Full Lunch

Wow we had a lot of kids during lunch today. Not only our regular lunch group, but a whole class in using the computers, plus part of a class coming in to check out books. We were so busy! Haven't had any takers for our Moon Over Manifest books from the secondaries, so had Mr. C send out a notice to all the elementaries that they were up for grabs, and they are all now spoken for! Yeah! Got one of the file cabinets out today and in the back room there was also binders and plastic sleeves that they all took. The kids that came in to get all that were cute. Got in the rest of Core Algebra books so put barcodes on them and the teacher will come to check out tomorrow. Sent an email with all our surplus equipment to technology so hopefully that will get picked up soon! Had some teachers in looking for clickers for math, and so I sent out an email to find clickers and our assistant principal came in with a bag of them! Yeah! One of our math teachers was very happy about that. He was going to come in after school to pick it up, so I left my door partially open because I had to leave at 2:30 to go to a meeting on AV equipment at LMSS. The teachers want me to know everything about all the stuff we use! Everything from 'where is xxx?' to, 'why isn't the copier printing for me?' 'Technology is not helping me, what can you do?' I wish I had all the answers, so this was a good class for me to take. I picked up a projector for a teacher who is having a terrible time with hers while there, so I will switch it out tomorrow and hopefully get technology to fix hers or replace it. On the way home I had to go by Craft Warehouse, so I picked up some paintbrushes for book repair and then WalMart for some knitting needles also for book repair! Will turn in those receipts tomorrow.

Back In

Had a great weekend up in Seattle with my granddaughters, but back in to work today. Lots of emails. Books coming in with holds on them for the students that requested. Helped a lot of kids today with finding books. Cleaned out one of the four drawer filing cabinets and put it up for grabs, and it was taken. Another teacher wanted one so I told her I was nearly done with the other, so she could have it when I was done. Sent a bunch of cyberbullying  stuff to one of the counselors. Just dumped a ton of stuff. When that cabinet goes, I'll move the little two drawer over to that spot. Another teacher today needed book pockets, so since I had two boxes of them, I let her take one of them. Boxed up 50 of the Algebra Connections books to Stephens since they are just sitting on a cart. I asked the teacher if I could and she said yes. Got another recommendation for a sub for me, so put printed out the sub list and highlighted the three people I'd be most likely to call. Tried to put our resensitizer on the file cabinet and it made the most horrendous noise! The vibrations from the machine were amazing! So, ah, no! Put it on my back counter. Found a bunch of bulbs from the projectors that we are surplusing, so I put them in my closet in my office, locking them up. Amazing what I'm still finding! A teacher came in looking for some clickers for his class, and I thought they were maybe one thing, but those were stopwatches. So he'll look in the science department, he heard they may have some. A good day, enjoyed my aides as they worked over their shelves. Spent some time on our 736-746 books. They were really a mess. Just something I wanted to do myself. My first period aide was surprised at how many books were in the wrong places! Good for him!

Volunteer Packing

One of our staff had a son who needs to do some volunteering, so I set him to work today packing and getting barcodes off the of some of our old textbooks I took off the top of the library shelving earlier this year. I had him unbox, scan the barcode, rebox with packing and tape up the boxes so they are all ready to go. Took him three hours, but he did a great job. Packed up some more document cameras today and an old overhead projector that only has the bottom anymore. Cleaned out old pictorial directories from 2001-5. I felt funny just putting them into our recycler so I ended up putting them in a secure container. All those pictures of kids, it just seemed the right thing to do. Checked in and out today, it was pretty quiet in there. Answered emails, talked with LMSS. Talked to our Follett Rep who is new as well as me. She sent me all her contact info, so that'll be good to have. Library looked pretty good tonight, having my aides do their sections seems to be working pretty well. Off to Seattle to help with granddaughters!

Calculators

Had my aide start to work on putting barcodes on the graphing calculators that came in this summer and I finished them up this afternoon. Cleaned out more stuff from drawers. Pens that no longer write, tons of paper. A stack ten inches high of spiral notebooks that were in a drawer. Cards, other paper. Still astounds me how much stuff is in all these drawers. I think I can clean out most of the four drawer cabinets and see if anyone wants them. I'll probably keep the little two drawer one, maybe, maybe not! A few of my aide completed their training today so I assigned them shelves that are their area, their pride and joy to keep pretty and in shape! I have a volunteer coming tomorrow and will have him get a list of all the titles in the back. Had one aide work on marking out the library stuff on the books I withdrew. Did some laminating. Need to bring in some sheer curtains for behind my inspirational quotes on the window. Just so they stand out better. Had one of my favorite techs stop by today and gave him a big hug, so good to see him. Showed him my hoard of cables and splitters and other things I have in the back. He was impressed! Was raining at one point so hard today I actually heard it on the roof and we could see it bouncing off the top of the buses that had just pulled in to pick up kids. That's loud! 

