The daily life of a Middle School Library Media Assistant.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

12 days of School

Finished up reading The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo this weekend and found that The Old Man and the Sea was originally published in Life Magazine. Since we have those archived copies, I looked up the date and pulled the book. There it was! Wow! I e-mailed the Language Arts department and let them all know that we had this incredible resource and one of the teachers e-mailed me back and hopes to use it next year when she teaches that section. Can hardly believe the year is almost over! Took in a lot of books today which is a great thing. Printed up the textbooks out slips for all the teachers and cut them up (some had two or three teachers on a page) and had our volunteers put them into their boxes. Processed one teacher magazine and two for the library. Packed up the Introductory to Physical Science books we had borrowed earlier in the year and sent them to their home. Checked out a class set of Animal Farm. Took down my steampunk calendar and started getting June's calendar together.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Fer How Long?

Went over to South High School this morning and took some Vision lessons from Mrs. W over there. So I brought back her take on all that to Sprague and played around with that on the computers over in my area. I learned to block them all, and open them up for individual requests. I created a screen for the blocked computers and got that up and posted with messages "All Library books are due June 3rd. All textbooks are due June 10th or when you are done with them. Please see Librarians to unlock this computer." and some book covers and a background. It turned out nicely. We just need to train the kids on it and get practice for next year. , Processed in a magazine for us, checked in books and cleared a billed book, got in more Animal Farm from West and processed those in. Put books away in the back, worked on repairs on the old Life magazines. Had a wonderful poet in today speaking to English classes from a local university and we closed the library so they could work with her. Taught Mrs. M how to work the Vision program so she'll try to get it up and running on Tuesday morning when we get back. We are heading into a four day weekend here on Memorial Day and both Friday and Monday are furlough days. Wish I had somewhere to go!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

June 3rd

That's when all the library books are due! So I made up two of our outside bulletin boards up today to let the kids know. I also worked on my Vision skills and set up a meeting with Ms. W over at South to see how they work it. I can do some stuff, but I'd like to learn more and can't get it off the manual. Checked in and out, put money in print accounts, did some repairs and worked the front desk this afternoon after Mrs. M left for the day since Mrs. H had a lesson to teach in a classroom. It was busy up there fielding all the kids' questions and helping them!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Repairing Origin of the Species

Somehow that just tickles my funny bone that I've been repairing Darwin's Origin of the Species! The book needed some gluing and some new tape on the frayed edges, and we'll laminate the cover with the next set of laminating we do and it'll be ready to go back on the shelf - could I say it's evolved? :) We had an Instructional Assistant come to me today to get book information for a student who will attend in the fall. I guess they will need online versions of the texts we use so she was getting ISBN's and copyrights, publishers, all that information for the person that will work with the student. Two of our aides were working in the back and had some music on really loud, so I started dancing as I took some books back. I may have scarred them for life! Ms. L was looking for a quick book for the end of the semester and since we are all out of Animal Farm, I suggested The Adoration of Jenna Fox and she thought perhaps The Hobbit, so I said how about both. So she checked out Jenna and will see if that will work. Had two teacher editions of texts turned in that were not cataloged, so I did that and put them away. Processed in three magazines for us. Checked in a class set of the Fit and Well books. Judson Middle School sent us some books they thought were a bit too old (age of reader wise) for them and gave them to us, so I removed some of the stickers for our own processing. Mrs. H gave me the new Booklist since it was their Fantasy and Sci Fi edition and I found a few that I thought we should have. We had a book with no barcode on it so she created a new one and I put it on the book and taped it all in. Had students in the blue lab last period that were getting a bit out of hand and when they made a sexist comment, I spoke up (of course!) letting them know that it was inappropriate. It's tough to be a Mom to a school full of kids, but it'll be worth it one day.

Monday, May 23, 2011

The Reader

Sincerely, just a normal day, nothing too exciting. Checking in and out. Had some kids checking in their class texts for the year since they are done with them - yeah! Worked on repairs. Funny to think I repaired Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species today :) Put money in print accounts. Cleaned the sink in our workroom, it was getting very grody. Tonight as I left, we had a student come in and check out books and as I drove out of Sprague, we have this lovely flowering tree, half in flower, half in leaf. This student was sitting on the stone benches under the spreading branches, her long hair flowing down as she had one of her new books propped open on her lap reading. A lovely sight to see on my way out.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Karma

