1 Silent School

The school is quiet at last! Students are gone, lights are off! Computers in a silent sleep...I was not out in the halls much because I was usually checking out books in between! But it seemed to be not too bad out there! I covered books today, put away a lot of books since I hate having carts with books on them over break. Did two classes of book talks and they did check out some of my talks. Finished reading Schooled. Played my Pandora Celtic Christmas mix all day. Had both lunches in, one of my aides is moving! Oh no! Had about 15 students with withdraw slips today. So sad they are leaving, but hopefully it will be good. See you January 2nd!

2 Laminations

One of our counselors came in early and asked if I could cut out the things she had laminated. These were all about bumper sticker size and for our AVID team teachers and some for our students. It took awhile. Then she sent me a poster to print out and run through our poster maker machine for eight copies and then laminate those. So that took up a huge chunk of the morning by the time I got done and sent things upstairs! Did two more boxes of discarded books and I think I am nearly done with the weeded reference books! So excited! One more box should hopefully do it! More snowflake cuts cleaned up. More books checked out and lots came back today as well! Started ‘Schooled’, another OBOB book I needed to read. So funny! Had a fire drill today during 7th period. Since it is supposed to rain tomorrow, I am glad we got to stand out in dry weather! Lots to clean up and get ready for the break tomorrow! One day to go!

3rd Music Assembly

So excited to go to our winter music assembly today! I love to hear our students play! We had our choirs, band, orchestra and jazz band play this morning! Absolutely loved it! Though I did start to cry, thinking about my mom and all the concerts we went to together. I loved bringing her to the school concerts with me because she so enjoyed it. I really miss her. I cried on and off all day but held it together. I think what started it off was a teacher who I am the secret Santa for. I had made a card with a leftover top from all the cards my mom had saved for years. He told me he tossed the card, and I was like in my head going, ‘you have no idea how much that meant to me to share that card with you, and you threw it away.’ Which of course, got me to thinking about my mom for the rest of the day. I got to listen to part of my hubby’s jazz show while I covered the OBOB books. Finished reading ‘Found’ today. Pretty darn good book! Put books away, had both lunches in, cleaned up snowflake cuts from around the table after lunches, but the students are making some amazing snowflakes. Some they keep, and others they leave so I put them up! 

4 helpings of M&M’s

Maybe more than 4! I asked my secret Santa for mint chocolate and these arrived today in my mailbox! Happy snacking! I did happy snacking while finishing up the overdue/lost notices and got those sent out to classrooms today. Books started coming in, and that was a good thing. Gave all my aides two of those tiny candy canes today. They have really done a great job for me this year. Had a couple of teachers ask about what books did I have on other countries, and then she was asking for the Lexile of those books and her auto-spell check put in ‘textiles’ - so I got a sentence asking if I could look up the ‘textiles’ of the countries. That made me truly laugh out loud! I told them it was more of a what countries did I not have, because we do have a huge collection. Then I suggested they come down with their Chromebooks and use them as well as pulling books off the shelf for their country. Ms. T liked the ‘textile’ idea and thought she might have them do a paper quilt of countries! Put my books away today. Cleaned up the snowflake table, twice. Had both lunches in. Put books back in the ‘repair’ boxes. Was supposed to have two classes in for book talks, but they moved them to Friday. So my book talk books will sit on my desk a few more days. Cleaned up glitter in the back room. Was thinking what a happy day it would be if it snowed tomorrow like it did last year on the Wednesday before winter break! But no precipitation is in the picture at all! Very nice sunrise this morning with the sun coming up through bands of cream sickle colored clouds. Made me stop and look several times!

5 Overdue Notices

Yes, today I printed out 317 overdue/lost notices for our students. Got them all sorted by class and only had a few I needed to go in and edit in their Language Arts class. Other than that, a pretty normal day. I read Found again for our OBOB books. Put in all the iPad mini’s that were emailed to me and I got this morning. Put some repair books in the back after I edited them to show they were not on the shelf but ‘out for repairs’. I spent a bit of time on the Library Guild order and thought it was just the books that were going to be $7, but it was way more complicated than that and I really didn’t have the time to scroll through their 150+ pages of books on offer. The only way you see the discount is to actually check out and that was not going to happen. And since I got notified that my PermaBound order was on its way, I only somewhat regretfully canceled all that. Maybe if we had librarians at our level it could have happened. Had a tech come in with a cable for the students to be able to plug in their Chromebooks. Now we just need the ActionTec for the teacher Surface Boosk. Started a Make a Snowflake table in the library today and had some students during lunch making snowflakes. I even printed up a tutorial for them (and me too!). Teachers came in after school for data teams. Helped Mrs. F on the laminator she needed to get things done for tomorrow and I ran the other things that had collected for me to do tomorrow. Very cold in the library this afternoon, I ended up wearing my scarf all afternoon to keep warm! Put some leftover Pumpkin and some Irish Soda Bread out for staff and they ate it all! So glad it didn’t go to waste! Left my Secret Santa gift in the mailbox of the teacher it is for and had made a thank you card for the poinsettia I got to take home Friday afternoon! 

6 Tree Decorations

It was just one tree. My aides helped make it and each of them got to ‘hang’ two book ornaments on it. The ones that were here today. I was missing a few. I put one ornament on and one book present. It was fun to see the students and what they came up with for books and then some creative flashes of brilliance! Worked with Mrs. M on the iPad mini’s today and almost got them all straightened out. I’ll finish that up tomorrow. Got all my books put away. Had both lunches in today. Had to send some students packing. They were horsing around too much and one nearly got hurt (one student was kicking at his feet and he fell backward and nearly cracked his head really good on a bookshelf - that same student started messing around with the projector that was just reinstalled this morning - where’s that rolly eye smiley when you need it??) Had a tech in this morning and set up the projector and gave me insight on what bits I needed to order to get the results I wanted. An ActionTec device and HDMI cable. My principal has to approve all this of course, so we’ll see. I love our techs, they are all amazing and do so much for me! I actually did a bit of reading today. Finished up a book and will read one of the OBOB books next. A lovely Friday with smatterings of students in here and there, but some quiet pieces too. Back on Monday for our last week before break!

7 iPads a Wanderin’

Talked with our tech guys this morning to see about getting our wireless projector remounted and then routed to sync with teacher Surface Pros and student Chromebooks and they said we had two ActionTecs already in the building, but that’s what I would need. So I emailed our principal and he said to go ahead and have them put in the projector, but didn’t say anything about getting us another ActionTec. I tried to find a price, but that’s a whole company! So I asked our tech team for some advice and pricing on exactly what we would need. Had my aides work on a Christmas tree by our doors today. They have to each pick out a book and we’ll hang books on the tree, or like gifts under the tree! We’ll see how that works! My first two aides I asked for book suggestions came up with Stephen King’s It and then Deadpool. Not very Christmas/Holidayish to my way of thinking! We had a district employee come in with our missing iPads today and I got them all received into our system and then checked out to students. I still have some to go, so hopefully Mrs. M will get her students to bring theirs down or send me the info. I sent her the barcodes so she might be able to just email me the information. Sent off some books today for another school who is looking for OBOB books. Covered two books and got them out and one was checked out already! Sent off the last 4 OBOB books I picked up from Escape Fiction. Gathered together all the OBOB books I have on hand and got from Scholastic that we will be using. Five copies of ten titles! My back counter is nearly full!

