Testing Frustrations

After our meeting last night I tried to kick into gear to get my last funds for the year spent. I think it was the day for "interrupt the library media assistant." Every time I sat down and got one piece done, someone would come up. Most of the issues were with the copier, or I had to clear accounts that had messages on them I had to override. A very busy day, but I really wanted to tag down my books! I did find some cool books on teen anxiety and that made me happy. One of our counselors requested that, so I looked to see what other schools had and got two really nice ones so far. One of our elementary assistants came and picked up her beautiful shelves since I had ordered mine and was waiting for her to pick them up. My aides all got their non-fiction shelves to work on today, and that was fun. I kept the graphic novels for me and had nearly a whole shelf to do! Got kids to bring back some very overdue books. One of my last period aides did a great job of putting my new shelves together and he loved doing that for me! Got a few things cleaned up like I put my repair books back up on their shelf, so my desk looks a lot cleaner! But ready to go home for the weekend!

Meeting, Meeting

I had two meetings today. I left work at 3 to head over to Claggett Creek for our Middle School Library meeting and then an OBOB meeting after that.  Got my aides all set on their fiction sections, so I'll hopefully get them all working on their non-fiction tomorrow. Did a lot of work on putting together spending my Scholastic monies today, putting together an order. Got my last two aides settled into the library, so now I should be all set for the semester. Had a substitute strip books for me and she finished the cart I had in my office. Had my 'vantastic' volunteer cover my new OBOB books so they are all ready for check out! Had to leave early today to head to our meeting. It was a great meeting, can't wait to share the iPad hook up with the teachers tomorrow. Then we had a great OBOB meeting, and I am really excited about the journey these kids will take! So much fun to be head! I was out there until 5:35 until I headed home. I have my own homework, getting questions on two of our books - Wonder and Into the Wild. Since we were at the meeting, we got to pick! Yeah! So excited about!

Order in the Library

But not on my blog! Totally forgot to do this last night! So today I had all my aides take the Order in the Library test to see if they'd be able to shelve books for me. They all passed but one, so that one will work mostly with the textbooks.  We were still checking out books today. I collected World Geography books. We no longer use these, so I packed them all up from the teacher workroom and got them on a cart and pushed them back in the back room. I did most of the check in/outs so my aides could do their shelving test. Worked out their shelves that they will be responsible for, and will give them their assignments tomorrow. Did my OBOB group for the first time today! I met during both lunches, had the kids come in during their lunch. We talked about the books, getting teams together, talked about what they needed to do. It was fun! 

Ten Aides

By the time I get done I think I will have something like ten aides to help during the day! Yikes! Whatever am I going to find for them all to do?? Today they were hopping though, they got a quick tutorial on our Destiny program and we checked out books all day long! Somewhere around 11 classes came in to swap out books today and my aides all did really well. I was impressed! I spent some time giving most of them a tour of the library, talked how much we had. I had quite the day starting to train them all! When we checked out library books I had to override a lot since we changed all the overdues to 'lost' so kids could be fined. Our library door is refused to unlock all the way today, so I finally put up a sign telling people to use the other door (the left side). Put in a work order for it. Put all the World Geography back in the teacher workroom on a cart so I could start the surplus process with them. Before I knew it, it was after 4! Time to go home!

Interviewing

Today Mrs. B's marketing class did mock interviews in the library.  Even though the library was closed, it was such a good exercise for these kids. They were nervous, dressed up, resume's in hand, good to see! Got all the books in my office stripped today. Gave my aides their papers and told them all their strengths while they worked for me. Did a lot of clean up today. Checked in and out a lot of books. I had our office change over all the overdue books to lost last night so they could run billing with the grades, so today was a lot of "this book is lost" messages on the screen. Spent some time with our Scholastic Book Fair contact on the upcoming March book fair. Yeah! I can send my Harry Potter books back and not pay for it! Got more bilingual books coming and more OBOB books. Sent in an announcement for Tuesday and Wednesday that we will have our first meeting on Wednesday during lunch. Did a lot of clean up tonight, taking trash out to the hallway. Picking up the workroom from all the pieces of paper all over the floor. It was kind of a mess. Glad to be off on another three day weekend!

