The daily life of a Middle School Library Media Assistant.

Monday, November 30, 2015

Deck the Halls

So maybe more of a 'deck the walls'. Took down my Nanowrimo window placing and put up a count down calendar for the last 15 days of school for 2015. I put up numbers and every day will cover one of the number with a book cover image, so today before I left I put up The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe  for my first book! Talked with our Language Arts people about Auto/Biographies and what they need to see. Possibly more like memoirs, recent celebs, about latinos and soccer stars. Very busy day. Had two classes in to check in and then check out books. Lots of other students doing that as well! Three classes in the library lab and it all made for a very busy day of checking in/out. Started to stamp my OBOB books so I can send those in for processing to get them back before January and the start of OBOB reading. Some of the books I got were only $2.50, some $1! Great deals! Still have our Book Fair, the driver got sick and couldn't make it, so maybe Wednesday they said. I had two of my South students help me start to put tables back since the rolling carts are all closed up. Got the last of my money up to the bookkeeper today so that's all done. Tons of students in and out today, but a great happy productive vibe going on. Loved it!

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Tuesday the 24th

Finished off all the glueing today and did other repairs too, so I got through all the books on the picture from yesterday! Ran the Book Fair and closed it all up. Only made about $1500. I think down 25% from last year. We'll see how the online fair goes! Another long day - 7:30am and ended up leaving at 8pm. See you next Monday! Have I mentioned how thankful I am that I get to do something I love every day??
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Monday, November 23, 2015

Long Day

Repairs. I did a lot of repairs. Did not get everything done, but will finish the glueing tomorrow! Helped with our poster machine and did some laminating for them. Went over to LMSS in the morning to get our free book give-away, 16 new books for free! All new stuff that has come into  LMSS over the year to preview and we get to choose! So I did end up working from 8am to 7:30pm since I had to get in early to get my new books!

Friday, November 20, 2015

Below Freezing

So tonight is rumored to be below freezing, so I have one of the students paying penance help me close all the windows tonight. He came in after school and I had him check in books, then clean up our computer lab. Turning everything off, sweeping the floor, air dusting the keyboards. He did a good job. Had more sales today. I put more books away. Gave work to our substitutes that had prep periods so they came to me asking if I needed help. One I put to work putting back out all our Scholastic trinkets. After she finished that I had her straighten out the non-fiction shelves. Another lady finished up putting barcodes in the back of the math books, then later when she came back, I had her putting the numbers on the ends of them. Another sub came in just as a pack of boys came in with a project to work on and I asked if he'd ride herd on those boys. He did a good job, but those boys do not focus well at the best of times and on a Friday before nine days off, well, I'm not sure what I would have done without him! He did great, even though the boys were not near their best ;) Thank goodness he was there to take them on! I pulled old laminating off the books so I can relaminate them on Monday or Tuesday. Took money in from the fair. Got in our restock for the book fair. Rode herd on all the kids coming down to finish up projects and all for the grading day and conferences next week. Glad that one is over and no one got hurt! Fun times this morning. At the end of announcements they played "Shake it Off" so I started dancing behind the main counter & all my South kids got a laugh at that. Thought I did pretty good & one of the gals was dancing with me! Fun!

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Penance

Had in three classes of students in to check out books today, only one with an aide to help out! They were the ones that had done the 'magazine reviews' I had put up yesterday and they were rather excited about it! Had our lovely DLC kids in today. They always make me very happy even though all the books they look at I have to put away! They love to carry the books over to the main counter and put them in the 'book drop'! They always make me smile. Sold a lot at the book fair before school this morning. That was good. Told several students today they had to leave the computer lab because of inappropriate behavior. I make sure I take a screen shot so I have proof! Had our behavior specialist come in and tell me that a young man had stolen from the book fair yesterday, felt remorse and wanted to make it right. He brought in three books to return to the fair, and the fourth he had written in, so he will bring money for that one. I told our Behavior S that he could work for me. She was like 'Really???' I said yes, that that would be more powerful than working for the custodians, so he worked for me an hour after school today. I shook his hand as he left and let him know I was proud that he realized his mistake and wanted to make it right. It truly is wonderful when a student comes to you and 'gets it'. It might take awhile, but they learn from us. Good for him! When I was done, I headed down to the gym and watched our Leslie Lions play girls volleyball. A nice end to the day!

