Sharing

Today I worked on our shared list of novels and sent out the last list I had so everyone could update what they had. At the moment we only share with two other high schools, I'm hoping the others will join in. Checked out a class set of books to Mr. M, checked in some Journal of Finn Reardon's which meant I could ship 20 of them out to another school, so I boxed them up and sent them out. It's F.A.N. night - Faculty Appreciation Night and we all got new t-shirts to wear for work today. I love a new t-shirt!

Bulletin Board

I know I did more than work on my bulletin board, but that was a big part of my day. I wanted to do a big sports theme, and we have a lot of good books on sports and highlight the Sprague teams. So I worked on that. I also took my honoring of the armed forces books and put them out for kids to read and check out on the new rack over behind the couch. I put Sports Illustrated magazines on the rack by my desk as well. Now I just have to find some sports stuff! So at home I found a baseball bat and ball, a basketball net (I think I will 'dunk' a basquetball book into it!) and some golf stuff. I also monitored labs, put in a request by Mr. N that our computers can launch RealPlayer because he wants his kids to have a great experience on the Holocaust Museum site. I also ran the front desk today after Mrs. M left because Mrs. H was out helping the schools that no longer have teacher librarians that are in our area. It was very busy! Checked out books today for various students and staff, put money in print accounts, helped students access the computer by getting them their login numbers or resetting their accounts. We also got new Oly t-shirts today and when I was ready to go home, I still hadn't gotten mine so I went up to the office and I had been checked off! So, now I finally have a t-shirt for tomorrow!

Playtime

Got done with processing in the rest of the First Aid books and all the rest of the Realidades 2 teacher materials. Made a new screen for Vision, just replaced some book cover images on it. Checked out books to students, monitored the labs and students in the library. Got the back room pretty cleaned out. Mrs. H's great niece came in to visit with her mom and I had the best time playing with her for a little bit. She is just at that adorable age and the students all fell in love with her. I miss my own little grandchild - far, far away in Italy :(

$230.00

Finally we find the box of missing First Aid materials - huzzah! A couple of the instructor manuals came just as hole punched papers with a front, back and end for a sleeved notebook. I remembered I'd seen some notebooks out in the portables so I went back out and scrounged around and also found a very nice Oly vest. I believe it was from a teacher that moved to another school, so we asked her if she wanted it and she said she had gotten out everything that was hers, so I decided to keep it rather than leave it hanging in an unused space. Processed in the First Aid missing materials and one teacher magazine and two for the library. Checked out a class set of books to Mr. D. Got Mr. M the rest of the Grammar Dimensions for him to take. Picked out some books for the new bulletin board. Worked on Biology books, who had billed books that we may be able to get back in. Out of 18 kids we have billed, only 5 are still in school. The other 13 totalled almost $3,000 in book charges, that comes to $230 dollars that walked out of the school per student that left. That's a lot. Talked with our Pearson rep today and found there isn't an online version of the American Pageant book, so if we do get books, they will be hard cover ones. There is a new version coming out in the spring and that will have an online package you can purchase with the actual texts at a discount. I sent all the information to our principal and he will let me know what we will do.

SuccessNet

Processed in our new Bien dit! 2 books that arrived today - Huzzah!! Students checked them out like crazy all afternoon. Processed in some Biology books for Mr. W that came from another school. We also have a student that had been on Pearson's SuccessNet online account and couldn't get changed over from his middle school to Sprague, so I had contacted our tech department and they weren't able to do anything and let me know that today, so I tried to call Pearson and get some tech support and couldn't get through. So I finally got out an access code and created a teacher account so I could go in and see what options there might be and it looks like teachers can edit student accounts, so I contacted his teacher and asked if he'd try to do that, and the teacher said he'd try, so we'll see what happens. I called the father and let him know we were still working on it. I also got a response from Holt MacDougall on the AP history book and yes, there is an online version, but it would need to be purchased, so I asked what they cost would be. After they send that, I will let our principal know and he can make the decision on which way we need to go for students - either more books, or online access. Monitored students heavily on the computer lab and checked out a lot of books today.

Friday!

Sent out another box of Grammar Dimensions to Parrish MS today that I found, emailed the English department of the ones we still had available. Had a staff member bring in two boxes of magazines for cutting out so I purged through our boxes getting rid of junk and waste. Found some more National Geographics and sent them over to the art department since they wanted any we had. Processed in four magazines, checked out a class set of Writer's Inc to Mr. S. Found a missing magazine on our SSA order so I got that taken care of today. Played a bit more with Vision and it's coming a lot easier now. Closed up shop for the weekend and I am off! See you Monday.

