Last Day

Great last day before break! I had my Pandora Celtic Christmas playing all day in the library. Gave three booktalks on what is a mystery novel and a science fiction novel. That was really a lot of fun! I had a cart with each on a side so I could pull books and talk about them quickly. A pretty busy check in/out day. I had a sub and had to leave at 12:30 to go to the interview process for our new head of LMSS. I can say "The interviews went great!" And they did!

Quick, Book Talk!

Had Mrs. M's classes in today and when they came in the student teacher asked if I was ready for a book talk, ah no! I had no idea, so I browsed the shelves and came up with a couple and got to read from Wee Free Men, complete with the Feegles and accents! It was fun! Had the DLC class in today for their usual Thursday 2nd period time in the library. I love when they come in, but then I have to put all their books away because even though they didn't check any out, they love putting them in our drop box! Love them! Had a teacher come in and ask for some winter books out of our Everybody (picture) books. She had two, so I found two more for her. Had a request for tomorrow to help the students with picking out mysteries and science fiction. So I took my mystery list and printed up a science fiction list and got a cart with genres on either side. I hope I can help them figure out a better method for picking a book! So hopefully they'll get the idea with the book selections! Did more weeding today and am getting through the 800's - that should take too much longer. Had our study hall teacher, Mr. S call just before I left, he sounded horrible!! He has a doctor appointment tomorrow and asked if I could take the TV cart down to his room for the sub, and if I could get in his cabinet for the video he had in there of the Lion King. Alas, I could not get into the cabinet, but sent him an email that I would just bring mine in, for him not to worry nor send in his lovely wife to retrieve it. I also found a very old VHS tape of 'How they made Star Wars' complete with hosts C3PO and R2D2! With the new movie coming out tomorrow, the kids might enjoy that more!

We Wish You a Merry Weeding...

Checked out two classes of science books to Mrs. C today for when they get back from winter break. Had both lunches in. Checked in and out lots of books. Decided to go back to weeding the non-fiction titles. This year we are to do the 700's and 800's. It was fun to go and look at all the awesome titles and have to make those decisions of  'yeah, that one needs to go'. My favorite was a book written in 1998 about the Seattle Supersonics. Who are no longer there! Mrs. P brought in posters her students had done on non-fiction books so I hung them up about where the books were this morning. They did a great job! I would read those! 

Cotton Pickin' Book

Today I had five classes come in to renew or check out new books for over the holidays. So excited to see all the students come in! Worked on a new PermaBound list for old books that are just going to be around a long time so made up a list for some new Series of Unfortunate Events books. Got in the last of the Sabotaged books requested by a teacher so let her know they were ready. Had our December Fire Drill with our new procedure today so we were glad to get that one done with all the rain we've been having. It was dry! One of our teachers retires on Friday and her last day is tomorrow, so I was very glad to see that a book I had requested for her from another school made it in this afternoon! She was so happy to get it. It'll be in one of her last lessons. Glad it came in on time! I took it up to her and she had a cotton plant in her room so the students could see how it looked, how you picked it, all the seeds in it. Very cool! Had a math class come in to exchange books. Had a student bring in a book that had gotten wet and she just put it away in her locker. The whole top corner had gotten wet and started to mold, so I let her know she'd have to pay for it. LEAP came into the library after school, so I closed off my office and back room and played Pandora while I laminated and worked on the last of the Filling and Wrapping Math books. Got notice from Escape Fiction that my OBOB books were in, so I stopped by on my way into work to pick them up so I can send them off to the LMSS office to be processed and get back by January! 