8 Math Groups a Working

Mr. A came in today and asked if his math classes could come in and just work in the library and I said ‘YES!!!’ They were in four periods today and it was great! Though we didn’t have 8 groups, we did have 4 classes in with 6 tables being used by each class. Loved the buzz going on! Tuned into the LibraryCon virtual conference today! That was pretty cool! Even though I had many interruptions I still got some great book titles out of it! Listened to a few of the speakers, asked a question to Gene Luen Yang and he answered it! About what was the hardest thing to draw and he does not like drawing animals! Make me smile, because I really do love his stuff! I got to hear him at the OASL conference in 2008 and write a bio on him for the conference magazine, so it was good to see him again and promoting libraries and books! He told how he first saw comics and found his friend was already seriously into the comic scene. So Gene goes with his mom to the comic store and she sees a pretty revealing cover from a Conan the Barbarian comic (I think it was!) and tells him he can never go there again! So he and his friend get their parents to drop them off at the library and they head down to the comic store, then get picked up back at the library! He also talked about the great way comics diversify our world - like Superman, and explained the similarities between Superman and people of Jewish origins. Sent off on a rocket (Moses), kryptonite (Samson getting his hair cut off), hiding who they really are (during the war and with anti Semitic people) and how that also related to him and his Asian roots, being two different people in the same body. Pretty cool! And how he’s working on diversified super heroes. Might have to get Ms. Marvel! Got my order sent in for approval from my principal today for Titlewave. Only had one lunch in since the math students were in for one lunch. 7th period saw the math class in, our Leadership class in making posters, another small group studying under an IA in the old computer lab. So good to see the library so busy and a hub of great things going on!

9th Day Delete! Delete!

We had an email asking if we were done with inventory, and I told the office what I had done and they said they could work with that, so I decided to do a bit more and started an inventory on the textbook side instead of the library side, so of course!! Nothing would scan! I had to send an email to Ms. D and ask her to delete that one. I did get two sets done, so that was good! Packed up two more boxes of discarded books. Got in my box of new books! Well, new to us! These were from the books Sprague sent me last spring and they are finally here! I put them all out on our new rack. So I shelved all the books that had been on the rack and my other books. Found some real issues out on the shelves. Sometimes I just need to go and cry that my aides have no idea how to use the alphabet. Found a KE book in the middle of a ton of KO books....heavy sigh. Laminated and got those ready for tomorrow for deliveries. No volleyball tonight!

10th Day a 3 for 2 Day

Got a call from Junior Library Guild today about Leslie’s upcoming renewal and an offer of 3 new catagories for the price of 2! I love getting the non-fiction and non-fiction plus catagories. I used them to enhance the non-fiction sections since they have been so outdated. So I picked three new ones to add, Auto/Biographies, Sports and Social Studies. I think they will all be great new additions to our library and getting new and relavant books in for us. I also gave three talks today to Ms. K’s classes on how to use our search engines to find books by Lexile. It’s nice to have that option since we no longer use the AR. With the new reading interventions we have, it’ll be great for students to be able to look up on their own a range of Lexile’s and the books that go in that range. Did a bit of book repair on The Plot to Kill Hitler. Someone had checked it out and did a pretty darn good job with tape and such from an obvious dog teething fetish, but I knew I could do better. I took off all the tape, and pulled off all the lamination from the cover, reglued the torn cover together, then touched up with marker pens from the white edges, got a nice piece of paperboard to put on the edge where the dog had nibbled it off, then colored it as best as I could for the book cover colors. I’ll tape the chewed corner up with cloth tape tomorrow, it wasn’t bad, but definitely a tiny bit deformed from slobber! I’ll laminate the cover tomorrow and it’ll be all set to go out. What an awesome book! Loved reading it! Got the chance to interact with quite a few students today as they came in to check out books. Put my books away. Had both lunches in. Nice out, but really cold! Getting down in the low 30’s this week! Freezing time...brrrrr! 

On the 11th day Before Break...

Sent out a bunch of book requests and got in a bunch for my students! Put away all the books under my wings. Helped a couple of students with theirs. Had both lunches in. Got my order for OBOB books approved and ordered. And I actually spent some time reading. I read all the time, everywhere, at home, waiting in places, and a lot of time it is for books at school so I can give book talks. But today I decided that my reading time could be done at school, it’s part of my job, and should be a priority at times. So I did. Really would love to do a seminar on book cataloguing that our PA brought up. Sounds fascinating to me. Not sure if I want to though since I will be gone one week of that time frame. Got back in all the rest of my OBOB books that I had taken out of the Scholastic Book Fair, so those are now all on board! 

12 Days of Work Left

A great day in the library. Had classes in today that weren’t looking for books, but doing their ‘one pagers’ on their recent book read and sitting at the tables so they could all be in their small groups. It was so cool!! I’ve started talking up the idea to teachers as they come and go! Got all the rest of the repaired books put out, and had just three that need more work. Sat on the phone with our bookkeeper for awhile so we could figure out why in the world is my ASB Junior Library Guild fund so low?? Well, it turns out that it was funded by students and parents paying off their book fines and there is now a whole separate account for that and there was quite a bit of money in there! I was worried! How was I going to pay Junior Library Guild when that comes up to renew?? But now I know, so all is well. Got the new invoice from Escape Fiction and sent that to our principal for review. Got the news that the books I sent in to LMSS got all processed and are on their way back to us!!! SQUEEEE!! So excited to get new books in!!! Did some laminating after school. Both lunches were in today. 

13 Left...Don’t Catch One on Your Tongue!

We were busy today, not so much in checking out, but lots of other things going on. I made a new little bulletin board with a ‘books are like a snow flake...’ with the idea that they are all different, but then on the bottom I put a tiny notice that said ‘But Please don’t try to catch one on your tongue...’ we had a sub come in and she cut out some gorgeous snowflakes, I did a few and my aides did a few. Did a talk for Mrs. M and her students on how to use the catalogue search to look up books by genre and also to use the Lexile numbers and navigating other interests off a book. It was a bit of fun! I got hung up on ‘realistic fiction’ and really puzzled over why we didn’t have any books in our system, so googled around and tried ‘interpersonal relationships’ and there they were! My PA came in today and we talked about the library space, how to get our teachers and staff to use this amazing place in our building. From maker spacers, to surveys, to student input to putting back up our projector, using white boards for student interaction. Lots of great ideas! We were going to have a presentation on the interactive projectors, but so few could come, that we asked our presenter if we could do it another time and she agreed, so hopefully in January we will get that going to see about interaction. Had a new student today and he did really well, showed him around the library, had him pick a shelf to put away. Started to check the books I repaired to see if they could be put back out and got about 15 all set up to head back onto the front lines! Off to make Christmas cookies for our Bible Study group who will all be here tomorrow!

14 Days and Kenny G

Yes, I did not write last night because I got home and then off to see Kenny G right here in Salem! We were so excited he was coming here! My hubby does a jazz radio show on our local KMUZ radio station so we bought tickets months ago to celebrate our anniversary (#42!) and the day finally arrived! But, back to work! I got all my Battle of the Books books all stamped and off to LMSS so we can be sure and get them back in time for our students to start reading after we get back from winter break. Did lots of housecleaning today, just two book talks for Ms. R. We were pretty quiet. That’s all I really remember! So on to the real today!

15 Days to Go!

That was my theme for the new window board I made counting down the days until we leave for winter break. Very similar to the one I did last year! Also redid my counter top for the non-fiction shelf with winter themed books. Love it!! Taking down the old ones and putting up the new ones took a lot of time today. Also helped a bit with getting the Scholastic Book Fair off! Glad that is done and over with. Took all the rest of the money up to the bookkeeper so she can send off the check to them. Put away most of the books from the displays, but then I get distracted! A student will be in the library during 7th because she broke her foot, along with the boy who is still there with a broken wrist. I had one aide get moved into Read 180 program and they gave me a new aide, who I noticed was on the OSS (Out of School Suspension) list for today and tomorrow....not sure how I feel about that... A very busy back at work day and I think it helped me feel better! My back feels better and though I still have a bit of a sniffly nose, my spirits are up and things went well today!

