Lost Another J

I had another aide transfer out, though I don’t know why. Maybe I’ll ask her tomorrow. Put away all the non-fiction books today so we’d just have fiction for the aides to work on tomorrow. Got in more books for Ms. M. And some math books for the students that may still need some. Worked on coding again today and working on week four! So I am almost done. Thank goodness! I don’t know if I’d get anywhere without my compatriots who give me ideas and answers. I try to do it on my own and finally just realize that I need help. Did some laminating for a teacher. Put lots of paper in the copier machine. Had Mr. F bring in his Spanish classes first and seventh to buy items at the store. They could only speak spanish, so it was pretty cute. A lot of my aides read today and I love to see that they do that! Timed and ran the score board for the wrestling matches tonight and that was fun. Intense, but fun! Goodnight!

Lost a J

One of my J aides came up to me this morning so sorry her dad changed her schedule! She was so sweet about it. Made my day. Had my aides work on their Order in the Library today. Had four classes in to check out books. Worked with my new aides to help them do the right order to check out books. Had to slide my lunch early so I could take care of the 5th period class. Worked on some coding and am finally onto the 4th week. Got in books for a student, and about 9 books for Mrs. M for her class. Sorted through them all and got them to her and let her know more were on their way. Recovered a book that I had laminated yesterday. Have more Comparing and Scaling math books on the way.  

Seven J’s

I started the day with getting books ordered for one of our teachers. They are scattered all over the district and I had to send an individual request to each and every school. I was glad to get that done before school started. I also Kercheski’d out two class sets of math books only to find I was short books. I asked around and one of the other middle schools had ten she could lend me, so I jumped on that. Hopefully that will give me enough to squeak us through. As things shift, I went from ten aides yesterday to twelve today. Ugh! Hopefully I’ll survive them all!  I had the aides from yesterday work on the shelving program, ‘Order in the Library’ and the two new ones I gave orientation to. As they worked on the program I had them write down where they were through the levels and noticed that of my twelve aides, I have seven who’s first name starts with a J! Too funny! I had classes in for six periods, three of them I did a quick book talk for. Two of the books got checked out (yeah!!). I started training on checking in/out books for them while classes came in. I had to put some books away because we had the whole shelving cart packed and had to bring in another cart. Helped aides with the copier machine. Put in three reams of paper. Laminated this afternoon. Put the two K’nex roller coaster boxes in a tub for next month’s STEAM Tuesdays. Pulled out the Scholastic preview books to see what they are. There are two I’m not sure if they are age appropriate. T’was a busy day, now off to learn what I might have for a retirement.

Orientation

Today I had all my new aides in for the new semester. So I spent all day doing orientation. I started with 11, 2 from last semester. It took nearly all period for each class, then I had in both lunches. By the time school ended I was tired! A very busy, what am I going to do with 11 aides kind of day! Got in my K’nex kits I ordered, roller coasters for motion and energy and bridges for industrial tech. Had a teacher ask if I’d found her books and I was confused, then realized I thought her email was from a different LMA and had trashed it because we didn’t have any copies! Oh my! I was hoping to do a batch ask, but no, I can’t. So I requested a couple of books, and will have to do the rest in the morning. 

Coding Power

Our last day of the first semester and I had two aides that had never turned in a book review, but with a little bit of coaxing they got them in today. I put up a coding display and made this poster. I actually took it out in the hall during passing and had some students really interested in it. Finished searching catalogues today. Nearly finished week 3 in my coding class. Had students in from various places all day. Both lunches in. A girl asked for a book on cows for a friend...not sure what that was about.... Even though it’s Thursday, it’s my Friday! Since I don’t technically grade, and tomorrow is a full grading day, I’m off to the coast to go hiking! See you Monday!