Destroyed

Had my aides today work on their shelving test. Checked in and out various items, but it was pretty quiet. Worked through the weeding that was left and got about a third of the items 'destroyed' that were on one cart. Have another box of stuff to destroy tomorrow. I'll have the aides mark out the barcodes for me tomorrow. Had another student work off their fine today, so that makes two this week! Another student paid for his lost book. Had a box of books that were from a classroom to be given away so I put them out for the kids to look at and take if they would like. Another box had spanish titles in it, so I need to contact that teacher to see if she would like them. Getting more stuff cleaned up. Sent an email to our textbook guy to see if he could speed up with getting stuff cleared to ship out. I have a ton of stuff and we usually have a pick up before winter break, so it would be nice to have them all deleted, packed and ready to go before then. Boxed up some items to process at LMSS. Beautiful clouds rolled slowly by my windows today, and saw a bit of rain here and there. We all really need the rain, so that was good. 

Paid Off!

I am so proud of student T, he worked for me for minimum wage to pay off his fines. Took him five times in to work to pay it off, and I got to clear his account today. I was so proud of him! I had another student last period who came in to work off his fine. He did about 30 minutes at once and did a good job! Found a library shelving website that I had my last aide work on today. I'm going to have all of them do this just to see what they know about shelving. I don't think some of them know what in the world they are doing! Laminated one little book cover today. Sent off my just about final order to my supervising librarian to approve before we have to send it in. Crazy new system, we can't put together our own orders anymore, they have to. So we submit to them, they have to gather all our stuff together and submit, makes no sense to me :(  Love to see the books I have on display disappear out the door. I love to go around the library and fill the 'holes' where a book was with a new offering! Had the LEAP program in the library this afternoon for their study hall and they did really well. Boxed up ten Moon Over Manifest to send to Sprague, then sent out an email to the secondary schools to see if any of them wanted any since our teachers haven't taken them. Found out Bush has a new Library Media Assistant finally, so I sent him an email offering my help if he needs it. Had my two third period aides decide they didn't want to be aides anymore, so I talked with one of the counselors, and we moved one out, but kept one. They really are cute, but they get so distracted by each other's company! It's hard to keep them on task! (P, M! Stop playing with the chair!) But they have a great friendship and that makes it fun, but we'll get more work done with just one at a time! Clouds out the window today, one of the LEAP groups is going to clean up the little garden area and I could see them working out there. Seems like a really great program for the kids to study, get snacks, learn something new and have a safe place to be after school. I'm glad the library is a part of that!

Equipment

Today we had a lot of kids in and checked out the next set of math books all day. Lots of emails today. Signed up for the LMA meeting for October 10th, I think it'll be better than the one I signed up for. Then I went through all the equipment that was in the office and got it all withdrawn and boxed up and ready to be picked up. I had one old overhead projector that I need to find a box for, but everything else is waiting. I counted up all the bags we have laying around, eighteen total. All empty but for cords and manuals. All the equipment is out and about, so time to get rid of all this extra stuff. I sent emails to see what we wanted to do with all this stuff. My aides were all in today, so that was good. Ready to relax for the night.

Order, Order

Had some time today for ordering. Ordered in my new strips for the books. Spent some time working on my Fall book order. I guess we need to have it done by October 10th or our high school advisors will do it for us! So I took the one I started and went through all the notes kids had mentioned. We'll see how it goes! I think I'm pretty good at the moment. Had kids coming in checking out books for reading today. Missed half my aides. My two 6th graders came in and they are really a pair! So funny, but they distract each other so much!! I have to keep them on track! Kind of annoying really. Glad to hear the doors lock and then I was out of there! 