Digital

Today I worked on my last week before the holidays display. I brought in some netting stuff from home we had used on our Christmas tree one year and put out a lot of Christmas books, a couple of Hanukah books and I even found a Kwanza book! I think that covers them all! Checked in and out here and there. Had both lunches in. I had bought a silver thin lined pen over the weekend, knowing I could use it on the digital voice recorders that we had in. There was no real place to put a barcode, so our Instructional Coach and I decided to write the last four digits of the barcode inside the battery area of each recorder, and it was a tiny space! So I used my pen today to do all of them and now I'll just take it home and keep it since it is mine. Found an unused plastic case and all the recorders fit in perfectly with five of the boxes that are holding the batteries, their USB cords and the serial numbers off the boxes plus the sheet of barcodes. Got my PO for the rest of the OBOB books approved today, so they should be in tomorrow. Got to love Escape Fiction! They really go the extra mile! Ended up adding in a few more books to my bio/auto/memoir list (in case some of the books are not available) and got that sent off. Had another student finish off his work to pay off a book fine. Good for him! Love my library! Hope the Concert Choir comes in to sing tomorrow!

Quiet!

Pretty quiet day today. Word of the day done. Printed up the last of my count down book covers. Took down all the stuff for the display shelves. Numbered more of the math books. Checked in and out here and there. Finished the book order and told the head of LMSS that it was ready to go. Between me, our head of Language Arts, and our Instructional Coach we made it. It was a bit over my budget (by $12!) but it should be fine Mr. C said. Just a quiet day with a bit slower of a pace.

Thunder, Lightning and Rain

Nice day today! Had some great storms come through, thunder, lightning, heavy rain. You could hear it pounding on the shed roof over the back half of the library. Very cool! Even students noticed and stopped to listen and watch! Lights inside flickered good once, but that was it. Checked out three classes of library books today and hosted a variety of students in. Had both lunches in. Shelved all my non-fiction books today. Sent dictionaries to teachers. Numbered more math books, this time Filling and Wrapping.

Book Pusher

Another great day in the library! I had time today so when a few boys came in, only one got a book, so I took the others before they could take off and suggested a few things and they ended up checking out also! Yeah! I love to push books! Checked out two classes of math books and checked in a ton more math books today and got them all put back on the shelf. Put away two class sets of social study books for Mrs. B (who is a short timer! Only 7 more days to go until retirement!). Got our Dark Knight Batman book all put back together again, the students will be glad to see it back. Worked more on my bio/auto/memoir list and got it down to $1600! So I printed it up and gave a copy to our instructional coach and our lead language arts teacher to give me their must haves on the list. So we're getting down to the end of that list! Got more of my desk cleaned up. Took home more books for winter break reading. Did more of the math inventory. Wow. We have a lot of math books that I've never heard of, though I did spot some today on top of a shelf "Oh, look, I see those books..." 

Kayaking

So today I had a teacher say, 'wow, look at the pond' and I was in shock! I knew of the depression in the ground by where we line up for our fire drills but I've never seen water in it! I want to go and get my kayak! Just so I could say I kayaked at Leslie ;D We had more flying rain today, but some periods of just grey skies. Checked in/out three classes of math books today. Some checking in and out. Both lunches in again today. I had to ban three of the boys from coming in again. They come in and then spend the rest of the time trying to get out, probably to just roam around the school. Worked more on my list for bios/autos/memoirs today. Had it down to $1500 when I left today. Laminated a whole ton of stuff this afternoon. Put away a bunch of math books that had come in over the last few days. Had a student work today putting on barcodes for me to work off his fine. He's doing great. He'll be all done before break. Did a few quick repairs. Read shelves and got all of them done under the windows. Started to put out some books that looked appealing to me since our new books won't be here for awhile. That was fun. Kind of a quieter day, until the mouse squad come in after school I closed my office doors to finish working on the list and laminate! They are very loud!

Never Forget

Today I put up a Pearl Harbor display with non-fiction and fiction books about Pearl Harbor and the war in the Pacific. I got to see the Arizona sunk in Pearl Harbor when we went to Hawaii a couple of years ago and I will never forget it. Truly a great memorial to a terrible moment in history. Checked out math books today. It was actually pretty quiet in the library today. Had both lunches in, so they were a bit crazy. Watched great herds and swarms of rain fly horizontally across the broad vista of my windows all day long. Quite the show. Worked on my biography order with Perma-Bound and so far I think I've put $2400 worth of books in my cart! But I only have $600 to spend! I'll have to get that whittled down! Put away a bunch of math books, got a lot more repair books out today. Found some that still need some TLC before they go out too. Staff meeting and I got a Kudo bar because I donated two books (The Survival Guide to Bullying) to our two counselors. I had forgotten about them! Got asked to score the vollyball game tonight and enjoyed that very much! 

