Kinders

Today was mostly about the Kinders. They really are very cute. So, off to get the library computers up, did some sorting, then off to LLI. Only had my two boys today, then to the library and more shelving and then a Kinder class, then a 4/5 blend, then back to Kinders, my lunch, cafeteria duty, then my last Kinder class and up to Mrs. M's room for Chinese lanterns, a card for a student moving to another school and then we were done. Back to the library for more shelving and off for the weekend. Huzzah!

Helpers

Got into a conversation with a teacher this morning on getting some help from students and so she sent two students to help after lunch. I think they will do well. I just need to get them trained up. Did my LLI and had all three of my students on time. Back to the library and getting ready for my three morning classes. I've really been worn down this week by the attitude of disrespect some of the students show. I'm beginning to think that you need to be a certain kind of person to work elementary, and I don't have that gene in my body! Did my classes and enjoyed reading Mrs. Harkness and the Panda - all the kids went 'Aaahhhh!' when they saw the pic of the panda in the tree. Then lunch for me, then cafeteria duty, back to the library for what would usually be a prep time, but since Mrs. L's class didn't get to come Monday, I told her to bring them in, so we did that. Then up to Mrs. M's for 20 minutes, back down to the library for Mrs. H's class then back up to Mrs. M's and then back down to the library lab for her class. Helped students work on math and then they got to do math games on the computer which they love. Started to work on shelving everybody books in the library, but there was a staff meeting, so I shelved other books instead since they were all where I was going to be!

Library Ninja

What Wednesday's often are for me. With a quick trip in the library in the morning, then LLI and straight into four classes in a row, then my lunch time, then cafeteria duty, it's a relief to know I usually have the afternoon to catch up. Got all the piles of books off the back counter and everything sorted. Got about half the non-fiction shelved, all the fiction and started to work on the Everybody books. Got in my READ poster software to download and sent out an email to staff if they would like to be in a READ poster, so I hope I get a great response. Our principal would like everyone to have one since we're doing February as the Love of Reading month. When I had classes in today, I stressed that they are being tested to be ninjas. We have ELPA starting soon in the library computer lab and they will need to be quiet. Most of the kids did a good job.

6 Years

Today marks my 6 year anniversary of working for the district in a library. I sent a text to Mrs. H saying how I am still so grateful that she believed in me enough to hire me and I got to do the thing I loved. Got into the library today and shelved books. Then out to LLI, then back to the library to do more organizing. Then up to Mrs. M's room and we worked on new lettering for her book boxes. I checked out to her all our president books and then went back up to listen to the kids read. My lunch and then out for cafeteria duty. Half hour back in the library, then back up to Mrs. M's room for the rest of the afternoon. We had a spelling test, art project (I thought I would like a dishwasher bug) then back to fraction. Back into the library shelving and off to ENVoY for the night.

Perfect Library Day

About as perfect as you can get! Inservice day for us and I got to spend aaalllll day in the library. Blissfully happy! Worked on remarking the common core book set with the stickers they gave us at the last meeting and got all those done. Now they are ready to move out into the library! Made new bookmarks for the new kids here and laminated them. Bought my three free books from Junior Library Guild. Went through my list of 'lost' books and found a few, some had been turned in from the list I had made a couple of weeks ago, put those in the teacher boxes. Had a two hour meeting (at least that was in the library too!). I had a great day, didn't get everything done I wanted to, but feeling very satisfied with the day. 

New Computers

Came in today and found a whole tech crew in almost done putting in all new computers in our library computer lab! OOooooh! Awhhhhh! Pretty!! The computers need to be synced and updated, so the lab was closed all day, but it'll be so worth it! Put books away, did LLI, came back to put more books away, then three classes. Had some of our fifth graders agree to help out so I gave them character bucks for helping out. Had four classes in altogether today, then up to Mrs. M's room for part of the afternoon and helped out with more math. School got out and back down to shelve more books and then out and headed home to go up to Seattle for the weekend.

