The daily life of a Middle School Library Media Assistant.

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Like Lightning

So today I ended up using some funds I still had for ordering a class set of Lightning Thief. Ms. K and M came in and we got a few questions answered, checked a few other places, made an order, got a number, got the PO approved and hopefully the books will be here by next week. Really hoping! My all Thursday volunteer found more lost/missing books so I'm sure those kids will be very happy. Had aides work on checking out two class sets to Mr. R. Another Kercheski list to a math class. Did more status updates on the science books and had the kids put them away. Worked on repairing a Mary Poppins book back from when the Disney movie came out! I want to do a good repair that'll last and not just glue and hope it holds. Deleted a ton of old emails. Asked for more Lightning Thief from some other schools. Middle School Library Media Assistant meeting this afternoon at Salem Public Library. We got all our summer library program stuffs from Mrs. S. Time went by fast and got a tour of the Teen Scene area down there that she runs. Nice! Have some ideas for next year, putting genre's in the separate bookshelves, might see if that works. Might be fun to try!

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Something Day

Had two classes come in to check out books. We checked in nearly 100 books today. Showed the new aide around and got him working. I was a bit taken aback when I went into the science room and the two girls were discussing Shades of Grey! Oh my!  Had our new aide help me move TV's. Put the old broken one in the back room and put the nice one up on the tall cart. Got all the science books shelved and started the students on doing copy status for them to make sure they were all done. Had Mr. R come by and pick up books and we talked about ordering and digital audio books. I was thinking I'd like some more since we have a lot of students who really struggle with reading. But they are like, $40 a piece! Maybe I need to put in a wish list for next year! Checked on buying some Lightning Thief with Scholastic, but 40 copies would be nearly $300. I don't know. Maybe. It seems our students and teachers are all set to go on that. Had my OBOB kids in, two weeks to go and we'll have the tournament. Had the back room cleaned out so we could meet and talk back there and not disturb the testing. Did some more copy status, then oh my! Time to go home! A nice risotto and chicken dinner tonight with a lemongrass basil sauce!

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

The Kercheski Method

Checked out three more classes of books using the Kercheski method. She laughed when we told her that today. I get sheets from the teacher with names and student ID numbers, we check them out to the students and wheel the books on a cart to class. No disruption, no having to come down for books. I love how it works! Had five other classes come in and get books today and first period was so good and quiet and they got progressively worse during the day! Oh my! Had to check in a bunch of books as well and we updated them to make sure they all had numbers. Was given another aide today by one of the counselors. I tried to get out of it. I have three aides that period already not to mention my fifth graders that come in for classes and the students that had been at South for advanced classes. But he insisted. I had the poor student sit at a table and he spent most of the time just staring off into space. Didn't even read. Got in more Lightning Thief books for the Language Arts teachers that want to do a Greek mythology study. I'm up to 23 now, about half way towards what I want. A very busy first day of the last six weeks day!

Monday, April 27, 2015

Synergy Training

Today was just a half day for me, so I attended one of the mandatory Synergy trainings. Interesting, though I will use it mostly for attendance and looked up which classes a kid is in. That was for three hours. Then I had lunch with my favorite Teacher/Librarian Mrs. H and most of the other Teacher/Librarians! Then back to Leslie where I updated copies, finished off a class we were checking out to, packed books up to be sent to Sprague (she asked me to bring them to lunch, but I didn't go by my school before I went to the training!) Cleaned up a few more things here and there and my hour flew by and out the door I went into a beautiful sunny afternoon! Back to regular business tomorrow!

Friday, April 24, 2015

Reports Due

Today was the last day of the middle 6 weeks so book reports were due from my aides. Most of them got something in, but a few didn't. Hopefully they will by Tuesday. Worked more repairs today, shelved books so that our shelving cart was almost empty. Just a lot of books I fine-tuned. Got out our copy of Mary Poppins that was pretty beat up and took a good look at it. Redid the cover, and that turned out pretty nice. The book hinges were bad. Someone had glued the whole back spine to the spine of the book at one point and the book was not staying together anymore. I'll have to think about what I want to do with it.