Library Nazi's

Today we were told that we were doing a horrible job. That we were the reason so many kids were skipping class, to hang out in the library and we had to monitor every kid for passes all day. So, we decided to become Library Nazi's. So that took up a lot of time today constantly checking up on kids, making sure they signed in, had a pass or release card, not our cup of tea, but that's the way it goes. I finished up processing in the Personal Fitness books today that came in before school started. Processed in Friday Night Lights that came in from West HS for a couple of classes. I worked with my Vision program, redesigned the blank screen copy and worked with it a bit to get it up and running again. Boxed up 30 Physical Science with Earth Science to send out to North HS. Sent an email to Mr. S our principal about the American Pageant books we have and that we need a few more. Follett had some new ones on the way for $121 a piece, but they were getting in some used for only $97 and I wanted to put a hold on five for us since we still have 3-5 students that need a copy. Mr. S asked us to look into online access instead of books, so I sent an email asking our rep if that text did indeed have an online version. Hopefully I'll get an answer tomorrow.

Another day

Got the National Geographics to the Art Department today and helped students get their log in numbers. Had to help a student get onto the computer. Pulled Developing Child books for Mrs. S and checked out ten books to her and then the rest to the class. Shipped out a box to South HS and one to Parrish MS. Took another trip out to the portables, helped a student print. Covered D-Day books and prepped the Personal Fitness books and boxed up more surplus.

Portable

Processed in a teacher magazine and four for the library. Checked out three class sets of Geometry. I had a parent call with some online issues and sent the request on to our tech department. Finished covering the D-Day books, yeah! There used to be a TV out in the Commons so I wanted to see if it was still there for showing Channel One during lunch and it is gone. I helped Mrs. G with her online access for setting up classes and gave her some old Buen Viaje workbooks we had in the back. The best part of the day was getting keys for the old portables. We no longer have teachers in there, and they cleaned out most of their stuff, so I got to comb through 10 old classrooms looking for left behind books. I found a couple of boxes worth and brought all those in and checked them in, several had been billed to students and one had been paid for - I even remember that book, the student insisted that she had turned it in and we looked for it at least 3 times in our books stacks, and there it was completely somewhere else! Her parents will be happy to get their money back! I found a ream of 11x17 paper we can use later this year for the book making project. That'll help and a few books for the library as well. A good haul!

Repair Help

Mrs. M wasn't in today and her sub used to work at the Oregon State Library doing repairs so I opened up our cupboards and showed her all our repair implements, gave her a stack of books and she got a whole set of science books all glued and taped that I had on my repair 'to-do' list. I was so impressed and glad they got done! She did fabulous! I checked out a lot of individual books today, wrote up the request for 25 more Realidades 1 books for purchasing. Sent out emails on Bienvenidos and Grammar Dimensions. Boxed up some more surplus. Mailed out some items to Claggett and Stephens Middle Schools. Cleaned out my emails, got a cart of Geometry books ready for 1st period tomorrow. Processed in three magazines for the library, processed in a teacher edition for Ms. G. Covered some more of the D-Day stories books, did a check on supplies for Mrs. H to order in for us. Sent out emails on the leadership books we have (the teacher from last year moved over the summer) so the new leadership and AVID teachers know they are available. Checked out a class set of Biology books. Helped students with their computer log-ins. Sent in a life ring on a student who keeps getting booted off websites - even the ones she's supposed to be on!  I'm sure there's more I did, but I didn't keep a list today.

Almost Got Something Done

Had all my plans in place to finish up the D-Day books today and hardly got around to them! Checked out a lot of books, worked with Mrs. H on what books we could get online access to again. We found we have about seven texts that can all be accessed online - which is a great thing! Got in the extra Chemistry books, so that is very cool. I was working to try and find the online access to the America: Pathways to the Present and thought - 'I'll look in the teacher resources' and voilà, there it was - the online access pack. I'm thinking I need to get an iPad 2 so I can get into technology for the oncoming bookless revolution. There will probably always be some textbooks, but more and more the students will be getting their information online in some form. We also found that we are missing a box from our First Aid order and set about trying to find it since we are also missing the invoice from that - which is probably in the missing box. It's Friday and I'm off to Oktoberfest in Mt. Angel tonight! Guten tag!

5 More

Today I shipped off five boxes of German materials. Had to check them all out to the school that's going to use them as well. Made sure I didn't go over the 50 pound weight limit on the boxes! Checked out 5 class sets of books to Mr. L. We have a great aide that carted them all down to him. Had another class set of Biology books that our aide also took to a room for another teacher. Checked out a lot of books today to kids and I missed a couple of pick ups for another teacher but her student teacher helped out to pull books! Processed a teacher magazine and two for the library. Started to process in 18 books on true stories of D-Day. Did more emailing on books we needed. Hopefully our loan of Chemistry books will arrive tomorrow and a small order of french books will arrive and we'll get to order in some spanish one books as well. Worked with a student looking for a classic book to read. They have several classes and no one can read the same book - so the choices are getting low. I helped her get up the list and our library catalogue search page to go from one to the other, but she ended up heading back to the teacher to get a list of which books were still left since so many had already been taken.

