A girl enters Tavares Middle School Library for the first time.  There are more than 15 people in the library but not a sound is heard.  She is amazed by the amount of books and doesn’t know where to begin.  Media Specialist Leslie Lee helps her to find the perfect book. 

Lee has been working at the Tavares Middle School Library for nine years.

“She is very nice and helpful, I always find what I am looking for with her help,” said Tavares Middle School student Lyric Jenkins.  Before joining the Tavares Middle School staff, Lee worked as a critical path scheduler on pad B for the Kennedy Space Center.  After that, Lee worked in a computer lab at an elementary school.  That job gave her the qualifications to become a media specialist.

In 2007, Lee received the Teacher of the Year Award for Tavares Middle School and in 2008, she became a National Board Certified Teacher.

The Tavares Middle School Library holds approximately 11,000 books.  Lee has read many of these books and her two favorites are The Shack and The Kite Runner. Lee receives money for books from the school, the district, the state, and also some book fair profits. Lee’s job entails book budgets, collection development, a teaching role, and taking care of technological things as well as using these funds to purchase new books for the library.

That’s a lot for just one person to do, so Lee has 17 student helpers. Being a helper is an extracurricular activity that students can take for a class.  A library helper checks books out to people and keeps their own book shelves--ones assigned to them daily--in order.

The library opens at 9:55 a.m. and closes at 4:10 p.m.  On April 10^th the Lake County elections office set up voting booths with the help of Mrs. Lee in the library for the Sunshine State Young Reader’s award book.  Students who read at least three books got to use an actual voting booth to vote for the award.  Seventh grader Angela Foster was excited about the real-life voting booths.  "It makes me feel important," she said. 

Lee arrives at the library at 8:40 a.m. and leaves at the end of the day when her work is done.  “I like this job because I am around the students,” said Lee.