Grading Papers

I am so excited I actually graded my aides' papers today! It was great! Worked on the excel spreadsheet for our lit books with my wonderful and amazing volunteer! We got everything all entered, now just to see if the computer says what is actually on the shelf! Did a lot of shelving today. Sent out an email to one of our administrators about my three aides who also help out other times during the day. We have these Lion Pride awards and I hope they get one! Tried to find my scholastic paperwork and couldn't, so I hope they will take books back with an invoice. Had my supervising librarian come by this afternoon and we had quite the chat in between everything else. Talked about numbering the new math books, our Head of LMSS wants to use 5 numbers, but it seemed silly to me when the first of the five numbers were all '0's'. He really does enjoy interacting with the kids and that is fun to see. Met with a few other LMA's down at the Ram to talk about our jobs, what's going right, what needs to be changed. It's a nice time.

Back in the Saddle

So good to be back to work today. My substitute yesterday did a great job and I was able to go through her notes and get all that taken care of! I have worked with her before when the other assistant at Sprague was gone and have always really liked her, so I was glad to give her a job! Sent off some Fahrenheit 451's to Sprague and three other books as well. Worked a bit on my last book buy for the year. Trolled through my emails. Checked out books to Mrs. M's classes today. Sent out call slips for books that were on hold. Stripped two shelves of books on the cart in my office. Shelved some books as well. Put up our emergency poster in the library. Found that our OBOB meeting would be next week, so I will put off our student meeting until next week. Asked when/if/how we would be doing overdue and fines for lost books from the first semester. Printed up some notes for the 39 Clues books. Some of them have had their cards taken from them, so I put a adhesive note in there stating that I had left the cards in there so all students would have the opportunity to see and use them and I was sorry if the cards were gone. Mrs. Willer, 1/2015. I was sad that all the new books on the shelves today had missing cards. We'll see what happens next. Was informed that the after school program would be leaving the library area and be in the Commons after the semester break. It'll be so quiet in there then! I might fall asleep! No, I could never fall asleep! Too much to do!

Off Again

Yesterday the orthopedic surgeon decided he did want to do surgery on my mom's elbow, so I took the day off to be with her. Back to work tomorrow!

Leaving Early

See what happens when I come back later? Oh, yeah. Emails. I took some time since the library was mildly quiet today to delete old emails I don't need anymore. Created some new folders as well. There were so many and I still have more to do. Worked on my last book order for the year and noticed one of the fields didn't set up right so I let my supervising teacher/librarian know. Most of the books I'm looking for I'm using what I didn't get on the last order, and some new books that students have suggested. Put away a back log of math books, one of this, two of that and got those all put away. My mom had a doctor appointment this afternoon, so I left at 1pm to take her to it. She fell down her stairs on Monday night, slight fracture on her C1 vertebrae, broken right elbow. So off to see her primary care physician. We were to go to the beach this weekend, but off to the doctor instead. With a neck brace and her arm in a cast, no going places for that headstrong woman except the docs!