Thankful Hug Give-away

A long day at work before our Thanksgiving break and I started off with a huge hug from an employee that used to work at Leslie. She fell down our stairs a couple of years ago, backwards and really hit her head. She is finally back to work part time at LMSS and I went in to get some books for our annual book give-away and to give her a hug, a card and some flowers! She was so very glad to see me and we both hugged and cried for about 20 minutes! She was so inspiring to our students and had a great marketing program there, that was shut down when she couldn’t come back because of the brain trauma. But so good to see her and that she’s working again, just part time, but still!!! Working again!!! Made my whole Thanksgiving weekend!! I picked out my books and headed back to Leslie. Book Fair was up and running with help from some of our other staff. I delivered books, laminated a few things, ran the book fair and then the rest of the day I worked on my three boxes of books I needed to repair. I went through lots of our book glue!! They will now all sit and dry over our five day break and we’ll see where they are when we come back! Ready to put back on shelves or for ‘other’ interventions! Had to pack up the book fair. Started about 5:45 since I had to run out and get my signs, then started loading in the boxes with their wares, it took me until about 7:30 tonight to get everything all done, and I was done too! So thankful that the book fair is over, I got most of my Battle of the Books books all bought thanks to the book fair, and a great day! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

That was Different

I have to work 2.5 days through today and tomorrow so I get Wednesday off! Huzzah! Love that schedule! Today I started at 8am, even though I wasn’t supposed to start until 9, I had to go to my Pathway this morning. Childhood Trauma and how that affects Learning. So very good! Then on my way back to work around 11, I asked my hubby if he wanted to meet me for lunch at one of our favorite places, La Hacienda - it’s not far from Leslie, and he did! So I had a nice lunch with him before heading on to work. When I got back to work, I had a phone call that we had our book give-away tomorrow and to be sure and come to meet someone...our teacher that fell down the stairs and really hit her head horribly hard is doing part time work at LMSS!! I was so excited! I had heard she was there, so I found out what time she came in and will go over there to pick my books and greet her! I made up a quick card for her (hey, we’re in a school right? We have construction paper, pictures, glue sticks....!) and sent out a notice to staff for them to come and sign. I checked in a whole bin full of books and put away most of them. Sold a few things here and there to parents of students who came in for conferences after 4. Had two girls from other middle school libraries come to see my library and how I have it done and we had some good talks and I got a good recommendation for my students who want to read high school appropriate books - to send home a letter to their parents/guardians/whomever to sign before I give the student the book. Loved that. Took up book fair money to our bookkeeper and we counted the batch I had turned in last Friday to our office manager and the new one I had ready for today. Trained our IC on how to collect book fair money since I had to leave for the day at 5:45 and conferences go until 7. (Or 7:30, I forget which!) She is so amazing! Work from 10am - 7:15 tomorrow and then I am done until Monday! Huzzah!

6 Weeks Done

Forgot all about this last night! Book Fair went well today, has a lot of purchases! Finished up covering the Outcasts United books a gift from the Salem Public Library Foundation, then sent out an email to all the teachers that a class set was ready to go as well as five adult versions! I got immediate response from two teachers! That's exciting! I had also sent them all the blurb from SPLF with some of the events that will happen in February. Our second six weeks are over! Conferences next week on Monday night and all day Tuesday which means book repair time for me!

Depressing Reality

Found more items missing today from our book fair, so we're at about $100 worth of items I know are missing. That makes me so very sad. Listened to a webinar on the OSLIS Gale site today. Took awhile between everything else going on in a normal day! Covered some books. Had the laminator get all balled up on someone running posters through and I had to finagle with it to get it all pulled out and running the right way again. Crazy sad day.

Meeting

Today we had a meeting in the library of the South Salem Connections (I think it was!) There was a lot going on in the library. Lots of students coming in to complete work. Students coming to the book fair. And we had this meeting set up for around lunch time. We had to put almost all the tables together, and a lady brought in sandwiches and other munchable things for the people who came. They talked about our Peer Mentor group and what they’ve accomplished, as well as some of the other things our student body has done. It was very nice. Since it was over lunch, I handed our passing person two of our old lunch passes and if the students were coming down to buy, she could send two at a time into the library to get their purchases and then leave so someone else could come in. It worked pretty good, though my regular students were not happy about it I was told! But there’s no way they could have all come in with our meeting. Tomorrow they’ll be in and happy! Had a $25 hat stolen today. That makes about $50 stolen that I know of. I’m sure there’s more. Made about $200 today, so not bad considering we were basically closed for lunch. I made out our overdue slips today, and the computer formatted them different, and I was like, oh, I like the portrait style more, printed them up, put on the notes I do by running them back through the printer. As I was writing down the classes for the students I haven’t done before I noticed one thing, No Book Title! The notices were short, so they got the call number and barcode of the book overdue, but no title! I was a bit tempted to do them again, but decided not to. Next time I’ll make sure I have them the landscape way with the titles on them! 

Crawling

Oh my! That’s how my day felt today, like I was just crawling along! After 2nd period I was certain we were already into fifth period, but no! Did good on the book fair today, about $400. I cleaned up old emails. Went back and took a look at things I had left as reminders, like, what about getting an entry set up for our Super Multi DVD Drives, and had kept looking up ‘multi’ in search. I never saw it, so I asked Ms. D today where might that be and she had put it under ‘LG....’ with no ‘multi’ in the title! So I got those 5 DVD drives barcoded today and ready to go. Well, two of them were already in use! And another got checked out this afternoon! Glad they are getting some use already! Had both lunches in today for the book fair and it was nice to see the kids buying stuff they wanted. Packed up more discarded books for Garten. Did just a lot of interaction with students today in the book fair, getting them checked out, getting teachers a few things. Even had a sale before I went to score volleyball from a mom who was coming to see her daughter play! Our girls didn’t do very well today, but Thursday is another game! Hopefully they will do better!

Book Fair Opens!

Yeah! (Just picture Kermit the Frog waving his little arms and yelling 'yeah!!!' and that's how I feel!) Got into work early so I could hang up our banner and get the signs out before today's storm hits with wind and rain. And I was so bummed on Friday, went to the bank to get change for the book fair and they were closed. For Veteran's Day. I managed to get most of my coin change from my hubby who has a Tupperware container he dumps all his change into. Then I went to Safeway and bought a bag of potato chips - got three $5's and a couple of $1's. I had a $5, so that made my $20 in $5's! Then I went to Winco and bought more chips, some raisins and a Kombucha and asked to get my change all in $1's! And he did! My hubby and I had $8 in $1's so I was set! So I managed my usual $60 in change for the book fair this morning! That was close! And I did have students in right away buying, so glad that it was ready for them! Had three classes in for book talks and I asked if I could show the book fair trailers and their teacher said yes, I could, so I did. During one showing, the fire alarms went off, luckily while it was sunny and not raining, but the wind was cold!! Did about $110 today, so better than my usual first day. I didn't get any of the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid books in, so I had to order a box. I hope they get here tomorrow, but if not, I'm sure they'll be here by Wednesday. I was very unhappy that someone stole a fidget spinner from the pack. Then, when a class was in, another one went missing. I let the teacher know and after school, one of our teachers found one of the missing ones on a chair, under the table in the far corner of the library from the book fair. So, at least one was found! Got all my books put away this afternoon. Had a teacher take the last of the books from Sprague, and that made me happy that they will have a new home! 

Book Fair Delivered!

Spent most of the day working on covering the Outcasts United books. Did some laminating, just daily stuff (this is Monday so I don't quite remember!!) The book fair arrived 5th period and so I spent the rest of the day opening the cases, pulling stuff out of the boxes and recording what was in what box so when I go to pack up, I'll know exactly what box had which stuff. Made it so much easier last time when I did it that way! I'm really liking that we can put the book fair all in the old computer lab and everything can go in there! Lots of other cool new stuff, some fleece blankets, book bags (two I really like1) - one huge omission!! None of the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid books! I know my fair was packed before it came out, but I was really hoping a box would come my way and it didn't - ugh! I still have some unpacking to do for Monday, but most of it is done! Hoping we can do $3,100 on this fair! Looking forward to a nice three day weekend up with my daughter, her hubby and granddaughters at Great Wolf Lodge! Never been there, so it'll be interesting!

Got You Covered

Well, all right, only half of you. Today I pulled out my class set of Outcasts United to get them covered with our clear contact paper. It just helps making them last longer. I had 40 to do, and I think I got done about half. So, a good day. Both lunches were in. Did some emails of stuffs for a bunch of different people. Had three classes in to check in/out books today and did a mini book talk for two of them. The library was never really quiet today, but glad to churn out those books! I'm hoping to release them to teachers next week!

