All Quiet

Just worked my half day today. Got the May calendar up, just need to add the extras. Answered Mr. M on a magazine subscription question, got books pulled and displayed and got all my repair stuff into the back since on Monday there's AP testing in the library when I get in. I'm off to Salem Public Library to use my volunteer gift coupon at the downstairs cafe for being the volunteer of the month!

Omegle

Today was an assembly day for the prom on Saturday, so I helped to monitor the kids that chose to come to the library rather than go to the assembly. We had a full house for that! Checked out more A Separate Peace. We got in a class set from West HS and I processed them in. I also found one of the borrowed books with crayon marks in it and let the textbook librarian over there know that it came to us with that in it. I let the teacher know that the set had arrived and checked out another class set of A Separate Peace. Checked in a class set of Nineteen Minutes. Worked with the IL for World Languages on her orders for texts for next year, recalculating prices and picking up teacher resources from another school. Checked in and out lots of individual texts. Took down the calendar. Monitored students in the lab today and found another kid on a site called 'Omegle' which states 'talk to a stranger!'. You get just an anonymous person to talk to. Our kid was writing, 'yeah, I'm in school in class and supposed to be working on a project.' Ah, no! I turned in a life ring to our tech department that perhaps this site needs to be blocked, my 'mom' ears are all up on this one and I've seen it come up more and more lately. Also had a couple of kids that were messing about on the computers, so I looked up their names, pulled up which classes they were supposed to be in and contacted the teachers. One teacher said 'he's cutting my class, send him to the office' so I did and made sure he got there. The other teacher said 'Let him know I marked him absent.' but he had already bugged out (he was sitting by the other kid when I sent him to the office). Did more repairs as well.

A Handshake

Today our lab was open all day and I spent a lot of time monitoring the kids on the computers. I had two students I found gaming, and told them to focus. They got up and went over to the other lab. They again were not doing what they were supposed to. So, I e-mailed their teachers and they were told to hed back to class. One went, the other never did. So, I ended up with a lot of student interaction today, something I don't usually do, but it's nice to banter with the kids and take some time with them. I worked mostly on repairs today, checked in/out books all day. Took in a class of Hunger Games. Took in billed books for a student and sent the paperwork to our bookkeeper. Processed two teacher magazines and two for us. I also had a student ask about putting text on a picture in Word so I messed around for a few minutes to test my own skills on that as well. I came in early and then went off to work the track meet this afternoon. One of the discus throwers from another school came and shook my hand for helping out. That was so nice! I also liked the motto they had on their jackets:

What I've withheld,
I've lost.
What I've given,
I've gained forever.

LIfe Magazine

We have in our back room an entire case dedicated to old copies of Life magazine. They are nicely bound in book volumes, about two months in each. One of our teachers asked if she could use some in class this week, so I went over and checked the dates. She was looking for the 1930's and we only start in 1937, so I asked if she also wanted the 40's as well. She said yes, so I pulled a whole cart of them and had an aide take them down to her room. Some of these collections aren't in very good shape, so I talked with Mrs. M about that we need to work on checking out the bindings and pages. Kind of fun to look through them a bit! Pulled all our copies of A Separate Peace for Mr. M's class. When he called to say they were coming, I had them all ready - sometimes he doesn't call before they come, so I was ready! Helped Mrs. H with our DVD collection, we took the 'library' copies of our social study DVD's and put them on her shelf, locked back in her office. Worked on more repairs today. Had a student want to come and work on a project during study hall, so I wrote her a note. Didn't see her come back, so I called down, and yes, she'd come and with Mrs. M's help we tracked her down. Poured rain today and I found myself looking up at the skylights a few times as the rain pelted against them!

You Read a Lot When You're Sick

I finished off Boneshaker this weekend and Blood Bound while I was sick and couldn't get the gumption to do much else! I made reviews for both of them and put them up on the new books shelf. Boneshaker was checked out when I looked this afternoon! Processed in three magazines, did a lot of money into print accounts and did a lot of repairs. Got in the lit set of Out of the Dust and notified the teachers how many copies I had. They both applauded my quick turn around, but I pointed them to Mrs. H who checked for a Lit set with LMSS. She's so amazing, I had forgotten about lit sets! I also checked out a block class of To Kill a Mockingbird. A good day and I'm feeling much better! We did some e-mailing back and forth on textbook purchasing.

