All is Calm...

Our last day before the new decade!  I had four classes in finishing up the Osmosis Jones movie - hate to be a spoiler, but yes, Bill Murray lives!! We got all the books put away today, and I finished up all the books after the day was over and aides wouldn’t be able to put their books away. I also went and took all the books on display and laid them flat for the 16 days we’ll be gone. Had both lunches in and played my Pandora Celtic Christmas music which I love! Though I enjoyed the classes in, I would really have rather just had a quiet library to play my music, which is how it usually goes! Oh well! Had my student come in again today and we finished her book and she brought me a bag of goodies in thanks for helping her out, so sweet! Cookies and Chex mix, biscotti and she poured candles for me. That was so much more than what I think I did for her, and very much appreciated! Got my book order notice that it was approved and sent in. A lovely day and all is unplugged, shut down for the break, window shades closed, garbage all out. Time to head home and enjoy family and this wondrous Christmas Season. See you in January!

Almost Done

Had five classes in today checking out books. We were so busy! Had one lunch in. Helped my student work on her dad’s book again, we are nearly done! She’ll be able to take it home tomorrow! Did some laminating, found some more math books to inventory, and we’re now up to 99.36%. Yeah! Put away books. Helped students with picking out books, resetting student accounts. A good next to last day for me in the library. One more day to go!

More Trivia!

We had five Language Arts classes come in today and they had answer a trivia question to get to check out a book. It was cute to see how many kids could get them right and how many kids were totally clueless! But everyone got their books anyways, so all good fun! Though I had a class in for 5th period, they were gone just a bit into lunch, so I did have B lunch come down. They wanted the MakerSpace cart out, but it is getting cleaned up and ready to reopen in January. Nice to have so many students ask where it was! I put away a ton of books today. One of my aides is out the rest of the week, so I put hers away, and the aide section that was left right at the beginning of the school year, all the manga and all the non-fiction. I felt that was half my day putting away books! Had my student come in again to work on repairing a book for her dad. We taped up the corners today and about all we have left is a bit of gutter work. I had to try and find some black fabric to fill in some strips there, and finally found some! Yeah! Then started to read a new book. Gave cookies to our IC who is teaching a LA class while we wait for the new teacher to get here and they are a handful. So I gave her a ‘gingerbread’ man shaped cookie and left a little note “and if you feel you need to bite off someone’s head, try this one instead!” She got a big kick out of it! I was glad to see her, because I thought, ‘oh, oh, if she’s not here today and the sub sees that....’ Two more days to go!

Swept Up

Had our last day of MakerSpace today. Everyone was sad that we’d be closed the last three days, but I needed to clean up! After the lunches, I went and picked up big stuff off the floor and then borrowed a broom and swept the whole old computer lab that’s all on linoleum. Then I cleaned up the cart itself. My student that is working on her book came in again during A lunch and we glued the corners together, clamped them and will wait to see how they came out tomorrow! A pretty quiet day, found some more math inventory, more trivia for our students coming in. 

Math Done with Trivia!

Finished up the math inventory today with lots of help from my aides! We are at 99.13%! I’d like more, but I’m sure I’ll find some of the other items, like overhead calculators?? Who knew? Some were even still in their plastic bags, though they did have barcodes on them. I brought in my Holiday Trivia cards and if you came into the library you had to answer a question to get in! Everything from Santa to the Grinch! Songs, countries, they had fun. They had to try and answer up to three questions to get in the library and check out a book! A girl came to me and asked if I could help her with this book that is her dad’s. It is in rough, but not too bad shape. So we started with her gluing the spine together in all its pieces. Getting all the layers of cardboard together, then we set it to glue for the night. I think we’ll have it done by Friday through the steps we’ll need to do. I love helping her out. A great piece of my day! 💜 

Friday the 13th

Math inventory is now up to 80%. My funniest find was old overheard calculators that could be laid on the overhead projectors to show functions. Ha! Some were still in the plastic, but they did have barcodes. Health classes are in 4 periods watching Osmosis Jones about how your body fights infections. Pretty funny since it had Bill Murray as Frank, and all the little cells lived inside 'Frank'. But we only saw half of it, so I don't know if Frank survives. They will watch the 2nd half next Friday and we'll find out. Ordered more books. Had quiet read in the library day. Five more student contact days to go this 2019!

Faithleaders

Our day started with these committed folks seeing how they can help out the schools and our students. The library was closed but for only one period, so then Ms. S’s class came in for their Socratic debates. So my aides got a rest! I had two more boxes that I could pack with surplus books. Then I spent most of the day working on my next book order. So many lists....my eyes got buggy. Had both lunches in again with the MakerSpace cart. Had two girls take an apple and the nails from the string art and pound the nails into the apple. Really??? Thank goodness tomorrow is Quiet Read in the Library day! I got my list pretty nailed down to submit for ordering. I think it’s pretty good. Inventoried a section of math books before I left and we are nearing 80%. I’ll have my aides work on that tomorrow. I’d like to get it up there before we leave for break. Six student contact days to go!

Popular Place

We are having another meeting here in the library tomorrow, Faithleaders with our superintendent and both assistant superintendents with some of our local church leaders. So I made sure before we left today that all the shelves were beautiful, the big TV rack was out and plugged in, and I even washed down all the tables. Worked on math inventory today, getting all the teacher resources collected and logged in. Had both lunches in with the Makerspace. Or orchestra teacher asked if they could use the library tonight to put instruments in and I of course said yes. Had a conference call with scholastic about the last book fair and the one coming up in March. I'm just not making quite enough money to keep our big cases coming in. She sent some links to send out to see if I could get in just another $68, and I ran it by my principal, but haven't heard back. I hate to beg though. No events tonight, straight home to relax!