Books Down! Books Down!

Got in and started computers up for the day. There was a sign saying we'd be getting our new computer lab tomorrow! So I'm anxious for that and to see how pretty it will be! I hope to come in and see our techs working! Mr. B, the techie from Sprague when they had people stationed there was in, we didn't talk but I saw him come in as I was reading. Five classes today. LLI with my new kiddo and one of the old ones, so just two. I can handle two! Back to the library to shelve and got all the fiction done. Then three classes in a row and my lunch time, then cafeteria duty, and our Monday class came in since we were off Monday, then up to Mrs. M's room, back down for my last class of the day. Then Mrs. M's class was in the library computer lab, so I went in there and then back up to the room with the class. Mrs. M had a meeting, so I got to finish out the day by finishing up the Mercy Watson book she was reading and we survived the 20 minutes until school was over. I think it was the class right after cafeteria duty, but the library is a mess. Books all over the floors, every which way on the shelves, it is a huge mess. I left it for the night since I want to record it, so I'll bring in my iPad tomorrow to tape it. Worked on getting the non-fiction ready to shelve until time to leave.

Buried

It was a whirlwind day. Into the library to start up the computers, then a meeting for our assembly on the Love of Reading on February 3rd. That went into LLI time, so straight over to the LLI room. Worked with my two kids, then out and off to the library for my four classes coming in.  I asked Mrs. S's class to help me out and clean up from last Friday, and it really didn't do too bad, and they were actually good today so I let their teacher know that they had done well. It was January author week, so for them we read a bit from The Hobbit and I told them a few things about Tolkien. Then a younger group that we read a Fly Guy book for Tedd Arnold. Then another group came in for Tolkien and two girls came up to me during check out and asked if I had noticed how nice the library was. I told them that yeah, I was surprised cause I thought it was in better shape than what I had remembered. Their parents had come in for a meeting, and the girls went into the library and and worked to straighten the library up! I gave them each a character buck for their great work! They had come in late, and such a huge class, that they are always still here checking out when my last class of the morning comes in and they have to wait for me. The teacher was upset that her class always has to wait, and then she tries to get in by their normal time at 11:20 because that's my lunch time, but today I just stayed and worked with her kiddos. By the time we were all done, I only had about 10 minutes left of my lunch and had to be out the door for cafeteria duty, so I just didn't bother. The kids are gone by 1:15, so I knew I could pick it up this afternoon. I had my back counter crazy with stacks of books, but I eventually got them sorted, and all the Everybody books sorted and put out onto the shelves and all the shelves straightened up. I did get a nice lunch, curled up in the window and read my book. Still have a lot of non-fiction to do and the fiction. But I'll have Monday to get everything all done and some of my backlist to get done as well!

Bink & Gollie

I came into work today feeling very stressed and so behind already. Came in and worked some on taking down my bulletin board and finally got it all down later on in the day. Checked in books, ran room reports on what's due this week. Did LLI today and had only one of my students there! It was so good to hear him all on his own. He really did well until my other student showed up at the end of class. Went up to Mrs. M's room and she had some Times for kids there, so I separated them and then got all the computers ready for reading, then she told me to go ahead and work in the library. I called her and offered to bring her class up when they were done with music and she appreciated that back. Ran the upstairs computer lab for the kids, then back down for lunch. We had our Reading is Fun group come in and give me a coupon for two free books on their last visit, so I put that in and asked for two books and they gave me three! And Snowmen books! I had to email him and make sure that it was all right for me to keep them all and our rep said yes! I got them all ready to go back to LMSS for processing. I was so excited! My mom also gave me one of her kid books so I sent that one in too. Lunch for me then cafeteria duty. Then back up to Mrs. M's room and she was there reading Bink and Gollie to her class, and a part of me wanted to go back down to the library, but she did such a magnificent job of reading and getting the kids to respond to the book, it made my whole day. Turned my whole day around. Then I worked with the kids on Fraction Bingo, then we were done for the day. A quick meeting on a new student, cleaned up a bit then off to tonight's ENVoY class.

