Monitor

Turned in my book order for hopefully the last time! Added some, tweaked others. Increased my limit. I just hope it gets sent in, soon! Had my aides do more numbering today. I worked with other students discussing stuff they could do to work off fines. Library was crazy today with people. The last period of the day I ended up just monitoring all these kids to get them to either do their math quiz or work on their health work pages. Got two sets of science books up to teachers (o.k. my aides did). Displayed more books. I set out instructions for my sub since I will be gone for the next three school days. I hope she does all right! I let all my aides and worker kids know, some of the teachers as well. See you all back on Wednesday.

N

Today was a big checkout day for the 'N' science books. Four classes came in, then another teacher came in needing a class set for his classes. I had my aides put the numbers in notes for all the ones we were checking out today, then when the used ones came in, they checked them in and put number notes on those as well. That kept us pretty busy. Turned in an invoice for some lost books. Worked on my last revision of my Baker and Taylor order. Doing a lot of tweaking. Got all the CCSS books stripped today so they just need to be covered. Wrote out some more explicit directions for the sub who will be here Friday through Tuesday. Off to meet with our other Middle School Library Media Assistants.

Redo

Man, I just hate it when I get called on something I thought I did right and no, I did it wrong. So, my supervisor sent me an email that I needed to get 10 or 13 digit ISBN's on my order and yes, he was right. I copied what I thought were all good numbers, but it's very easy to see that about half the numbers were less than 10. Oh my! So that gives me a chance to revamp my order a bit, which is a good thing. Checked in and out today. Monitored a bit more closely the kids that came into the library on passes today. Did some laminating. Redid a book cover. A kid brought it in missing half a barcode, and I ended up peeling off all the old cracked and bubbled laminate on the cover, redoing the barcode and spine call number, relaminating it and I must say it turned out really nice. Cleaned up my trash in my email. I had stuff in there for several years and took some time to just clean it up. I had over 1200 in there! Now I just have a year's worth. Sometimes you just need to clean. Ordered some more strips, my box is looking low! Had the aides work on numbering the math books so we don't have to look inside the cover for the barcoded anymore. Someone keeps shrinking my screen on the main floor computer - I will find out who is doing it!! I need the bigger numbers oO my poor eyes!

Dictionaries

Today was all about dictionaries. Well, just a teacher needed a class set of 34, but I actually delivered them up to her. Gave me a chance to walk the building a bit and take a look out of some other windows! Checked in and out a lot of books today. Stripped a lot of books today. The ones the kids checked in as well as the CCSS books. Showed my volunteer how I cover books and she was "Oh, that's so much easier than how I did it!" Nothing really special going on otherwise. Just a busy regular day of lots of things going on. Normal stuff, all day long. Another good day. Had a great view of the Cascades and watched the clouds come in this afternoon.

Crying

Today I went to go use the bathroom and there was a girl sitting on the floor crying. I went back out and brought her some tissues. Then I had her go into the back workroom and sit there since one of the counselors was in the library with a group. A teacher noticed her as he was in copying, and went in to talk with her until the counselor was done and could take her upstairs. The rest of the day was pretty quiet. Stripped books. Worked with a teacher on her projector. The service department at Boxlight gave me a few things to try, but I don't see they do any good, so I will work with technology and get it out to be serviced. And luckily, we got in the first of our replacement projectors! So I may swap them out when I have to send the other one in. Had the aides put away books. Got back my three boxes of hand wipes that were purchased to clean off the keyboards, so I had my aides clean the computer lab keyboards today. Let the lunch kids play in the computer lab. They can only play cool math games, or work on a school project. They did pretty well. Took all of our Dear America books and put them all together on one of those wooden book shelves I was leant. I'm hoping since they are on display, they may get more kids to check them out. Got in a cool cookbook and was thumbing through it with my aides, and one was  like "Stop! You're making me hungry!" I also showed them the "Dewey Decimal Rap" and she was again "Stop! Make it stop!" My aides are so funny! Got the list of OBOB books that the schools are going to use and sent that out. Little things here and there, but a very full day.