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Don't Take Mrs. Willer's Word For It...


So today I put up the 'magazines' that the students in Mrs. K's class made up. They turned out so good! She was only going to let me have one, but I said, I'd take all three classes! So she gave them to me and with my aide we collected books from their index card reviews and I put together this display. I remember from Reading Rainbow, when LeVar Burton would say "But you don't have to take my word for it..." (still love him! - reminisced with one of the teachers about RR today!) So I put up "Don't take Mrs. Willer's word for it....see what Mrs. K's class has to say about some great books!" Put me in a great mood all day! Did more book fair sales today, just seems so flat though. Not sure why, what is going on. But I'm hoping sales pick up. Looked through 220+ math books today to see if I could find a missing one for a student. Put away a cart full of non-fiction today (I had been slacking on it all week...) rode herd on a ton of students coming in to finish up projects before the grading period ends on Friday. Put the newly laminated jackets on books today to put back out on the shelves. Have a ton of books that need maintenance that I'll do next week. Seems like they are all giving up the ghost! A really good day! But aren't they all?!

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Lock Ties

I was so smart last night to bring scissors and totally forgot to bring lock ties to retie up the Book Fair banner this morning. So in the rain and wind I had to go into the school, come back out to my car and walk it back out to the street and do it there. Ugh. Well, I do have them tonight so tomorrow morning I can just pull into the old bus stop and put it up, jump back in the car and drive into the school parking lot! Yeah me! Sold more books today. Checked in and out other books. Did all the rest of the numbering on the Butterflies....etc. math books. Laminated stuff. I had three book covers that were definitely worse for wear, peeling, flaking, so I peeled off the old lamination (sort of fun, like peeling off skin from a sunburn...!) redid the jacket on a Harry Potter book (put in the crack'n peel to strengthen the edges) and they all turned out very nice. Put in a request for a couple of Marvel comic encyclopedias from our Books Are Fun guys (they give us coupons to use for our library depending on what people buy! Sweet!) Got my book order finally sent to request approval.  Had Mrs. S's classes in all day to look at the book fair and check in/out books. Busy day! Cut off the banner on my way home - I really don't want to leave it out overnight, afraid someone will steal/deface/rip it. Tonight though the wind and rain would really give it a run for its money.

Monday, November 16, 2015

Book Fair

Yes, our wonderful Scholastic Book Fair opened today and we did good! Came in and got computers started, then remembered I needed to put up our big Book Fair sign out on the chain link fence outside the school! So I ran out and did that so parents, students and passerbys could see that yes, we are good to go! Luckily I remembered to get change on Saturday, so I had change to put in the till. Got all the carts opened up and put books on top. I was taking into the back all the little trinkety stuff and finally decided, 'why don't I just put that cart in the back??' and that worked perfectly! Mrs. V brought in her students to browse and make sure they had library reading books. Sold about $129 worth today! I think that was the best first day ever! Numbered Butterfly books (the 8th grade math books..). Got a call from Scholastic that someone had found a very inappropriate playing card that was stuck inside a book, so they asked if we could riffle through all the books to look for any more of the cards, and they were willing to give us all another $50 scholastic credit they thought it was so important so I spent the last of the day going through all my books. Got over half done, so I'll do the rest in the morning. After I was done, I went and watched a little bit of our girls doing volleyball. It was fun to watch! Then outside to pick up my signs and put in the car for the night and I'm glad I did, the wind is really picking up tonight and I'm glad they aren't out there getting pounded!