So, I started this book called Surfing the Himalayas. Today a kid comes up and we start talking and he loves to snowboard, so I told him about the book and he was so interested, I pulled it out and checked it out to him. Must be Karma! Mostly did repairs today. My computer was very slow. I worked up a skit for the video announcements on Monday about getting in textbooks and library books, so I hope the kids will do it! Made up a list of Fahrenheit 451 books that are out and the ones still out from the previous class Ms. A took to Ms. G and she's going to make sure that kids get them in! We got in about three today already, so hopefully the rest will come in so everyone gets one. A teacher was looking for a student and couldn't find her on our check in sheet, so as she headed to the office, I decided to get more sheets since we were at the end of the last one, turned the page and there was the student's name! She did come in! So I hustled out the door and caught up with the teacher as she was half way through the office and caught her! So she came back with me and looked at the time. So, it was good! Our practicum student is a biology teacher so she went through our science section and pulled books to destroy, so I spent the last part of the day destroying (in the computer) the books and marking them out to be picked up for surplus next week. Have a great weekend!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Bad Splat

So Mrs. H texts me this morning to bring in Bad Kitty to meet someone, and it is Splat the Cat that her friend had gotten her. They spent the day together on my bookshelf hanging out. Helped a parent calling about books she needed to return to get her son's report card. So I helped her out with that. Two of the books she had, but two were missing. I referred her to Bookbyte to get the lit book since she can get it much cheaper there and can't afford to pay our replacement cost. I send a lot of students and parents there when they need the help. Mostly did repairs, put money in print accounts. Checked in and out books, monitored the computer lab. Processed three teacher magazines and four for the library. Cleaned out some of my Groupwise folders for the summer since we were asked to do that. Pulled more lit sets for Ms. A's 8th period class and some other books as well for their banned book section.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Finding Justice

One of our teachers was doing a poetry section and a student wanted to know if we had any books by Donald Justice, and we did! So I pointed him in the right direction and saw him later reading it. At the end of the afternoon, we found he had dumped the book on a fiction shelf on his way out of the library. hummmm. Helped a student print out a brochure. Put a lifering in on a computer whose monitor has a buzz to it when it's on. Worked on and finished up the changes that needed to be made on our inventory. Checked in and out books, put money on print accounts. A student's keyboard wasn't working so I checked and someone had just unplugged it. I plugged it back in and it was working. Billed an old Biology book, but our bookkeeper said that it was too old to go back now, so she took it off. Cleared our Main Frame of 3 found books. Processed in two teacher magazines and six for us. Helped our practicum teacher and Mrs. H go through the science books to see which to surplus and which to keep. Pulled Lit circle books for Ms. A's class. They are reading about 10 different books, about five students to each one. They did two classes today and will do another tomorrow.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Optimus Prime

One kid checking out books today had Sharpied that onto his student ID card, made me laugh! Today Mrs. H was gone and so it was a busy day. Lots to check in and out, money into print accounts, more repairs, worked some more on the inventory reports we had done, putting books into 'lost' accounts (they were supposedly on the shelf, but not there) and taking billing off for books that were in and had been billed. The art department took all the old stuff we had cleaned out of the cabinets and a lot of the old notebooks we had lying around as well! So glad to see that they will get used rather than tossed! Set up the Infocus machine and computer for the use of the cheerleader meeting tonight before I left.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Monday, Monday

Worked on repairs today and finished cleaning up the back room from when we were back there during testing! Checked out a class set of The Bean Trees and took in some Literature and Language books in exchange. Monitored the kids at the computers. Put money in print accounts, checked in and checked out books. Our computers were really freaked out this morning, so had some issues with that. Gave Ms. A a list of the books she has out. Showed our practicum student how to put books into the 'Maintenance' section of the Insignia program.

Friday, May 13, 2011

?

Worked a lot of repairs these two days and cleaned up the Life magazine books. I kept out three that I will continue to work on, but put the rest away. Ah, it was too long ago now and I can't remember all I did! Must do this every day!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Last AP day

For the library anyways! I think we still have tomorrow in the CRIC, but we are now all done and life back to normal! Mrs. M had an appointment today so I came in early and opened up the library. It was fun to get things going and sit up at the main desk for the morning before the testing began. Helped a lot of kids, checked out a class set of Old Man and the Sea. Checked in and out various books and textbooks, helped a student copying things for a teacher, the paper had jammed. After testing started, I cleaned up some of the back and worked on more of the Life pages. Did you know that someone had worked with the Germans to try and get them relocated back in 1937? And as soon as he got them to agree to that, he resigned. I never knew that! I'm going to show that article to one of our social studies teachers tomorrow!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Half & Half

