The daily life of a Middle School Library Media Assistant.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Last Day

Great last day before break! I had my Pandora Celtic Christmas playing all day in the library. Gave three booktalks on what is a mystery novel and a science fiction novel. That was really a lot of fun! I had a cart with each on a side so I could pull books and talk about them quickly. A pretty busy check in/out day. I had a sub and had to leave at 12:30 to go to the interview process for our new head of LMSS. I can say "The interviews went great!" And they did!

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Quick, Book Talk!

Had Mrs. M's classes in today and when they came in the student teacher asked if I was ready for a book talk, ah no! I had no idea, so I browsed the shelves and came up with a couple and got to read from Wee Free Men, complete with the Feegles and accents! It was fun! Had the DLC class in today for their usual Thursday 2nd period time in the library. I love when they come in, but then I have to put all their books away because even though they didn't check any out, they love putting them in our drop box! Love them! Had a teacher come in and ask for some winter books out of our Everybody (picture) books. She had two, so I found two more for her. Had a request for tomorrow to help the students with picking out mysteries and science fiction. So I took my mystery list and printed up a science fiction list and got a cart with genres on either side. I hope I can help them figure out a better method for picking a book! So hopefully they'll get the idea with the book selections! Did more weeding today and am getting through the 800's - that should take too much longer. Had our study hall teacher, Mr. S call just before I left, he sounded horrible!! He has a doctor appointment tomorrow and asked if I could take the TV cart down to his room for the sub, and if I could get in his cabinet for the video he had in there of the Lion King. Alas, I could not get into the cabinet, but sent him an email that I would just bring mine in, for him not to worry nor send in his lovely wife to retrieve it. I also found a very old VHS tape of 'How they made Star Wars' complete with hosts C3PO and R2D2! With the new movie coming out tomorrow, the kids might enjoy that more!

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

We Wish You a Merry Weeding...

Checked out two classes of science books to Mrs. C today for when they get back from winter break. Had both lunches in. Checked in and out lots of books. Decided to go back to weeding the non-fiction titles. This year we are to do the 700's and 800's. It was fun to go and look at all the awesome titles and have to make those decisions of  'yeah, that one needs to go'. My favorite was a book written in 1998 about the Seattle Supersonics. Who are no longer there! Mrs. P brought in posters her students had done on non-fiction books so I hung them up about where the books were this morning. They did a great job! I would read those! 

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Cotton Pickin' Book

Today I had five classes come in to renew or check out new books for over the holidays. So excited to see all the students come in! Worked on a new PermaBound list for old books that are just going to be around a long time so made up a list for some new Series of Unfortunate Events books. Got in the last of the Sabotaged books requested by a teacher so let her know they were ready. Had our December Fire Drill with our new procedure today so we were glad to get that one done with all the rain we've been having. It was dry! One of our teachers retires on Friday and her last day is tomorrow, so I was very glad to see that a book I had requested for her from another school made it in this afternoon! She was so happy to get it. It'll be in one of her last lessons. Glad it came in on time! I took it up to her and she had a cotton plant in her room so the students could see how it looked, how you picked it, all the seeds in it. Very cool! Had a math class come in to exchange books. Had a student bring in a book that had gotten wet and she just put it away in her locker. The whole top corner had gotten wet and started to mold, so I let her know she'd have to pay for it. LEAP came into the library after school, so I closed off my office and back room and played Pandora while I laminated and worked on the last of the Filling and Wrapping Math books. Got notice from Escape Fiction that my OBOB books were in, so I stopped by on my way into work to pick them up so I can send them off to the LMSS office to be processed and get back by January! 

Monday, December 14, 2015

Digital


Today I worked on my last week before the holidays display. I brought in some netting stuff from home we had used on our Christmas tree one year and put out a lot of Christmas books, a couple of Hanukah books and I even found a Kwanza book! I think that covers them all! Checked in and out here and there. Had both lunches in. I had bought a silver thin lined pen over the weekend, knowing I could use it on the digital voice recorders that we had in. There was no real place to put a barcode, so our Instructional Coach and I decided to write the last four digits of the barcode inside the battery area of each recorder, and it was a tiny space! So I used my pen today to do all of them and now I'll just take it home and keep it since it is mine. Found an unused plastic case and all the recorders fit in perfectly with five of the boxes that are holding the batteries, their USB cords and the serial numbers off the boxes plus the sheet of barcodes. Got my PO for the rest of the OBOB books approved today, so they should be in tomorrow. Got to love Escape Fiction! They really go the extra mile! Ended up adding in a few more books to my bio/auto/memoir list (in case some of the books are not available) and got that sent off. Had another student finish off his work to pay off a book fine. Good for him! Love my library! Hope the Concert Choir comes in to sing tomorrow!

