Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving

 I spent most of the last two days doing support for classes. I did set up some book talks for next week with the 8th graders, or was it 7th? I'll have to check! Then I also set up a 'Book Dash Delivery' for the library. Students can now email me and after I'm done with the drive by book drop/give time I'll take books to homes. I think there must be students that just cannot come in to get books. I had to do a training and clear it with my principal, but I'm kind of excited about it all! I hope students get on board and ask me to bring them books! Thank you Mrs. H for inspiring me! 

Library Day

 I love to be in the library and doing work down there that needs to get done! Today I went up and got the three carts full of books from the old staff bookshelf and from rooms and maybe some from locker clean out. So I trolled through all of them. I found one that had a current student name in it and emailed her that I had it and let me know if she wanted it. I boxed up about five boxes of books that need to go. Some were very old teacher resources. I figure if the teachers hadn't come in and picked up books to use in their rooms, out they went. I did keep out four books that I felt deserved another chance. Then there were some other books that teachers had put on the staff bookshelf that no one had ever picked up. They were all great copies in fabulous shape, no marks or anything, so I will donate them. I did my outside hand out times today and finished a book, Deadly Aim. So good! About the Michigan Anishinaabe sharpshooters during the Civil War. Such a great look at the history of that area and the Civil War from a Native American view. So very good! Scheduled book talks for next week after I let the teacher I support know that I'd be off doing that and she said that was fine. I also wanted to let her know so she wouldn't schedule an activity where she needed me. I love to do book talks! Had a student pick up her next three books in the Warriors series. Had some time to work on the back room again. We got in a new copier and our bookkeeper needed some information on that so I left the manuals up on her desk for the next time she's in. I had to get to see if a book was on the shelf, but all the computer carts that were up in the staff lounge were put into my non-fiction section. I had to get the carts into spaces where they wouldn't be totally blocking shelves! Have I ever mentioned that I love my job??

Last Week

 Monday was a half day, so no library time. Tuesday and Wednesday I grappled with learning my new duties as support for 7th grade Language Arts. My Q2 (Quarter 2) duties are really wrapped around class support on days I'm not in the library and I must admit I spent a lot of time hashing out my schedule with where I needed to be when! I finally came up with:  

	Adv. - 9:00 - 9:15	1st - 9:20 - 10:20	2nd - 10:25 - 11:25	Lunch	3rd - 12:20 - 1:20	4th - 1:25 - 2:25	5th - 2:30 - 3:30
Mondays		Library Work
Tuesdays	Advisory - Helbling	K-prep R-Avid	K&R ELL LA7		K&R ELL LA7	K - LA7	K - LA6
Wednesdays	Advisory - Helbling	K - LA7	K&R ELL LA7		K&R ELL LA7	K&R prep	K - LA6
Thursdays	Advisory - Helbling	Library Work
Fridays	Advisory - Helbling	K - LA7	K&R ELL LA7		K&R ELL LA7	K&R prep	K - LA6

So I still have two days in the library and I'll still get to do book talks by request. It was crazy to cut and paste everything in, getting times, periods, and everything all to make sense to me! I am truly amazed by teachers who work through their schedules every day. All this computer time wears me out and I feel like a slug because I sit all day more or less. With only 5 minutes between classes, it's hard. I did breakout rooms with students. I took over Advisory for a day. It was fun to talk with students and teachers though, I like that part a lot! I helped a student find their BookCreator book they were working on. I enjoy it when I actually help a student! And I took over Advisory for a day. Thursday was my work in the library day and more books out of the back, stacking books everywhere to see if anyone wanted them on my Sheets document. Sitting upstairs to hand out books. I had a student come by and said she put a book on hold, but I didn't see it, and had been with a student to help him out with LA class, so I didn't get a chance to check my computer before it was time to go up. So I told her to wait a moment, and I zipped down to the library, found her requests, grabbed her books, checked them out and ran upstairs and got them to her. She was really happy! I was also out on Friday getting some time with my heart doc to see if I could get off one of my meds. And I did! Back on tap next week!