Cutting Out Europe

Had a great time today. Students came in looking for a big map of Europe. I looked in my drawers and didn't have anything, but then I remembered that when I was cleaning up stuff and moving things into better spaces, we had this old hang off the wall in front of the chalkboard map set. One of those with several maps and you would unroll the one you wanted? So, I guess one of the students is going to Europe and will send updates on where he is so they wanted a map to plot his trip. I took the big set, we found it did have a Europe section. Those things are so big, heavy and bulky, and I thought again, who is ever going to hang it again? No one! So I got a pair of scissors and cut off Europe. It worked perfectly! They were going to hang it and even came back to make sure it would be all right for them to use thumbtacks to put on the wall and I said sure! What a fun thing to do! I felt very pleased with myself! Got all the rest of the new books out today and was happy about that! Checked in/out four class sets of math books. Did the last covering I needed to do and started working on stripping books. Had my wondrous volunteer Mrs. M go back and work on all the lit set titles so I can create a spreadsheet. Laminated some things for a teacher and a sign for the library door that says "Library is closed! Mrs. Willer is having her lunch! Please return at 12:06!"  We'll see if it works! 5th period was amazingly quiet! Only had one student in working on a project. I loved it. Asked around for my sign in sheets in the office and then to reprographics, and finally sent in a new one and I think I got it - Ta-da! Even got a confirmation email! Drippy rainy day out, so I had the lights on all day, even in the computer lab just to brighten the day. I really love working with the students and helping them out with their questions. Helped Mrs. P today get some resources, and one of the subs. Had two more of my aides turn in their written projects to me. Gave a thank you card to our principal for the amazing things he said about me at the meeting Tuesday night. Life is good!

The Sunrise

I am very excited that I am almost at the end of putting new books out! Just have a few more to cover and they will be all out for students to enjoy! One of my first period aides did a great job today. He checked out a class set of books. Ran book hold slips out to waiting students. Took mail up to the office. He really did a lot of running around today! He did awesome! Had my second period aides stamp all the new books and write up the titles to send to LMSS. We had a lockdown procedure this morning, and the students that were in the library did a great job. We had to be very quiet because otherwise, we would have never heard the announcement from the principal that the exercise was over! We have no speakers or anything in the room, so we had to listen to hear him through the wall of the classroom next door! Had another teacher take a bunch of the English consumables we found to use in her class. Yeah! So glad they will get used! Also checked her out twenty of our Prentice Hall Silver books. I just love the Prentice Hall Lit books. They are awesome! Emailed and called the ladies who signed up to be library volunteers, I can't wait for them to get to work! Had an absolutely gorgeous sunrise today, took my breath away.

Parent Club Meeting

I was so excited today to have three boxes show up that could only be NEW BOOKS!! Yeah! I asked for our OBOB books to get processed so we'd have them in time for kids to start reading and I got all those plus more! So excited! I got a lot of them out since they were hardbacks from the free pick day we had back right before Thanksgiving. Got extra textbooks put away, worked on points for my speech for tonight at the Parent Club Meeting. Checked in/out math books for Ms. S. Had a ton of students in during 6th period and we had quite the buzz going on in the room! Laminated tonight for two of our teachers. Covered and stripped the new books. Got one of our technicians a bulb for a projector, but it didn't work so he brought it back and took the projector with him. Cleaned out a bulb filter for a teacher on another projector - it rather looked like a lint filter on a dryer after new towels went through! Nice and clean now though! Went to the Meeting tonight and introduced myself to the Parent Club and got three parents to say they'd love to help! Huzzah!! A recommendation for the Book Fair to have a more bilingual books for the next one so I will do that. Then I was terribly embarrassed by Mr. M saying wonderful things about me and how much he appreciated having me there at the school and serving our staff and students. He really put it beautifully and made me feel that I truly am doing the job in a great way. I wish I had recorded it, he really does have a great way with words! 

More Consumables

Today I had my aides pull all the English consumables out from the teacher workroom and put on a cart for the teachers to start looking through. Mrs. V took a box full, but I still have tons. Checked in/out math books for Mr. S's classes today. My amazing parent volunteer came in and finished off the lit book reorganization!! I am so excited!! She did an amazing job back there and I love having all the books all together, in order by title and not in two totally different places. Then she worked on stripping all the books I had back in my office, three whole shelves worth and put them away as well! Mrs. M, I heart you! Where would I be without my aides and my volunteer? Buried under books, that's for sure! 

Surprise Surprise!