Friday, December 11, 2015

Quiet!

Pretty quiet day today. Word of the day done. Printed up the last of my count down book covers. Took down all the stuff for the display shelves. Numbered more of the math books. Checked in and out here and there. Finished the book order and told the head of LMSS that it was ready to go. Between me, our head of Language Arts, and our Instructional Coach we made it. It was a bit over my budget (by $12!) but it should be fine Mr. C said. Just a quiet day with a bit slower of a pace.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Thunder, Lightning and Rain

Nice day today! Had some great storms come through, thunder, lightning, heavy rain. You could hear it pounding on the shed roof over the back half of the library. Very cool! Even students noticed and stopped to listen and watch! Lights inside flickered good once, but that was it. Checked out three classes of library books today and hosted a variety of students in. Had both lunches in. Shelved all my non-fiction books today. Sent dictionaries to teachers. Numbered more math books, this time Filling and Wrapping.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Book Pusher

Another great day in the library! I had time today so when a few boys came in, only one got a book, so I took the others before they could take off and suggested a few things and they ended up checking out also! Yeah! I love to push books! Checked out two classes of math books and checked in a ton more math books today and got them all put back on the shelf. Put away two class sets of social study books for Mrs. B (who is a short timer! Only 7 more days to go until retirement!). Got our Dark Knight Batman book all put back together again, the students will be glad to see it back. Worked more on my bio/auto/memoir list and got it down to $1600! So I printed it up and gave a copy to our instructional coach and our lead language arts teacher to give me their must haves on the list. So we're getting down to the end of that list! Got more of my desk cleaned up. Took home more books for winter break reading. Did more of the math inventory. Wow. We have a lot of math books that I've never heard of, though I did spot some today on top of a shelf "Oh, look, I see those books..." 

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Kayaking


So today I had a teacher say, 'wow, look at the pond' and I was in shock! I knew of the depression in the ground by where we line up for our fire drills but I've never seen water in it! I want to go and get my kayak! Just so I could say I kayaked at Leslie ;D We had more flying rain today, but some periods of just grey skies. Checked in/out three classes of math books today. Some checking in and out. Both lunches in again today. I had to ban three of the boys from coming in again. They come in and then spend the rest of the time trying to get out, probably to just roam around the school. Worked more on my list for bios/autos/memoirs today. Had it down to $1500 when I left today. Laminated a whole ton of stuff this afternoon. Put away a bunch of math books that had come in over the last few days. Had a student work today putting on barcodes for me to work off his fine. He's doing great. He'll be all done before break. Did a few quick repairs. Read shelves and got all of them done under the windows. Started to put out some books that looked appealing to me since our new books won't be here for awhile. That was fun. Kind of a quieter day, until the mouse squad come in after school I closed my office doors to finish working on the list and laminate! They are very loud!

Monday, December 7, 2015

Never Forget

Today I put up a Pearl Harbor display with non-fiction and fiction books about Pearl Harbor and the war in the Pacific. I got to see the Arizona sunk in Pearl Harbor when we went to Hawaii a couple of years ago and I will never forget it. Truly a great memorial to a terrible moment in history. Checked out math books today. It was actually pretty quiet in the library today. Had both lunches in, so they were a bit crazy. Watched great herds and swarms of rain fly horizontally across the broad vista of my windows all day long. Quite the show. Worked on my biography order with Perma-Bound and so far I think I've put $2400 worth of books in my cart! But I only have $600 to spend! I'll have to get that whittled down! Put away a bunch of math books, got a lot more repair books out today. Found some that still need some TLC before they go out too. Staff meeting and I got a Kudo bar because I donated two books (The Survival Guide to Bullying) to our two counselors. I had forgotten about them! Got asked to score the vollyball game tonight and enjoyed that very much! 