Scholastic Kind of Day

The Scholastic Book Fair is nearly upon us and I had to kick into gear today! Posters went up, brochures went out, toolkit checked, announcements sent in, notice for our online school site went in. Teachers notified, sent out a link to the book trailers. Definitely a Scholastic kind of day! I did one book talk, then found the DVD with the book fair book trailers on it, so did that one for the next class. Ran the trailer video all through both lunches. Had to write up a student today for not running, but rather bouncing down the halls, looked right at me and bounced right by, went down a hallway and into Ms. V and Ms. K, turned around, bounced right by me again and off down the other long hallway. He got written up several times today from what I heard. Gave some Penzey jars to our after school program and they were looking for jars to start painting in a week or two! So good timing! Off to score volleyball tonight, the 7th grade girls have their opening game tonight!

We Are All Ambassadors

We were very honored to have Mr. Andrew Young speak at our assembly today for the Harold Schnitzer Spirit of Unity award! It was amazing that this man who walked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mayor of Atlanta, came here to our school! It was put on by the Wholistic Peace Institute and we had three schools here today to be awarded. Our own Leslie, Blanchett, and Jesuit schools were here to show how they have impacted their communities. He talked about we all, all of us, in the halls, in classes, in our school, in our families, in our communities are all ambassadors of peace, and we have a choice every day on how to make that happen. After he talked he rode in his chair around the gym and let students ask him questions! So that is the only reason I got even close to him! He did not make it down to the library, but all the important people here for this did! It was a great morning, and we were all very blessed to hear and see this great man, talking as if we were all a guest in his living room. Very cool! Back to business, had math books to check in, I gave two book talks today on realistic fiction. I had a stack of books that I asked the students to thumbs up or thumbs down on whether a book was realistic or not. They did really well and I think they engaged better than if I just talked about it! I sent off two small boxes of books to two other schools today, and a big box off to LMSS to process for us. I had to talk to our bookkeeper about a girl who returned a book she thought she lost, so she paid for it, then it was found! But the computer didn't have a payment on it, just that it was lost, so we are going to keep an eye on it to see what the computer says tomorrow! A fabulous day, glad I got to be a small part of it!

Ready!

I had my aides today make sure their shelves were perfect for our visitor coming on Monday! I am so excited Ambassador Young is coming to Leslie! Big wigs planning people were in today looking around, talking with our principal, making notes. I went around at the end of the day and did some additional straightening up, displaying diverse books, cleaning counters, even cleaned out my office so if they need space to stash stuff, they will have it! I loaded up 3 boxes of books I had for repair work, the box I have ready to send to LMSS, the box of books that other LMA's haven't requested, a box of books that's been on my file cabinet since last June. Cleaned off the main check out counter, cleaned off my office desk. It looks so clean! I might have to keep it that way! Wrote up the last of the books for the other LMA's to consider and had two responses, so I put those aside to ship out on Monday. Had both lunches in today. Had a call from a book seller and had to tell them sorry, we don't do that anymore. When we had librarians in the schools, they would take a look, but now we have to abide by our contracts and just don't have time! One of the LMA's Ms. M got a Crystal Apple award last night! She's been at her school a long time and recently became it's LMA, so she is very involved there. We are all so happy that she won an award! 46 people were nominated, and twelve got awards, so that's pretty special out of the hundreds and probably a few thousand of district employees! Gave a good look around the library and I think we are all set for Monday. Didn't close the windows this week, just so when they come in they'll see our beautiful view! I'm one happy LMA today!

Jumble

Today was a jumble of a bunch of little stuff. I did get all the rest of the textbook stuff properly put away. Did my shelving. Talked with a teacher on helping out one of our students in activities in the library. Possibly doing some shredding and some book organizing off our cart. Did a bit of ordering. Packed up another box of discarded books. Went into the box Sprague sent and checked the books I had thought about adding to Leslie. Most I kept, a few I put back in my 'other' box to look at after I get these all ready to go. So excited to go see "I'll Push You" tonight with my favorite librarian Mrs. H! We did the Camino Primitivo last summer (2016) and it'll be fabulous to see another journey!

Cleaning

When I got in this morning, all the chairs were up on the tables, so I decided it would be a good idea to have my aides clean up for our special guest who arrives on Monday! I had them put all the chairs down, dust the shelves and books. Clean the tables. I took down my Halloween display and started to work on a Thanksgiving one. It's coming along, but I'm not happy with it. Got a message back from our technology guy to do some more research on the span wall and to get some teachers involved. I asked our IC who I should talk to and she suggested Ms. P and she's the head of the technology committee! She was so excited! Mr. M is behind me, and Mr. G our LMSS PA. So now I need passionate teachers who love technology and are willing to build lessons around using this amazing piece of technology. So, things progress onto another step! I put away nearly a whole cart full of books that belong in the back. I nearly got them all done except for the 7th grade math books. Science got done and I fixed the books that the aides had put in the wrong place, all the LIT books are back on the shelf, all the 6th and 8th grade math books got put away along with our Core Connections for our accelerated students. Had one of our counselors come in and start arranging stuff for a meeting and I was "Woah! What's going on? LEAP is usually in here after school" well, she had reserved the library, and yes, there it was on the calendar, but I had no idea nor did Mr. J who runs the LEAP club! So we hunted him down and he was so accommodating! He would just keep the students in the Commons until the meeting was over, then they'd come to the library. I also put away a bunch of books today from my shelves! I even repaired a couple of books! Time for bed for me! I'm tired!

Disembodied Book

Since it is Halloween, I took a book out into the hallway today that the textblock had fallen out of the boards and used it with the students "The most horrible thing you will see today" and other such words! Some of the students were really cute with that all! Mock horror faces, people trying to 'save' the book, some just wanted to take the book! It was very cute and fun. Worked more on ordering today, did a lot of interactive books. Finally realized that if I bought the paperbacks, I could buy four for the price of one hardback, so I went with that! I also had our technology guy come in and we talked about my idea for a span wall. That was cool and we talked about what needed to be done, how to do it. A cheaper but just as good a system. Instead of $10K+ cost, these projectors will do it for about $2K. So, here's hoping we can make that happen. I need to contact facilities to see about the other part of this, moving the shelves, making the wall smooth, putting in electrical. The screen is smaller than I thought, so we'll go with two projectors for now, but could really use 4 (yes, I'm dreaming!!) Got in my next JLG books and got them ready and out to LMSS. Hoping we can make it all work!

Reviews

I started the day finishing off the overdue notices. I had a stack I needed to go through Synergy to get the classes so I could put in the home rooms. Then, I found out how to add the two home rooms I didn't have in before!! I had asked Ms. D in the LMSS office to do it, but I did it and sent her a notice to say she didn't have to do it and take it off her list of stuff to do! Then I took the kids that I had put in their home room on their 'nickname' so I at least only had to look in one place! So I went through those and put them into their home room and deleted their 'nickname' on their account. A good morning of work! Then I got all the rest of the new books out there. Sent off some old Sprague books to another school. Started getting all my textbooks off the back table so it doesn't look so messy. I helped another staff member with some laminating. I took all my aide reviews and wrote them all up today, I had eleven to do, then added one of my own for six new pages! Printed them up and got them in our suggestion book. It was a great day and I got a lot done! Happy day!

Canoodling

I think I am done! I attended a paint night where the instructor told us to not canoodle! You just start doing more and more until you really don't like it anymore! But I felt the white birds/seagulls/doves were not enough and thought I'd put in some colored birds because, well, I could! I think I'm done! No more canoodling!! There were spiders in the library! One of my aides said 'look!! Mrs. Willer!! There are spiders, big ones up in the corner!!' And I looked out my office door and all the way across the library I could see them!! And they were big!!! I called up to get our custodian to get them down since they were way up by the ceiling!! He got them and killed them. Makes me shiver!! Had my aides work on doing a 'Kercheski' method math book check out. Worked on getting our surplus books into boxes and starting a pile to see if we will have enough for Garten to come and pick up, or if I'll have to take them down to them. I actually took both my breaks today. Emailed with technology for them to come out next week and see our library and how technology might work in the space. Made a list of books for the other Middle Schools to look at from the books Sprague sent over last school year. I had mostly picked mine out, so I did an excel sheet on title, author and a quick blurb on what the book is about. Already got one response! I would so much rather get them out there than send them to be pulped. Printed up all the overdue notices and got them all ready for Monday - though I still have a few that I need to look up in Synergy on Monday. Then I went through the ones ready to go and circled in red pen the due dates of books that were due in September!! I hope they come home!

