Mrs. Wright showed me

how to keep connecting with students even if we are in a pandemic and I truly enjoyed working

with her this semester!