EDUCATION
TWES educator earns 2023 honor
Laura Dixon, media specialist at Turner Woods Elementary School, was chosen as Media Specialist of the Year in Jones County for 2023.
Dixon said she grew up in Northwest Georgia near Chattanooga in a small town named LaFayette. She said she moved to Jones County in 2014 to be closer to her husband’s family.
“I like the slightly warmer weather and the small community. I didn’t want to live in Bibb County, because I wanted my child to live in a smaller county,” she said. “The appeal for me was that Jones County was a smaller town like I’m used to, and I like that.”
Dixon was named Media Specialist of the Year by the other media specialists in Jones County. She said her other colleagues felt she deserved the honor this year, and she said she’s worked pretty hard over the years to get this far. She said she has taken on rewriting the library handbook for the entire county.
“It’s a nice validation that my fellow media specialists appreciate and value what they see. I had a few posters and cards sent up here from the classrooms congratulating me as the Media Specialist of the Year. My family was excited for me, too,” she said.
The media specialist said she’s been at Turner Woods Elementary School for four years, and five years in Jones County. She said she always loved reading and books, so she decided to get her masters and specialists degrees around being a media specialist and she did a program in instructional technology.
“My grandmother inspired my love for reading before I even knew how to read,” she said. “One night I was staying at her house, and we were in bed together where I was flipping through a book. I said I wish I had glasses and she asked why. I said ‘so I can read like you do,’ because she had books all over the place in her house. I hope I can inspire that love for reading in children, too.”
Dixon said she taught special education at Clifton Ridge Middle School when she first came to Jones County. She really wanted to be in the library, but she was in inclusion special education at the time. She had to wait to get a position in the library, and once she was at Turner Woods Elementary School, she loved it.
“My favorite thing about being the media specialist here at Turner Woods is seeing the kids get something. I love when kids find that book that starts them down the path to be lifelong readers. It makes things all worth it. I love those moments and helping them find those books,” she said.
Dixon said her number one goal as a school librarian is to instill a love for reading in the students at Turner Woods Elementary School. She said that is at the core of everything she does. She said she has rearranged the library and books to make it easy for the students to find books they will love.
The media specialist said it was just announced she was the 2023 Middle Georgia Region Library Media Specialist of the Year also. She said it was exciting to hear the news, and she will find out this summer if she will be the Media Specialist of the Year for the entire state of Georgia.
“I’m one of 16 media specialists for this. There were about eight essays we had to write, questions we had to answer and it’s graded,” Dixon said. “At this point it’s out there, and they probably know who it will be, but we won’t know until this summer. I don’t expect it, but it would be nice.”
