JOYCE DEATON, Media Coordinator

Q: What do you do?

A: I am a librarian, also known as a media specialist. I work in the library with Mr. Smith. I got hired to take Miss’s Corrigan’s place as she decided to retire. 

Q: What made you decide to teach?

A: Well, I started my teaching career at the college level. I lived overseas in Japan and Turkey. When I moved back to the United States I started working in a public school and landed in Middle School. However, I was interested in High School because I love this age group. I love kids who are ready to go off to college and finding out who they are. That’s why I decided to work here.

Q: What does a typical workday look like?

A: Work with remote learning is very different from a normal workday in a library. On a normal day, we’ll be running from one side of the library to the next, working with students and teachers, going to meetings, working on shelving and buying books, checkout, trying to make displays that look interesting, and work with book clubs. It’s so varied and such a cool job. However, we also work with technology which I don’t love so much because people ask us to fix things and I have to think about the possible ways to fix something. Today though with remote learning, our library is dead. 

Q: How has virtual learning impacted your job?

A: The technology has a huge impact on my job for sure. Also just looking out into the library where it’s empty and dark. I love books, I love it when kids read and enjoy books, but I also love kids when they’re noisy and walking around. I miss the kids, it feels so weird without them. 

Q: Tell me about your educational background. 

A: I started by getting a bachelor’s degree in History and intercultural communications. I was always interested in the rest of the world. When I was in my 20s I went to Japan and got a job teaching at a junior college. I love Japanese history, everything related to history for me was important. I love learning about different cultures and languages. I lived in Japan for 4 years and then I went back to the United States and got a master’s degree in Asian studies, so my focus was on studying Japanese culture. That degree helped me go to Turkey because a job opened up at a University in Turkey. I lived in Turkey for a while teaching English and Japanese in a humanities department, it was awesome. Then I came back to the United States and worked in the Media field for a while and television production. Working with documentary film making and then landed in public school. I went to get some education to work in a public school so I went for history. Then I saw that the library was the place I wanted to be because it had the things I loved like books, stories, media, technology, and helping people. I know how hard it is to teach and it’s nice to be able to help teachers out. I went back to school to get another Master’s degree in Library science. I took a year off and then went back to school to learn science and media technology. This past summer I spent in England and Ireland, I stayed there for 5 weeks doing research.

Q: What do you like to do in your free time?

A: I like artistic things such as Music and Photography. I just started playing the guitar and I started singing in some music groups. 

Q: What do you want to do for students?

A: I want to get to know students and help them find their stories. I like my job because I don’t have to grade you. I just want to know who you are and help you find your passion and interests in living to do something amazing