The daily life of a Middle School Library Media Assistant.

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Running



Another great day in the library. Worked on my Black History Month first display with a 'Where did they come from' theme. The aides are nearly all trained and I even had some today checking out Kercheski style for me today! Got them out on the shelves and starting to do shelving. Still have one aide I haven't seen yet. Got my Scholastic books all stamped and sent off, then got the call that my Girl in the Blue Coat book is not approved for middle school. Rats!! I had only stamped the top, so that wasn't too bad. I looked up the high schools and found two that didn't have it, so I asked if they wanted it and they said yes. Good for them. Glad to help! Though I'd rather have the book in my library!! Did some laminating. Took down my cooking display and will put up a 'blind date with a book' something or other starting tomorrow. Maybe a set of dinnerware? Candles? Might have to give it a try! Talked with Scholastic today and got my next book fair all set up and ready to go. Took three more class sets of math up to Mr. G today. Had some students in the halls at lunch. Two girls were opening and closing the boys bathroom door by the library. Ms. V and I went out there and they were from lunch, what were they doing down the hall??? And messing about with the door of the boys bathroom??There are bathrooms right by the lunch room?? Then three boys came running down the hall and I chased after them up the stairs. Two disappeared, one went to his locker. I headed back to the library and Ms. C saw me and I told her what had happened. After work I helped again at the wrestling game and got to just keep time this time (sooo easy!) and as I left to come home, Ms. C said they identified the students from the cameras and that I had really picked up and ran after those boys! She was impressed! Ready for a new day tomorrow!

Monday, January 30, 2017

New Start

Hadn't heard anything about passing out schedules, so I moseyed on down to the gym and ended up handing out the new schedules for 20 minutes or so. Today was the first day of the new semester. I have eight aides! What am I going to do with them all??? I will have to be organized! Today I had five of them working on the Order in the Library shelving program, and most of them got done, or nearly done. I also gave a tour of all the places in the building where we keep books! I worked out the shelving sets for everyone and I had two repeat aides! So that was nice to have someone who knew what they were doing! I covered more new paperbacks, including Chi!! So excited to have my favorite kitty in the library. Ah, oh. My Bad Kitty is looking at me...  Got in my Scholastic order today, so excited to see our new country books!! They really do have a nice set!! I got in about twelve? Myanmar, Tibet, Nepal and others and they are all 2017 editions! That should help get my non-fiction average age up a bit! Nice, slick, 144 pages, perfect for our students for research! Checked out 'Kercheski' style for three math classes and finished up one more that a student had started. 

Thursday, January 26, 2017

JLG

Today I got a call from JLG - Junior Library Guild and they really are very nice folks and I had their services at one point, but decided to stop. But today since our focus has been on updating our non-fiction, I decided to listen and ended up purchasing two of their non-fiction for middle school packages. It will help keep me on track and they always have great books. So I am looking forward to it. I can change the book they send if I want, so that's a handy feature. That will take nearly all the rest of my extra budget, but there will still be a bit left in there. I think it will be good for the school. The rest of the day I started covering the paperbacks. Then I got ready for our first OBOB meeting. I had nine kids during A lunch, but only one for B lunch. So we'll see if any more are interested in the next week or two. It was the end of the first semester today, and as the students began to leave, someone pulled the fire alarm ~~~!! So we all got some nice afternoon air while we waited to be cleared to go back inside. I got my new ALA posters all laminated today. Gave my departing aides a pick from my box to say thank you for all their hard work. Found out I had a ton of aides for next semester, ten in all! I had four that I questioned because they don't check out books! One girl even said she DID NOT want to be in the library - they moved her, thank goodness!! I worked the wrestling match again today with no help! I did my best, and the ref said I did good. I am off tomorrow, so see you on Monday!

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Reset

This morning I was getting ready for work and realized that I thought I had a class coming in during lunch! So NO Battle of the Books! I had to change my signs and pull my announcement and write a new one. At least I noticed before school began! So, did two more book talks today and got all the hard backs all done. Started to work on the paperbacks, but didn't get too many done. Had quite a few students in today working on projects since grading is on Friday. Not much else to report! Just one more day this week for me!

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Book Wrestling

Nearly a perfect day of nesting with my new books! Putting in strips, putting in due date slips. Finding my series and numbering them. Happy, happy sigh of delight! Did two book talks today as well, talking about how many books are out there. We have about $3,300 worth of lost books since September, and about $48,000 of overdue books!! That's a lot!!! I put up signs for beginning Battle of the Books tomorrow. Put in an announcement for that for tomorrow. Sent off a book to another school. Got a couple in. I also helped tonight with our wrestling program by helping keeping score! It was fun, but I have no idea what the ref saw when he would hold up his arm for red and two fingers for points! I just put it on the scoreboard. Which was fun to work with the electronic score board too! Luckily I had a fellow next to me that kept me on track - it would have been chaos without him, I'm sure!!