Long Jump

So today I did a lot of cleaning, even sweeping the carpet in the corners to try and find my earring, but no luck. The carpet edges look much better though! Did more repair work. Sent out an email to about 20 different schools looking for some copies of Lightning Thief for a class or two! Had some great help looking for lost books today from one of my amazing volunteers. After school I helped out at the track meet at South HS. I helped with the long jump and it was great to see these middle school girls go out and jump! 

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Lost Earring

Man, I am so bummed. I just got earrings in Kauai when we were there and I lost one at work today. Didn't notice until I got home, so I'm hoping I'll find it when I get in tomorrow morning. Finished off destroying the books that are on their way to new homes. Finished up a lot of repairs. Worked on some reports. I think I'll have my volunteers tomorrow look for lost books. Had a girl swear she had turned in a book. So I looked it up, F Derby. Then I noticed that the book was called Derby Girls, how odd is that? An author uses her name in a title like that? Then I noticed her name was Cross, so we went over to the shelf and by golly, there was the book under F Cross, so I went in and changed the record so that when we look it up again it'll come up under the right name! Checked headphones today (probably that's when my earring came off, I'm hoping...) Had our OBOB meeting during B lunch today and the boys did much better than they did last week! Sent them home with a letter to give to their folks on getting them to Houck for the battle next month.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Sharing is Caring

Today I packed up a bunch of the books that will be heading off to other schools and withdrew them from our inventory and then deleted them. I'm so happy that rather than sitting on my shelves collecting dust they are heading off to newer and hopefully readier pastures! I was able to clear one and a half whole sections of book shelves in the back room! So exciting! I shifted shelves and packed boxes up. A good day of sharing the amazing resources the library has and needs to get out there to students and staff! Did some laminating this afternoon before I left as well!

Monday, April 20, 2015

More Repairs

Gotta love a good book repair and I was able to get some of the books I did on Friday out on the shelves today. Worked my way through most of the rest of the pile on the shelf and did secondary jobs on others. My aides did a great job on checking out books to classes. One class of Schooled  by Gordon Korman and two classes of science book K. I need to take more of my repair scrapbooking paper in for just a few more books. Got more requests in today to send out more books, so I emailed our office to ask how they wanted me to do that. I want to make the transfers as painless as possible for them. Another great day in the library!

Friday, April 17, 2015

Repairs

Happy birthday to me! Since it was my birthday I pulled out my glue and tape and went to work on book repairs today. Got a lot done and we'll check the results on Monday :) I love to do a great repair and had these books piled up waiting, so since it has been pretty quiet in the library I picked today to get down and get glueing! Also sent out my half list of books that I need to get rid of and had a lot of responses for copies. Mrs. H of course grabbed up my Fahrenheit 451 copies! At Sprague we were always short! I see daylight, or at least fluorescent light on the shelves and that's perfect! Better the books go to where someone needs them than sit collecting dust. Got all the books shelved before I left today. All the computers shut down for the weekend. A good day!

Thursday, April 16, 2015

FINI

As Mr. C said today. All my inventory for this year is done. All finalized and done. That was a big weight off my shoulders! So we spent time getting things ready to finish with the fiction R - Z. And there lots of little things to take care of all day. Pulled some more biographies and decided to do a bit of hunting since we don't really have a lot of new or current people. So I went on some lists of biographies for middle schoolers and came up with a list of about 15 I will order in the fall. That just took time to look them up, read the synopsis, find age/grade level and decide if that was something we could use in here. Mrs. M's kids were still in looking for biographies today. Ordered one in from another school for a girl. Another for a boy. Did some laminating today. Repaired a book. I really need to get on that for my shelf full of books. Got in my box of stuff for the BOGO scholastic book sale, so we'll see how that goes. Library was pretty quiet and manageable today. Asked our custodian if there was a way I could get my windows cleaned and he said sure! I am so excited!!

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Inventory

Today I really chugged through the 300's and the 921's. I did have aides help just a little bit so they could get a taste of what inventory is all about, but I did the lion's share. With all that, we only had 8 missing books! That is incredible to me! Finished off my bookmarks and put them up on the counter. Did some regular stuff, checking out and in. Helping students. Had my OBOB boys in and after just killing it against the other teams they were so bad today! I couldn't believe it! Pull it together Team Firestar!

