Order In

Today I spent a mass amount of time on getting my order in and done and sent for approval. I had a lot of books that had issues, so I ended up ordering more. I couldn't log into the site at first, but had the wrong entrance to it, so I figured that out and got in. Batch loaded my books I've been working on since May. Added in other books. Looked through our approved list and picked some books off that list. Had to wade through all the different formats for a title (audio, CD, ebook, hardback, paperback, reinforced) quite the interesting day, but I think I had it all pretty well taken care of in the end. Got some more books out of repairs, did some more repairs. Got every book put away before the weekend - I love to end a Friday with everything put away! A great effort on ordering just made my day that I could turn that all in! Can't wait to see them come in!

Viola

What a wonderful treat we had today! A Leslie alumna came to school and played a concert for the students! She is a professional and has been all over the world and came to talk to the students about community and each of us and the part we play in that. It was amazing. She had two friends along, and they did a great set where they showed how each instrument (viola, violin and cello) had their own part to play in a song, even though they are all different. I could have stayed and working in the library, but I wasn't about to miss out on this concert! And she's playing at the Elsinore Saturday night and if you are a student and bring ID, you can get in for free! Amazing! So periods were shorter today, but I still got workbooks covered (another 15 or so) and put out the books I had repaired the day before yesterday. I had two Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and were able to send them out to students on the hold list! Yeah! Got to spend time with students helping them pick out a just right book and I love to do that! Repaired a couple of other books to let sit for the night and read another graphic type novel (Mouse, Bird, Snake, Wolf) and found gum stuck inside. I carefully scraped off the gum and tried to save the other side of the page stuck on the other side and managed to save part of it. I ended up putting our book tape over where the gum had been, three sides! Two for the glue and then on the page behind where the gum had really stuck. Helped some students log in to the school computers today so they could get on our Chrome books. Laminated a bunch of tiny strips of science stuff for Mr. H. 

Downstairs at Downton

Thought of that today while I was coming in and going downstairs to the library! Even though I have a great view, I'm still below the stairs! Ha! Got another 14 spanish workbooks covered today. Did one book talk. Had two classes in to turn in and check out books. Worked more on my order, I hope to send it in on Friday. Got to help some students look for books. One of my favorite things to do! Helped our tech with a few things that needed doing around the school. Set up the projector cart for the Pacific University class tonight and after work, I headed over to the gym to score the volleyball game. I am really loving getting to do that! It went really well tonight and I was out of there earlier than the other night! Huzzah!

Finally Banned!

I had forgotten about Banned Book Week! How did that happen?? So I made up for it today by printing up some stuff from the ALA website and made this cool jail for the wall just outside the library! I love it! So cute! Got all the spanish books barcoded and ready to go and had students come in today to check them out. Put away the rest of the non-fiction and then took down and put away all the books on my display shelving so I could put up banned books up there. I finished putting away all the graphic novels for my 5th period aide, she was a bit overwhelmed I think! I got everything back in order and rearranged the shelves so they won't be so tippy. Checked in and out three classes today. Helped a teacher with her computer. Did some laminating. Did some book repair. I had two copies of Miss Peregrine's I really needed to fix and let students check out since we have a waiting list and I repaired some other books as well. Added in a few more books to my order list. A very busy day!

Jury Duty - Not!

Today I had to report for jury duty. I was kind of excited! I've had notices for 20 years and had never had to appear until today! I was excited! I created my absence last night, and headed off to the court this morning. Checked in, read, played sudoku, then they had the people called for grand jury leave the room and we were told our case had just been settled and we were free to leave after watching a video. So we watched and I headed off to get gas, then thought, I need to call and our office manager said "Yes! You need to come back to work!!" No hiking then! So I headed into work and had to tell my lovely sub he had to go home. It's amazing how behind you can get with being gone for 3 hours! I was running all day. I put a ton of books away, cleared off the back table. Checked out two sets of science books. Had two classes come in to return and then check out new books. Had both lunches in, but then I was really upset at B lunch. I came out into the main library space and there was a shelf down on the floor with books in a heap all around it. No one had come to me. When I asked, no one admitted to doing it. I was pissed off!! It was picked up and cleaned up by the time lunch was over, though I did have to go back and put the books in order, at least they were on the shelf. Pulled a report on lost books to finish up my ordering, but didn't get much done there. A very busy time at work today and I was glad to head off to home! 