Driving Over Books

We had a student come in with a book that another student had driven over. One book wasn't too bad and I was able to do a quick taping on it so he could use it. But the Street Law book has a bent back cover and the top of the front cover has been shredded. It's in bad shape. I told Ms. W that if it were up to me, I'd ask him to pay for it or replace it. Then I told her what I'd need to do to it to get it back into shape for a student to check out. She thanked me for that. I don't know what she'll do with it, but that's now her decision. I processed in 126 First Aid books and some Working With Young Children that were given to us by another school. Helped a student with a resume, checked out a lot of books, processed in two magazines for the library.

October/November

Some of the magazines I processed in today were not only October issues, but November ones! So, I did one teacher magazine and five for the library. Checked out books today and shipped off another five boxes of books to McNary. Sent out about six requests for extra books for various subjects and teachers. There seemed to be a ton of emails about books going on. I managed to repair an American Pageant so I now have two of those to check out. Got in some Biology teacher texts and some Chemistry books. I had a teacher wanting her Adobe installation disk and I looked through our material and realized she just needed to update her Adobe system, so I had her put in a life ring request. We heard that one teacher was berating us for doing nothing to get her books for class and she would just have to do it herself! You go girl! Started to process in the First Aid books we just got in for Ms. W.

Online Access

Checked out more books today and started to clean up the piles that we're done with. Shipped out the rest of the Guide to Good Foods to McNary. We got in some Working with Young Children and I had to check with the librarians over there since these are fairly new books and no one had x'ed out the barcodes or anything. We ran out of our Realidades 1 books and the teacher wanted to get some more, now! So I inquired around and another school is looking for 25 more themselves. With the bigger class sizes and less options, we are running out of books that we've never run out of before. I let the teacher know we did have online access for that text and she needed to register and that would give the students access, so I hope she does that soon. I also looked up prices for our American Pageant books since we are also short on those. I think check outs did really well with the new schedule and we're just about done with the main classes. Helped a teacher look for some novels for his class. Helped a new aide learn the back room and how we put away books. Had a group of resources for a teacher and she was really excited about them and a set of memoirs about D-Day we had gotten in. Went through my staff handouts and checklist for that for the year.

Field of Flags

Friday - September 9th - Spent the day checking out, getting more books out and starting to put books away from classes that are done. Processed in two teacher magazines and twelve for the library. I also helped Mrs. H work in the computer lab checking the internet cords for access. After work I went to the Field of Flags to honor those who died on 9-11 and those in the service and responders who have died since at Riverfront Park. Very powerful.

Mandatory

Finished up processing in the Realidades 2 textbooks for students today and kept just ahead of classes. So that was a good thing! Finished up processing the materials the teacher wanted for that class as well. Did my mandatory training and sent my completion results to Ms. W who is making sure we all get that done. Checked out books, put out books, helped students and didn't have a spare moment to the day. A good day.

Running

Even though I left last night with tables loaded, we were still running all day keeping up. In between loading tables up, checking out books, I was also processing in the new Realidades 2 texts we got in so the Spanish 2 classes could come and check them out. I managed to get one class checked out today and got another 2 class sets ready for tomorrow and have one more to do. Have run out of our Bien dit! 2 books so had to email another school to see if we could borrow some like we did last year. Answered emails - checked out another class set of lit books, directed some students that were in helping out (yes, they were fabulous!) and got a few things ready for tomorrow that came up at the last minute. Oh, and I forgot to mention that we also had a fire alarm this morning just after I got in that lasted nearly an hour. At least the weather was perfect to be outside!

New Oly Day

Freshmen were in school today and I spent all day setting out books and checking out class sets of books to teachers. I'm not entirely sure of what is going on with classes. What? No Civics books - all three lower grades will be in America Pathways? What? Freshmen will take Biology along with sophomores? Do we have enough books? What about class sets? Online versions? Some things are just a mystery at the moment, but I put out what I had gotten from teachers and guessed on the rest. We'll see how tomorrow goes when all the kids are back!

Keeping it Real

Got my calendar all up for the start of school on Tuesday. Got my desk all cleaned off. Processed three magazines. Mailed off 2 books to Mrs. B now over at McNary. Sent off another magazine to Mr. B over at Waldo. Cracked open the new Realidades 2 cases we got in late yesterday and sorted out all the teacher resources. Found that we had duplicates of ten different items - we were supposed to get 3 of each and those we got 6 of each and we were missing two items from our order. So I called Northwest Text and talked with a rep and she is looking into it and will get back to me on Tuesday. I processed in about half of those so the teacher will have most of her materials on Tuesday. I'll ask her what else she needs right away when I see her on Tuesday. Got through all my emails and started lists of teachers and what books they will need starting Wednesday. I was going to pull books today, but never got around to it, so that will be the main goal on Tuesday. Then we'll have student help starting on Wednesday. All too soon, the day is over.