Cleaning out

Did a lot more cleaning out today. Got rid of a bunch of old binders that were just stacked up on shelves in my office. Changed out my keyboard for a new one (it was old, sticky, and half the letters worn off!). Dumped a ton of old papers. Went through a box labeled Yearbooks and got all the Leslie books out and on a shelf in my office. Cleaned off the aide desk. Had a ton of kids come in today and turn in their checked out workbooks for spanish to buy the new pretty just out of the box workbooks. Scrubbed off half my office desk. Organizing, organizing, organizing. Helped some great kids today. One gal was looking for books in spanish, and so I showed her how to look up in a search for bilingual and she got all excited to see she could get Harry Potter the Chamber of Secrets in spanish. Got books transferred to us from other schools - Algebra Connections V. 2, and some Hatchet by Paulson. Learned we hadn't sent in the sensitizer order, so yeah! Won't have to send it back. But I still need strips! A great day, lots of housecleaning done. Things looking good in the back parts of the library. Feeling like I got a lot accomplished today!

Sensitizer FOUND!!!

Today I was in the back back textbook room putting away some calculators, and I thought to look in this file cabinet, and there, in the bottom drawer, was sitting our old sensitizer!! I couldn't believe it!! That no one else had found it!! I pulled it out and plugged it in, and it seems to be working! I just saved the district $1230!! I am so excited! Did my mandatory training today and passed and sent that on to our office manager. Got in new Spanish workbooks for both years. Got a cart of Algebra Connections V2 put away in a back room. One more cart to go. Cleaned off most of the 'problems' cart in the workroom. Checked out just a few books today. Most of the classes were shortened because we had our big assembly in first period today for the magazine and cookie sale. I was so proud of my one student, he only needs to work for me one more day to pay off his fine! Another student says she'll come in tomorrow to work off her fine, and I hope she does. I love it when they take responsibility and work it off when nothing else is an option. A great day, I love being here! So much to do still, but things are shaping up!

Keys

I went home tonight and realized I left my keys at work, so back in the car and back to the school. Had to have our assistant principal open my office and there they were in my personal cabinet. Glad they were there! I wouldn't have slept tonight without them. Checked out lots of science books today. More literary books checked out. Laminated today for teachers. Tried to help out a teacher with her projector/document camera. We figured out it wasn't the document camera, and I tried to pull the bulb from the projector and couldn't get a screw to release. Lots of emails; adding in people to our check out programs; getting a new account with Junior Library Guild for Leslie; a library media class discussion for our inservice day; sending to other schools to see if student xyz really did turn in/pay for such and such book. At least it wasn't smokey in the library! That was a relief!

Smoke Smuggered Sky

Today the sky was all filled with smoke from a wildfire east of Portland. Couldn't see the mountains or even the far off hills. After A lunch, the library was filled with the smell, and I could even smell it, which means it must be bad. Took in my German stuffs today since yesterday ended our annual Mt. Angel Oktoberfest, and put up a bunch of German related books. Wore my dirndl, brought in the Germany trip albums, the flag, and some books from the old Sprague German program. A few people commented, but that was all right. One of the staff came in and looked through the pictures, a few kids looked at the books. One kid even checked out a book I had on display. Worked with our third period aide today to make sure he was shelving right. Worked on the book order due by the end of the month a lot today, with our new spreadsheet. Tracking down all the information is quite the adventure! Had a brief classified meeting today, and turned in paperwork for a class during our inservice day. Now out into the smoke, yuck. Hopefully it will be gone tomorrow.

How Can it Not Be Good?

A great week! No jury duty! Did the fund raising dinner at the school last night and then Open House! 50% of my aides came to see me (ok, so I only had four..) Cleaned off two piles of books off the main workroom island. That made me very happy! Got all the Algebra Connections books transferred to me. Got in the quote from Junior Library Guild and found out that we have a Junior Library Guild fund at Leslie! Wowsa! Yes, use that one to pay for it!! WoooHooo! Put in barcodes that were missing, checked in lost copies, I even got to do some repairs today! Super great! Did some laminating since I forgot yesterday (opps!). Checked in and out books today. Got another aide, so I have five aides now. I still have the last two periods free, but that's all right. I enjoy the end of the day quiet. Dumped all the trash out of the library tonight. It helps out our custodial staff. Found coupons for our Books Are Fun. I had enough coupons from 2008 to get 14 books! Ha! I had to laugh when I saw how many there were! I don't think they will honor them all, but the stash cracked me up! Weekend ahead! A great week behind! Truly love my job!