Professional Developement

 I had a pretty easy time with this today because Library Con Live was on November 5th, and I got to pick the recordings of the sessions I would have attended, but was too busy for! I listened to the Opening Keynote with Jerry Craft - Have New Boy and Class Act is on order! I loved that he drew Jordan while he was talking! Very cool! He talked about inherent racism a bit with his own experience. He was at a light when a cop pulled up and rolled down his window and said "We're going to have to do something about that." Jerry freaked out, did he need to escape through his moon roof? Did he need to pull over? What was going to happen?? Then the cop pointed to his hand and Jerry was wearing a Giants glove and they had just traded a great player. He has a scene in his book where there's a cop with a dog and same kind of interaction, nice but the thoughts of what could happen came out. Interesting. He also talked about that making a novel into a graphic novel has a reputation of kind of being a 'Clif Note' of the novel, but no, there's other things that happen in graphic novels. In New Kid there are actually story lines going on in the drawings that are never mentioned. I might have to go back and relook at that one! Then Middle Grade Speculative Fiction, kind of a scifi/fantasy era and I put three of the books on my winter order. Then I listened to Finding Ourselves: Grappling with Finding our Identity. So authors speaking on their own identities. I liked the one part where one author said that sometimes they feel like they're not trans enough or bi enough or whatever enough? And learning to be comfortable with what makes you feel comfortable was nice. Same on all sides I think! 

Last Week

 Yes, a bit crazy. Once I get done with work, I am done! So much computer time! Monday was my in the library working on the books in the LIT that I need to get out of there and adding in available books to my spreadsheet, going upstairs for my drive by book pick ups and drop offs. Tuesday I remembered to drop in for Advisory with Danielle and also worked on a Kahoot for a breakout session for her students that are getting A's in class, the regular Language Arts class that is. I searched up some Kahoots, but I actually went in and made my own! I only had one glitch where I think I used a 'premium' picture and they wanted me to pay, but I just swapped out the picture and that worked! We had issues with that because I didn't get share screen ability with the breakout room, so I had to go back out and get permissions then come back in. One class got just the one I made, the other class got to do two others as well since I had permissions right away. Wednesday was Veteran's Day, so no work. Thursday back in the library working, book drive by and sheets document updating and Friday was a class day, maybe? I forget. Computer work mostly I think, and doing some reading. Now, for actually today!

Thursday the 4th

 And still no president elect! Crazy. First of all I bashed my hand taking the boxes out to the car that I brought home and got a nasty big tear on my skin from that. Ugh, had to bandage and package it up for the day with this really old 1 inch gauze I had in my first aid kit from my hiking pack. It worked, but wasn't pretty. Took in three full boxes and then we had some nice Amazon boxes perfect for books that I took in - three of them as well. Put the books I finished out on the carts for easy access for me to see. Had my Advisory at 9 then one of the teachers who call me the 'Book Whisperer' wanted me to connect with a student to find him something to read. So I got a link up, sent her the link to the Zoom meeting and before and while waiting for him I looked at his check out history and started to pull books I thought he may be interested in. He never showed up. So, I started an email for him with the link to our Destiny Discover page and then put in all the titles of the books I thought he might be interested in, and added a few comments and a 'sorry we didn't connect' and BCC'd his teacher. Then it was off to set up for the drive by book pick up and drop off. Up I went. Had my Warrior cats student pick up the next two books and a new boy I was in a break out room with last week come get his book. Read When Stars are Scattered during most of the time up there. On the way back picked up from my mailbox, went downstairs and checked in the books that had come in since Monday. Then, I worked more on cleaning up the LIT books in the back back textbook room. Got through a lot, put the ones on the spreadsheet that could go to other schools. Didn't take any boxes of books home! But I did bring books home to read for Friday. 