A Day

Today was a strange little day. Rained outside all day. I boxed up three boxes of books to send out. Got my JLG order and reboxed it to send to LMSS. Some nice new books! Very exciting! Did a bit of quick and dirty repairs, some stripping. Had my wonderful volunteer shelve all my books for me the aides didn't do! Checked in and out books and renewed the ones kids brought to me from the slips they got handed today for overdue books. Did some emails. Checked through a $5 book catalogue from JLG. Didn't really have enough for me to order. A student got a bill, I thought it was a mistake from another school, turns out no, it was from our school and I don't know if I have the gutsyness to tell mom that yes, they do owe for books. They claim they were all turned in, but I don't think we have them. Pity. Today though, not sure if it's worth going to bat for. Got rid of all the Robin Hood books to other schools. Fixed a printer today that a teacher kept trying to print to. Had to pull it all apart to finally find a jammed piece of paper under the toner cartridge. Looked up the manual online to figure it all out! Sent another email to Boxlight to see what their tech has to say about a bulb for another teacher. I may have to buy another box of strips...we are just flying through them! Had a sub come down today who used to be one of our teacher librarians. She pitched in to shelve books and we had a bit of a chat on how sad I am that kids are not getting that great service they could be getting from them. What the kids are missing and the loss of that piece is something they won't ever recover from. 

Overdue

Printed up all the overdue notices today, but just for the checkouts starting this school year. Hoping to get some books back in that have already been out for two months! Did more stripping today. Packed up books to send off to other schools. Had another student work off his fine. Rebooted a document camera from notes a tech sent me and it works great! The teacher was very happy. Had five classes in the lab today, and four classes come in and check out books. Had my aides work on the notes for the math books today. Rained on the windows all day today. Had a group come in and work on drawing and cutting out shields for the book fair. Talked OBOB with a teacher. Left work and put the overdue notices in the teachers' mailboxes on my way out the door.

Copier Down

Came in a bit early so I could leave for my hair appointment this afternoon and there was already a teacher in making copies who called me in to ask "Why is it saying this??" So, I looked and it said the toner waste container was full and to call for service, so I did! He called back and said he'd be in later today. Had my aides work on putting in the numbers for our math books. One of my worker kids to pay off his fine is down to a little less than half an hour to go! Good for him! Got into my CCSS cart, where the books I know that'll get used need to be covered, so I stripped books and covered them and got them out. Had a couple of subs come in and put books away. Emails in and out. Finally got my name changed to Leslie from Bush. When I would check out, the computer would say "Be aware! This is not your student!" So Mrs. H at LMSS changed that for me today. 

Switched

Had a teacher in the library lab this morning, and she had two computers that didn't work. I got one fixed, but the other needs to be connected to the computer port, but none of the feeds over there work. The ones that do work are already in use. So, I crawled around on the floor, unscrewing the switch plates, checking out the connectors, none of which worked, putting tape over them and X's to show I checked them out. Then I wrote a note to the techs about everything I did. So I hope they decide to show up now and get that one hooked up. Did some Boxlight contacting for a teacher. Checked out books today. Fielded questions from the office. Sent out books. Got books in. Had a student work and pay off his fine today Huzzah!! I just need to remember to write down the books so I can replace the ones that need replacing. But up a Halloweenish display of books, I had printed up "SBOOKY". I thought is was cute! Contacted STAR, another reading program to see why we don't have it anymore for another teacher. Got in a bulb for a projector and put it in and it seems to work just fine! Yeah! Just seemed to be a day of trying to keep the troops pacified and getting things done to make our teacher's lives better. Not a bad way to spend a day.

