Susan Grisby "Media Clerk Interview Question" Sept. 11, 2009 LM_NET

This post brought up a lot of issues for me as I think about becoming a LMS in upcoming years. I would clearly want to be a part of the hiring process for an assistant but I would have similar concerns to Susan's. How does one find out whether someone will actually be a good fit for the position. I know administrators deal with this all the time, but I am not a principle and have no desire to be one. I look at my current LMC staff and don't know how it would run if our LMC paraprofessional was not there. She knows everything - I'm not kidding. Without quality help, I don't know that I will be able to handle starting as an LMS. I worked one year in a building with a brand new LMS whose part-time assistant did nothing more than check-out and occasionaly reshelve books. This resulted in a very poorly run LMC where my students did not enjoy spending time and where they learned very little. I know it will be a struggle to make the transition from the classroom to the LMC and my worst nightmare is not having someone who already knows what's going on.