For the Want of a Nail

Such a good day. Lots of emails about OBOB and homework and book fairs. I forgot about homework. Now with only a couple of days left, our PA reminded us to do that. One was our statistics on digital vs. print resources. The other was how our communities use the library. I had already started to do that today before the reminder, but would have been nice to do it for a month! I’ll just have to keep it up for awhile. Then I ran through my catalogue and tried to find all the resources and adding up the resources. Very interesting! Ran the book fair all day and did quite a bit of business. Had both lunches in and sold a lot. Had two classes in this afternoon and talked to them about ‘for the want of a nail the shoe was lost, for the want of a shoe a horse was lost, for the want of a horse a rider was lost, for want of the rider, a battle was lost, for the want of the battle a kingdom was lost and all for the want of a horse shoe nail’ then I talked about the theft that happens with the fair and how it affects everyone from our school to the scholastic folks, to the drivers, to the people that make the books and items. Not sure how much they wanted to understand but I tried. Got to show them some of the books then we let them go. Some bought, some had me hold things. Some just checked out books. Had students from the science classes in today as well working on how our school is like a cell. School maps, the technology room is the nerves, cafeteria is the food for the cell, they were having a great time mapping out where things would be! Ended with having a LMA come over from the elementary school just two blocks over coming to pick up a book, and then scoring one of our volleyball games. A very good day!

Research

Did about $200 in Scholastic sales today. Had a special lunch time. Had special passes for about ten students at a time, they each had about five minutes then had to go back and let someone else come in. I am pretty sure now after today I will not be renewing my JLG account. Just don’t have the money for it and I can get the same books with just some research. So, we’ll see. Then I worked on my book for the PD Monday morning. I sent our PA a link to the drawing program I used last year, though I had to reset a password. Then I looked through a redesign of libraries using empathy as a start. It was pretty fascinating and I also looked at augmented reality how to video. It looks so complicated!!! And I had sales from the book fair all day. A great day.

Visitors

Today I had four classes in to check out the book fair. I get so tentative, just knowing stuff will get stolen really freaks me out. I know a Hogwarts key chain got stolen. Makes me sad ;( I had to work on my schedule for next week. I have to work 18.75 hours in two days, but I have to figure out how to get those into two days and be available when the parents will be around. Talked with Junior Library Guild about next years’ subscription and they cut me a bit of a deal to make it work. Thank you JLG! Then I worked a volleyball game. Quick post. Getting late!

Scholastic Day

I had to take the morning off to take my hubby to the doctor. And I got back to work just as Scholastic was there to drop off my stuff! So I spent most of the rest of the day getting the fair up and ready to go for Tuesday. 

Meeting!

For the first time ever we middle school Library Media Assistants got to have a meeting during our working day to just discuss being in Middle School Libraries. It was amazing! We talked inventories and lost books and titles (Associate or Assitant, I said still made us an “Ass.”) We talked Hour of Code, Makerspaces, and got to talk with the district Technology Coordinator who is supposed to help all the district become more tech savvy. It was a good time. Before that, I put away all the non-fiction that had built up over the week and straightened out some of the shelves and read shelves that I saw were definitely out of order. When I got back to my desk, I had around 45 emails! Oh my! All because some poor lady hit to send to the entire district instead of just her school that someone had left a pumpkin roll on the front counter. Thank goodness most people disregarded it, but many ‘replied to all’ and thus the other 43 emails! There were more here and there throughout the morning, but with thousands of employees, we’re pretty lucky that only about 70 or so replied to everyone! I worked on new books today, adding some to my lists and some that I liked, but were not age appropriate, so they went on the wayside. I am really tending towards graphic novels, so I need to watch that. Then my sub came and I took off for my meeting. After the meeting I headed back to Leslie to score volleyball. Huzzah!

Library Con Live

Spent the morning at the virtual Library Con Live. Visited booths, listened to one panel talk. Got a few ideas for books and put them on my orders. It was really nice. Had four classes in today. Made a few more poppies to fill up the wall. Handed out my Chromebooks for students for the classes. Went over the notes for the meeting tomorrow. Sent out some books that other schools requested. Took a ring to lost and found. Looked at eBook statistics our PA sent out (at least the 2nd one was bigger so I could actually read it!). Forgot to tell my 6th period aides that I’d be gone tomorrow. But I did tell the 7th period aides. Put up all the Scholastic posters about the book fair. Got money for change for the book fair on my way home tonight. It’ll be a quick one. Only four days open during school and then the conference times. Not sure how much I’ll make. Hoping to buy some chair furniture and maybe my own STEAM K’NEX sets. But, not sure that will happen. At least I have the OnLine fair option going on until December. That might help!

11th Minute of the 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month

I hadn’t done a display up on the pony wall until I got to thinking that the 100 year anniversary of the end of World War I was this Sunday. Our students need to see this. My aides did an amazing job of cutting out the poppies for me today. I rounded up all our books on World War 1 and got them up for the display. I have a couple of great books that are out with students and hope they come back. I had Mr. A’s classes in today spreading out on the big tables to work on studying for a test. They were great and did a fabulous job of working together! I had students in A lunch for STEAM day and they just went right to the new K’NEX alternative energy builds I got in. It took a long time to put my honor display together, but I think it was well worth it. I’m so very happy with how that turned out.

Packed

We had eight classes in the library today in five periods! It was so cool!! There were two classes in at one time for three periods. So very cool!! I took my repaired books and got them back out there in circulation. I got in the K’Nex Alternative Energy kit in so I was excited to put those in the announcements for tomorrow and I made a poster as well for the hallway on the STEAM things. Unpacked the Scholastic Book Fair flyers and had my aides count them out so we can deliver them to teachers tomorrow. I pulled the posters as well and got them flattening. I got to help Ms. M’s students today finding books. 

Forgetting Day

Totally forgot to do this yesterday! Got busy after work. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it! All right I’m back! I worked in the back room today and decided to clean up books, and I also decided to take my Outsider books and put in their numbers in their records. That took awhile! I also attended a webinar on graphic novels. I spent a lot of time helping students with their Axis360 accounts. They were getting all kinds of messages on their accounts, from needing to reset passwords to just having the site tell them there were too many devices. I called our office and also sent in the feedback notice to Baker and Taylor. It’s hard to see students wanting to read and they can’t.

All Saints Day

Today I brought in a candle (fake, with batteries for the ‘flame’) and had that out on a table with some fall  leaves and made it look really nice with orange tissue paper and red tissue paper leaves. No one really asked about it, just one kid and he was all ‘Oh, it’s the Day of the Dead!! That’s what it is!’ Not quite, but good of him to make a connection. Did the actual book repairs today and we’ll see how they turn out tomorrow. Sent off the KEVA blocks and the one I tried to fix, didn’t fix. Darn. Withdrew a few more books and replaced a couple of them on my list. Since I don’t feel comfortable lifting boxes, I took a box, put it on the floor and filled it with withdrawn books. Then did another, and then did a partial box! Yeah! No lifting and I have another cart to use when I need to! Gave two book talks today and had five of the six books I talked about checked out, Yes! Fist pump here! Love it when that happens! A really good day, students were not too bad even the day after Halloween.