Monday, January 23, 2017

They Are HERE!!!

Yes, my five boxes from Baker and Taylor showed up today and I am ecstatic!! They didn't come until 6th period, but they are here! I got them all checked in, and even checked out one to my 6th period aide! Then I got some others ready for a book talk tomorrow! Yeah! Happy Dance!! Before they came, we did check out books to two classes today. I finished up covering the books from the two boxes that came Thursday. I covered some more of the Spanish 2 Workbooks. Sent in an order from Scholastic using nearly all the money I made from the fall book fair. Got some nice 900's books from there as well. So excited to have new books! Now I just hope we get my last two orders in before the end of the school year!

Friday, January 20, 2017

Books On Shelves

Didn't get in my five boxes but did get done my two, nearly and got them our on the rack. Put up some penguin books for Penguin Awareness Day. Helped get some resources for teachers today, some voice recorders (our lovely IC brought those to the attention of the teacher) and we didn't have dictionaries students could speak into but we did have some that work phonetically! So they took those after I put new batteries in them. Stripped the new books, put date due slips in, covered the paperbacks. Our of 53 books I only have about 7 left to finish. Had an aide help me move tables back to ADA format. Love my job!

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Two plus Five

BOOKS!!! BOXES of beautiful BOOKS! I got two in today and another five are on their way to the school! I was so happy all day!! Finished up my orders for Baker and Taylor and PermaBound. I told them to cap them at $900 each, so that should about finish up my budget for the year! Found some great new country books and was really happy to get those on order. I was very happy and our PA said I did a great job with those! So hopefully I am done with ordering for the year! Did some laminating and had to change the film rolls. Had to let our acting office manager know that I put in the last set, so we probably need to order three more. I still have Scholastic money to spend and our replacement account, so I will look at that as well. A very happy clicking my heels up and singing a happy little tune!

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Mom's 86th

Today I took off at 11:30 (half my shift) to spend the afternoon with my mom. So, I spent a lot of time working with students and helping them get the books they need. Putting away math books. Tried to work on my order. Cleaned up my office a bit since I would have a sub for the afternoon! So very grateful I got to spend this time with my mom. It was worth it!

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Computer Day

I think I spent nearly all day on the computer looking up books to order. We did have two classes in to check out math books, but that was pretty quick and easy. Left for our LMA meeting at 3 up at Waldo. We talked about ordering, some changes to our library program, and how things are going and deadlines! Just need to tweak some of the odds and submit.

Friday, January 13, 2017

Shelf Life

I again had two aides gone today, so I spent a lot of the last couple of periods shelving. Did the 600's through the 900's. Had about two and a half shelves worth and of course, did a lot of straightening and cleaning up from all the students who have been checking out the non-fiction. Worked today on a Baker and Taylor order for the non-fiction off the approved list. That was a grind. Still not done! Had two book talks today. Checked in and out. Got my posters approved, yeah! Looking forward to them! Three day weekend. At least we don't have to take a snow day!

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Discovery

Today I knew that Ms. S's class was coming in for a tour of one of our research sites, but totally forgot! I even had her write 'Disc' on the lab calendar and still forgot! Oh my! So I quickly logged into the teacher computer and started to show the students what to do. By her third class we were really working and the students that got on, loved checking everything out on the EBSCO Discovery Service site. It really is amazing! I also helped students get logged on, showed them how to navigate to the site. Got some nice interaction today! Helped students get non-fiction books. Checked out a class of library books. We got in a notice that we could be eligible for a LMSS grant for $2000! So I went through my collection report and then went to PermaBound for their collection search and picked out new 900's books since our books come on average from 1997! That's 20 years old! Then I started on the 500's since they are also average 1997. That's a lot of years in between then and now! I love the PermaBound site, you can put in everything from Dewey range to number of pages and grade interest...I loved it! I still have a lot to learn on it, but it's good to weed out the old and get working on the new. There are so many new things to learn about. Favorite moment today? Two girls came in looking for books on Rosa Parks. We had a few left, so I showed them what we had, then gave them some other options. A book on Elizabeth Keckley (dressmaker to Mary Lincoln) and another on Bessie, one of the first African American aviators and they took those! I love letting students see what is all out there in the world beyond what they can easily grasp and show them fascinating books that make them go, wow! Really? Asked for some new posters for the library. Also asked for next Wednesday afternoon off to spend my mom's birthday with her. Mr. M said that was fine. I have such a great school!