Darth

Had all my aides today working on their shelves since the library was so messy from yesterday. I worked on stripping books and then shelved a section at a time to see how the kids did. Got a lot of books put away, all the fiction and the graphic novels that were stripped are all on the shelf. Had two students today work on working off fines, and that was great. Lots of little things going on all the time, but only one class to come in and check out books and classes nearly all day in the computer lab. Got class sets of books checked out - the teacher gave me her class lists and my aides checked out a book to a student, then wrote the number on the end of the book beside that student's name. I've had a Darth Vader water bottle in the library most of the week, so I finally sent out an email this afternoon. Hopefully, he will find his way home Monday. 

AR to AM

Got all my class lists for the AR reading site, so hunkered down today and got six very full classes of students entered one by one. It went pretty quickly. I had to 'promote' the old students, redo the school year. Then I un-enrolled the old classes and enrolled the new kids in classes. That took a bit of doing! In between five classes coming down today to check out reading group books! Checking out textbooks to teachers. Did some laminating as well! A very busy day and my oh my is the library A Mess! I'll have to take some time tomorrow to get it all straightened up again. But I am so happy to see kids coming in and checking out books! Best part of my day :)

A Year Ago Today...

A year ago today I started at Bush, so today I wrote to the three people who impacted me the most to help me get my feet under me to that drastic switch. I was treated very well, and with a lot of respect and I wanted them to know I remembered that. So then today I got hit with two girls letting me know I was a b***h! One in a note inside a book that her friend turned in. "Why don't you like the librarian? Because she's a b***h!" Talked to them both then talked with a few teachers to see if I should write a referral, and they both said, ah, yes. I took the referrals up and put them in Ms. B's box. On my way back, there was a girl jogging down the hall I asked her to stop at least 5 times (short hall) and she finally took two walking steps then ran up the stairs and into class. I tracked her down and as I had her walk back to where I saw she was jogging, she said loud enough for me to hear "stupid f*****g b***h" so I just marched her up to the office and she said it again on the way. I told her she had a choice, and she chose to continue to jog down the hall. When I asked her name for the referral slip she took her planner and sat on it so I couldn't see. Oh my. On the bright side I found out my leave was approved for the end of the month. Got my amazing beautiful wooden bookshelves from one of the other librarians. She brought them in this morning for displaying our books. They really are gorgeous. They won't fit under our windows though, they stick out over the edge of the top of those bookshelves, so I had to come up with a couple of different ideas. The stand alone shelves worked fine though! Checked in and out today. Got almost all the books I repaired back out on the floor today. Got class lists so tomorrow I can load them onto the AR program so the teachers can use that. So a good day, balanced with testing. 

Sore

Went to work out last night at a 'team' training thing and I think my muscles hate me today. Getting up and down out of my chair hurt!! But on with work! Got the approval to get our back up projectors, so that was good news! Stripped more books today and got nearly two cart fulls put away thanks to my aides and a sub that helped out. Laminated this afternoon, these huge posters from science that I had to fold in half then slit them open so they'd be full size and the fronts all laminated. That took awhile. Did some other more usual laminating too. Had a teacher talk with me about her AR (Accelerated Reading) list, so we will work on that tomorrow. 

Half Life

Great half day of work today (Half Inservice/Half Grading - I don't grade!). Worked mainly on book repairs. Gathered my three big piles and split them up into types of repairs. Taping, tipping, page glueing, spine glueing and extra tough spine glueing. Got all done but the last. Ran out of clamps to hold the books into position while the glue dries, so I will do them some other time. That was about it! Off to home and Konditeroi's!

Inservice Meeting

Met at Straub Middle School today and had a plethora of topics we talked about all morning. Back to Leslie about 1pm and worked on stripping books. I'll fill in more details later....

Visits

Started today coming in to see a pick up backed up to the school doors and a tech guy was loading my boxes into his truck! He was so sweet and explained the way it works when stuff goes to surplus, then he even emailed me later and got two of the doc cameras to work and will send them back. Score! We talked for quite a bit. Then down to the library and in the midst of students and checking out lit circle books my supervisor made it in and he stayed for over an hour. It was so cute to see him interact with kids and get them involved in conversation. Had two more classes come in today and get books. Put more strips in. Had an earthquake drill since next week it's supposed to be raining during it. So we had it today in the nice blue sky weather. Had someone bring me an extra projector while the tech was here, so he took to our science teacher who's projector we worked on last week, she was thrilled! He even took the bad projector to see if they could get it working and if it does he'll send it back :) Talked with Scholastic about the book fair today and that was good. She spent about 40 minutes with me, got some stuff ordered. Got in two boxes of books that were down at LMSS and got them on a cart today. 