Today we started in the back because of testing, so I worked some more on the old Life magazines. We finally got back into the library about 11:30 and started to catch up from two days of being out. Did a lot of checking in and out (Mrs. M left at her usual time and Mrs. H left early for an appointment for one of her sons) so that left me. Withdrew some old teacher materials that hadn't been checked out for ten years and surplussed them and got all the surplus packed up for the pick up this month. Started working on cleaning up all my notes from Friday and Monday that were all in the back of who took what that I had written down. Checked a quadrillion e-mails. Processed three teacher magazines and five for us. Cleaned out some more stuff from the cupboards. We're going to see if the Art Department wants anything before we throw anything out.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Life

In the back all day again due to the AP Testing, so I began to work on our archived Life magazines that have torn pages, pages out, etc. I got a lot of things glued but had a lot of fun looking through ads and news from 1937. Such an amazing resource!

Friday, May 6, 2011

In the Back

Today was AP testing in the main library all day so we holed up in the back. I worked on inventory most of the day and straightening things up back there. Our tech at the school cleared off a bunch of shelves that Mrs. H wanted to move our Life magazines onto, so I redid some of the shelving and had our aides move the magazines over. She also had me clean off a bunch of teacher materials and I sorted through them and packed up most of the surplus for the pick up this month.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Hamster Massacre

So, I come in today and the kids are all taking the AP test, so we are in the back. I worked on the inventories I had printed up yesterday, finding books that are not on the 'in' list, and finding books that are on the 'in' list are not there. I clean those up once we get back out to the library about 12:30 or so. I check in and out books then, money into print accounts, the usuals for the rest of the afternoon and print up some more lists for tomorrow and Monday when the library will be closed all day. Mrs. H found this book called The Great Hamster Massacre. We got giggling over it. Would be a good middle school book.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The Wedding!!!

So today I processed in three magazines for the library and one for a teacher and three of them were about Will and Kate's wedding!!! Oh my! I must admit they did not make it out to the magazine rack until after lunch when Mrs. H and I went through them! I printed up inventory forms for a lot of the books that have been used this year so I will do that tomorrow morning when I get in since there is more testing for the AP exams. Did some more repairs, checked in and out books and put money on print accounts. Took all our bills from the day and locked them up this afternoon since even I had quite a few. Talked with a teacher about her old outdated books - that we had sent them to another school, she had forgotten we had done that. Recommended a book for a student who was looking for adventure books, not too long! So I sent him to Roland Smith's Peak, and then he couldn't check it out because he didn't have his card with him - oh my! I took it up to Mrs. M for him so he could pick it up when he got to his backpack later and could get his card. Cleaned off my shelves of all the books I've kept aside for students to check out so I don't have to go in the back to get them. Most of them weren't asked for anymore and it's time to inventory and get ready for the books to start coming in.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

AP Testing

Today was our first day of AP Testing and the library was a site for the afternoon section. So, we all made ready and moved into the back around 11:30. I checked in books before then, but we were having problems with our Trac-it program, so I sent in a Tech Life Ring for that. Processed in four teacher magazines and three for the library. I also got the tables ready and coordinated with the counselors on what they needed for that since Mrs. H was out doing AVID interviews for next year. I also got our video announcements to remind the student body that the library would be closed all afternoon for the testing and not to come down. I worked a bit on the calendar and did a new 'math' bulletin board for the little board outside the workroom door. I checked through all the math books that came in from the first semester and found some wrong placements and a couple that need to be sent off to the school we borrowed them from. Helped Mrs. H with the print money, confirming counts for her to take the money up to the bookkeeper. Cleaned out some cupboards and rearranged some that were a bit untidy. The kids were still testing when it was time for me to go!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Caught Up



Had a teacher come in as I got there and needed some books for a student who had been suspended and turned in most of his books, so I rechecked them out to the student. Then we got in the Algebra Connections V2 books so I sent out an e-mail to the math department that we had extra copies for students that hadn't gotten one yet. Worked on some stuff for the bulletin board outside for when we have to be in the back because of AP testing tomorrow. I'm going with a math theme. Did more repairs and checking in/out for students, and money into print accounts. I also took our extra money and locked it up. (I keep adding in some stuff to the calendar, but think I finally have it down now! I've gotten a lot of people coming by to my 'Steampunk' theme! Thanks to our old Techie Angela and her hubby for all the amazing bike gears! 5/16)

April 29th

Today was just a half day and so I put up most of the May calendar, though I'm not entirely happy with it. It just needs more! Though I'm not sure of what more. Processed in three magazines for the library and did a few repairs to sit for the weekend. Now off to watch the Royal Wedding!

April 28th

Did a lot of repairs today and took down the old calendar from last month. Ordered in some of the Algebra Connections V2 books we were short of.