9-11

A quieter day today. Put together an order for new spanish workbooks. Had a girl pay for a lost book. Had classes in the lab today and worked on some that couldn't get internet access. I think I solved it for three of them. Checked out books to a class. Had one student come in to work off his fines during lunch today. Seems sometimes I just spin my wheels and yet, the day passes by. Got to talk to a quite a few students today about 9-11. What I was doing, the impact on our lives. They really enjoyed the display I made and several asked to check out the books, so I told them could tomorrow. Had to send 50 Algebra books back to Judson, so I helped the assistant there load them into her car, she was in a cast! Poor thing! Found a discard consideration spreadsheet on the U: drive, so added to that and let Mr. C know about it. Checked out books, worked with my aides. Had a big mess in the back room unpacking boxes of Algebra books. Crazy! Open House tonight, so I'll go, not sure if I should or not, but I do have students so I think I should stay at least in case one of them shows up with parents!

$313.47

So today was our big lockdown practice. I think it went very well. I only had my two aides and one other student to take care of, and they all behaved extremely well. Blinds down, my doors automatically locked, lights off, back into our safe room. All in all, I think we did well. Checked out a lot of books today for literature reads, but I was really sad that these kids had a lot of books still out. It came to $313.47 worth of lost books. Some said they had them, others didn't. Got my access and passwords reset for getting into our attendance reports. That made me happy. I thought I would have jury duty tomorrow, so I had lots of stuff lined up for the subs, but when I got home and called, all the cases were settled, so I don't have to go in tomorrow! Yeah! It was not the best time of year to get called anyways! Happy to head into work tomorrow!

No More Textbooks!

 What a beautiful way to start the day. Opened up my windows to this gorgeous view this morning.

 After a long hard day, no more textbooks on top of library shelves!! Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!

Now here is the library from when you walk in the main doors. What a great day. Got all the textbooks taken out. Some in boxes in that back room, others just on a cart for now, and yes, one big stack on the floor in the back. My last period aide got all the 900 and 800's books shifted all the way over so I only had to shift a few shelves to get the three crates of books onto the shelves as well. I was so happy!! Spent time making sure I had books out on display for all the shelves and put other books on our new book rack since most of them have been checked out. There is a parent night in the library tonight, so I couldn't leave until I had the library nearly perfect. Don't read the 796 shelves though, but as I looked, they are a mess! Checked out a ton of people today. Library books as well as textbooks(math!). But I'm feeling great about all the changes I've made and extremely happy! Queue the song... Cause I'm happy...!

More Check Outs

Lots more check outs today, but only got horribly backed up twice, I think! Had my aides shift more shelves, got a new aide today! That was nice! Packed up the Dangerous Days of Daniel X, they are off to be used at Stephens for a couple of weeks, then off to their new homes. Checked out spanish texts and workbooks and more math. Lots of library books and even stamped them with a due date, yeah! Got that going! Had to find which student has which book, so I worked on that until I had them for Ms. B. Then Mr. C called and we worked with a report that he had made and that will work perfectly for the next time I need it! Got in the Algebra Connections books for Ms. T and will see how she wants to handle that. Class sets, or shared books. Not sure yet, but at least we now have copies.    Straightened things up a bit at the end since there was to be a staff meeting in here this afternoon, so I got to listen in a bit. Things are moving along, and got all the spanish books off more library shelves, so very happy about that! Had kids in during lunch. Not for long since they eat first, but great to have them come in and look around and check out books. I'm sure we'll settle into a routine soon enough!

Best Assistant of the Week

Huge busy check out day, and it took a long time! But luckily I had Ms. S in with her classes and with a 30 second intro, she checked out almost all her classes today for library books while I was doing the textbooks. I was so impressed! Sent off a kudo email to office peeps to thank her for being a library assistant for the day! Had my aides work on shifting shelves, and they're doing a great job. Sent in the invoice for the new sensitizer, so hopefully that will come soon! Busy getting books checked out and I absolutely love that our Language Art teachers all bring their classes in to check out books. It's amazing! Love to see the books heading out the door!

