Everything

Just a bit of everything went on today. Pulling books for a teacher, finishing boxing up the reference discards, lots of emails, shipping out books to schools and LMSS. Calling LMSS, getting phone calls. Figuring out how to check out books to a retired teacher who is helping out but the program won't let me. Off again to the STEM Workshop which I think had to be the best part of my day. It is such a great program!

Forgotten Friday

Totally got home and forgot about posting for Friday. I had a class in working on the databases, but the students got so hung up on trying to make a password, I don't think many of them got things done! But some did, and it was great to show them all the things they could do and search out using the sidebar limiters and prompts. I did do some work on that in the morning to prepare for that. Got all my new books I had sitting on the back shelf stamped and listed and boxed up to send to LMSS for processing. Got notifications that my new books are in at LMSS so now I just have to wait for Santa to bring them down my chimney! Was glad to go straight home from work tonight! We had a student driven incident and were warned about an event that was posted on social media yesterday that may impact our school as we were leaving. That's all I can remember at this time! 

Reviews, Questions and Locks

Today we had our official lock down drill. I had my aides in with another student and another teacher in the library. We all went into the safe room and they were all actually quiet enough I could hear our principal saying that the drill was over! Huzzah! I finished all the questions for the battle and sent those out and then I had not yet put in the reviews from my aides from the last grading period so I did that as well today. Worked on the Explora site so I can show Ms. M's class tomorrow. Had both lunches in and then took off about 2:45 to head back up to Whiteaker for our STEM Maker workshop. I made a cool circuit with a noise. And a light that went on. I hope we get a good set of things for our Leslie students to use when this is all done next week!

8th Grade Gone

Our 8th Graders were all on a field trip this morning, so the halls were so nice and uncrowded! It was a treat! On the other hand, some of my aides were gone! That made some things a bit more interesting! Had two book talks today which I loved! Did a lot of reading out of the books! Some of them got checked out! Always a plus in my eyes! Had both lunches in and worked on the content question spreadsheet today. The library was pretty quiet for the rest of the day, and I talked with a teacher about showing her students how to use the amazing resources we have online so she wants me to do a training for her students on Friday we decided. Should be fun! Then I headed up to Whiteaker again for my Maker space workshop! It is a great class. 

Reset

I got all my Battle of Books icons up today and changed out the pony wall for books. I think my favorite icon is The Turning of the Tide, love the little Saga boat I made with its book cover sail! Put away books today. Had Mr. C's computer classes in to play a game! It was kind of like an RP game, but all about coding, so the students had a great time with that! I decided to start to delete old trashed emails. Somehow I had over 3,000 trashed emails, so it was time to permanently delete! I got to about 1,400 of them. Looking up names, or typical titles got rid of a ton! Some names were from people who have not been at Leslie for a couple of years, so time to go! Or from book companies advertising their lines of books, time to go! It was cleansing! Then off early today to head up to Whiteaker for the STEM maker kits workshop! I was selected to attend out of a ton of people along with about 15 other people and it was so much fun! We had a curriculum to follow and it was so much fun! I didn't want to stop! We have five more meetings, two still this week then three next week. It was great! Our kids will love it!

Bulletin Board

Yes, I decided to work on our Battle of the Books bulletin board today making up something for each book and then printing up book covers for each of the ten we will be doing. Finished up the spreadsheet I was working on. Did a few other things as well though my mind is choosing not to remember them right now! Did have both lunches in, sent off some books to other schools. Put away all my books I needed to. A really nice day though there was still sorrow in round and about today.

Team

We had a great team in the library today to address the support our students needed. So the library was very shut down for our usual work. I spent a lot of time on the computer today working on some books - anything by Rick Riordan and a spreadsheet of questions for Battle of the Books. There were a lot of students in all day. So sad, our student did pass away.

Reminders

Today was actually a fair day despite the emotional tugs and reminders that life is so precious. One of the first things I did today was set the new due date stamp and realized that in two weeks it would be my mom's birthday, the first one without her. That was a somber thought, but a good one for how much I miss her and how she impacted my life. The rest of the day I worked on putting all my books away - there's a lot because everything from last year is now due! I also worked on putting up new books on the non-fiction shelves and straightening up those sections. Pulled books for a teacher on a huge variety of different books, got them checked out to her. Worked on a Scholastic order for new books that I'll use to continue to update our other country books. One student asked for a book on Columbia (the country, not our river!) and we had none! That's right, none! So I put one on my order. Books on women's education around the world, climate change, black holes, endangered animals, how to eat in space...some interesting topics! I had two book talks to do on the Lexile levels, so I did a presentation on MARC records and told them about the mother of MARC,  Henriette Avram, and showed them a MARC record from our library and where they have to put in a Lexile number which our LMSS staff will have to input. Our old program had the Lexiles downloaded automatically, but our new program they decided was too expensive to do that. (Insert rolling eye smiley here...) Then I showed the students how to look up their lexiles in our system. I got to spend time walking around, helping them find the lexiles of the books they found on the shelves that didn't have one on them or on the record. Then we had an urgent email sent for a staff meeting right after school. One of our students is clinging to life, and probably won't make it. So sad, so young. I managed to keep from crying, but not by much. The library will be a place tomorrow for the crisis team. I went into our back room that I made so nice last year and really straightened it up for an extra private place for students to be able to talk with counselors. Sent out an email that the library would be closed tomorrow except for students needing a place to talk to the team. Did one lamination. Then I came home to learn that my cousin here in town passed away, a sudden heart attack they think. He was only 52. Too many reminders today that life is so precious. We need to treat each moment, each person for the truly wonderful gifts they are to this world.

Scared to Let it Out

Got all our new books ready to be checked out today. All tagged in their book notes, and I'm so excited except for one book. I don't want to let it go out into the world! I'm afraid it will never come back! It's the new Star Wars Coding Projects by John Woodcock and DK publishing. It is so cool! I let Mr. C, our computer science teacher poke around in it for a couple of days and he gave it back today. So that means, yes, I have to send it out into the wide world (insert crying smiley here...). I'm thinking that if I just put it on the computer shelf, no one will notice! Other news! One of our 5th grade boys that comes over for 1st period, spends 2nd period waiting for his ride in the library and Mr. M brought in a Chromebook for us to have available for him to use his time here more effectively. He was very happy when he came in and saw that yes, we had the computer here for him on my office back counter. I also had a student today that wanted to check out an audiobook and we got him all set up, then I noticed he already had one checked out. I was sad to let him know that he could only have one audiobook at a time and as soon as he brought that one in (The Lightning Thief) he could get a new one. The library was a hugely busy place today with four classes in to check in/out books and two of those were book talks, and four other classes in the old computer lab working on group country projects. So much going on, kids excited about their books, kids getting excited about different countries. Lots of books to put away and things to straighten up, but that's what the library is all about! A very good day!

We’re Back!

It was a very nice break and finally rousing to the call of the alarm clock, it was back to work today! And best news of the new year...New Books arrived!! My first order from PermaBound was delivered this morning, so I was super excited!! This order was for replacing books that are literally falling apart or just disappeared. I still had to Tattle Strip them, put in a Due Date slip, get their Lexile and then I put a notice on them that said they were special books - from Perma, they cost more than a paperback or hardcover and I can call and get a replacement if they are damaged. If they aren’t returned, I have to buy a new one. So we’ll see how that works! I’m also going to put a notice on each book for check out that the aides have to read to the student checking out! Again, we’ll see how that goes! Had three classes in today checking out. Getting lots of books in because they are all due! A busy great day to be back in the library! Happy New Year!