Friday, December 4, 2015

Do the Math

Checked out 11 classes of math books today and checked in about 6. Did our normal check in/outs for the library. Got all the non-fiction shelved. Had a new student come in to work off his fine. Had a sub come in and had her number math books. Turned everything off for the weekend. Got more of the books on repair out and onto the floor. Got in the books I bought off the Book Fair for OBOB. So I collected all the other titles we already had to start my shelf to keep them all together.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Party Time

So our head of LMSS is retiring at the end of December so we had a retirement party for him tonight. I had taken one of our old AV bags and cut it down. Had another assistant do the lettering of all the middle schools and I presented it to him this afternoon. Had a great day at work. Did a quick book talk. Shelved non-fiction. Put up a 'no more sharks' sign. Put new books up on the tops of shelves. Checked out books. Had a girl and this boy being all cutesy with each other. She was like "I call him my stalker.." totally flirting so I told them to settle down and stop being cutesy with each other and the girl was like "you are so stupid! I do not like him, I have a boyfriend!!" then she put her book on the counter and left. I just had to crack up! Got some of my repair books back out today. Did a lot of emails on kids that wanted books from other schools, wanted to see if they could work off fines from other schools. Had one girl finish off her work for me today, nearly $30 worth of fines she worked and paid off for me. I was so impressed with her! Got math books ready for checking out tomorrow. Had a student that needed another place to be for ten minutes so I put him to work. Cleaning off a chair that had gum on it, wiping down talbels. Another student came in later and I had him putting away science books in the back. Left at 3 to go to the retirement party. I will miss Steve. I'm so glad I got to meet him and work with him. I will miss him horribly.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Mysterious

Came in the door to Mr. M telling me to get on working out the doc camera that wasn't working right in the meeting room he was having all the other middle school principals in today! Ended up just bringing up the other new doc camera that worked fine. Found out later I just needed to push a switch over and the first one would have been fine! Argh! I knew about that one from our old AverVision, but didn't even think of that today! They're new! It should have been perfectly on the right one! Shouldn't it?? Had Mrs. S's classes in today to check out mysteries. So all five periods and then Mrs. M came in the other period and they checked out books as well! So I was very busy doing that! After first period I and knowing she wanted the students to read mysteries, I had a list ready and some mystery books on a cart. I tried to pick books the students wouldn't think of as a mystery, but they are on the list from our library program. So I got to help a few (one of my favorite things to do!). Then I was a bit taken aback that I don't think my aides are doing a good job with shelving, so I started to read shelves. Found some definite mistakes. Scholastic finally came and picked up their carts so I could get all the tables back in their places, trying hard to make them all ADA compliant! I love my library. 12 working days left until break!

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Liar, Liar

Oh yes, way too much clutter going on! So I started to clean up today! Still lots of books to check in. Checked in and out lots today again. Only classes in the computer lab though and I actually had some quiet moments! Laminated twice today. Boxed up the OBOB books and sent them off. Cleaned up the book fair stuff I still had around (posters, etc that needed to be tossed.). Gave away the Survival Guide to Bullies to both our counselors and a teacher who wanted it. Put paper in the copier a couple of times today. Had a parent call in that their student was having trouble with lying. They had told him to come to the library and get a book on lying yesterday. He said, yes he had come in and we had no books whatsoever on lying. Hahaha! So we decided I'd check a book out to him and his dad would come in and pick it up. So I picked Gary Paulsen's Liar, Liar. I would love to hear how that went tonight! Had our last meeting today with our Supervisor of LMSS. He is retiring and I will really miss him :( He deserves a great retirement and I have so much respect for how he handled himself, our department and keeping what was left of us sheltered during the RIF's when we lost 57 of our librarian/teachers and were left with just 6 for our entire district. I can't even imagine how he must have felt. So I did leave around 3:10 to get over to Judson for our meeting and enjoyed a wonderful time with him and my fellow Middle School LMA's. Took a bunch of boxes in for one who had hers all used without asking her if she needed them (like for our surplus pick-up in two weeks!!). Glad I could help her out. Anyway, I've done what I can tonight on Mr. C's gift from us, and off to bed with pouring rain. Love to sleep that way!