Getting it Done

Well, it's been a few days and I don't really remember much exactly! I'm sure I worked on this, put books away, answered emails, and did just more or less the regular stuff I do! If I remember something, I'll put it in!

Nearly Done

Really worked on my 'Road' bulletin board today and am liking it. Not quite done yet, but hopefully tomorrow! I finally went upstairs and checked out all the roles of poster paper we had gotten in over the summer. Had my aides help bring down two of them for my rack downstairs. Loaded up two rolls on the upstairs rack, then loaded three onto my rack downstairs. Covered the last of the diversity books. Worked on some book repairs. A couple of students will be very happy I did! Got in yesterday a book that belongs to Salem Public Library, so after work I drove over to the park nearby and walked over to the library and turned it in. Wasn't going to go in, but wanted to see the new reading space area, very nice! And of course, I ended up bringing a book home. 

The Road

Started working on the new bulletin board today. Still plotting out how that will happen, what I want to say, how to make it work! Gave two book talks today on some non-fiction. I liked it, students picked up three of the 6 titles I did. But I really want them to love ALL the books I talk about!! Almost done covering the diversity books that came in very late last year, only have three books to go! Then I can start to cover the class set of Outcasts United that we got in. We also had three math classes come in to pick up their new math books today. One came during my lunch, which I figured might happen, so I had started eating a few minutes early so I could be done on time if they came in. And they did! 

Prayer

We have Andrew Young coming to visit in two weeks! So today and every day from now, I will take time before anything else, to pray over our space, his visit and our community. I'm working on an idea of 'what road will you take' - a look at choices for my entrance display. Then it was back into the Monday routine! Opening up the curtains, turning back on all the computers and getting them up and running. Got the rest of the overdues ready to hand out and had my aides deliver them during 2nd period. Had three classes come in to pick up math books today and three classes come in to check in/out library books! Reset all the non-fiction shelf assignments for my aides, but still not sure how that will work. I can work tightly, but can they??? Covered some books today. Put away all the non-fiction. Tried to take my breaks! Had both lunches in as well! No volleyball, not yet anyways! The 7th graders start meeting tomorrow!

Pink Out Day

It was so much fun to watch all the kids get their 'pink' on for our first Spirit Day! Out in the hallways during passing, it was a sea of pink. Some were a bit crazy, and there were students who didn't dress, but it was all good! They sold pink frosted donuts this morning, and then had fudgesicles for a No Tardy Party today, so yes, the students were ramped up a bit! I covered books today and ran the overdue book reports. One of the teachers showed me how to print two to a page so I did that, but the print is so small!! Might need a magnifying glass to read the numbers! I was really hoping I'd have a lot of students with their homerooms already done, but nope! I have a stack on my desk I will have to pull up when I go back on Monday. Put away a lot of books. Pretty quiet in the library, had to have some one-on-one students in for a bit. Remember the pink, what it stands for, who it represents in your life.

Timing

Had five math classes come in today and trade out books. Worked on my Baker and Taylor order, looking through a site our PA had sent to us, then going to Novel-list and checking out things there. Got the big ladder and climbed up to peel off the "Reference" letters from where I now have the Auto/Biographies. Dusted up there too!! Talked to a student today about her anxiety attack, gave her a book we had gotten in last June and she decided to check it out. When I had my lunch, I was done and got the library all ready and then the math class came in with perfect timing! We even had time to let our B lunch students come in, and a good thing since it rained all day and there was no outside for lunch time. 

Auto/Biographies

Had five classes in today for a talk on Autobiographies and Biographies. It was fun and we had a great time looking at Sachiko, Marian Anderson and Ben Franklin. I encouraged them to find a book that was unusual. To not just look at the big names, but to check out the small names and find their story. One girl checked out Misty Copeland's Life in Motion, another boy checked out a book on Oscar Schindler. I did more book covering and put away all the non-fiction and two whole loads of graphic novels. I read The Sons of the Dragon King and showed it to our Instructional Coach and she was "I know a kid right now I need to show this book to!! Check it out to me!!" And then she took off for a classroom. A great busy day. Then off to score volleyball that lasted to nearly 6pm!

Three Carts

We got all the reference books done today. Barcodes marked out, stamped Discarded and on the carts. My aides did a fabulous job of getting those done. They all have their shelves now of books to put away, so I'm hoping they do a great job. I've taken over the non-fiction until I get all the shelves set the way I want them. There's still some scooching and stuff to do. I found some books today that missed on the inventory, so I need to go over more of them. I noticed that there were two books that I knew were on the shelf - and yep, they were. Just missed them somehow along with a chunk of books right next to them (about 7). Cleaned off the piles of books I had all over my desk. Needed to re-call number a few. Spent some time reading through a couple of books finding speech things to use for my book talks tomorrow. I'm excited about that. Did a repair on a book for a student waiting for it. Also did some laminating, and cleaned the back table after my aides got stamp ink and sharpie all over it as they worked on the books. 

Rearranging

I cleared off all the Reference books. Most hadn't been touched in years, some were very dated (1980's!). And I decided that those shelves needed to highlight our Auto/Biographies section. I'm so happy with the way it turned out! Then I was nearly done and a teacher came in saying she wanted to have her students come in and check out auto/biographies on Wednesday! Now all the books are displayed right about eye level, highlighted, and they just made me happy! Then I was able to finish up the 900's too! And have room for the few Reference I'm keeping - some will just go back on the shelf without the R designation. I was able to delete two sets of old encyclopedias. From 2002 and 2005. I'm keeping the 2009 for now. Then started on deleted more of the Reference. I feel very accomplished! And I forgot to mention we had our earthquake drill this afternoon. One of my aides had gone to the bathroom and I tried to find her before we went out to the field, but I searched the bathroom right by the library and she wasn't there! I risked my life to find her! I discovered that she usually goes to the bathroom up in the office because she doesn't like gender specific bathrooms. All righty! I told her it would have been nice to know that before I couldn't find her! 

More Inservice

Today was the Statewide Inservice Day, so we did another session of the Helpling Traumatized Children Learn for the morning, then back to Leslie for the afternoon. I finished up the non-fiction inventory, then started to take out the Reference section. I'm thinking I'll put the auto/biographies over there, more room to display as well! 

Helping Traumatized Children Learn

That was the title of the pathway I attended this morning. Wow. I know we all have some kind of trauma in our lives and I think our kids are susceptible to so much more with the instant news we have today. Some of the notes I took today:
Our bodies remember things we've forgotten - our bodies never forget.
Genes and environment = behavior
We can be genetically predisposed to behaviors and some behaviors can be enforced by learned behaviors.
Your stressed self is NOT your best self!
Kids want to be: industrious, successful and have friends
Learning costs something, every time
Underlying trauma is usually pain - "Do you like me even when I'm bad?"
Great TED video: How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime with Nadine Burke Harris
This is real - this is all of us
ACE - Adverse Childhood Experiences - there are tests online - most of us have at least one
Your brain will store trauma in a very back, back room file cabinet
Your brain will prune!
A safe caregiver is one of the first things your brain wants you to seek out as a child - an attachment
Your brain will wire itself differently if you don't have your basic needs met
How am I going to survive? Is the brain's focus
Poverty (which can be so much more than just $$$) and a cycle of trauma is horrific to your brain

That was all for today. Back tomorrow morning for another session, then another 3 sessions throughout the rest of the year.

PermaBound

I love it when our PermaBound rep comes to call. Such a great guy, and he really works at making sure our students have what they want and need in their amazing binding! And he brings a book, asks me what I need. He is awesome! Finished up cleaning up the 900's. Deleted them and had my aides mark out the barcodes and spine labels. Let the social studies teachers know they were down here if they wanted any. Laminated this morning since I forgot last night in my eagerness to get to the track meet. Covered some books. Found this really cool book from 1926! It had been rebound, but it was incredible! The Columbia and about the 'new' highway going through the gorge! Complete with the new process of color photography, shot on site! It is beautiful! So glad I didn't just delete it, but opened it up! Gorgeous! Then off to volleyball scoring! Last day of the first 6 week grading period!