Mandatory Training

I finally took the time today to finish my Mandatory Training. I think this is the longest I've ever taken to get it done. I started, then of course, life and the day moved in. I did get 100% even though it took me until 2nd period because of all the interruptions! Helping students here, working with my aides. We had a ton of books to put away, so I had them take the books in their sections and put them on a cart in order. That way I could see what they were doing out there in the stacks. They did really well, a couple of issues, but we'll work on those. I also had to look for a science book and ended up going through all the red science books (five sets of 300+/- each. I didn't find it, but I did get a couple of shelves back in the right order. I also had to make sure my extra sub instructions were all current since I have to call about jury duty Sunday night. That took awhile as well! Amazing how much I had to change! Had to reset a bunch of passwords for students that were in the lab doing some spanish work. Three of the computers were unplugged from the back of the hard drive, so I plugged those in this morning before they came down. Let the students play Cool Math games at B lunch (A lunch couldn't because the spanish students were in there) and after locking four different computers for not being on the right site I finally just blanked them all and had the students leave the lab. They only had about a minute left to go anyways. Got copier paper in finally and moved that to where I keep it. Moved the new spanish workbooks into my office. Cleaned up my office desk so if there's a sub on Monday it won't look so messy in there!! Spent the last few moments putting new books out on top of the shelves, closing the blinds, making sure everything is ready for Monday. Got three books ready to send to another school. A very busy day, but a lot accomplished! 

Order Up

Today I spent a lot of time on getting my order ready. There are quite a few steps to do on the Excel sheet, so I worked on that, cleaning up the ISBN's for loading onto the website. Checking out some new stuff and printing it out for the meeting this afternoon. I was thinking I wouldn't go, but there were a few things for the middle school I needed to hear. I had five classes in today to turn in books and check out new books. Did four book talks. We had an assembly so the day was a bit crazy. Didn't have much time to put away books, so I finally just put the carts out that held the checked in books so the students could pick from them as well. I had to leave at 3 for my meeting up at Claggett. We talked science books and ordering and had a presentation by PermaBound. A good day!

Volleyball

Yes, today I scored five volleyball games at our meet this afternoon after work. I really enjoyed it and even though we lost, the girls did some really great plays. I love it when the volleys go back and forth several times! At work, I finished up covering the Realidades 1 workbooks I had on hand so they will just need barcodes when they get here. Had lots of checking in and out. Worked on pulling books for book talks tomorrow. Got the old marketing room ready for the Spanish students tomorrow. They had come in on Tuesday and used the library, but I can't really shut down the library for them every Tuesday and Thursday all year, so I suggested this other room and got that organized a bit better for them. Had a class come in and trade out books today during 5th period. Got the cart set up for our university class that meets in the library. A pretty quiet day for me to cover books! Check those off my list!

Cover Up

Today I mostly worked on covering the Realidades 1 workbooks. Since we no longer can sell the work books, we are going to have to check them out. So I really need to cover them to help preserve them while students carry them around! They can get pretty battered. Got to do some individual helps today with books. Found the correct address for the NetSupport program and got the other computers to come up! Huzzah! Was excited to have both lunches, but then the Spanish class came in right before A lunch to use the library, so we had to call that off so they could study. A nice mostly quiet day with a sad meeting near the end, involving our community. I showed Mr. M the room I've been working on with our counselor and he gave me some great tips on how to operate it. I am amazed that I have this room here and ready with the tragedy our community just experienced. Thank you Lord for opening my heart and eyes to have this available for this time. 

Stumped

So over the weekend I walked by this house and they still had stumps from cutting down a tree and I asked if I could have a stump! They said yes and I picked one out and thought I'd do a window on The Giving Tree! It turned out nice and when I asked a student what it was, she said 'It's the Giving Tree!' So I gave her a high five! The rest of the day was pretty quiet, just checking out books here and there, cleaning up some books that needed to be put in the back. Then off to the Ram for our PLC and picking out our OBOB books that we do here in our district. So excited for them!

