Last Day for Me

Put in my summer order today and then worked the 80% of my time for the day on the Dystopian Collection in Destiny Discover. It’s been a crazy end of this school year and we have no idea what will happen over the summer. Will we be back? Or not? Or a combination? It’s all up in the air. I love my job, but this has been hard and I only have one year to go. Will it be as crazy as all this? Or will things settle down to the way they’ve been my other 12 years in the library? I don’t know at this point. I do hope that everyone finds ways to be all right, that vaccines and ways to survive this time are found. We will see, one step at a time, one day at a time. Be safe all. Be kind. Keep reading.

I Got in My Library Today!!

Totally was so busy yesterday I didn't do this! I was so happy though that I actually got to be in my library!! I had so much to do and our principal was so sweet to allow me to come in because then she had to be in as well. When we had left in March, we had thought it was just for a couple of weeks, so all the books I had out on display I just laid them flat. So, I had to go around the library and actually shelve all of those. Then I had books waiting to be shelved and some to check in, so I checked in the books I needed to and then had to shelve all of those. I took down my last display, the liberation of Auschwitz and threw all the paper away, shelved the books from there, took apart my 'shelves' putting away the props I use to stagger the shelves for display purposes. Put away all the books for repair I had in my office and put them in a box in the back textbook room, put away the Rubik's cubes into my personal closet, took the two blue bins of MakerSpace stuff and put them into the Back, Back Room. I had taken in the books I had brought home in March and finished reading and checked them in and put them away. Grabbed the items I thought I might need over the summer just in case I got the OK to get my last order from the warehouse... I am hoping!! And my dystopian list to compare against the other dystopian lists on the Destiny Discover because a lot of books don't come up as dystopian when you do a search for that in the regular Destiny program. I had sent out a 'Let's Be Proactive!' Email yesterday with some thoughts on when/if we come back:

1. Only hardback books to easily clean
2. Only face front books on shelves - no more spines - this will take a lot of work to decimate our collections down. I'm thinking five would be the most we could get on a shelf.
3. Shelves would be tighter, so we can add in more shelving.
4. Each book has a QR code for it, or a 'Powell's' type description so books don't have to be picked up unless they will be checked out.
5. If the book is an eBook - the hard copy goes.
6. No book over 5 years old. That's right, Counting by 7's - it's gone.
7. Pulled books donated to shelters, other smaller districts, etc.
8. Carts out for patrons that need to read a few pages before check out, no? book goes on the cart to be cleaned before being put back on shelves - do we have to wait 3 days if we clean with sterile wipes??

Just a few thoughts. Any more?? 

There were some other thoughts that came back from our group. Our PA mentioned the ODE library requirements that just came out and that our district Risk Management team would also be partly in control of that. Others mentioned getting eReaders out to kids, taking carts into classrooms rather than having them come in the library, just boxing up other books for now rather than getting rid of them, the lack of copies of eBooks - one lamented that only one copy of Diary of a Wimpy Kid books would not be good! So we will see what actions we need to take as the summer goes on. My principal heard me and asked if I'd like to be on a committee this summer to help with these questions and I suggested our PA, since he's not on any committee and is a bit baffled that no one has asked him to be on any. Then I started reading It Wasn't Me  and it was pretty good. I actually finished it late Thursday night and like the concept of Restorative Justice. Students need to read it!

Two and 3/4's Days to Go

Last day for teachers, but not for us. We are working through Monday, because that's what we normally do! Clean up all the textbooks and library books that get cleaned out of lockers, check them in, put them away, get everything all put away for the summer, clean everything up. It does usually take yes, three days, sometimes I wish for more! I usually run lost lists too and go around to make sure the books/textbooks aren't just sitting on a shelf somewhere. Got my notice that I return to work on August 31st. That's my granddaughter's birthday! Sent a long email to my PA about the work I did on Destiny. Getting my stack of books to take back to Leslie tomorrow. Did my voting for the Donovan and Moss awards. I love the Donovan's. Just for a good student. Not splashy, not necessarily an academic, but just a student that made you smile when they came in the door. Yes, I found students that made me smile when they would come into the library. Started reading one of the Medal of Honor books on Leo Thorsness, a hi-lo book that I already finished. Had two meetings today, one our last staff meeting of the school year, and the other our last Library Meeting of the year. I'm just glad I actually get to BE in my library tomorrow to clean up!! Huzzah! 