5 Classes

Today I had in five classes. One of my classes from Wednesday was on their 'expectation' walk when they were supposed to have library time, so I let the teacher know when I had some prep time in the library and said I would be happy to let them come in then. Better to have them come in and get books than no new books for the three day weekend at all! Had my LLI group and two of them graduated since they are now reading at grade level, so that's good! But I'm sad to see them go. Into the library, more emails from technology to answer, some shelving, checking in books. Then my classes. I love my first set of Kinders, they are so cute and so interested in everything I do! Then lunch, then cafeteria duty. Worked on my Bush Leaves newsletter from the meeting yesterday, my last two classes, then up to Mrs. M's class for afternoon math. I hosted the 'fraction memory game.' Not sure if I did it right, but I had fun and it seemed as if the kids were talking about their fractions. Back down to the library. Email to one of the people I used to volunteer for at Salem Public Library to see if she'd come do a presentation next month here for "Love of Reading" month that we are celebrating in February. I hope she can come. Managed before I left to shelve all the books that came in last week, but have stacks and stacks of books from this week that I haven't even sorted yet, but I'm tired, it's time to go home. They won't be going anywhere over the three day weekend. I hope.

Circle up the Books!

Yep cowboys and cowgirls, circle up them books and hide deep inside. Let the little hooligans race around and try to shoot you down! Thought about that today, though actually, it wasn't bad out there! Came in to see how my computers were doing after the updates and then off to LLI. I have my two best students graduating tomorrow and that will be a great thing for them! Back to the library and my three classes. Had the DLC come in and they took back to their room Grandma's Feather Bed from the John Denver song and also took the CD back to their room to go along with the book! Very sweet. One student had turned in books, but I was too busy to bother with him (that sounds horrid, doesn't it?) so at lunch, I asked if when he had finished eating if he'd like to come back to the library and check out, so I did that for him. Lunch, cafeteria duty, back to the library, up to Mrs. M's room where they were working on a Martin Luther King, Jr. timeline. Then back down to the library for my fourth class of the day, then back up to Mrs. M's class, which ended up coming down to the library to use the computers anyways! We were short headphones, so I went through my pile of headphones to see if any worked, and they didn't. Mr. M came in and we found the headphones with microphones for testing they needed to do. As soon as school was over, I made sure the library looked good for the night since there was a meeting in there tonight and headed off to the Elementary Library Meeting over at Yoshikai Elementary School. Didn't win any books this time, but got some good information to share with staff.

More Training

Today was our half day of students. They also revisited expectations for the students. Luckily I only had one class miss their library time, so I had three classes today. Mrs. S's class was all right until I let them off to check out books, then they were crazy. I talked with another IA, and with the teacher to try and find some ways to get them to behave. Then I had a bit of time before my next two classes. Lunch, then cafeteria duty. Then the kids left and we had meetings while I shelved books from last week. We also had a total school training on R.A.D. for a student that may be joining us. Then I shelved some more while other meetings took place. At the end of the day, I turned off all the computers, but they needed to get an OAKS testing update, so we ended up turning them on so the techies could work on them tonight. Went into our deep freeze program and relayed messages from our techie, back to Mr. M and Ms. T about getting things set up. Left the computers on for the techies.  

ENVoY Training

Today I came in early so I could leave a bit early to go to an ENVoY training. A lot of people told me I should go do this, so I did! It's all about classroom management which I sorely need to handle all the classes I do each week. So I picked up some tricks and have two more to do, so it looks like I've got a few new things to try! Today I did my LLI group, then back to the library for some shelving. Then up to Mrs. M's class to finish up the Box Tops for Education. Then I actually got a group to do a reading and took them down to the library. Then my lunch, then cafeteria duty. A little bit of library time - lots of books came in! Then back up to Mrs. M's class and they were working on art with Ms. J. So that's always fun, then some math and a big goodbye to one of our Willamette students who volunteers in the classroom. He's heading off to Prague for a study program and I am so excited for him! He talked about why he chose this to the kids and the kids asked him questions about Prague. It was fun. Then Mrs. M left me in charge while she had a meeting and luckily I had Mrs. L and Mr. D still there to help me out. Back into the library, shut everything down, shelved books and headed off to my class. Two more Tuesdays to go!