First Full Week Done

I was so surprised this morning to realize I had no one scheduled to do anything in the library today! I got to spend some great one on one time with students and helping them to find a 'just right' book. I think I had one boy really excited about the World War II series by Lynch. He said he didn't like to read, and mostly just played games, so I mentioned that maybe he'd like to read some war novels and see how tactics played out and that might help him gaming. The look on his face was a 'oh, I never thought of that, what a great idea!' At least I was hoping that's what it looked like! Another was a girl who only read graphic novels, really very easy stuff. I saw on her account that she'd read a few Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, so she can read. I picked out an Odd Squad, then as I was watching her rove around, decided no, she needed something still fairly light, but that was much edgier. So we settled on Avi's Seer of Shadows. They both seemed to be interested in those choices. I actually got some books covered today as well and thanks to a 'did you check the P drive' I found all my book order lists!! I was so happy!! Now I don't have to try and recreate it, because I never could have! I took down my 9/11 display, got all the books put away (well, at least until lunch). Did a couple of repairs. A much easier day and oh yes, took home a stack of books. One of them is an OBOB book since we'll be meeting Monday at the Ram to talk about which 10 out of the 16 we want to use for our meet.

Order Time

So excited that we got to speak with our Baker and Taylor rep today and get the low down on our ordering! I was really looking forward to meeting with her so I can get that order in that I was working on since last May! But I couldn't find it on my computer. I will never be able to recreate all the great books I found, series to fill. I am one very unhappy book order person from that respect. :( I can't believe that's gone. I sent in a tech ring to help me find it, so I hope it's around, somewhere. Did booktalks all day long today. Two for 8th graders and three for the 7th graders. I was scrambling between classes trying to get another set of books to talk about! They would usually check out the books I talked about so I'd have to find new ones for the next group. Put books up to fill in holes on the rack and on the shelves. I was running all day. Then I had to leave early for our meeting. It's not too far away, but they said parking could be an issue. So as soon as school was nearly done, I turned on the laminator and was laminating like crazy. Trying to get the library very beautiful looking since it was parents night at school. I won't be there, but just in case someone poked their head into the library, I wanted them to be impressed. A very busy, crazy day. But I loved it (except losing my excel sheet with all my books on it!!).

Chrome Cows

Today I went to our Chrome book training we had in the library. Very interesting how Chrome books work. Now I need to learn all about them! I'm sure teachers will ask me 'how....' and other interesting questions. I am intrigued, I'll admit! There are so many ways I could share about books with our staff and students! Another busy day of check outs and two more book talks. I had to give out class sets of Shapes and Designs because I was two classes short of books. I talked with our IC about it and she said our population rose about 150 students this year she thought she had heard. No wonder I'm running short. Then I did check out three classes of Prime Time. Worked with my aides today on straightening shelves and correct shelving. Finding it harder and harder to put out new books on the display, they are all getting checked out! Had a teacher send down three girls who spent their time goldfishing (just walking around the library in circles) and giggling and finally left without checking out any books at all, so I let their teacher know. All in all another great day in the library. Put my painting in the Beautiful Room and the coloring pages. Put up a football READ poster and stapled on book cover images I printed on football books. I think I like it! Next idea for display, a stump with the Giving Tree book and more of Shel Silverstein.

Caber Tossing

That's what it felt like today as I moved the six big poster rolls from my workroom to the copy room and had to get them out of boxes and onto the rack! Either that or Sumo wrestling. But our rack is now full and ready for bulletin boards and posters galore! They've been in there for about a week, and I finally had time today to take care of that! Got in the rest of  The BFG for Ms. B and had my aides take that up to her before classes started this morning. Seeing as how it was Mr. Dahl's birthday today, so glad they came in for that! Sent off 35 copies of  The Outsiders to Mr. H at Houck, aka Ponyboy. Gave three quick mystery/suspense/horror talks for classes today. Got in 60 copies of Ancient World so I can give those out to students tomorrow since we were short and lovely schools shared with us. Finished up the two math classes for Mr. G with the Kercheski method. Then I went up the stairs to his room three times to get the math books to him before classes started! Checked out a cart that had come from a teacher's room to see what needed to be checked in and what was not barcoded. Cleaned the projector filter for Mrs. C when I first got in this morning. Had the techs in to get the computers all set up for the NetSupport program and they helped the students who were having trouble signing in. Did some laminating for me and for a couple of other teachers. Sent an email to South to ask whatever happened to the copy of Blue Highways they were sending for a teacher (it was early last week) and to ask for a copy of a book for a boy here. Had to check out two of the classes of the mystery/suspense/horror books all by myself. Busy all lunch checking in and out books. I put over 5 miles on my Fitbit today! I'm tired!

T'was a Busy Day...

All the birdies in the trees, and the radio singing songs, like a favorite melody... Oh, yeah, textbooks checking out today. Two classes every period, until we nearly were out of Ancient Worlds, so I ended up getting the teacher a class set and seeing if anyone had any. Then had my aides shelving today, so we'll see how that goes! Had Ms. K ask me to do a bit of a book talk on mystery/horror/suspense books so I printed up lists and started to compile books on a cart for students to see. Got the rest of Mr. S's math books done....oh, my ride, back later!