I can still hear Jim Nabor's voice as Gomer Pyle saying that. Wow! Today was to be a bit quieter, but I did get a surprise visit from Mr. O's class coming in to check out books and he let me know they'd be back again at 5th. Mrs. S brought in her class as well. Lab was taken up for three periods today, and had both lunches in too! Stripped lots more books so lots for our aides to do. Had a cart from study hall checked over for barcodes and had an aide break up books that were not barcoded and packed into boxes. Moved a few more things around in the back. Got the rest of the science 'E' books number noted and when two students were flustered by putting them away I had them just shelve regular library books instead so I finished putting the science books away myself at the end of the day. Also made sure our computers had at least Windows 2007 on them while we are getting ready for the new testing that will be coming this spring and sent those notes to our principal. Covered a few more books as well. Weekend calls!

Reproduction

I got in and took the media cart down to PE for them. Ms. B brought it back at the end of school. Today I helped out other Ms. B with her health class and the reproduction system. Not that I really did anything, but hosted the genders while the other one was in class. She sent them down with an assignment, so I really just monitored them and tried to keep their minds on their work while the other gender was in class watching a video and talking with Ms. B. She was so very grateful, said it was the best teaching on that she'd ever done and the students could ask questions without worrying about the other gender hearing them. They were for the most part very well behaved. Got my new invoice for tattle strips and sent that to our bookkeeper today to get a PO# and get ordered. Stripped three whole cart shelves of books today. My aides were perfect with shelving books today. I had an entire cart full and it all got done except for my aide who was gone. Sent books off to other schools. Lots of kids came down to check out books today. Always makes me smile!

Media Cart Set Up

I often have a fear of technology and that I won't be able to make it work. Our bookkeeper needed a projector today for the yearbook kids and we managed to get it working well enough for her. Didn't get the monitor screen on, but she was able to use the projector to get where she wanted. I went back over everything after she brought it back and figured it out! I'll take it back to PE tomorrow for them to finish their DVD they are showing. Had classes come in today to check out books. Four I think? Missing two aides again today. Ordered some books for kids and sent some out to other schools. Got books checked out for a teacher on his Native American unit. Then I put up others as extras for kids to see and maybe do some extra credit on. Got all the hardbacks out on the rack and even got four paperbacks covered and out! I may even finally get to read The Fault in Our Stars. Since we now have two more copies, I was able to fill almost all the holds since a couple of girls had gotten it for Christmas and didn't need a copy anymore. Did some laminating for a teacher and some book covers for me so I could recover and get them back out on the shelf. Put the new teacher math materials back by the student books rather than piled up on my desk. Ordered new Tattle Strips. A very busy day!

Computer Check

Today Mr. M came in and we got to talking about the lab & getting it ready for testing in April. So I had my aides go into the lab & turn on each computer, make sure it connected to the internet, and test all the headphones to make sure they were working as well. Had a few issues, so I sent in a tech request. Sent off some books. Checked out four classes of science books. Got all the books shelved that were still left over at the end of the day. Had a student come in and finish off his work for me. Had our January fire drill this afternoon, I had some kids in and learned I need to write in their names and the classes they were in so the office could account for them. I also requested to go to the parent club meeting next week and Mr. M said sure! I will look forward to it! Sent off some more new books today, I just can't say no to a kid looking at the new books! Might have to just start putting them out for kids to enjoy!

Verily, A New Year

New books, huzzah! Came in this morning to see four Baker & Taylor boxes in the office and the books I ordered in October are here! I was so excited! I got the Shakespeare 'Star Wars' books the three of them, hence the title of this post!  A lot to do though. Had to unbox them, check them all off the invoice. On the cart I started to strip all the hardbacks since those are basically ready to go. Mrs. J came in and needs four class sets of science books 'E'. Got those on a cart and we did the update copies on them so they are ready for check out tomorrow. Had five classes come in to check out books for reading time. Had aides vacumn and clean off the top of the shelves. Had another aide put books out on top of the shelves. Had a student come in and work for me to pay off a book. If he comes in tomorrow he'll be good for it. I put away books this afternoon then worked on stripping the new books while the staff meeting went on in the library this afternoon. Got another Kudo slip, who knew? Glad to be back in my library! Lots to do!