Still Waiting

 As of right now, we are still waiting to see who will be our president. Glad I just went to bed last night rather than wait up! Today I finished up working on the boxes of books I brought home. Then I went to work on the lists I had brought to delete books we no longer have from very old textbooks (one was dictionaries from 1975) and some others. I put some books on a list then realized that I had so many of them and when I got done with taking off all the books that I already had, of course, because the list was from winter of 2019. I thought I was putting books onto the winter 2020 list. Not so smart. But I did move the new books I had put on the 2019 list onto the 2020 list. Good thing I noticed! Listened to another of the webcasts from the Day of Dialogue that was really good on books about and from Indigenous peoples. I almost went by it, then decided I should listen and was really glad I did! Got some great titles and looking forward to the books coming out in 2021. Maybe even because it'll be 2021! I sent in an email to get a book put on a series list. Got an email from another school about books that had been transferred there five years ago and did I want them back, so I replied 'no'. The ones I do have at Leslie haven't been used in all that time and I certainly don't need more. I will book whisper to a student tomorrow for Ms. K, she sent an email that he would be available around 10am. Will be back at school tomorrow for book pick up and drop offs. Reading They Went Left. One of our LMSS peeps said I should read it for content before I check it out. 

Election Day

Had a great Advisory today. A lot of the students are really interested in the election. I had a meeting with our new Assistant Principal about what I do and how he can help. I told him I was pretty self sufficient and just to know I could call on him was great. I spent the rest of the day working on my books, answered some questions. Had a student talk about a book that to her was pretty horrific, so I asked her if she wanted to talk about it, and she gave me a synopsis. It was pretty scary. So I told her that yes, there are horrible things in our world. But also that all of the school employees were mandatory reporters, and what we look for to stop things like that from happening. I asked if she'd like some other book recommendations and she said yes, so I gave her some that were a bit more on the gentle side! I did send all this to her counselor, just in case something came up in the future. I didn't even notice that she was a 6th grader and the book maybe was more a 8th grade book.

November 2nd

 I have so much to do on my days in. But I enjoy that I get the chance to come in and work in the library. I brought back all the books I had taken home last week. Got them all the cart and then pulled off the books that I'd never put date due stickers in. One of the teachers asked if she could have the book shelf that used to be in the staff lounge, so we got all the books off. I took the other books from room 213 and we now have three carts of books for anyone to have. I let the staff know that the books are up there and will be taken care of during Thanksgiving week. Nice books - without marks - will be donated, other books will be sent to Garten most likely. I had a great time outside with book pick up and drop off, it was so nice outside. I packed up my car with three boxes of books to bring home. Along with some paperwork I can do from home for Tuesday and Wednesday. 

October 26 - 30

What a crazy week! On Monday I was at the school all day, had our meeting, then collected books. I have 8 different book talks to do this week for 7th graders. I brought home three boxes of books, selecting for their 'mirrors and windows' theme for this week. I had to reread at least parts of most of the books so I'd have the good bits to read to students. I really love to do that. It is so much fun to read great parts and I even had some students asking questions in the chat. I had to do two classes by myself on Wednesday. First period went just fine, then I worked with Ms. R on two more. I could not get into 5th period and had to call for help. Mr. E stepped up and got the class going while I struggled to get back into Zoom. Since I was home my computer didn't want to hook up correctly, but I finally got in and did a poor job of book talks since I was so late and flustered. I felt bad. One out of eight classes is not too bad, but I still do feel bad about it. Thank you Mr. E for saving us all! I let the teacher know what happened. Thursday I went in again for book pick ups and drop offs. I cleared out room 213 for Ms. M of books and brought them all down to the library. I had new books come in so I took home six boxes of books and inventoried them all, putting in the date due slips. I'm sure there was much more, helping students, helping teachers. Checking in books that came into the office while I'm gone. Putting the quarantined books away. Those were the main pieces. Kind of glad I don't have book talks scheduled for next week for now!