The daily life of a Middle School Library Media Assistant.

Monday, June 15, 2015

Fourteen

That's the number of books I checked out to myself today as I left for the summer! Still had to check in books today! I know at least one student will be glad of that! Worked on teacher reports today. Checked off the new books that came in off my list! They are all here (and some are in my box of summer reads...) Packed up the last set of new books to send to LMSS over the summer so we'll have more new books to put out when the new year starts! Finished moving shelves, took more excess books into the back. If I knew a book had maybe been checked out once, and we had three copies, I took one out. That made a huge difference! Got all the last books shelved. Even the non-fiction which I put off to the end! Ended up moving shelves in the 600's through the 745's and it looks better. I put a lot of the graphic novel stuff on the shelves by the check out desk, so now the regular non-fiction is drawing books. We have a lot of those! Got my review today and Mr. M was so kind, thoughtful and gave me way more kudos than I thought I deserved. He is an exemplary admin so it just is natural we are exemplary! Great leaders make good followers! I am truly looking forward to a wonderful summer and coming back August 31st! Happy summer everyone!

Friday, June 12, 2015

Wasp Nest

Crazy, just sitting in a bucket out in the hallway when I came in this morning! Lots more putting away of books, more shifting. Went up to Claggett for our annual LMSS end of year meeting to say goodbye to our library people who are also retiring, leaving and I got to touch base with our textbook guru on some issues. Got in our Read 180 boxes! I emailed the teacher and she was sending someone to come and get it! So glad it came so she can go over all that stuff during the summer. Found a box of schoolwide grade 8 resources I had gone looking for! All the science books are all put away, all the math. Still need to sort through stuff from Mrs. J who retired and left a bunch of resources she had in her room. Got all books checked in until today as I left, someone had put books up on my main counter! I will get them Monday! One last day to go!

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Signing Out

Had our staff breakfast this morning and got to say goodbye to our staff members who are moving on. Some are retiring, some are heading to new venues. It was a really nice time. Lots of books from rooms, lots of sorting to see what needed to be checked in. Who had what out. Printing up lists to attach to their check out sheets. I got some of the stuff put away in the back, shifted more shelves in the fiction books. Signed off on a lot of people. A good but very busy day!

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

A Joyful Noise

Today was the end of the student term! They all left at noon and all the staff were invited for a yearly tradition of making as much noise as possible, gathering up in the office area, then down the stairs to the buses. Waiting for the buses to leave then up the stairs and down the front of the building. It was loud! I had a bunch of change (with three nails and a rubber band) from my husband's change container in an old hard plastic CD-ROM container. It was loud. Mrs. V had a big golden bell she hit with a mallet. Mr. H had two plastic boxes he banged together. There were all kinds of things, pot lids, xylophones, it was fun. Classes were only about 22 minutes long today and we had a great talent show! A couple of the students I was "Oh my, that should be on America's Got Talent!" they were really outstanding! I shifted shelves today, trying to pick up slack for all the books. I know once the students come back, there will be room again, but the best time to shift is when most of the books are home! I also signed off on a lot of staff worksheets for the summer. A very busy but fabulous day! I'll miss the students, now's the time I need them to work!

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Voracious Awards

Today we had a most Voracious Award day! We had a very, very long assembly (nearly two hours!) where we recognized all our amazing students. Straight A's all year, Straight A's all three years here at Leslie, band members, cookie company, athlete of the year, ELL, Turn Around Awards, our Donovan Award winner, PRIDE students and I got to present the 'Voracious Reader' award! One of our students checked out 148 books this year! That was very cool! I truly enjoyed it! Though I was in a big hurry, thinking we were way over our time, but we weren't! There were other awards, but I forgot them all! More books came in all day and we also had Field Day where the students had over an hour to get their yearbooks, play games, visit, and in the library we had paper, markers and colored paper and board games. I went through our stash and spruced up the Connect Four, Battleship, chess and checkers and Chinese checkers. It was fun to see the kids playing games. Though a bit crazy. Let's just say we lost a few marbles here and there. I put the games away, and some I left out (that they don't ever really play) and the popular ones I put in the cupboard so they will have to ask to play and return them with boards and pieces intact! Had four aides gone today, and only 22 minutes a class for tomorrow! Then they are gone! I can get some real work done then! Had a student looking at books and he shelved it correctly! Then he said he'd be an aide next year and I was like "YES!!"  I think it'll make a difference to have students as aides who really want to be there. That would make me very happy!

Monday, June 8, 2015

The Circle of Music

Had a marvelous music program today and yes, I did play the xylophone! But the students were the real stars and did amazing! We are so lucky to have the music programs we do and get to listen to. I am totally in heaven when they play! Finished up my Scholastic BOGO book fair financials and got that all taken care of. Checked in a ton of books today and we had locker clean out! I got in about half the library books still missing! Then I decided to run another overdue report and found 13 books smugly sitting on the shelf that were still checked out to people. See what happens when you have aides who don't really want to be there?? It really was a busy day with the assembly and all the books that came in. I actually ended up leaving later than I should have!

