The daily life of a Middle School Library Media Assistant.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Final

Took down the old calendar today. Checked in a lot of books and put them all away. Had several kids withdrawing so got them all taken care of. All good fun with Monday off! See you Tuesday!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Pizza

Today was the last 'full' day and the kids are all done at 11am tomorrow, so Mrs. H brought in pizza for our aides as a thank you and I had some too! Took in a lot more books today. Had a teacher with nothing to do work on the reference section making sure everything was there and in order. Covered The Sixties books that hadn't gotten done before they were checked out at the beginning of the semester and did some repairs.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

1, 2, 3 Finals

Mrs. M and Mrs. H had appointments early this morning and since the students are done early today, I came in early and got things started. Checked in books, lots of money into print accounts and helped Mrs. H work with Mrs. P's class on their bookmaking project for two of the three periods. I was very busy!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Qoversized

I got all our oversized books changed over to 'Q' today. I guess the 'Q' comes from Quattro which means like a huge amount. So we now have 163 oversized books! We will tag them with different labels, either magenta or neon green, depending on which ones our office managers order! Had a lot of kids turn in books today, put money in print accounts and a lot of assists. Processed in four library magazines. I also packed up the Connected Math books and sent them back to Waldo. If they don't want them, they will send back for our special education students. Packed up some old Read 180 materials for surplus. Finals start tomorrow!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Q books

I got all the reference books moved today and the oversize reference ready for a new spot! I got everything on the new shelves nicely and we will move the Short Story section over to where the reference ended and that will free up more shelving for the fiction books. We also want to move the biography section and Mrs. H and I figured out a new spot for that over by my side of the library. I also contacted one of the middle schools because a teacher brought in books that they were done with and since they had the school stamp on, I checked with them to see if they wanted them back, or if they were given to us. I worked the front desk today while Mrs. M went off to eat lunch and Mrs. H was gone and it was fun and very fast paced! I began to work the oversized books and edit their call numbers to start with a 'Q' instead of an 'R'. Processed in seven teacher magazines and five for the library. We got in quite a few books today from the first semester students dropping off books. A good thing.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Moving Shelves

That's about all I did today. With our new shelves in, I was unpacking all the boxes from before winter break and got them all done. We took our manga section and put it onto two of the new sections so that will look nice. The old shelf will become the place for oversized books, so I worked on the shelves to get them all over there from the boxes. Mr. C came in this morning and they actually did a live remote for our daily announcements from the library workroom by my desk. I helped him get ready by getting the TV feed ready and standing in so he could play with the camera. Checked in two class sets of books. Even though the teacher brought the whole class down, it seems that we only had a 50% return on books. Not good at all.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Shelves Arrive!

We have a lot of Hunger Games out there so I sent out notices to get them back. More repairs. Helped a student with setting up headers for her paper. Mr. C came and worked on getting things ready for live video announcements tomorrow. Outside the library, a student came to let me know that one of the display cabinets was unlocked. I went to Mr. C because I know he has a key for the Speech team trophies in the one next to it! A truck pulled up with our new shelves! So exciting! I helped bring the shelves in and counted the pegs for the shelving. We pulled the first four over to the other shelving we got earlier this year. Money into print accounts(5); check in(11)/out(4) and 3 student assists. Checked in one class set of Glencoe Health books.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

They Came

Today I mostly did repairs to the Prentice Hall Gold books. We also got in a box of math books from SMc that have all the Oregon standards for math that we had requested for Mr. O'C. He was very excited that they came in. I also sent out an e-mail to the middle school librarians to ask them what books they use and if they had any SMc books they weren't using, we would like to use them, or possibly any others that are around. We also got in a box of teacher resources that would hopefully have an audio CD of Great Expectations. It didn't. That book excerpt is no longer a part of that series. I e-mailed the rep for the company to see if he wants the materials back and to send us the mailing labels and pick up call if they do. I also e-mailed SMc and asked if they wanted their materials back and the appropriate shipping labels if they do. I had a student ask me to see her story she was working on last week and I said yes! It was a great story! I also brought in my camera so Mrs. H could take some pictures of the tables we have in the computer labs and then I downloaded all the pictures to her computer from that and from the cover making yesterday. I helped Ms. A pick out a new book for her class, so we picked Pay It Forward and she will read it over the weekend.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Book Covers

Wish I had a marbling font! We had two classes today that came in to do their book project and they did their covers. Some did chalk, or string dipped in paint, bubbling, shaving cream and food coloring or marbling. Some of the kids did some amazing stuff! I worked all day mostly on helping the kids and keeping the supplies going. A really fun day for the kids and for us as well!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Yes - I Mean You

It was a CIS day today and I had a group of juniors. Last time they were in on the computers, they were supposed to put in all their classes and grades, but they had none of that done. I guess the computers were so slow, they never even got on, so I got them all started and they got a lot of work done on that today. The rest of the day I mostly worked on repairs for the Prentice Hall Gold books. I also made a note for the emergency doors over by me. Even though they are not alarmed, we don't want students using it because there are no detectors there. Kids can just pick up a book and walk out the door with it. So I made a small sign to put up about face high for them to use only in an emergency - yes, this means you! Please use the main library doors!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