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

53

That was my first count of the inventory I started today on library books. We had 53 copies of the 100's on the shelves and they were all there! Yeah! So a good trial run on getting the computer up and running. Made bookmarks for National Library Week. Got a great email from Mrs. H saying to all her assistants, YOU ARE AMAZING!!! I thought maybe it was just for me, but no, it was for all of us that work for her ;)  Had to put headphones on all the computers tonight after school was out because they will start the SBAC tomorrow. I tested each headphone to make sure it was working correctly and three of them only worked on one side. Sent off an email to technology about putting the Leslie generic login on just certain computers in the school so kids can't use them elsewhere. Parent meeting tonight so I cleaned off all the tables before I left and left the windows up so everyone can see outside. I could see fresh snow on the mountains today. Sometimes the views just make me stop in my tracks in wonder.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Wishing

Had quite a few projects to work on today. One was our calculators. We had two different designations for the same one. I ended up taking them all, checking them out to me. We had 6 that no longer had barcodes on them, so the ones that were 'available' I took those barcodes and made barcodes for the uncoded ones, then claimed the other available ones 'lost'. Worked out well. Those were the TI-108's. Then I worked on a little batch of TI-83 Plus ones. Decided to go through and check on students that are no longer at our school to make sure their books did get changed over to 'lost' so they could be billed for anything they still had from our school. Had my aides out four classes of science books for Mr. M today and start to check in his returns. Got in the report of the books that are probably 'lost' from the textbook inventory, so I went out this afternoon after school was out and checked all the LA classrooms for books. I even found a few! There are two sets of books, one on Nellie Bly (one of the first newspaper women) and one on the Changing Earth (language arts??) that I would be really happy to find. Wishing and hoping to find! But as it sits right now, we are 98.51% inventoried, so I feel good about that number since it's only my first year there!

Friday, April 10, 2015

Tom Sawyer's Fence

Had a lot more of idle students today as the classes in had more and more students done with their testing. So again, I put them to work! Today they did copy status for me, and I hope did a good job. During 5th period, I had two boys in my office working away and doing a great job for me, and by the end of the period I had about ten kids all wanting to help looking in the window! I should have charged them to help with something in the library and it would have been a lot better than going around shushing them! I wish I would have had enough work to do that they all could have been doing something good! Asked about our Scholastic book BOGO sale. No, it won't be online. Worked on my May newsletter entry. Checked in and out students. Shipped some math books back to Crossler. Another library media assistant had a fix for our search engines so they would just come up with our own school rather than all of them. Closed down all the computers tonight so they can rest over the weekend. Closed up the windows. Off to play with my granddaughters!

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Shift

Yeah! The HVAC people came out today and though they couldn't fix the heat problem, they at least got it stopped until they can come out and fix it! You could feel the change already! So much better! Did a lot of patrolling of the students who had finished up testing already. A few of the ringleaders I crooked my finger at with a 'come here' look in my eye and they came and so I put them to work! Idle hands and all that, so I put the idle hands to work and they seemed to really appreciate doing something other than just sitting and trying to be quiet. I think it worked well and I was able to get books shifted and move some stuff around so things were much much better! All the English is now all together, mostly except for stuff I'm thinking we'll end up deleting. I moved all the Spanish out by the science books and you can see all the books now and it looks so much cleaner without wondering 'what is that stack in the back there?'  I'm hoping my LA inventory is approved! My amazing volunteer took care of all the textbooks in the back of the student store and we got down to 98.31%! I'd say that's pretty good! I'm hoping we are done! Lots of good things and good help and I think the kids appreciated it too! Sent the list to our principal of all the computers we want dedicated to our generic login. I guess some kids are using it even out of Leslie so they don't have to login as themselves! They are so sneaky! So we are sending in the computers in the building that will be the only computers you can use the generic login on. Ha! That will foil the little rascals!

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Heat Wave

This is my island in the sun, hoo hoo! One of my favorite snatches from the Muppet Christmas Carol! The heat is still on so I'm glad I prepared by wearing a short sleeve shirt today. Got all the computers up and running for the day. Switched out the table books and put out some of our CCSS (Common Core State Standards) books out for the kids to look at. I worked on the math books from yesterday, then had my two morning aides finish off checking them. Sent out another set of Afternoon of the Elves to another school. Had our final OBOB battle and team Firestar won the battle! They will now be our team to battle against the other middle schools in May. They rarely miss a question! Realized we have this fan in the workroom, so I brought that out and we set it up so it blows into the computer lab so at least they are getting moving air in there while they test. I had to get an extension cord and then tape it down over two walkways to find an outlet to plug it into. Another great day in the library, think I'll bring a thermometer tomorrow to see how hot it really is!

