Searching

Today I had two classes come in not for book talks, but to learn how to use the search computers to look up books they might want to check out. I showed them our library media page on the school web page, then we went through the ins and outs of how to look up books and then find them! It was really fun (I looked up keyword zombies for them!) and I think they learned a few things. Just goes to show you how important it is to bring back our librarians!! If there were librarians in our elementary schools, I would not have had to do this! Did a non-fiction book stroll for another class today. Pulled books from the different Dewey numbers and walked through them for the classes. It was fun! Tomorrow I have to do a "How-to" book talk and have pulled some books for that! Worked on some of the Scholastic stuff today, funny how that is almost here already! Wow! They gave me a CD of book talks and I had to play it three times to get it to load and play all the way through it. Checked in and out books all day. Cleaned up some email stuff. I might think of some other stuff I did later! I did notice today during our first passing period, not one student ran, and they were so quiet!! I loved it!!

PowerPoint

Today I worked on a great powerpoint for the students to get them excited about BOB - Battle of the Books. We just do a mini version here in our district. Last year I didn't get enough support from the students, but the year before I had five teams all working hard! So I'm hoping we'll get enough students this year to make it happen! I have about 10 slides with a book trailer link and it took about 20 minutes to run, so perfect to do during lunches. I sent it out to all the other middle school LMA's for them to see. Checked in/out three classes of math books today, did more books but it was pretty light (that's why I had time to do the powerpoint!) Had both lunches open for the students to play Cool Math on the the computers. I feel very accomplished that I got that all done for November 10th!

Help

Today I had more help than I've ever had before! Then I had to find them something to do! A sub came in and a parent volunteer! That was perfect! I got to help some kids today find something to read and that was fun. I also had a meeting and had to leave at three and drive over to the meeting. A pretty typical day, with nothing extraordinary going on. Books got checked out, books got checked in. Students got help. I'm excited to have a great volunteer that'll be coming in every week! I'll be able to get some projects done! Yeah!

Today

What did I do today?? Finished the webinar. Gave two book talks. Checked in and out books. Shelved all the non-fiction. I know there must be more! But my brain is dead. I did score an incredibly awesome volleyball match tonight! Best set of games I've done!

A Little Bit of Everything

I had four classes in today to check in and out books. I put out a few more books from repairs. Covered two paperbacks so I could put them out. Watched part of a webinar on new books and got some titles to check out. Stamped some teacher materials. Finished my boo - k pumpkins and got them all up and set. We are having an AVID night tonight, so I took some of my color pages in my Beautiful Room and cut them up for bookmarks so they could have a maker table while people were waiting during the evening. Did some laminating for teachers, and redid some book covers while I had the machine going! Checked for some lost books today as well. Talked with a volunteer parent who is now cleared to come and work for me! Huzzah!

Boo - k Graveyard

Today I worked on a Halloween themed set up in the library. I made a tombstone 'The Boo - k Graveyard' and displayed a bunch of Halloween themed books and had my aides put up scary books up on their shelves. Checked out three sets of math books and checked in three sets. Did two of my Library of Congress booktalks - I really love to do those!! Checked in and out all day. Made a cat out of a discarded book and worked on some 'leaf' pages to sprinkle around the books. I have two sets of book picture pumpkins drying out and will finish them tomorrow! Loving how it is turning out. Also put out arrows on the Margaret Peterson Haddix poster and quotes on the hallway saying "This Thursday!!!" I think I'll flip them to say "Tomorrow!!" On Wednesday and on Thursday say "Today!!!" I had one student say he was going to go. Makes me happy! Checked the books I had repaired Friday and got them all out on the shelves. Got in some new books!! Squeeee!! Not very many (10), but some at least!! Put in their tattle strips and got them out there!

Pink Out Day

Today we finished up our Hands Are Not For Hurting week with a Pink Out day. It was so amazing to see the students participate! So many kids wore pink the halls were nearly totally pink during passing times. Very cool! I spent most of the day working on repairs. Did that in between taking care of the students. A lovely day! Our lovely staff got together for a pink picture at the end of the day! The black shirts with 'Fox' on them are to encourage our office manager who is currently in the fight.

Shake it Out!

Today we participated in the Great Shake Out along with a ton of people all over the country. Unfortunately, it was during a nasty bit of rain and wind, but staff had been given a heads up so we were prepared, got the kids under desks, then outside and back in quick as could be. It really was the quickest we'd ever been out and back in. Book talks happened today, three of them! I did my Library of Congress speech and I am so loving to do that! Included Kate DiCamillo, past National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and Gene Luen Yang, our current Ambassador. Then I talked about Margaret Peterson Haddix who will be at the Salem Public Library next Thursday. Had four classes in our computer lab. Checked in and out a ton of books. My first period aides put all their books away this morning, and I have a full cart ready for them to put away tomorrow! I got all the non-fiction put away today. Laminated for three teachers, maybe four?? Sent off some books for processing from one of our students who donates books to us. Sent off book requests for Sasquatch by Roland Smith and two books on the Maori from Australia. Added a book onto my book cart. I will just keep adding until they send it in! I am so hoping books come in before winter break. 

Had Time

Spent a part of today finishing cleaning up in my office. I had a pile of papers I went through and cleaned up. Taking out the library page of all the newsletters, putting barcodes on calculators I had piled on my desk and putting the ones that don't work in a box ("They're dead Jim."). Put the extra wheels for the white board with it back in the workroom it's in now. Got the books from last inventory that had invalid barcodes all re-entered thanks to the lovely Ms. M down at LMSS. Part of that pile was book lists of things I needed to look at to order, so I did that and added to my Baker and Taylor order since it hasn't been approved yet. I know they've been busy with a huge project for the elementary schools, but at this rate we'll be lucky to see new books before winter break. I had to look up each book, check to see what grade it was geared for, get the ISBN and log it into my cart. Had one class in today to check out books. They were very wild. I was surprised since I usually have our lunches be the noisiest, but lunches were silent compared to this group! Glad to get more great books on my order! Volleyball scoring again tonight! I love watching all the girls play!

Research

Today was pretty easy. We only had one class come in for new math books (which I had forgotten about after talking with the sub just this morning...!) There were a ton of books to check in. Checked out a class set of science books to Mrs. C, then checked in three class sets of books from Mr. G. Got to spend some time looking at the websites we visited last week and put together a quick "Look at this! Look at that!!" Piece to send out to all our Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies teachers. I also sent that out to our special ed teachers since one of the links has a 'reader' function for research reports. Put away all the rest of the non-fiction after a lovely helper in the office came down and did some. Did a bunch of laminating and finally had to change the laminating rolls. I really dread doing that but today went pretty slick and easy. Asked about getting the new phone extensions for everyone and our PA put together a Google doc for us to all add in our new numbers. Sent in a request for adding in some books I found last year when I was doing inventory that didn't have working barcodes. So I sent in the ISBN's, barcodes, title and spine label. Seemed to be easier than sending in the books, but we'll see what the office says.