Book Fair

Lots of checking in and out today. More strips in books. Spent quite a bit of time with Scholastic emails today and went off tonight to one of their book fair meetings. I left half an hour early, and the meeting was two hours, so I don't mind using my own time to get some good information. Some of these people go crazy! I like it! The theme this year is "Read-a-Lot" so a nice medieval twist. Hey, I could do book shields! What a great way to do book reports! Just thought of that! I guess we did get the right laminator film, so had our office order me three more rolls. Asked for some books. Had a teacher ask for a book "My Brother Got Married" and could not find it. The teacher said "on the left, in the back!" Oh, "My Mother Got Married" ;)  Helps to figure out the right title! Had several classes in to turn in books and check out new ones. Had a student pay for a book at Bush, so sent that on today and he got to check out - I love it when that happens! Found that technology won't replace our equipment unless it is broken, so I have to figure out what's broken. I'm not sure what their definition is of broken, so I told the principal how about I drop them off the roof?? Probably not, but hey, teachers need the right equipment to teach with all the tools in their box. Will work on that during the inservice days Friday and Monday.

Stripping

Went through the first of my 100 packs of strips today so yeah! Books getting done! Decided to take the carts of the books that come in and strip them before they go back out. Since they get checked out the most, made sense to do them first. Then we got in some laminating film, but I think it was the bad stuff. I emailed Mrs. H to see what they ordered. I also got in two boxes of books that will fill our CCSS curriculum slot. They are all paperback, so need to be stripped, and covered with contact paper. Lots to do! Then I had to work with Scholastic today and our book fair scheduled for November. They had us booked for an Elementary fair! We're a Middle School! So I got that all straightened out. Not a bad catch for a first time fair person! Got through 4 shelves of stripping books on the shelves. Walked through helping some of my aides put away the non-fiction. I know it can be confusing, so we grabbed a handful of books and I went out with them to show them how it's done. Had a great volunteer come in today, and I look forward to her great work and attitude. She is amazing! Good, because we have lots to do! Did more checking in and out, less emails today (thank goodness!), corralled some phone calls and at the end, did a real clean up of the library for tonight's parent meeting. Want to make sure they come in to a great space. 

Strips In!!

Was so excited to hear my Tattle Tale strips were in! More excited when the office got them checked in and they came downstairs! Wo0t!! I grabbed the first shelf of "A" fiction books and stripped them all (except the ones already stripped - and ran those through the resensitizer) and I was so happy!!  Checked out more books today, had a bit of conversation with a student (hey, come here. You know, this is kind of like a job. If no one was watching me, and I just did nothing, do you think I'd have a job? 'No.' Well, this is your chance to work on things, to figure out who you are and part of that is putting in the work. 'You can't tell me to do anything, that's for my teacher to do!' Well, I am a staff member and just wanted to run that information by you. What you do with that, is up to you.) Helped kids with saving papers onto flash drives today. One gal had a drive that was too big to get into the area of the USB port, so I used mine, and took it over to my computer, dragged it to my desktop, then put it onto her drive. Had another kid need to make a google doc, so my first period aide helped me get that done. Put calculators in the big file cabinet in the back, back textbook room. Had another aide pile old Lit books onto the table in the back. I actually did some shelving today just to see how my aides were doing. Not bad. Got a Kudos! bar from the teacher I had been helping with to get her projector working. She's decided she just needs a new one and probably rightly so! Did a few repairs on some Core Algebra books. Just grinded through emails. Came in a bit early today so I could volunteer and help out at the track meet this afternoon. Cross Country with four different schools. I took one of the corners and really enjoyed it (though it was hot!! luckily I had a tree!) and encouraged the kids on and up the right way. Another great day in the library and outside!