Track This

Had two book talks today and did the Battle of the Books talk for them both. Hopefully I'll have lots of interest in January when we get rolling for that. Actually got some books covered today! I was so happy about that! Put away some math books I needed to find a spot for in the back. Worked with my aides to sort and count all the yearbooks we have. I love the one from 1949! Mrs. F came and showed me how to put two notices together on one piece of paper. I'm hoping that works out well! I started to work on weeding our country section in the 900's. Some of the countries had 4 books and anywhere from 1982 (!) up to 2017. I got a whole top shelf of a cart filled and I'm not done yet. It needs to be done so badly. I forgot to laminate!! I will have to do it first thing in the morning, don't want to let a teacher down. Then I headed over to Bush Park and helped out for our district track meet. I got to stand at the farthest corner and direct the students. It was raining just a bit, but I loved seeing our students and a few nodded as they went by. I love to see our students exploring other possibilities!

Monday/Wednesday

We only have students for three days this week, so it felt like a Monday, but a Wednesday as well! Finished up the overdue notices today, and actually had 20 or so less than last week. That's great! Took down my pirate ship and put up some banned books instead! We had three classes in today and one was just to check in and out, but the other two were for book talks! Yeah! I did my talks on Battle of Books and had several students ask for more information and some checked out the books from the battle - I told them they could for now, but after the semester change only battle students will be able to! Had both lunches in and at the end of the day I started to put away books. We had a ton of books come in and a ton did not get put away so I got out and started to put them away until it was time for the staff meeting to start. Then I realized I had to get some math books for first period tomorrow, so I got those ready and took them to Mr. S's room. Then off to volleyball!! A great game with amazing plays!

Full Moon Friday

Yes, the full Harvest Moon was up last night and even this morning as I drove into work. So I wondered how the students would be. Only one was horrifically bad and I reported him to his teacher. But the rest were just business as usual! I put up a display for autumn with Halloween themed books and crafts to compliment the picture I painted last night, but I forgot to take a picture! So maybe I'll do that on Monday. Worked on the 'unaccounted for' books from the non-fiction up into early 700's. Had both lunches in. Did the overdues and it was really nice to find a good two-thirds of them were already classroom marked! I spent the rest of my time taking care of the ones that were not. I also stood out in the hallway today with my picture encouraging the students that art was a great career! If I could do it, so could they! It was fun and I got quite a few nice comments on my painting ;) 

Through the 920's

Today I made it all the way across the wall and around the pony wall - nearly finished the 920's. There are books everywhere! My aides do not understand how to shelve! I'm thinking that they either need me to go with them every time in the non-fiction, or I just take it all back myself!! Did some laminating and worked on clearing up the 'lost' books and 111's on the unaccounted for list. Off to Paint Night!

Inventory - 500's

Since I have no classes in these next two days I decided to do my non-fiction inventory. So I got the computer all set up and started in the 001's and ended up in the 500's. While I did that, I also thought about the shelves - having five shelves of just partials, and I ended up taking the books and rearranging. So now most of the shelves have the top and bottom shelf just to display books, and the shelved books are more at eye level now. I was really happy about it. So I shifted books all day. I did take attendance too! Answered the phone, once! I can't wait to see how the inventory all comes out!

One Box

Got in my box from Scholastic of my preview books for the book fair! Yeah! So I took all the other books that had been waiting and put together a whole copy paper box of books that need to be processed. Some Scholastic, some Junior Library Guild and some just donations. Sent all my aides over to Mrs. C today because she really needed help and we were really quiet in the library. Tables were all askew again since class was in last night. Today I had one of my aides hold up the tables and put some tape under one set of table legs to make it easier to put them back in their right places after the classes are done with them! Had two classes in today to just check in/out books. Had various students in to check in/out since I had sent out notices yesterday. Had quite a few renew books! Had one lunch in. Got my principal to approve unpaid leave in February for my husband's 65th birthday, so sent that in to Human Resources. A good day. Glad to help out a teacher.

Film Strips and Laser Discs

Got all the 252 overdue notices finished up around 4th period, and took them up to the teacher mailboxes. I also sent an email saying how many there were and I just didn't have the time to put them into their periods, but at least I got them out. Answered emails, got two phone calls. One from an LMA who needed help printing reports, the other from LMSS. I started to go through all the other letters in the alphabet to find books I needed to look out for. Took me awhile to figure out some! Like the FS's were film strips, the LD's were laser discs! I've actually seen one and held it when I was at Sprague, but that was years ago! We don't even have the players for those even if we had some! Same with the film strips. I'm sure those left eons ago, but we still had those records. What was funny was that I pulled up the L's and looked through the LIT sets. I had 63 copies in the books of Adventures of the Greek Heroes. In the LIT records, I now have 63 titles of them that all have the exact same barcodes for 63 copies. At the bottom of the page it told me I had over 4,700 LIT set titles - oh my! Where's that rolling on the floor laughing my head off smiley?? All the LIT sets were like that, whether they had seven copies, one copy or 117! I ended up talking to LMSS and they finally called me to ask what in the world was I talking about??? Then they saw. So, not sure what we'll do. I started to work on the 111's that were labeled SCI/FAN and noticed the same thing. If there were two copies of the 111's, there were two entries on the report. But when I deleted those, then the report went back to how it should be with the copies I have. It was really bizarre! So we'll see what happens tomorrow with all that! Some very exciting news!!! One of our counselors sent me an email to use the library in November for a very special event. So I reserved it for him and in the meeting today they announced that our peer mentor group has been one of the top groups and because of that Andrew Young is coming to visit!! He was a close confidant to Martin Luther King Jr., mayor of Atlanta, a US Congressman for Georgia, then the US Ambassador to the United Nations. Wow, what an honor! I'm already thinking about what books we need to have displayed for when he's here! Exciting and honoring to have this man (also up for a Nobel prize!!) come right here to Leslie!

More Computer Work

Finished the Fiction inventory! Huzzah, Huzzah HUZZAH!!!  Decided to go rogue and go ahead and finalize it. I only had two books on there that I could not find in the system, but on the inventory side it said they were in, but turned them to lost. Over 5,500 books are done, and 473 (+/-) books were declared lost. We have bought 59 Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and only have 25! Wow! Then I discovered that we had books labeled for their Call # in the AR and SCI/FAN. So I worked on getting those deleted - they were again from the McKay 111's. Got the 10 pages of AR done, have just the 17 pages of SCI/FAN to go. Hopefully that will clear all those titles and books out from my catalogue. I had put in an announcement today that we would be running overdue book reports, over 340 of them! I also let our Language Arts teachers know to get those books in since they would be getting the overdue notices in their boxes! But luckily when I printed them up, there were only about 260 pages and of course, we did get in some of the overdue books today. When I left I had done about 90 pages. I'm getting a system down for looking up the students on our Synergy base and putting their homeroom # in the notes on their Destiny accounts. Almost considered taking them home, but decided no, that was work and I was done! Sad though, I was reading Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies  and took it home. On the way home my water cup fell over (it did have a lid on it!) and got the pages of the book wet. Arrggghhh!! So I quickly taped the book together and threw it in my freezer. Hopefully the dry air in the there will wick the moisture out and the pages will be fine since I taped the book seriously closed! 

Toughing out Inventory

Spent a huge part of the day going through my 23 pages of deletions and converting to 'lost' books today to get our data base caught up with what is actually there on the shelves. Had all my aides today pick out two banned books for the display I want to put in the hallway for next week. Had to change my focus group for Inservice days. Le sigh. Did a bit of lamination. Had the library open for lunches. 