Teaching Tolerance

Had a student who had her class come into the computer lab today and she looked and read books for awhile since for some reason she couldn't be on them, and then she came up to me and asked if she could help me. So I started to show her about shelving non-fiction, going by number and then by author. She got really excited when she 'got it!' Made my day! Mrs. M also made my day by letting me do library things while her class was attending a puppet play so I got in some much needed shelving! I also tidied up my Baker and Taylor order and got my new books about a dollar under my purchasing order, so I felt very good about that and sent the order in! Can't wait until my stuffs arrive! Had an assembly today, so no LLI, walked the Bush Gyre before, then watched the assembly. Our word for the month is Tolerance, so that works well with our reading about Martin Luther King, Jr. this week. Helped out in Mrs. M's class getting Box Top for Education coupons counted and checked for expiration date. Helped with reading with the kids. Cafeteria duty, then my first class of the week came in, and I had come up with a way to explain how segregation worked. I randomly handed out green and blue paper slips and asked if they got to choose their eye color, body color, their parents, if they were born rich or poor, could pick out their siblings. Then I had them line up, blues on one side, and greens on the other and told the green people, they could only check out books from the cart that only had about half a shelf of discarded books, while the blue kids, got to pick from every book in the library. Then I collected all the slips and let them all check out. I think it made an impression! Got some shelving done today, a whole shelf of non-fiction shelved and another shelf all ready to be shelved. 

3 out of 4!

Well, three out of four classes ain't bad! My three morning classes were almost perfectly behaved, but my last class totally was way more interested in the kids outside on recess than in checking out books! Did my LLI class this morning, then a bit of library time, then my three classes, my lunch, then cafeteria duty, then my crazy class, more library time and up to Mrs. M's room to IA, after school back down to the library. I got my PO number for my Baker and Taylor order, but realized I had two books already and didn't want to order them, so I found out through an email, how to take them off, and added two others. But before I hit the 'send' button, called LMSS to find out if I needed to do anything else, and oh my! Yes I do! There's a bunch of stuff I need to change, redo the PO list but shouldn't be too much of a problem as long as I don't need more money, found a couple of items that looked good when I made the list but now are out of stock or other catagories, so I'll have to go through and check it all again, so that will wait until Monday. Thank goodness for the great folks at LMSS, they have helped me out a lot! My back room is a total disaster, but oh well, it's Friday and I'm out of here :)

Literacy Night

Stayed a bit later tonight because it is Literacy night at the school and I wanted the library to be cleaned up, straightened, fabulous books out and just a great environment for the parents to see when they come in. Finished up my January author bulletin board and put out books for that too! Didn't touch my other bulletin board in case anyone wanted to look! Had LLI this morning, back to the library and got ready for my three classes. They went pretty well. Only had about 20 minutes for lunch since I helped a couple of students get books. Off to cafeteria duty, then back to the library. Over to Ms. T's office for a meeting on Love of Reading month that we are really highlighting next month. We brainstormed several things to do and are going with a 'Go for the Gold in Reading' theme since the Winter Olympics start on the 6th. Had another class in next, then up to Mrs. M's room for the last hour of the day (well, again I was late because I helped some students...), back down to the library after school was out and getting it all happy for tonight. I'm hungry! Time to make dinner!