Massage

Well, yes I did Friday afternoon and it was so relaxing I didn't get home until late and forgot to post my Friday notes! Another very busy day. I did get five classes with the Kercheski method out today. Six other classes got their math books. Five orientations on the library with running like crazy between classes to refill the racks and tops of the shelves with books! I got another aide for 5th period, so that will help! I got two more 'Kercheski' classes done and have two more to go and hope that I'll finish those Monday morning. Put in a request for 30 more Realidades books. We are so close to having enough, but some of them are in really rough shape, so we'll be able to filter out the bad ones and replace with the quality used ones. Glad for the weekend! 

Orientation

Today I did orientations all day long! Five classes of 6th graders and a brief one to 7th graders along with a quick book talk on about 7 books. Checked out four classes of math books. Had my aides check out to Mrs. C and Mr. R science books. Ran over to West Salem to pick up some more science books. I was running all day long! I talked about our tenets and how they relate to the library. Respect, Responsibility and Safety. Thought I did a pretty good job! A very busy day!

All Together Now!

Great day today with all the students back at school. I handed out schedules for a bit, then headed back to the library and I had two library aides waiting for me! Exciting! They are both great girls and I am excited to have them. We did tours, and I gave them some lessons on how to check out. Nearly forgot about taking attendance, then went, oh no!! Ran into the office and since everything's been updated, had a bit of a problem figuring out how to do it! I ended up calling our attendance lady to say 'they are here!! I just figured it out!!' And she laughed! They are really getting on attendance this year and for the next couple of weeks are going to personally call each family if a student is absent, so attendance is very important!! They are my only aides for the whole day! So, they will be busy!! Got to do a 6th grade orientation to the library today and checked out books. Still did major hall monitoring for the bank of lockers near the library. Checked out books today, huzzah!! Figured out a hook up in our LRC classroom. Helped train students coming in to use the copier. Got my this year's information cards filled out and up to the office. Put in a tablecloth and my Mt. Denali quilted wall hanging in the Beautiful Room. Dug up a basket tray to put in there too and ordered some new markers and colored pencils to put in there with the paper I put on the tray. Had our techs in working on making sure our search computers were up and running, generic logins and pulling up the search engines when they loaded in. Got generic logins on the checkout desk computers so I don't have to use mine. Had to put out more books!! So happy to see the racks getting emptied out. Had two study halls and a class all come and check out books. Made me smile! Lots coming in tomorrow! Hope I can keep great books up and ready for check outs!

6th Graders Only

Loved having just the 6th graders in today! So much fun! I think I spent a lot of today helping out with the bank of lockers by the library door. Getting them in the habit of 'clockwise twice, to your first number, counter clockwise to the first number past it to the second, then back clockwise to the last number'. Some students were even helping that made me very happy! I got my new bulletin board up, sanitized the tables, got out the 'new' rack and put books on it. Helped a bunch of teachers. A very worthwhile rewarding day! Loved helping out and seeing and greeting our new students!

The Beautiful Room

Loved getting lots of things done today. A great opening meeting for the morning, then getting the library into shape for our 6th graders that come in on Tuesday! All books up on the shelves looking so ready to check out! Tables all in their ADA configuration! Laminating done! And I cleaned out the back room. There is my office, then our Instructional Coaches office then another small room that has become a cluttered up room. It has been used for small groups, but this year we have a teacher who needs a space during 4th period, and I wanted to make a room that would be for kids who need a space to just hang out and chill for awhile. I imagined a place with a couple of comfy chairs, a few books for inspiration, a table so small groups could still meet in there. So today, our teacher workroom that was used for our marketing class that is no more, was open and there were things in there, so I moved in three metal desks, a TV on a cart and a few other odds and ends and swept the room, rearranged the desk and table in there and put in two chairs and a little cart. I got some bookends and put in some Chicken Soup books and a few other poetry books, Staying Strong by Demi Lovato on the cart and I will do more when I have some more time. It looks so much nicer in there! I am so happy! Could use nicer chairs, I'll bring in a tablecloth for the cart, maybe a vase or something - small lamp?? Maybe some creative pieces, paper, markers for people to use, explore the issues in their life. I thought we could name it, so right now I'm calling it the Beautiful Room since anyone that goes in there is a beautiful person :) So very happy with all I got done!