PH Gold

Spent most of today working on repairs. I did spend a lot of time 2nd period monitoring the computer lab and the random students in the library. Mrs. H was doing a lot with AVID today so I was pretty much in charge after Mrs. M left for the day. Found one Prentice Hall Gold book that was from another school and I'll finish the repairs on it before I send it back. Also called a publisher for one of our teachers. They have a good math series that meets Oregon standards for Middle Schoolers, which will work great with some of our special education students. We have one of their books and they are sending copies of the other eight in the series for a meeting next Wednesday.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Covers

Mrs. H and I pulled out all our book making gear for next Tuesday. We needed more of the spine covers and the inside endpapers, so I cut up the rest of the spine covers we had and did a slew of endpapers for the two classes. Then I did more repairs, packed up the old teacher materials that were on the work table. Checked in and out a few books today and did some assists. Sent out an e-mail to the teachers to bring in their classes to check in books.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

RiF

Reduction in Force. That was a reality in the room as we had our meeting today. We were told that there may be people that won't be here next fall. We are still working on ways to cut expenses, but there really is no room left in the budget. It will come down to people this next school year. The English Department cleaned out their office and brought it all in today, so I unloaded both cart fulls of teacher materials and sorted it all out. Kept some of it for us, the rest I made a list and sent it out to the other schools to see if anyone else needed some of these materials. I helped a student work on a table for her class project today and that felt really good to get it all set for her. She came to me several times and asked for help. The other computer lab got all set today, so we took all the rest of the chairs that were blocking some of the reference and got them in the lab and we are finally all cleared from all the work we've done and it looks nice. Processed in two magazines for the library, two for teachers.

Monday, January 10, 2011

37 Sprague Library Books This Year


Put up a new outside bulletin board today and decided to put my 2010 reading list from the Sprague library. I read a lot more, but if it couldn't be found in our library, it didn't get on the board! I had a lot of my reading reviews from the year, so put those up and just reviews with titles and authors for others. That was one of my goals this year was to read more of what we have right in our library! So I'm happy! Checked out a class set of Freedom's Child and checked in and out several individual books. Monitored the computer lab. Straightened up the telescoping shelves - some books were sliding out to the edge of the shelves and nearly ready to fall off. Did a lot of repair work on Prentice Hall Gold books.

Friday, January 7, 2011

New Digs!

My new space is awesome! It'll take a bit to get used to, but I love it!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Shelf Props

I had the shop kids build me a couple of boxes to put under my shelf and they did a good job, so I painted them today (they were just rough wood). Did some repairs on some Stage and School books. Checked out a class set of The Catcher in the Rye and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Checked out(10)/in(14); student assists(5); log-ins(2); print accounts(5). Want to really get to know our Vision program so asked Mr. C if we could get a training on it. I messed about with it a little and got looks from students when I froze all the computers at once! Got an audio anthology for one of our teachers who's been asking for it from our book rep (thank you very much Mr. M!).

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Out with the Old

Got my area all organized today - yippee! So I feel moved in. Finished up the calendar as well. Went into the back and pulled all the old 2008 magazines and withdrew them all. Sent out an email to staff that they were on the back worktable for anyone that wanted to use them. What gets leftover I will put into our 'cut up for projects' boxes. Talked with one of our science IL's about getting in more things they can use. More magazines and perhaps some books. He is very concerned that a lot of kids don't seem to have computers at home and have little outside of school access to computer information. So I talked about our magazine process and that we are always looking for book suggestions. He took all of the Discover magazines for his kids to use. Got ready The Adoration of Jenna Fox, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Catcher in the Rye to check out to classes tomorrow. Looked for a book resource for another school. Cleaned up some check in's from last year I had piled away. Mr. B came and worked on my computer for a bit and got my Vision up and running. A kid from shop class came up and took a look at what I wanted to hold up my book shelf under the bulletin board. Gave my copy of The Cellist of Sarajevo to the library to have. An excellent book we need to have in there.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Creating my own Utopia

Something one of our administrators used to say. So, I got my bookshelves moved today thanks to our wonderful wood shop students and was able to paint the wall it was on and moved my desk under the bulletin board. It'll be different, and backwards, but I will adapt! My book display shelf I'll put up a bit higher on to the bottom of the bulletin board and asked the wood shop to build me two 10x10x10 boxes to hold it up and it'll give me some space kind of like the old secretary desk slots and things to put stuff. Processed in ten teacher magazines, 22 for the library from what came in during winter break. Checked in a class set of the Algebra Connections V1 and out the V2. Checked in and out other students today, put money in print accounts and it looks as though the blue computer lab will be up and running tomorrow, so life'll be nearly back to normal. They are still working on the green lab, but hopefully it'll be working soon as well. Checked in some books we sent off to another school.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Back in the Saddle Again


Great to be back at work! The computer labs are still being worked on, so things are a mess. I asked the shop kids if they'd come and move my book shelves so I can move my desk. So they came and looked and then I never saw them again after they said they needed tools and would be right back! So, my area is a mess as well, with all the stuff I moved out of their way and got ready for when I would get my desk moved around. Took down the old calendar and got most of the new one up. Just need a bit of extra stuff done, but all the rest is done. Checked in a class set of Algebra Connections V1 and out a class set of of the V2.