Checking Out

Lots of checking out today. Had in five classes to listen to my little library spiel and then set them loose to look for books. Checked out over 100 library books today and about 40 textbooks. Had a few kids very disappointed that I wouldn't check out to them because they still had books out from last year. A lot said 'yeah, I have that at home.' So I told them I'd hold the books for them and if they brought them back tomorrow, they could check out. Covered the last of the summer book order so I could put more new books on the rack, it was getting pretty empty and started my new book order list for the 19th. Got in some Algebra books so the teacher finally has her materials and a student book. More books to come! Had a bunch of study hall kids come in and told them they needed to sign in. Did more checking on the resensitizer wand, sent off some Spanish math books and 80 The Giver books as well. A couple of books that ended up here and needed to go back home, sent those off as well. Had some kids pop in during lunch, and I told them 'Not until Monday!' and sent them back. Glad to see their excitement. A busy good day.

Perfect Day

What a great day at work! All the kids were back today, I got to check out a few books! Fabulous news! Came in and loaded paper in the printer and copier machine. A teacher came in and asked if I had her books ready, and I had sent her an email right before I left yesterday that they were here and all ready to go! She was impressed! Put together the rest of the lab/library sign up sheets. I had a bunch of the lab sign up sheets, so I just turned them over and used the other side to print up the other. Before, they had two colors (nice!) but only printed on one side, so I thought this was more efficient and a better use of paper. Turned out good! I also looked up all the 6th grade lit resources boxes I had sent away yesterday and called LMSS and gave them the numbers to delete from my inventory. Then I contacted the lady who picked them up yesterday and she said to send the extra books in the mail, so I did that. I had kids in the library this morning! One gal who will normally be at South, then a boy who also has classes at South. So nice! Then I had an aide! Yeah! I had her look for missing books. And another aide at the end of the day! He looked for missing books as well. I also had him pull books and sort them for me and he did a great job. Had a  teacher come in and needed the health books. We looked in the front textbook room, then the back. Then the staff room shelves (most of the social studies are there) and then the cookie room shelves. We went back to the back room and she looked at shelves as I poked around, and something clicked in my head from putting away a 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens yesterday, and pulled away this rolling shelf type cart and there were the Health books. I was so relieved! Checked all that out to the teacher. Emailed Mrs. H and told her about the sensitizer and she said her old school, Houck, had a 'wand' that they would pass over the books to resensitize them, so I looked that up, and there it was and about $400 less than the one I was looking at! Huzzah! I sent the link to Mr. C to ask his opinion, but I think I'll pick that one. Called and got a quote for the other one and strips, so we'll continue that tomorrow. Took my books we had gotten in over the summer and stamped them and packed them up to send to LMSS for processing. Sent some instructions to a teacher that will hopefully will print a larger size for her chart she had. Found my M drive and SASI, so that makes me happy. The computer teacher next door needed some info, I ended up just calling upstairs o get it, but now I hope I can access SASI tomorrow after technology gets me a new password. Our principal came in at the end of the day and told me that he would approve the funds for the rest of my sensitizer! I told him I loved him. That will be a big expense and I truly appreciate him stepping up to make that happen and leave my budget for books. Wow! That was unexpected and I am grateful! We have the algebra books on their way and I met with Mrs. H tonight and we traded books. I had her Book of Kells I had borrowed back in March and worked on repairing. I had finally finished it so I gave that back and she brought me in the teacher resources for the algebra books so I can give that to the teacher tomorrow. What a perfect day!

Shove, shove

Today I worked on cleaning stuff up. It will take awhile, but as I was putting boxes away for the new English curriculum, a lady came in and took them for teachers in other buildings who needed them. Then, of course, I opened mail finally this afternoon and there were books in the mail that belong to the boxes! I've had them all about a week, argh! Deleted a ton of emails from last June and over the summer. Really needed to clean that up. Had a teacher come in looking for Go Ask Alice, and we didn't have a copy of that, so I suggested Crank, which we do have a copy of and she took it with her.  A better pick for this generation too I thought. Took a bunch of teacher resources from 2000 and put them in the cookie room (used to be a textbook room!). Cleaned a cart off of stuff that a teacher had cleaned out her classroom. Sorted through and kept some, the others went in the surplus box. Still no CPM math books!! Frustrating for teachers and me. Had another teacher looking for an 8th grade lit book and found some in the back. She was happy about that. Checked out books to teachers. The copier kept running out of paper, I put at least 4 reams of paper in it today. Didn't really see any kids today, but they were there. Tomorrow everyone comes back, so it'll be crazy!