One Day to Go

Worked a lot on coding today since I know next week with new aides will be really busy. I know where I want to go with it, but just don’t know how to get there! It is very frustrating at times! I got in a bunch of spring catalogues in and went through them to see if there was anything I wanted. Had both lunches in. Mr. A was doing a unit on depression and self harm, so he sent down a couple of students for a period. They were students I know that may have had some issues with that. Then for 7th period twelve students opted to come to the library! And no, they were just getting out of class! The first couple maybe were legit, but the rest? Ah no! They were having a jolly time getting out of class! I also had some students come in to work on science. They were being very loud and boisterous, so I asked them to be quiet and work. They continued, so I asked them to separate so they could do their work and they refused. I finally called and asked for security to escort them out. It was kind of funny after I called and Mr. D showed up that they were hunched over their papers very quiet and serious and looked to be diligently working. He took them back to class. Just another day in the library!

Glad I’m Not a Coder

Worked again today on the FutureLearn coding class. I’m behind, the third week started yesterday and I managed to finish up the second week by day’s end this afternoon. Wow. So much intensity. I really am glad that I am not a coder. They are truly detail oriented people with a gift for seeking out the minuscule inconsistancies of code! Other news in, had the STEAM kids in today for both lunches. Had a bunch of students in and students turning in books. Only two more days left of the semester and time to get in those lost books before they get billed! Put in an announcement that will hopefully get read tomorrow and Wednesday about that. Had to contact another school to get a book they sent us renewed. There was something else but I’m too fascinated by this bit of wind storm coming through tonight.

Only 3 of the Next 9

With Martin Luther King Jr. day and a grading day, I only work Tuesday - Thursday next week, so I only work three days in the next nine! Gotta love it! We had a recognition assembly this afternoon so that meant regular classes were really short. I worked on my coding. Had both lunches in. Gave away the rest of the YALSA books to teachers. Had to write a referral on a student. Hate doing that. Sent off a book to another school. All in all, a pretty quiet Friday on the library side of things. The recognition assembly was really good. Recognized our teams, our musicians, our Leadership kids and our AVID team. It was done very nicely. 

Just a Thursday

Helped Mr. T with getting his DVD to play. Our regular computer wouldn’t play the DVD so I had him get his surface pro and we got it all hooked up to the wireless projector and it worked! Yeah, we did it! So then he’d be all ready for his Peer Helper class during 6th period. I took all the books I had from the YALSA books I picked up from Salem Public Library and let my aides pick a new book for them to take home as a thank you for all their hard work. Then I sent out an email to the LA teachers that I had a book for each of them. They just have to let me know. I printed up a list of all the lost books we have, over $5,800 worth and started going through the list of which ones I needed to replace and which ones I’d let go. I found a new hedgehog book! The one that was lost was from 1997 but this one was just 2015. I was excited! We’ll see if I can get it. Our suppliers don’t carry it, so they’d need to order on Amazon. We’ll see if I get it! I ordered some books on my replacement orders. I had an announcement that was supposed to go out today, and it didn’t. I was a bit upset. I had information about students getting their books in so they don’t get billed during grading next week. So I redid the ‘Leslie Announcements’ and copied our principal, our assistant principal and our office manager. Hopefully tomorrow. 

Paperbacks

I finished getting most of the books from the second part of my last order in and got the rest of them stripped with Tattle Tale strips and getting them out for students. I covered most of the paperbacks.  We had our Lockdown drill today and that went really well. Both lunches came in. I did not do any coding! A quiet day. We could also get some new books from the Salem Public Library from their YALSA collection. So, since I had to go to the library, I picked up a box of books to bring back to Leslie tomorrow. It’s in my car to go!

Quite the Day

It was a great day with my STEAM kids. I spent a lot of time with getting everything ready for the first time and and putting everything. It was amazing! Though there were not a lot of students, I’m hoping this will bring in more students. I did more coding and got through the first week of the program. It was a great day.

Ready for STEAM!