Last Day for Students

Today is the last virtual day for students. I am so sad we won't be together to say goodbye. I did do a flipgrid to say goodbye this morning. But it's flipped backwards so the book titles I had behind me are backwards! Ha! I could try to flip it, but naw! I think they'll just crack up! Watched the video Insider this morning, did emails. I took myself off a couple of mailing lists. Asked the teachers if we had a special join code for the Meet this morning. I did not make it in the Meet. Oh, well, I was kind of sad to not have that last chance, all because of a number in the Meet code I didn't try. Off to work on Destiny Discover! I am noticing that the collections are for all the schools, interesting. So Dystopian is already in collections by Ms. K. By the time I learn it all, I'll be done! lol! A student sent out a yearbook signing request, so I did that. But I want to change the font and can't figure out how to do that! Dang! I did get the color changed. Ah, figured Destiny Discover out! I have to go to private, then make my own 'collection' and then configure for anyone to see! Easy peasy! I got it all done! Very, very happy with my Destiny Discover site! I'll tweak around more tomorrow, but I got my personal reading collection in the collections and changed all the regular reviews to the ones I did, so very, very happy with it! Finished reading The Year I Didn't Eat - a book on a boy dealing with anorexia, from an author who dealt with it as a young boy. Very good.

Student's Last Monday

Students have today to turn in work, but mostly a day for students to meet in their virtual classrooms  for a bit of fun and to say goodbye for the summer. They will get tomorrow too, but different classes. We had to spread out classroom meets since they are virtual and needed to be sure each student got a chance to visit every classroom. A bit of work on my emails this morning, a padlet birthday wish for Ms. C and Ms. M. Checked the Meetings Spreadsheet for the classes I need to sit in with today, I have three to do today. The rest of the day I'll work on the Leslie Destiny Discover site for using next fall. Also I'll send in the Scholastic order for teachers and my one student that wanted a book from the Book Challenge. Got that done, had to check on my Follett site to be sure I was ordering books that I didn't already have on my summer order! Drats! Thought I had ordered Lila and Hadley, but it didn't show up. But I did get the rest of the books that the student and staff ordered plus the new Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. That got me past my $50 I had to spend before September. Decided to go ahead and add Lila and Hadley - not sure why, but when I order it, it says I've ordered two. I had deleted one on my first order, but it must have deleted both. And when I just ordered it, two again, but the invoice says just one. *shrug* Did all the goodbyes to the staff that are leaving us for new adventures this coming year. Sad to see them go! So many different personalities and ways to interact with students and we need each one, but the new ones coming in will be again be different and something that other students will need. Made it to two meets today, but couldn't get into the other. Then off to the Staff Meeting. Tried to share Stamped, the book. But someone just cut into it so I let it go and put the link from Amazon into the chat.

No New Emails

There were no new emails this morning! That's new! I usually get several by the time I get to work from different companies about their programs or new books. I have four meetings today, so here we go! Attended my two meetings as the classified staff person sit in.

Stamped

Gosh, only a day away and I really can't remember what I did. Ok. Listened to the talk from the Day of Dialog with Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi about the new book out Stamped. Dr. Kendi wrote the original Stamped, and then asked Jason Reynolds to rewrite it for middle school and up students. Loved their take on the history of racism and then I made sure to order the book for my school and let our PA know about it so maybe he'll order it for the rest of the middle schools. Looked through emails. Emailed with our LMSS office. Checked out the Destiny Discover page to try and work on the new format for the next year. I didn't really get anywhere, but I was there. I need to talk to one of the other LMA's about how she did hers. We will have our last Library meeting next Wednesday so I responded to all of that. Went to the Staff Meeting at noon. One more to go. 

Checking In

So today I went back over my students to check their grades and found a couple of grades had gone to passing! Yeah! Big high jumping 5! But most had not, so I wrote each one and let them know there would be no new assignments and that they still had until June 8th to turn stuff in. So we’ll see if they make it or not. I also talked with our LMSS office on some books that had come in. Finished off The Girl Who Drank the Moon - a recommendation from my granddaughter and I’ve thought about reading it, sooooo good! Glad I’ve read it. Trolled through emails. Ordered another book, even though it’s YA, I think I need to have it. Other than that, a pretty ok day. Feeling accomplished to get our students nudged to getting their work done - I had one actually email me back! - finishing the book. An ok day. But I really miss my library. I did get the ok to go to work in the library on the 11th, yeah!

End of Year

Emails, staff meeting, end of year goodbyes