Karen Westbrook               
Media Specialist    706-216-4649 Ext. 1320
[email protected]

Welcome to the DCMS Library Learning Commons!

My name is Karen Westbrook and I am the Media Specialist at Dawson County Middle School.  This is my 15th year in the education field. My educational background includes a Bachelors of Science Degree in Early Childhood Education and a Masters Degree in Special Education. I earned my Specialist Degree at Valdosta State University in Instructional Technology with media certification in 2019. In the past,  I have taught Special Education, ESOL, reading and gifted education. This is my sixth year as the media specialist at DCMS. 

My husband Brian and I have 3 children and 8 grandchildren. We are both from Dawson County and we love our small community. I am proud to be the parent of three Dawson County Alumni!  When I'm not teaching, I love spending time with my family.  We love the outdoors and spend as much time there as we can.  We spend most of our summer fishing or swimming and I also love to read.  I could spend hours reading a good book. I have several favorite authors including, J.K Rowling, Ronald Dahl, and Veronica Roth. I look forward to sharing my love of reading with the students at DCMS. It's great to be a TIGER! 

Karen Westbrook 
[email protected]
706-216-4849  ext.1320 Counter, ext 1321 Desk 

DCMS Learning Commons 

The DCMS Learning Commons is a welcoming space for collaboration and learning. The Media Center serves as a learning commons for teachers and students. We can offer help with technology needs or research, and we are excited to say that we also now offer a new video production room equipped with a green-screen.  Our book collection contains over 8,000 print volumes and we have a digital collection as well! Students have access to our digital collection on their own iPads. We are building our collection of Ebooks and will continue to focus on integrating our iPads for reading! Our space includes new couches, chairs, two cafe tables and areas for collaboration. We also have an interactive Cleartouch Panel for creation and presentation purposes. Please don't hesitate to ask for help with any of our media center resources.  We are here to help! Please visit our homepage often and learn about our reading challenges, events, and media center resources.

Mission/Vision

The mission of Dawson County Schools is to be an exemplary school district, with outstanding staff, that prepares students to compete globally.
DCMS is committed to genuine and authentic collaboration that empowers students, parents, community, and staff to be leaders. This collaborative leadership will ensure the purpose and direction of the Dawson County School System are met.

Educational goals of the the DCMS Learning Commons include:

To provide materials that will stimulate growth in factual knowledge, literary appreciation, aesthetic values, and ethical standards.
To provide materials representative of many religious, ethnic, and cultural groups and their contributions to American heritage.
To provide learning experiences that will meet the unique instructional development and personal needs of students, teachers, parents, and other community members.
To help students become skillful and discriminating users of media centers and of printed and audio-visual materials.
To prepare students to be responsible citizens in a democratic society, to understand their relationship to the world community, and to develop life-long learning.
To provide learning experiences that enable students to communicate effectively (by oral, written, and visual means), compute accurately, and think creatively, critically, and independently.

Media Center Policies

Students are welcome in the Learning Commons during the school day. Small groups and individuals are required to have their agenda signed from a teacher. Mrs. Westbrook is available to help with locating resources for research or for pleasure reading. Books may be checked out for 2 weeks at a time and renewed if needed. Students are responsible for taking care of the books checked out from the media center.  If materials are lost or damaged, the student is responsible for the current replacement cost.