Friday, June 5, 2015

Only Two Turnovers

For my six minutes on the court today I only turned over the ball two times! Didn't make a basket, tried to dribble and got it stolen, then tried to block a kid way over my size and the ball went out of bounds and they gave it to the students! I can still hear our couch yelling, 'he's so much taller than her!!' It was a good game and the staff did win. I took two books on basketball and held them up to the kids to see while there was a break! One girl at the end of the day said I did good! Yeah! A busy day, but not too bad. Made some room for books that wasn't there before. Helped one of my last aides of the year learn some library skills. Sat down with a boy one period who was just not concentrating, and when I started going over the assignment, he pitched right in and got it done. He said thanks, he just needed someone to help him out. Good deal. Had a lot of people drop off books. Checked in all day. Even checked out just a couple of textbooks so students could finish up assignments. Played basketball. Closed up the library for the weekend. Good to go home! Six more working days!

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Symphonic

So a bit for me for Monday, I took the plunge and headed out to the band room after school to stand in at the orchestra for Monday's assembly! I'm very excited! They gave me the xylophone!! I've always wanted to play the xylophone! One of my favorite things to do when I take the granddaughters to Gilbert House is play theirs! So I get Beauty and the Beast and Uptown Funk to play. Uptown Funk, I can basically hit E flat and that'll do it! Beauty and the Beast will be easier! So I'm all set! Lots more books came in today and my aides did well with that. I sent off books back to schools. Have a few more to repair before I send them back. Worked more on my audio list. Had my phone out today since my sister-in-law had a double mastectomy this morning and I was waiting to hear how she did. A very anxious day, but all went well. Printed up fine lists for each aide and had them go out and try to find missing books and they each found one or two! That was great! That's about 8 books or so that won't come up that students will say "I turned that in!" and the bookkeeper will come down and find it and say "Yep, here it is on the shelf." So, glad I had them check for that. Back to Beauty and the Beast, maybe I could get my library modeled after the Beast's library?

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

DAB

Today I finished up my spreadsheet with all the Digital Audio Books. That was a lot to wade through! Now I'm looking at the CD books and will start working on those tomorrow. Had a lot of teachers bringing books down. Sorted through Mrs. J's things for her while she's cleaning out her room since she is retiring. Got all the rest of the books put away off the shelves today. Haven't had a lot of books come back since Monday, but did talk to students today who still have books out and they are going to bring them back. Cleaned up some anatomical drawings and inappropriate words off some science books that came in. We are getting some Read 180 things in. They have sent instructions and barcodes, so we'll see what comes in. Saw in my title search that some of my other new books have been added to our catalogue, so hopefully they will show up! I will keep them for next year of course! Fresh start, fresh books! Monitored kids most of today, but tomorrow we are back in a testing environment so I will be holding them more accountable and not letting the ones in who tend to be disruptive. Let a student stay over because he said he needed to work on his roller coaster science project. They all loved doing that today in class and several came back during the day to work it again. The energy they show while they do it is really amazing! Tomorrow is last Thursday for students! Off to the Ram for our Rogue Library Media Assistant meeting and to say goodbye to one of our own who is retiring. We will miss her!

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Dust Bowl

Ugh. Took nearly all the books off the tops of the shelving and decided to dust. Ugh! Spider webs and potato bug bodies, one ant (still alive) and a ton of dust. Shifted shelves to get things to fit in. According to my report we checked out 13, 428 books this year, nearly 1,000 over last year. That made me happy! And last year 500 didn't make it home by June 2nd and I only have 200 still out. That's amazing! I hope more come home before I leave for the summer. We still have to do locker clean out, so hopefully a lot will be in there. Signed up to be on the staff/student basketball game. Can I just sit in a chair and read a book on basketball?? Like one of our non-fictions in the 796.32 section? Or The Crossover our Newbery Award winner?? Got more books put in the back so carts could be free. Had teachers start to bring back their textbooks so got them checked in and put away. Lots of paper to put in the copier. Had to work with both our copier and student printer today from jams. Our student printer is such a princess. Touchy, will only work with a certain amount of paper in it, will print page after page of images and printer checks. She is a diva! Found out we give a Voracious Reader Award and was told to let our office manager know. So I looked up our student reader and found a cool certificate site that I could edit and put in what I wanted. She checked out 148 books this year! So I was able to print it on card stock to present to her next week. Graded my aides' book reports from last grading period. I will give them out tomorrow. 

Monday, June 1, 2015

Channeling Chien Po

To be calm. To watch the river of chaos and not dive in. These are words of wisdom. I found a picture of Chien Po from Mulan and printed it up to tape beside my door! That might lead me not to rush in where angels fear to go! I had two whole tubs of books to check in this morning for my aides. Had a lovely sub pack up the rest of the BOGO fair stuff and we got all that ready to be picked up. I finished up the money part and must remember to do the financial form! Worked more today on my Audio form. Had the staff meeting and I got FOUR kudos! Wow, that was too much! Two of them were for the work I did getting Lightning Thief in, one for a projector and one for watching the 'other' gender during the birds and bees talk in health. I couldn't believe I had so many. Mr. M called me out from my office to give them all to me. Where's that blushing smiley when you need one? Got the tables all put back and moved the book fair carts over to some non-used area. Had Garten come in and pick up 11 boxes of old books. That's our last pick up for this year. Another fabulous day in the library. I am blessed!