Love of Reading

Today I was responding to emails about the Love of Reading month coming up, and found out that yes, it is February. I think I will offer to check out additional books to the students. Right now K,1,2 get one book, so maybe I will let them check out two, and 3,4,5's get two, so maybe they will get three. Started to take down my greatful for good books bulletin board and took down my author board and started putting up my January authors. Checked out a lot of my new books out today, and my bookcase I put them on top of is looking pretty slim already! Did my LLI class, then straight into reading for my classes. The two upper classes got Hans Brinker. We have a nice picture book edition, and we also have the original story as well. So I introduced with the original, then went into the picture book abridged version. I think it went well. The younger kids got a mixture. One group got The Three Snowbears and First Day of Winter. The other group got Snowglobe Family and Snowflake Bentley. Then lunch time, back to work on my bulletin boards and a quick meeting. Found out that I do have to work the 27th, and thought I had the day off. Rats. Had planned on going up the my daughter's for what I thought would be a three day weekend :(  Felt like I didn't get much done today, so much to do, so little time. I get so jealous of any time I spend out of the library.

Books In!

Back last year I had gotten some new and new to Bush books to be processed in and they finally came in today! I was so excited! Not a lot, but a nice more than half shelf on a cart for the kids to see this week! I may put them out on the top of one of the bookshelves for easier viewing. Turned on computers, answered some emails and found that an ENVoY class starts next Tuesday (thank you Mrs. H!) so I signed up for that. It's all about classroom management and I need help! Had LLI this morning with all four of my kids. Went over silent letters k, g and w. Went over consonant blends. Looked at our new book for the night. Back to library and checking in books and a break. Then up to Mrs. M's room for the morning. She wasn't in there, but had pulled a pile of Martin Luther King books (and I guessed they were not checked out - shushhh!) so I took them down and checked them out to her. Also took some of the kids books they had in the book return box and checked them in. She had me write a date set on some reading records for the kids to take home. Did some reading with the kids when they came back from music, and then to my lunch time, then cafeteria duty for an hour, back to the library for a break and worked on shelving. Back up to Mrs. M's room for the afternoon. They were working on a writing project for new year resolutions so I strolled around and helped, suggested where they were having trouble coming up with ideas. Then it was learning about fractions with Mr. M for an hour or so. Then the kids worked on a birthday book for one of the students (they all draw a picture and write happy birthday thoughts, then we gather them and staple  them in a book.) then they went home. Back down to the library and I looked for my Baker and Taylor order, because one of my free books I had put on the order, and it's gone!! The entire order! I emailed and asked if it could be retrieved or if I have to rebuild my cart.

Barf!

Today went well until lunch duty. A kid came up to me holding his tray that was swimming in some kind of liquid, handed me the tray, said 'teacher...' and proceeded to throw up all over the tray and my hands!! Arghhh! SANITIZE!!!! I'm thinking that the liquid on the tray was the first barf....  Poor guy! I sent him to the office and I washed my hands about three times, washing my coat right now! Had one class today, worked on my January authors. Worked up in Mrs. M's class. Worked on a stack of papers for her, pulled out a test out of the back of each collated section, but did it wrong! When I went back that afternoon, I had stapled 4 sheets of test together, but there actually two tests, two pages each, and I hadn't even noticed - I felt bad because she took them all apart and had to do it the right way. Took down all the Christmasy books off the tops of the book cases. Sent out a couple of book requests to other schools. Sent back a couple of books to other schools. Had a sub in the building today and she helped shelve for me and that was a huge help! Sent out an email to tell teachers to let students know that all books are due today! Started to check some in, but hoping for lots more. Had a lockdown for awhile with an incident in the neighborhood, so glad it didn't escalate any further. Went shopping at Powell's with Mrs. H from Sprague over break. She had a PO to buy books so I helped her with that. But I did find an awesome book I had to buy for Bush. Star Wars: Jedi Academy - a sort of Wimpy Kid's guide to the academy with drawings and it just called to me (breathey like Darth Vader) "Debbie, I am the book you need for Bush." So, I sent that in today to get it processed. Had a kid come in at the end of the day who still owes for a book even though he's on into middle school. I talked with him and then let his current library media assistant know that if there was no other option, he could work it off for her and then to let me know and I'd waive the fine.