Library, Volleyball & Band Concert

I know I did a lot, but more of just checking in/out. Taking care of students and staff and other than finishing up the non-fiction inventory! 99.56% completed! I also scored the last volleyball game of the season and then chaperoned the band students during their concert. So a very busy day and I didn’t get home until 8:38pm! I was tired, but so good to see the last games (though the team I scored lost, badly) and to hear our students play so nicely at the concert. 

Book Give-Away Day

Friday I had to take care of some medical things. I had a test in mid-October, and still had no one to call and tell me when the next step would take place. Nearly two months I’ve been waiting, so today was the day I picked to take care of that. And I did and got things scheduled.  Got in the holiday books I ordered for the DLC class. Trolled through all the emails and got one that Ms. F needed a stand for an iPad for their concert, and I happen to have one from the MakerSpace cart. So she came and got it. Looked at some new books on the Google Team activity. I laminated footballs. Yes, paper ones for a class. Had both lunches in with the MakerSpace and sorted out the cart before since I hadn’t been in on Friday to do that. Sent off a book request. Printed up three refunds for students that have moved on to South, but needed refunds from Leslie. Did the Scholastic Financials. Stamped my Scholastic books to take to LMSS for the meeting this afternoon so they could be processed. We are getting another new employment tool so I needed to go into the old one and grab out my files that were in there, so I did that. Worked on circulation statistics along with the other LMA’s. Then off to the meeting. We got our freebie books (17 for each middle school) picked out and stamped and then had our meeting. 

Booked Up!

Ha! I thought that was funny, but yes, Ms. M had all her classes lined up and the DLC class as well meant for a completely full day. Ms. M had her classes in to research a topic with our non-fiction. We ended up checking in/out quite a few books today to accommodate them. So they were in for five periods, then I had the library set for the DLC, but they never made it. Sometimes they are OK to come down, and sometimes not. Flexibility is the key in the library! Along with Ms. M, we had groups coming down from other classes and managed to fit everyone in. Had to get seven dictionaries to Ms. P. Counted out and sent all the rest of the book fair money to our bookkeeper. Finished up the Aide reviews for the binder. Our bell schedule is really hard for me to read, so I redid it today with the schedule that makes sense to me and in a bigger font!! I tabulated up the books I have in Spanish. One of the LMA’s had asked what we had, so I got those statistics together and posted them. When I did inventory yesterday I found several books that I thought would benefit from moving to the 920 or 921 shelves. Then I also looked at our snowflakes on the windows. The first art students did a great job putting them up with tape rolled underneath, the second set of students, not so much. The snowflakes were so pretty but with chunks of masking tape holding them on so pretty shapes with pretty obtrusive tape on them, yuck! So I went and rolled the tape and made them all look very pretty. Now we’re snowflaking! ❄️

Wrapping it Up

Finished up the Scholastic Book Fair today. Got it all packed up and done before I left today. Almost finished the non-fiction inventory, only the 921’s are left to do! I had a request for holiday themed books for our DLC class, so I went through the catalogue and requested about nine books for them to read during their library. Then I emailed the LMA’s from those schools to let them know what was going on. I found a book I needed to send back to another school under my piles I had from the Scholastic Book Fair, so that got sent out. Took some more book fair money up to our bookkeeper. I hate to have it in the library even though it’s pretty safely locked up. And I had a teacher request, but no idea what it was along with all the other regular things that happen in the library!

Snowflakes

The shelving cart was a mess, so I worked on getting that all in order to help my aides put everything away. Got them all in alphabetical order and put away the sections I’m responsible for. Had an aide for one of the science classes come in and ask for AA batteries. I had some and gave them to him. Worked on my student aide reviews. I had six to do and one of them didn’t make sense. So I looked it up on the internet and found a nearly word for word paragraph about refugees. Though I was pretty sure that the book the aide had meant did not have any Vietnamese refugees, his review and this article focused on that ethnic group. When he came in I asked him which book, and he said the one I thought it was, Refugee by Alan Gratz. I showed him the article I found and I talked about plagiarism and how in high school, they track that and how Google is working on a fix for students that lets them know right away when they are plagiarizing. He went right back out and wrote a review on a totally different book. I have to hand it to him, he is a great worker. Had more Scholastic sales today and totally bummed that a student bought an eraser set with a HEDGEHOG in it!!! It was the only one!! And so cute!! There was a llama in there too, but I might have thrown him out. Our art teacher asked if we’d like stars for our windows and I said, ‘Oh Yeah!’ So they came in today and put up stars on my display window. Worked on inventory today, finished off the 800’s and got through the 940’s (but not the 920’s or 921’s who are in a different section). Sent off two books requested by other schools. Had a couple of my aides I leant to a science teacher for a task she needed done. Then I went to work the volleyball game and in the middle of the second game, the fire alarms all go off! Outside we went and I had only my short sleeve t-shirt on! Cold it was out there. Expected to see a Tauntaun I was. We finally got back in and could only do three games total since buses were coming. Love my job. Though I need to see if anyone with a book fair has that hedgehog eraser.... 🦔

Fifteen Days

There is something about coming back after a long break. It was quiet. I had trouble getting my computer going this morning. No email, no Synergy, no Destiny on my computer anyways. I did get it up on the main desk computer early, but then it was hard to get my office computer up though! After it did, I had to troll through a ton of emails. Got a call from Junior Library Guild on my account. Still have the book fair. So had lunches in for browsing and selling. Worked on my new display. Almost done with it, but not quite. Got some books for the display. Packed up two boxes of surplus books. Sent off an iPad for a student who is at another school now. Withdrew some books that didn’t recover from water damage. I had a notice from when I put them in the freezer to check on them today. Just three books, one I think is saveable, the other two were not. I got the email from the Bootcamp about the wrap up from the classes. I kept a copy of the participation of the class.