Friday, November 13, 2015

Long and Short

Even though it was a four day week, it seemed so long! Got in the Scholastic Book Fair today so that will start Monday. Had my South students help me out. A couple of the boys helped bring down the rolling carts, then flattened all the cardboard from the new Chromebooks and took that all outside for me. One of the girls put together all the trinkety stuff. I spent some time pulling out my OBOB books, and finding books on the carts that were on my purchase list and hopefully taking them off so I can purchase them with my Scholastic $$! That would help a lot! Checked in and out today. Did some shelving. Got the techs to come in and check the Chromebooks with our gym to make sure they would work during conferences. Lots of just normal stuff, with a few good extras to the day! Love my job!

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Rushing

So today I got in and quickly put up my word for the day. Took my box of Scholastic Book Fair flyers out to all the Language Arts teachers. Put the dates on my posters. Got an email from Mrs. M who asked if I could do a book talk for her 1st period and 5th period classes. 1st period was only a few minutes away! But I managed to pull a few books and give a talk on those and even got a few of them checked out. It was a bit easier for 5th period! Put in a blurb for our December newsletter highlighting our Axis360 eBook system. Asked for the book fair to be on the school's webpage. Had both lunches in today. Got our COW (Cart On Wheels) out so the lovely Mrs. T could get all the new Chrome Books in it and set up for teachers to use. I had to find a spot to put it in where it could be on charge so I pushed over the desk in the workroom and that seems like it will work out just fine. Various other books in and out today. Sent in my revised order for Baker and Taylor. Worked on looking up some new auto/biographies during the Leadership meeting this afternoon. After work I went to our PLC meeting, then over to the hospital to take a card and present over to Mrs. B. She looked and talked very much like herself, but also very tired. She said she's been sleeping a lot. She needs to heal! Sleep is good! Then over to Salem Public to pick up a book on hold. A good day and pizza waiting for me at home! Love my hubby thinking of me!

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Two Alarm

Yes! Count them! One, and two fire alarms today! We had one in 2nd period and another during 5th period. I was a bit cold for the first one, but it really was quite lovely for the second one. I had students in the library both times, so had to get their names and teachers and send the notice in that those students were in the library. Spot #33 is the library line up spot. I do enjoy getting to go out of the back library door. The rest of the day was pretty much normal stuff. Put books into maintenance. Checked in and out here and there. Put away non-fiction stuff. Had both lunches able to send students to the library today. Then I got a call from LMSS that they had not submitted my order yet. It went to my librarian supervisor a month ago. There is no way we will get our books before winter break. I was so sad :( Then I looked at the order and it was $3100!! My order was only $1900! What happened?? It turns out that one of the librarians put an order together for all the middle school libraries, and they took her order and just added mine on top. Oh my! That needs to change! So I spent time going over the order from me, the order all together and pulling out some of my stuff, taking things I had ordered two of and reducing that to one. I did get approved to beef up our auto/biographies though, so on Thursday I need to take out any books of that genre and put it on that other list. So hopefully that will bring it down. My budget would have only been about $300 for the entire rest of the year if that had gone through. Wow. I thought I could get it all done today, but just not enough time left, so I'll have time to be thorough and get what I really want and need.

Monday, November 9, 2015

Breathing

So happy to hear our coworker is out of ICU! She still has a long way to go, but I gave a huge sigh of relief when the information was released this afternoon. Praise God!



So today I put out our books that had started as Nano Novels and that was fun. I thought we only had two, but we had on hand five! Yeah! Then I also did all our writing/English grammar books out on display, another fun thing to see out and about! Finished off numbering the Covering and Surrounding books (or was it the Comparing and Scaling??). Started to barcode the Butterflies// 8th grade math books. Checked out a lot of books today. Did a bit more work on my auto/biographies. Feeling very relieved!