Battle of the Books

I held an introductory meeting for Battle of the Books today during lunches! I had about 17 students show up, so that was encouraging! I was flipping along, trying to finish the fiction inventory and then thought, I have my meeting today! So, I went and looked on my PowerPoint and my one from last year that I was just going to switch out books, was gone! I had to quickly snap together a whole new PowerPoint for lunch - which was only about an hour away - oh my!! I think it turned out well, but the videos were not near as good as last years. Since B lunch was a bit later for the students to come in, I didn't even show it, but rather talked up the books myself. I think I did pretty well! I did finish up doing the shelf inventory, found a few things I missed - like I have all the Goosebumps books over by the reference section (how could I have forgotten about all those??) and the 39 Clues (all written by different authors) and a few other spots. Then I ran reports on what was still unaccounted for and started to trash all the 111's and flip the others on there to lost. So now I'll have to see if I can 'finish' the inventory and go on from there. I'll have to ask Mr. G. Then off to score volleyball tonight and an urban emergency preparedness class at REI.

Hangout Bust

Yes, we tried to do a Google Hangout meeting today and it just wasn't happy. So we will have to try something new! Worked on my orders today, then more inventory as I discovered we are just to leave the fields open - crumzoids! And I was about 55% done with fiction. Unhappy face :(  But, I think I'll keep going and just leave the non-fiction fields open, I'll have to see about it. Did two booktalks today and ran the teaser trailer for Wrinkle in Time - and one class had a group that wants to read the book! So exciting! Did a bit of laminating, then off to errands!

Windows Done

I got through inventorying all the books that run under our windows today, so that was all the way into just starting the J's. I ran the report for the unaccounted for books and got through all the D's and F's, trashing the 111 codes and then marking the rest lost. Had one book talk today on memoirs and then had two other classes in for library time. Then we had three classes come in for 8th grade math books as well. I am very lucky to have aides every period except 5th and they are doing an amazing job! I also have a student in on a PE release that has wanted, begged, hoped, I'd give her something to do!! So I gave her my fiction shelf that I was doing and showed her how to shelve and take care of it. She'll be around for another 3 weeks or so. Hung around and read for half an hour then went over to score volleyball.

Finches on Sunflowers

Looked out the windows today and there were a ton of finches (or some smallish goldenish bird!) climbing all over the sunflowers in the garden out there eating the seeds! They were so cute! We had classes in nearly all day. I gave some Battle of Book book talks to three of the classes. Did some more inventory work and finished up the C's Glad those are all done! Next will be the D's! Printed out the overdue slips - heavens! 75 overdue books already!! I took each of the students and looked up their class, then put that class room number into their 'homeroom' on the computer, so I won't have to look them up next time. Put those into the teacher boxes before I left tonight. 

Inventory 111

Today was assembly for the school fundraiser today, so periods were shorter and I had to take my aides to the assembly. It was all right. I decided to go ahead and get started on my inventory. Having students look up books that may or may not be there was really bothering me, so I went for it. Put in a tester case of F aaa - Fazz and it went ahead and loaded ALL the fiction. Drats! But, just as well, I can start and stop as I please. So I would check in all the books on the shelf starting with just the A's. Round up all the books on carts and racks, then run a report on the missing - which was 5,000+ books off! But then I could take just the 'A' pages and work on those. I noticed I had books from school 111 supposedly on my racks and after a few of those, I called in to ask and oh my! It was a glitch from years ago and when they rolled over the program, it pulled back in all those books and if they were even part of a name from a book you had on the shelf at some point, it loaded it back onto your shelf. So I took my 'missing' books and had to do a three part search, one for the books that might still be in the library, one to delete all the 111 books (one title had 8 of them on the catalogue as being 'available') - then go in and mark all the rest of the books officially 'lost'. I feel good that our A and B sections are all done and I nearly got done with the C's. Did some laminating. Had both lunches in today. 

Volleyball

Yes! The games started today and I did my first score keeping! Our Lady Lions won 4 of the 5 games - both sides did really well and a few of the games were really close. I really do love this! Now, back to work! Got my username and password for our book order site, Titlewave. We are all really wondering about ordering with the new system - not Destiny, but Baker and Taylor were bought out by Follett, so there have been some changes with how schools can order. Then I even figured out how to download my list into there! I was so proud! Then I added in some other books and it created a new list with the same name - Huh?? So I have to figure that out. (Insert rolly eye smiley here) Did some more book looking up. Mr. M brought in three Chrome carts and asked us to label all the laptops to match the slots they go in, so I had my aides work on that today. We only had two periods to do it in, and my aides did a great job. They nearly had all 114 laptops labeled by the time school ended and I finished up the rest. Pulled 35 DayBooks for a teacher and had my aide check them out to her and take them up to her room. Had my Scholastic Rep call me about what is going on with the Scholastic fair that will come up in November. Both lunches were in the library today. I was planning on covering books today, but never got there! Oh well! Tomorrow is another day!

Walk the Plank!

Had a lot of fun getting students to walk the plank I made outside the library entrance today! Some did it on their own, the ones who we caught running down the hall seemed intrigued with the 'consequences' of their behavior. Maybe we should do this every day! Stripped the rest of the hardback books and started to work on the paperbacks we have. Worked a bit on the new book order - got inspired to do so since we have a meeting (online) next week. Worked on adding in some dystopian books to my catagories. A pretty quiet day all in all. Had both lunches in the library today. Also did some laminating. Lots got done, just picking away at tasks that need to get done!

Avast Maties!

I found out it will be 'Talk Like a Pirate' day tomorrow! So I put together this display for in the library for the next couple of weeks. My aides helped me out and they enjoyed doing the display. I really had fun making my 'plank'! Tomorrow I think when the day starts, I'm going to put a brown poster paper 'plank' in the hallway, and if you run, you are called back to 'walk the plank!'. Mr. C was really into it and made a sign he held up during passing! Today we didn't have in any classes, but still had bands of kids waft through. I got my mom's old computer tower in to give to Mr. C and his 'computer museum' which is what I did with my mom's old Apple II GS. Worked with one of my aides on his shelving. He picked the Graphic Novels and thought that section was ONLY the cartoon books! Ha! So I helped him out with them today. Put all my aides' shelf assignments on a better piece of paper so I could keep track of that better! Tried to figure out what everyone was saying with the new Destiny library program, but my poor little brain was just having a very hard time! 

Book Talks & a Floatie

A busy weekend for sure! Oktoberfest, kayaking, working at my mom's. So, here is what I remember from Friday! I had a full day with book talks every period except 7th! I had fun with our journalism class showing them the great online resources they have available to them and going through them and all they offer. The other classes got my standard talk about the new program and how that affects the library and their checking out and searching. Then they also got a bit of a book talk on our new Diversity books. So that was fun! Got the rest of my aides to pick out their non-fiction sections and we worked a bit on that. The morning started out a bit rough. Our evening custodian came in with a book inside a garbage bag. She had found it floating in the boys restroom. Yes, in the .....  So, I charged the gentleman for the book since there was no way to save it. Then Mr. M came in asking for a referral, then Ms. P sent a student down calling me and telling me that student was to sit in a chair and read or do homework - no fraternizing with other students!! Discovered I still had some books at LMSS somewhere to come in - yeah! But wondering when we get to order?? Tried to get on Google Hangouts, but I had no camera nor microphone! So I could see and hear the others that made it in, but I was blank and unable to participate! But at least we can have meetings now during the work day and not have to drive all over - not to mention there is no longer any budget for meetings. A much quieter week next week with a blank book until Friday!

Non-Fiction Sign Ups

I managed to get done with the non-fiction shelf sign ups and did a great sheet on publisher with tables for the shelves, groupings and the numbers the students need to look at! I think it turned out rather well! Laminated. Got the Access Math all checked in and I think I know where it will end up in the back back room. Had four classes in today to just check out books and two orientations for 6th graders. Helped a lot of students looking for books today (one of my fave things!!) Have more book talks tomorrow...!! Got in a mini iPad for a student and had to figure out what to do about that. Scrolling through emails from yesterday, then sending an email to Ms. D at LMSS. Turned out to be as easy as printing up a barcode. Got barcodes for the pile of math teacher resources done that had been on my desk since I got back to work in August. Sent off a couple of books to other schools. The days just go by so fast with the new schedule and with my lunch during 5th period, it seems the students hardly get time to check out at all! I'm going to have to shorten up my talks :( 

Unboxed

Huzzah! All my books are out of boxes!! But that only happened at the end of the day. Had two orientation talks with 6th graders. I put away the two sets of fiction shelves that haven't been taken by aides yet (I still have one aide that's been out.) I put away all the non-fiction. Worked on cleaning up a few things that needed to be taken care of on those shelves as well. I'm sure there's more! I also worked with a couple of aides to clean up the Graphic Novel section and got that all nice and neat today. The girls did pretty good, but I don't think they will ever want to volunteer to do that section! I also did get those 3 boxes of books unpacked and on a cart. Checked them in, then started to put strips in them before I left. I should still have some books somewhere down at LMSS waiting for me!