Tricklin'

Today was just a series of trickling items. Lots of kids checking in and out texts, I had a lot of reponses to my request for Out of the Dust. Worked more repairs on math books, helped out the sub for Mrs. M. Processed in three magazines for us and two for teachers. I had put a book aside for a student and he came by and checked it out today.

Virus

I've picked up some virus somewhere and have a scratchy throat. Our computers at work were attacked by the reboot virus, so it is a day of virus's. Mr. B, our site computer tech asks to use my computer today to send out a message to the school. So some of the replies come back to me, so I send them on. I helped to get a student computer up and running by just checking the connection. I find a student who is talking to a hacker, so I print screen and take the information to the life ring. Probably not a big threat, but I feel the techs should know about it. When they're done fixing the virus of course! Lots of check in/check outs today. I work on repairs for the paperback math books. We have two classes looking to use Out of the Dust, so we send out a request to a bunch of schools. Some of our schools are undergoing major repairs this summer and are not lending out any more books this year since they need to pack everything up to store while the repairs are going on, which one school has a bunch, but they can no longer lend :( Processed one teacher magazine and one for us. Cross counted our print account money with Mrs. H and she took it all to the bookkeeper. Checked in a class turning in To Kill a Mockingbird.

CI/CO

Mrs. H and I had discussions on textbooks this morning, and I sent out an e-mail to the Instructional Leaders on being sure to look at their reports for ordering for next year. We had a huge freshman class this year, who will all be sophomores next year and there are books that we need to have on hand for them. If they order now, I'll be able to be prepared to get them all in, processed and ready to hand out by the time school starts. I did a lot of CI/CO's today, those individual checking in and checking out of books. Checked in a class set of To Kill a Mockingbird, Where Have All the Flowers Gone? and The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty. I did a lot of monitoring in the lab today. We had no one booked in there, so it was all individuals coming to study. Sometimes I really enjoy it. I watch my Vision, but I will also walk around and talk to the kids about what assignment they are supposed to work on. Also processed in two teacher magazines and three for us.

Brit Lit

Processed in four magazines this morning and checked out a class set of The Bean Trees. Took in a lot of money for printing and our new color printer is up and running! So I did a new book review and got that going again. Did Stones into Schools, the latest by Greg Mortenson and since we had the book, I put it right under my review. Checked in a box of First Aid books from Ms. C. I had a student bring back a book and wanted to drop her hold request for Catching Fire, so I looked up how to delete that in the Insignia manual since I'd never done that before and it worked! I wrote up an announcement for students to return books they're done with. We have over 12,000 books out and I'd like to get some of that in before the end of the school year. They are done with quite a few of them and the books are just sitting there, so better to ask that they come in. Checked out some Physics books that kids had turned in and they weren't supposed to. A student and her family came in and they found one of her three books she still had out. I walked the print out up to the office with them, they were going to pay off what they still had out, so I let them know that if they come in, they can get a refund. Also did repairs on British Literature books today. Then I headed home for the Sprague Book Club.

Bullying

Started by pulling The Bean Trees and To Kill a Mockingbird to get ready for today. Ms. L-D brought over her student teacher and introduced us and she told me to get them ready. So, three classes of Bean Trees went out and a class of To Kill a Mockingbird. I had a student come over, and Mr. L came up as we talked. He asked how she was doing and she broke down in tears. A student in several of their classes has been harassing her and today it just got too much. Mr. L said she was safe in his class and I also offered the library as a safe place for her to escape to. She had contacted her counselor and some of her teachers. I told Mrs. H what had happened and she said definitely the student should consider the library her safe place and also talked with the administrator of her grade and will deal with this. No student should be bullied, and it's sad to hear it happened at our school. She came back later in the day and sat with me and we talked while I worked. We still had a set of 10th grade lit books in the back and they are promised to a teacher who has no classroom at the moment, so I labeled them and put them in a safer place. She will hopefully have a classroom next year to house them. I worked on repairs, but found that we may be getting new precalculus books! Yeah! Ours are so old, I was starting to work on them and now we'll just leave them until we hear if they will be surplused and new books coming in. So, I began to work on our Brit Lit books for Mr. S. I also did a lot of monitoring in the computer lab today since we just had open space on my end all day.