Today I worked most of the day on my projects for STEAM day tomorrow! I was so excited! Our tech liason came in and we both put together the Raspberry Pi carts. I went out to try and find three AV carts to put them on. Found them right in the old student store and in the room behind it. I got all the stuff on the carts and when Ms. K came in, we pulled out the parts and fit things together. We each did two carts, so now I feel really comfortable with the components and how they are hooked up. I like that Mr. S sent me a picture of his ‘ovens’ that helped us out! I made a poster. Changed the bulletin board that’s under the clock - advertising when the students come in and have to sign in and look at the clock to get the time in and out. We ran the Raspberry Pi program, shut it down, restarted it to see if we got everything connected. They seem to be running perfectly! I took home a Rubik’s Cube, messed it up and finally got it all back together! Only about three hours later! I also did a set of Rubik cube mosaic pictures for students to try. I’ll keep them so they can keep working on them until I have to send them back. I also got out colored pencils in  cube colors and some graph paper so students can make their own mosaics to try! Should be a great day tomorrow! I did another piece of my Python class while teachers had their meeting this afternoon. What a great day!

Thank Goodness!

What a day! Monday was nice but today was crazy wild. I had a good time playing with my Cubelets and checking out the Rubik’s cubes. I also put my new books on a cart and inventoried them. Did a bit of coding with my Future Learn. Had both lunches in and B lunch was surprisingly mellow. Then 7th period came. I had a whole otter full of boys from band who were sent down because Mrs. W had a sub and usually there are four or five of them, today there was eleven! They were all talking, explaining why so many. Mrs. V was there and she made them all sit at different tables, printed up more of the worksheets and they had to sit and work with her and I barking at these young otters! Maybe next time they’ll stay in band! Glad today is over! Yeah for the weekend!

Books and STEAM

I got in a request from a teacher yesterday for 5 class sets of new math books Kercheski style, so I had my first period aide do a class and I ended up doing another 3 between first and second period, then got in the last one during period 3. Then I had my fourth period aide take them to Mr. S. I worked just a little bit on my coding. Then had one lunch in and had my lunch then my sub showed up and I took off to our meeting. We talked a lot about STEAM programs and how to do that. I was with two of the gals who are overwhelmed. Sometimes I feel that asking one more thing is a bit on the crazy side. But, I still checked out two cubelet cases to take in for next week’s STEAM Tuesday. A good day, a good meeting!

Order Raspberry Pi

Today I finished up my last big order for the school year, nearly $900 and 64 (?) I think books. Turned it in to LMSS for them to process and get that started. Had interactions with a lot of students today. Also got reminded that I had signed up for an educator’s course in Raspberry Pi coding. I started that this afternoon and got through 8 of the lessons for this week. Sometimes I think I’m just on another wave. I like to look at a problem and then think I should find the answers right there. Then I find that if I read on, there the answers are. We had a lesson on ‘variables’ and for the life of me I just couldn’t get it. But I think I finally did that the ‘variable’ of : my_name = “Lady A” only works for that one set of programming I’m working on. It doesn’t hold true for any other program I then start to work on. Maybe I should ask? Had both lunches in today and they did pretty good. Meeting tomorrow!

After Break Order

I did some work today on the order I have for ‘After Break 2019’. There were some books I took off. Some I added. I emailed the LMA over at Crossler to see if I could come by and see how he is working his Raspberry Pi set up. And then I got in my order of four today! I am very excited! I also got in a few more books. Prepped the books I got in right before we left for break and put them out. I got to help a lot of students today. A good day. Both lunches were in today since I didn’t have anything in yet for the STEAM day.

I’m Back!

Along with our staff and students! Not a bad first day, but very busy. I had two carts of books to check in from the locker clean out on our last day. I just was careful and made sure they all got checked in. I left them for my aides to run through the scanner then they could put their own books away. I trolled through the emails. I had forgotten about the meeting we have at Library Media Services this Thursday. Then I reminded our office manager that we needed copier paper and a cartridge for the small printer by my office. I straightened up the library for the meetings this afternoon. I had two classes in to pick up math books. I had no aides either of those periods so checked out these all by myself! A rare occasion! I had a student come in that was leaving us, and found he still had a math book out. He thought it was with his math teacher. He brought in everything else. I had one of my aides search for it, but he didn’t find it. So after school when the teachers came in for a staff meeting, I went back and looked. Found it. In the second stack, about half way. I think I will have a talk with him tomorrow!