Fiction Pick

I decided this year to let my aides pick the fiction sections they wanted, so they could pick an author or series that they might like. Then I spent most of the day working with them showing them how to read the shelves, make sure the books were all straight and pretty. Looking for anomalies, putting books up on the top of their shelves. I got into the 900's a little bit and they were a real mess! I worked the shelves a bit, but I know they still need a lot of work! Had two remember the rules and the changes over the summer talks along with a quick book talks for Ms. R's classes today. Did some laminating and had to change the rolls - ugh!! Then they were horribly misaligned so I had to straighten them out, but it got done. Got all the Diversity books on the excel sheet! Yeah, so now tomorrow I might get a chance to go through the three boxes of books I haven't touched yet from last June. Had both lunches in so the students were happy about that!

You're Tomorrow

Had a teacher come in today and line up her class and then realized she hadn't signed up until tomorrow! So we grabbed books and got her all set up. So, we had her and then another math teacher and classes coming in for book talks on top of that! Luckily all my aides were in today. But, I had the clearance to get them all signed logged into the computers and they can check out from their own district accounts. So I had to get them all logged in and then over to the website and where to go from there. I was in about half an hour late because I had an MRI this morning and lovely Ms. M was there. She is awesome, but didn't know about the change to Follett for the library program yet, so she was happy because she used that so much in other districts! I did some orientation talks today with a bit of books for some classes, then a talk on memoirs for a couple of our older students. I love it when I talk a book and it gets checked out, makes me happy. No one in the district has any extra Spanish 1 books, so Mr. M asked me to get an estimate for that - 20 books, $1,000. It is what it is. Had a teacher ask me to find some Seedfolks books (I love that book!!) and I found some at another school, so maybe they will lend. I'll find out tomorrow. Got a bunch of my Diversity books all on my excel sheet so they will go out tomorrow. Worked on getting the shelving assignments set up for all my students. I think I will let them pick their own areas. I'm going to have to make a publisher set up I think, so I'll  always have the shelves set up the way I want them and can just change names, etc. Depending on how many aides I have! We'll see how it goes! 

Kept Them Busy

My aides were very busy today checking out math books and checking out 'Kercheski style' more math books for Mr. G and Mr. S. So I supervised all of them. Two aides did not come in today. Hummm.  I worked on my sub further notes list. Made a list of our in district numbers to put by our names on the new phone list. Updated my phone contact groups. Started a spreadsheet in Excel of the Diversity books so I can load them into Destiny when we can make that happen. And then they can actually go out and play. Had great quiet lunch kids in today and a group that started playing D&D!! Got a box of resources for one of our teachers. Did some laminating. Had to ask for more paper for our copier down here. Helped out students to show them how to copy. It was a very good and busy day. 

Aiding and Checking Out

Today all my aides got a chance to check out books. Most got to check out both books and textbooks, but a couple of periods got to check out one or the other. I gave 6 periods a talk about our new search engine - then they got to check out books. I found I can get to the catalogue search on the generic account thanks to our Yammer conversations, but I still want to get to the full check in/out using the generic. Not sure I'll get it, but am hoping. Got out books to Mr. M today. Sent off requested books. Filled the rack with books we already had since I don't have the new ones ready to go yet. I did get my lunch correct today! Got all the new sign up sheets into the notebook with the lunches correctly on 5th period! The 7 period day seems to go by so fast! I had students still checking out books today after the bell rang. Lunches are crazy with students wanting books! Put away a set of CD's for audio in the back room. It was a crazy day, with lots getting done. Books are getting out there and kids are happy! I only have one that buzzes around wanting to know if I got any new graphic novels in. So cute! Throat and eyes were better today, got a bit of rain last night and just got a nice sprinkle here! We so need the rain!

All Together Now

Everyone was back at school today! So fun to see so many familiar faces. Some haven't changed at all, some really have! I have aides every single period except for lunch, plus one extra, so I have 13 aides. My most ever!! Not sure what I will do with them all, but today I spent most of every period talking to them about - emergency items - what to do and where to go with fire, earthquake and conditions. Gave all of them a tour of the library and environs. A little bit of why we do what we do. Talked to them about the new Follett program and how that will work. Hoping the techs will have my generic password set to get into Follett by tomorrow so we can check out books! Gave them my expectations sheet. My voice started to give out! Luckily I still had my cough drops there, so it didn't go completely, but almost. Then my right eye started to water and get mucky. I'm sure from all the smoke in the air. I think I've been breathing smoky air since mid July when I was up in Banff and Jasper. Discovered today that I did the sign up sheets wrong. Put my lunch break into 4th period with A and B lunch which it was, and no, my lunch is  now actually 5th period and that's when the A and B lunches are. So redid those, now I just have to transfer information to the new ones from the old ones. Got asked if I had lunch passes ready, and I didn't, so I quickly did those for today. Started lunch and realized that I was eating at the wrong time! So stopped and waited until I really was supposed to have lunch! Hoping for rain. No lightning please for our firefighters out there battling all the fires here in the West. 

6th Grader Day

Today was all about the 6th graders and getting them used to lockers, different periods and the layout of the school. I really enjoy this day! So nice to have a small amount of students in today. I've heard we have 810 this year at the moment so tomorrow will be interesting when they all come back. I have aides every period this year. Oh my!! Spent every passing period out with the students helping them find where they needed to be. Helping with lockers. Spent time answering emails about The Secret Garden books one of our teachers want. Pulled and checked out to teachers today. Laminated. Got my schedule from Mr. M and he had given me an hour and a half lunch! Ha! So I changed that. But I am also to help out at the after school club if needed this year. Ugh. I get more work done that needs to be done after school than all day. Had teachers coming in after my new stop time and they weren't happy about that I had to leave and they would have to wait until tomorrow, but that's just what needs to be done. Smoky even inside the building today. The wildfires all around us were crazy. We looked like we were in fog all day, but it was smoke. You could smell it. I was very grateful that the library was one of the coolest rooms in the building today. Every where else I went you could feel the heat and humidity. We are all hoping it rains soon, no lightning please. There were even air quality advisories out today. I've never seen it this bad. Ever.

Four Day Weekend

Yep! No work tomorrow so we go back on Tuesday to meet all our new 6th graders! I got to sit in my office during the meeting today and get all the new Diversity books all Tattle stripped and Due Date slips on them during the meeting! That was a good deal. Our principal wanted to be sure I watched the superintendent's message and join in on the ice breaker, but the rest of the time I could just listen from my office while working. Multitasking at its finest! We had a potluck today and then I started to put out the racks of series novels out on the top of our shelves. Made a few changes. Did the laminating that was waiting for me. Had some large posters I had to fold then split the sides so the front at least got covered. Checked out books this afternoon as well to teachers and got them all set up. Then it was time to go! A very busy productive day!

Taking Care of Business

Went to our Job-A-Like meeting this morning and we learned some cool things about the new Follett library program. Now I just need to learn it before the students come back in three days! They asked if we had any questions at the end and I said "Now we just need 500 students with 1,000 books and then we'll have questions!!" Everyone laughed. So true! That took about all morning - I had gone in to do a few things before I left for the meeting. When I got back, I ate my lunch while doing the Mandatory Training for the year. That took about an hour and a half, then I barcoded some teacher books. Cleaned up the 'available' Outsiders books so now we have a count of what is actually available. Moved them Tape Cassettes and CD audio books and put the new ones together with what we had that I had sent out for catalogueing before we left for the summer. Helped some teachers out with resources. So, some things got done, learning new stuff and one more day this week to go!