Forgotten

Totally forgot to post yesterday! So this is for Tuesday, April 7th!  We were really roasting in the library. Suddenly it was like, 80 bizillion degrees in there. We had all the computers running of course, and all the classes in, but it just didn't seem like that was all that was going on. So I asked our office manager what was up and she said that we have a new boiler and so I guess it is more efficient than the old one. We'll see. Got out the computer set up for the PSU class tonight since Mr. M asked me to do it for him since he was gone. Put up a little display up in our windows for the garden area outside with books on gardening and eating healthy. I tried to make some stalks and veggies coming off it, but it really doesn't look that good, sorry! At least I tried! Spent a lot of time monitoring students in the library to please be quiet. Did some shelving. Had my one aide work on checking out math books to Ms. S and I decided to check them, and it was a kind of a mess, so I ended up working through all the books until it was time to leave. Might have to leave that job to someone else a little more methodical in the future!

Monday, April 6, 2015

Math Done

I got all the math books settled into their new spots today! I was so glad to get them all tucked in! Had four classes of math books to check out to students then take to the teacher so she could hand them out. Two class sets of science books and a whole cart of returned science books from the kids in those classes. Started to put out requests for old lit sets. We had 66 copies of Afternoon of the Elves. I will keep five, the rest are on being sent on their way as requested. I have six pieces of mail heading out with copies already. Typed up the books that needed to get sent in for processing and got that box ready to ship out. Talked to the Anime class to let them know I'd be happy to get suggestions for graphic novels this afternoon during our after school program. It was a good day. We all kept busy and life in the library is sweet!

Friday, April 3, 2015

Shhhhh!!!!

Gorgeous sunrise this morning, the sun an intriguing blood orange color coming up over the mountains. Stunning. More students in today with testing, but most of them were finished, so they sat around our tables. They were loud! I would go by and tell them shhhhh!! and almost as soon as I walked away, they were back to talking. Not real out loud, but louder than what I thought was respectful for the students that were still taking the test. Deleted all the books I withdrew from the fiction R-Z section that was on our list for weeding this year. I had started yesterday, but finished off today. Had aides work on checking out math books to students this morning and had them deliver them. Seems to be the best answer for checking out while testing is going on. Put in a profile picture on Insignia. We'll see how long that lasts! Sent out books to other schools. Looked for lost books. Shelved so that everything was put away in fiction at least at the end of the day. Got most of the non-fiction done as well. Looked pretty well when I left today. Love Fridays, in at 7 so I get to leave at 3:30.

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Weeding

Started working today on the last of the weeding. Got through the 'R's'. Also got almost all the math books moved over to one wall. Started thinking about the lit books and how to handle them. Started moving over the DayBooks to where math used to be. Thought the yellow were 6th grade, but now it looks like maybe the orange ones are 6th?? Mr. M's classes were in all day and I finally went through our non-fiction and put about 8 different books out on each table so they could sit down and thumb through stuff while they waited for other students in the class after they were done. My lovely volunteer finished covering the new books so that is done! Huzzah! Had two online orders come in from the Scholastic book fair so I'm sure the two boys will be happy tomorrow to come and get their books! Stamped and got a big stack of books ready for processing. Some I bought from the fair, others from JLG, others from our Books Are Fun guys that bring cool stuff to buy and give procedes to the library, and one girl is always donating books! I'll have to make sure she gets recognized for that! 

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Battle!

Today we held our first real battle in our school's own Battle of the Books! I had three teams competing and 2 of them did really well and the other wasn't so great, but they tried. One of the teams only missed one question, but just by a nuance of an answer! They will be hard to beat! We will meet again next Wednesday and get down to just one group and they will finish off in May by going against the other middle schools. More covering went on today. Had classes in all day in the computer lab to take the OAKS test. Next week I believe we switch to the SBAC. I was afraid that our battle kids were too loud, not with their answers, but their comments to each other, but our test teacher said we were fine. Had two classes in today to check out books. Had help with 1st period, but just me for 5th period. Lots of books to put away. Did some shelving, listened to torrential rain fall on the shed roof of the library. It really pounded away.