Wrestling the Wily Laminator

Finally, ran out of laminating today and had to change the machine. I've laminated lots, but have never actually changed out the rolls before, so today was the day. Oh my! Luckily I found the manual and a CD going through the steps, but man, I got so messed up! First I got the rolls on, and next thing I knew they were wrapping around the heater rolls instead of going out the back!! I freaked and reversed, but pulling the laminating out kept stopping the machined! Thank goodness it wasn't heated up all the way - I finally got the laminating all pulled out and tried again, getting it all the way through, but the rolls weren't lined up the way I wanted, so I took them off, got them better aligned, fed the sheets through and they weren't coming out the back, they were wrapping around the back roller bars!! Reverse!! And in between of course, I was helping students and staff, subs and phones, but I finally got it all set, threaded through, laminated the last of the DLC pile of stuffs and it looked beautiful. So glad I finally got the threading right, the instructions down for how to feed the rolls through the right way - that was a big relief!! Other than all the laminating I had to do, the day was pretty normal. Though I did snap at one of the students that likes to hang out in the library. I told her I had to finish up this project, and she kept interrupting me! I needed to concentrate and she finally went over to a little table and worked on homework. I did feel a bit bad but the girl loves to talk, pretty much all the time when she's in here from study hall. Dumped all the trash, found knitting needles for book repair just after I bought some! Off to the weekend!

Lamp Done!!

Had a great day today. Finally got that lamp out of that projector!! Yeah! Used my old assembly line techniques and finally, it popped loose! Huzzah! Put in a new lamp, took it to the teacher. She was glad to see it come back and all her stuffs worked perfectly, except she still has the blue and yellow lines, but she was much happier with the set up she was used to! So I called technology and updated them, so hopefully they can figure out the lines issue. Cleaned out more stuffs, got the last of my manuals in folders. Packed up 20 each of the Realidades 2 book and workbooks for another school. Looked for a book to send to another school, but couldn't find it. Found two boxes of clasp envelopes, a box of file folders and a shredder manual and asked the office if they wanted them, they said "Yes!!" so I will send them up tomorrow. A drawer had about two + reams of colored paper, so our Instructional Coach took them for a teacher that needed them. Had an aide take up some boxes for delivery, and take the last of my file cabinets to replace one for a teacher. She had no rails to hang her files, and I only needed half a drawer, so it worked out nicely for both of us. Laminated some stuff before I left for my meeting. Attended my first Middle School Library Media Assistant Meeting today and learned a lot of great stuff. Very excited that we are getting a box of books!!! Mostly just to make sure each school has at least one copy of each of the books designated for Common Core, but I can't wait to get mine and put them out!

Projecting Frustration

The second of my filing cabinets left today, so that was good. The workroom is really looking so much better. Checked out lots more books today. Checked out nearly all of our Core math books. Had a student go through all the manuals and put them together in piles so I could give each one their own file. Even found the information on the resensitizer! Brought in the InFocus machine to a teacher and could not get it hooked up right. Her old projector had two in VGA ports, but this one only had one, so I tried a splitter and totally would work one way, but not all the way :(  I messed with that thing for an hour during lunch, then again after school and could not get it working the way we wanted it to. The doc camera worked, the DVD worked, but it wouldn't sync with the computer too. Arrgghh! I switched cords, played with settings, nothing. After the lunch time, I called technology and griped to one of the techs there that this teacher had been waiting for three weeks for someone to come and do something, and though people had been out, nothing had been done. He put her priority to number one, which was nice of him, but still couldn't tell us when someone would be out. Cleaned out my other four drawer file cabinet and will swap that with Ms. P up in the office. She needed four drawers that would all have hanging file folders. Since this cabinet I might keep, I don't really need files but on one drawer, so we will swap. Put carts away with stuff in the back. But I really need to shift more books! Mr. TG!! (Textbook Guy) get us the approval to get rid of these things!