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Snow Day, Vol. 3


Sew I did this (hahaha!) Hopefully back tomorrow!

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Stuff

Today was busy with 4 classes in to check out library books, three classes in to check out math books. We were busy constantly during the first 4 periods of the day! Things calmed down a bit for 5th and 6th, but my, we were busy! I had to do the 3rd and 4th periods by myself! Checking out the math books for a class then the library books for another class! Turned in a cart from PermaBound so I'm hoping to get approval on that and get that one going. Did some repairs and had to make the decision to put some good books down (surplused) and decide to order replacement copies or not. Got my last set of Battle of the Books books barcoded and covered and ready to go that I had picked up last night on my way home. Covered some more Spanish 2 workbooks. Set up the computer cart for a university class tonight. Laminated periodic tables for Mr. R (the periodic table of hair length of dogs, gelatin based candy, race cars...) and some motivational posters for Ms. C. I was ready to go home! Calling for snow tonight, will there be school tomorrow?

Monday, January 9, 2017

Switched at First

I was all ready for Ms. M's class to come in first period, and then Ms. F's class came in. Looked at the schedule to see that Ms. M doesn't even have a first period class! Then that meant she would be in 3rd period along again with Ms. F's class. Then I had Ms. F come in we thought during B lunch, but it turns out they have B lunch so ended up coming in at the end of my lunch. But since they had B lunch I went ahead and cut my lunch short so they could get in their lunch. I was ready to open then for B lunch and a staff member came in with a student and slammed the door on the copy room and the student was so upset she was yelling and then broke down and started to cry and sob, so I didn't let anyone come in. We ended up having 6 classes come in to check out books today. Did 3 math classes 'Kercheski' style to be delivered tomorrow. Sent my 'Beast Mode' trophy on to our lovely bookkeeper. She really is amazing and I ended with 'and now, the Keeper of Books hands it off to our bookkeeper!' She leaves at 2 every day, so I will take it up to her in the morning. Worked on a PermaBound order. I'm really working at getting popular books in as PermaBound since I know they will last that way. A great day with a lovely snow shower for a few moments to make the day special!

Friday, January 6, 2017

Culinary Careers


That's kind of what I was going for today hoping that wearing my apron would encourage students to think about the culinary arts and a great tie in with my new non-fiction shelf! I had two aides gone today and had three classes come in to get new math books. I covered a lot of the Spanish 2 workbooks and realized I hadn't stamped any of them, so I did that as well. Had two students I had to send messages about, and I hate doing that. But it is what it is. I hid inside the library a bit more today so I wouldn't have to do any more of those! Storm coming in tomorrow! Taking some Battle of the Books home to read if I don't have anything else to do!

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Check Me-owt!



Love my new little kitty poster I got at the Scholastic book fair! Instead of a cell phone with a selfie, I decided she needed to have a book at her feet and Ms. V said yes, a dog book! So I did that. So cute! Then I surrounded it with dog and cat books. Worked on my Battle of the Books window today and still want to do more with that and highlighted our cooking books up on the non-fiction counter. I might have to bring in some gadgets for that! Did three book talks today on animal books - drats, no one checked any of those out. Hummmm...Did some reading today, the War Dogs graphic novel, really good. Contacted Escape Fiction to get more Battle of the Books books. Totally forgot about the James Dashner book. Why do I always forget one?? Had both lunches in. Checked in a ton of books today. Had my new aide do the 'Order in the Library' and then set her out to clean up and shelve our graphic novel section. Got in some books we lent to an elementary school. A very busy but great day in the library. I love my job!

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Switched

Today I was supposed to get in Ms. S's classes, but she had switched with Ms. K who needed a non-fiction book talk. So I grabbed a ton on non-fiction books trying to hit all the subjects and was really pleased when her 1st period class checked nearly all of them out! Exciting, except now I had to collect another pile for her last period class! The end of the day saw the other Ms. S come in and she rarely does a book talk, just lets the kids come in and go find a book. Pretty quiet the other periods, except we were catching up from a lot of books getting turned in from other classes since I had let the teachers know we needed to have any book in the classroom come in. That's about all I can remember four days later!

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

We're Back!!

But we still got a two hour delay! So it was nice to have a nice breakfast and ease into the new year work day! Didn't get a lot of books turned in today, but hopefully it'll be better tomorrow. Got two class sets of math books done 'Kercheski' style today. Got a new aide. Trundled through a ton of emails and talked to my principal about an author visit. He said maybe next year, and I totally understand his reasoning. I also got notice that my books have come in from my big Baker and Taylor order! Huzzah!! But they haven't shown up at Leslie yet. I am eagerly awaiting them! Was hoping they'd be here, but I guess I have to wait!