Friday, November 6, 2015

Sorrow

Checked out and in 8 classes worth of science books today. Put away all the non-fiction. Checked out a ton of other books today. Added a few titles to my list to buy. Asked for some personal leave to celebrate our head of LMSS retiring next month. I am so upset though. As I left, one of my co-workers just before fell on the stairs. Straight back. Definitely a concussion if nothing else. Prayers for her please.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Left Out in the Rain

This poor sad book was left outside in our massive rainstorm last weekend. It was brand new. Only checked out three times. My soul was hemorrhaging along with this book. It is way beyond fixable for me. So the student said they will pay for it. I put it on my next order. Checked out three classes of new books today. Cleaned up the library for the parent club meeting tonight! It looked pretty darn spiffy when I left! Laminated some things. Put all the graphic novels away. Did some more ordering for books for after winter break. Cleaned off the back workroom table and scrubbed it. Got some of the books I repaired back out there today. A sad day. I shall have to have a memorial service for this book. A nice little bed inside the surplus box, a tissue. Maybe even a blanket. So sad.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Gloves On

Yes, this morning it was so cold I actually put on my half gloves to drive to work! It was cold! Frost on the rooftops, almost had to scrape ice off the window of my car. Got all the shelves named today in the back back room so I'm glad that project is done. Took down my Audio window and put up my two NaNoWriMo posters I have. I also had some flyers from Salem Public Library I put up also. Even had one teacher take one down and make copies to give to her students! Super awesome! Redid the audio shelves since we had gotten in a ton from Sprague so they are all on the shelf now. Cleaned up the books I was using for holding the shelves, put the shelves back on top of the rack in the back back. Checked in and out today. Got in a new book from an elementary, one of the spin off graphic novels from the Uglies series! I was so excited! I might have to buy the other one. Then a student turned in The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane  from his old elementary! I was so happy for him! I had threatened him with having to write his own story of what Edward had been doing since he was with him! Ha! Glad it came back and sent it off to its home school. Ordered some supplies to have on hand for staff and for myself. Did some repair work today. One of favorite thrills is suggesting a book and the student does indeed check it out! I love it when I have the opportunity to do that and it happens! Did it twice today! A lovely day!

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Phantoms

Started this morning with noticing one of our brand new Jedi Academy: Phantom Bully books was missing! No one had checked it out and it was gone :(  I did find it at the end of the day as I was shelving books over in the 700's. I'm so glad it wasn't lifted! Then I had a student come in to get a new book. He has a fine, and had a book out. So I asked him where it was and he said he had brought it in and had just put it on a shelf. He thought over by fossils. Really?? We looked at the fossils and I couldn't find it. Again, as I was shelving at the end of the day I found it in the cat section! Which really made me laugh because it was a book on Audubon and there was a book on birds sitting in the middle of the cats 636! Ha! Got approval to send off the new books for processing, so packed them up and sent them off! Had my girls in again today to work off their fines. Using them to stamp and barcode the math books. I think they are enjoying it! Had another student in today getting a new binder since hers was broken. A friend came in to 'help' but did not have a pass, so I sent her out. Laminated early today since Mr. D had to get some stuff started, and didn't return! So since the machine was on I went and did all the stuff that had already come in. Had some repair books all good to go so changed their status and put them out. Flattened out all the rest of the cardboard boxes so my aide can finish taking them all out tomorrow to the recycle bin. I'm sure there was more, but time for me to go and read!

Monday, November 2, 2015

Electric

Took down the book graveyard today and Mr. R happened to be in the library so I asked him what they were studying in science and he said they were on electricity and magnetism so I tried to find books on that, and found a few, but not very many! Checked out two classes of math books. Numbered some of the new ones (100 or so). Took the math boxes and organized them. There were about 10 different titles in about 30 boxes or more all in a jumble, so now that we've gotten through a few, I was able to put them in like title piles and check to see when they would be used to get them done in a timely fashion. Got in a box of new books (Huzzah!!) and stripped them so they can go out tomorrow! Have another box of books ready to go out, just need to be sure my supervising librarian approves!