The STEM East Media Specialist Design Institute brings together a select group of school library media coordinators from across eastern North Carolina to explore the evolving role of media specialists as instructional leaders, collaborative partners, and champions of inquiry-based learning.

As schools continue to prepare students for an increasingly complex world, media specialists play a unique role in supporting teaching and learning across all grade levels and content areas. Through resource curation, instructional collaboration, information literacy, and authentic learning experiences, media specialists help students develop the skills needed to ask questions, investigate ideas, evaluate information, and make meaningful connections to the world around them.

During this one-day design institute, participants will examine the current opportunities and challenges facing school library media programs, explore strategies for strengthening instructional partnerships, and consider how the people, places, stories, organizations, and industries of eastern North Carolina can serve as powerful resources for student learning. Participants will also explore STEM East’s Industry in Schools initiative and discuss how authentic regional contexts can support inquiry, literacy, and cross-curricular learning.

Most importantly, participants will serve as members of a regional design team tasked with helping shape the future of media specialist engagement across eastern North Carolina. Working collaboratively with colleagues from multiple districts, participants will identify professional learning priorities, recommend engagement strategies, and help design a sustainable framework for future networking, collaboration, resource sharing, and leadership development opportunities.

The institute seeks to establish the foundation for a vibrant regional community of media specialists dedicated to strengthening teaching and learning through inquiry, collaboration, authentic experiences, and meaningful community connections.

STEM East: Media Specialists Design Institute