Acme Stapler

Friday, April 16: I worked the front desk for a bit this morning while Mrs. M did some much needed laminating. It was fun and busy! I got to help 2 boys find a book to read, always a bonus! Checked in and out a lot of individual students, finished up the American Experience repairs and did inventory on them as well. Checked out 2 class sets of Algebra 2 Volume 2. Got a request for Antony and Cleopatra from West HS, so I packed them off. Processed in 3 magazines for the library. One of the IA's here thought we had a mega stapler for re-stapling books or magazines together. I didn't know what/where it was and she found it under the counter! So, her, Mrs. M and I all worked at it and she got it going to at least hold together a student's book until the end of the year. We all cracked up when we saw it was 'Acme' and we all thought of the Road Runner and Wiley E. Coyote! Beep! Beep!

VideoDisks

Thursday, April 15th: Finished covering the new hardbacks today and got them all displayed. Checked out a class set of Witness and another for The Adoration of Jenna Fox, and 2 class sets of Algebra 2 Volume 2. Mr. C brought in his copies from the speech tournament that I processed in. Did repairs and withdrew all of our old videodisks from the library and from textbooks. They are like old albums in size and Mrs. H will take them down to LMSS with the projector. Today was an 8 period day.

Track Meet

I came in a little bit early since I was going to work the track meet this afternoon and found out just yesterday I needed to be at the stadium around 2:45. I covered the rest of the new paperbacks and checked out 2 class sets of Algebra 2 Volume 2 and got more ready for tomorrow. Did more individual checking in and outs today. I did some research on the new college writing books requested by Ms. G. Processed in 8 teacher magazines and 6 for the library. Got in several 2 texts out slips so I could check out a second copy to students. I covered some of the math books that never got covered, got ready The Adoration of Jenna Fox for check out tomorrow and worked on covering the new hardbacks. Since Mrs. H was gone today, I helped with getting Manga club set up for their meeting though our sub, our former science teacher Mr. R was available to work and be the adult supervisor while I headed down to the stadium. I spent 2.5 hours working with the kids doing the shot put! It was fun and I also got a new Sprague t-shirt!

De-Escalate

Today was the classified monthly meeting and it was our turn to do the snacks for it. So Mrs. M brought in some donuts and tangerines, and I brought in Rachel Ray's Fiesta Salad (with lots of my own add-ins!), mini cinnamon rolls, indulgent trail mix and some juice. I came in a bit early to get it all set up. Mrs. H was absent today, and the sub wasn't a librarian and we also had Mrs. H's proctor student in, so Mrs. M stayed and held down the fort and I went to the meeting. It was fabulous! We had a speaker on how to de-escalate encounters with people and went for an hour and a half (minus the fire drill - a kid threw a ball in the gym and it hit the alarm). Then I cleaned up when the meeting was done. I checked in The Great Gatsby and pulled out all the books that need repairs of one kind or another. North HS called to ask what their status was on books we have checked out to them, and I had a bunch of them that they didn't have. So I copied the list and emailed it over, and they sent it back. Some of those were 10 years overdue! So, the librarian there told me that they had settled all those with a money transfer several years ago before I took the job here. So I cleaned all those up, it made sense. I had a lot of kids ask to view their accounts to see what books they had out and what numbers they had. Lots of individual checking in and out. We got in two boxes of processed books! So I had an aide unpack them and checked them against our list and started working on covering the paperbacks since we didn't have the hardback covers yet. I'm sure they'll come in tomorrow! And the leftover food? Not to worry, our aides managed to make sure we were unemcumbered by hauling home leftovers;)

Sorrow

Today I came in early because I was off to a funeral this afternoon. I also found out one of our teachers also knew the boy. This young man graduated from the area just last year. It could have been any student from here. It made me really appreciate even more the community here at Sprague. Mrs. M also was amazing today. One of our exchange students is going to a prom up in Portland with some of the other exchange students, but she didn't have a dress. So Mrs. M went out and bought two dresses this weekend for her to try and see if she'd like to have one for the prom. She is an amazing person, and the girl was so excited. I worked on writing up the textbook request forms for 5 of the teachers. Did research on the best place to purchase. One of our teachers forgot that we had an entirely new set of books for her. So I tracked her down and showed her the new books and we got that cleared up! She even found her teacher materials I had given her earlier this year. I checked out a class set of First Aid books, processed two teacher magazines and two for the library, and I worked on repairs the rest of the day. As I sit here at home, the memorial service was honoring, and it was so worth being there, being present at this time for his family. Rise in glory Levi.

The Wave

Today I ran off all the textbook status reports for all the departments. This will show them how many books we have in and also how many are out (are all of them out? You may need to order more for next year!) and how many have been billed, paid or lost, also other reasons you may need to order more! Mrs. H had a meeting with all the instructional leaders this afternoon for textbook orders so the reports will be handy! Ms. T from Willamette brought back the books she had taken on Friday and took 20 Sociology books for today. Ms. S brought in her kids to check out The Wave and they also had reading groups to check out some other books on the holocaust. They have groups that will read a different book and then report to the others who haven't read it. We had gotten in a new book repair catalogue so I looked over some of the items in it and then gave it to Mrs. M to see if she possibly wanted any of the items there. Had to bill a student for a wet Geometry Connections V. 1 book and tried to bill a student for a brand new Bien dit! book that she'd written in, but she's no longer at our school, so I can't access her account. We have a teacher coming to trade in Algebra 2 books so I pulled those this afternoon and got them ready and worked on some more repairs.

One Week

So, I thought I'd try doing a whole week in one posting, and it just didn't work out too well. So, here is the rest of the week, but I'm not sure in what order!

One day I checked out Algebra 2 V2, covered some of those that hadn't been done yet. Processed 2 teacher magazines and 2 for us. It was like a 3 ring circus today, still doing registration, teachers in the labs and more classes using the tables in here. I also worked a lot of repairs.

I believe on Thursday I checked out holocaust books for Ms. S's class, they all got The Wave and got to pick another reading group book. I got a cart ready with Geometry Connections V2 and First Aid books. I checked in Geometry Connections V1 and checked out the V2. I did a bit more work on a damaged Environmental Science book and some other repairs. I sent some French teacher One Stop Planners over to McKay HS on a teacher request. Mrs. M and I worked on the Lending Library. Had a fire drill and did some price checking on some textbooks.

Wednesday might have been this - We needed to get in some Witness books and they were brought in. Mrs. M got them all checked in and I put them ready for classes. Checked in and out more Geometry Connections V1 for V2. I pulled some Algebra books that needed covers and let Mrs. H's sub work on doing that while I worked more repairs.

Mr. L might have come in Tuesday and picked up some Geometry Connections V2. Mrs. M worked on her "Dancing with the Poets" bulletin board, very clever! I worked on the Lending Library and we'll see if the changes work on both computers. I got to help a student pick out a reading book for his class and also got a call from the office to see if an aide last semester was also an aide this semester. I also did a lot of repairs!

Monday, April 5th: So today I get out of my car, lock the door, and realize I don't have my keys. Somewhere in picking up my book, camera, lunch and all, my keys had fallen between the seats and not into my purse! Argh! It was pouring rain and cold and wind was whipping the trees all up but luckily I had my badge and could get into the building. My mom brought over the spare key from my hubby later! We had a request from a lady who was teaching a class at Willamette University this weekend for some of our current textbooks to use for her class, so Mr. C (the head of Library Media Services) asked us to hook her up. She came today and picked up about 20 books to use. I processed in the last of the Colored People books and also some AutoCAD books. I had to move some things to get all the Colored People books onto the shelves, but the AutoCAD just goes down into the classroom. I shipped out another set of borrowed books, straightened out the back room a bit and worked on some repairs. Put money into print accounts, checked in and out books. It was busy with registration going on in the library today as well as classes in the labs. We'll be that all next week as well.

Helping Out

Mrs. M's calendar for April is on Poetry Month and I love her 'Dancing with the Poets'! She is so creative! Mine is books that have been made into movies. Shipped out more books that were on loan from other schools. I checked on a set and they said that we still had one of the books, so I asked to check again and they found it. Got in the last of Colored People we had ordered so I will finish up the last nine tomorrow after nine more today. Processed three teacher magazines and four for us. Had a mom bring in books and checked them all in and sent her with the list to the bookkeeper, checked in more books and also did a textbook request form for Mrs. B. Also checked in books brought over by one of our security people after cleaning out a locker. Got in three boxes of new books and helped get some covered and on our new book shelf. Finished up the April calendar, with much thanks to Mrs. M for bringing in exposed film for me to use and a big plug here for the Guys and Dolls Sprague musical next week on the poster next to my board!