Do the Math

Checked out 11 classes of math books today and checked in about 6. Did our normal check in/outs for the library. Got all the non-fiction shelved. Had a new student come in to work off his fine. Had a sub come in and had her number math books. Turned everything off for the weekend. Got more of the books on repair out and onto the floor. Got in the books I bought off the Book Fair for OBOB. So I collected all the other titles we already had to start my shelf to keep them all together.

Party Time

So our head of LMSS is retiring at the end of December so we had a retirement party for him tonight. I had taken one of our old AV bags and cut it down. Had another assistant do the lettering of all the middle schools and I presented it to him this afternoon. Had a great day at work. Did a quick book talk. Shelved non-fiction. Put up a 'no more sharks' sign. Put new books up on the tops of shelves. Checked out books. Had a girl and this boy being all cutesy with each other. She was like "I call him my stalker.." totally flirting so I told them to settle down and stop being cutesy with each other and the girl was like "you are so stupid! I do not like him, I have a boyfriend!!" then she put her book on the counter and left. I just had to crack up! Got some of my repair books back out today. Did a lot of emails on kids that wanted books from other schools, wanted to see if they could work off fines from other schools. Had one girl finish off her work for me today, nearly $30 worth of fines she worked and paid off for me. I was so impressed with her! Got math books ready for checking out tomorrow. Had a student that needed another place to be for ten minutes so I put him to work. Cleaning off a chair that had gum on it, wiping down talbels. Another student came in later and I had him putting away science books in the back. Left at 3 to go to the retirement party. I will miss Steve. I'm so glad I got to meet him and work with him. I will miss him horribly.

Mysterious

Came in the door to Mr. M telling me to get on working out the doc camera that wasn't working right in the meeting room he was having all the other middle school principals in today! Ended up just bringing up the other new doc camera that worked fine. Found out later I just needed to push a switch over and the first one would have been fine! Argh! I knew about that one from our old AverVision, but didn't even think of that today! They're new! It should have been perfectly on the right one! Shouldn't it?? Had Mrs. S's classes in today to check out mysteries. So all five periods and then Mrs. M came in the other period and they checked out books as well! So I was very busy doing that! After first period I and knowing she wanted the students to read mysteries, I had a list ready and some mystery books on a cart. I tried to pick books the students wouldn't think of as a mystery, but they are on the list from our library program. So I got to help a few (one of my favorite things to do!). Then I was a bit taken aback that I don't think my aides are doing a good job with shelving, so I started to read shelves. Found some definite mistakes. Scholastic finally came and picked up their carts so I could get all the tables back in their places, trying hard to make them all ADA compliant! I love my library. 12 working days left until break!

Liar, Liar

Oh yes, way too much clutter going on! So I started to clean up today! Still lots of books to check in. Checked in and out lots today again. Only classes in the computer lab though and I actually had some quiet moments! Laminated twice today. Boxed up the OBOB books and sent them off. Cleaned up the book fair stuff I still had around (posters, etc that needed to be tossed.). Gave away the Survival Guide to Bullies to both our counselors and a teacher who wanted it. Put paper in the copier a couple of times today. Had a parent call in that their student was having trouble with lying. They had told him to come to the library and get a book on lying yesterday. He said, yes he had come in and we had no books whatsoever on lying. Hahaha! So we decided I'd check a book out to him and his dad would come in and pick it up. So I picked Gary Paulsen's Liar, Liar. I would love to hear how that went tonight! Had our last meeting today with our Supervisor of LMSS. He is retiring and I will really miss him :( He deserves a great retirement and I have so much respect for how he handled himself, our department and keeping what was left of us sheltered during the RIF's when we lost 57 of our librarian/teachers and were left with just 6 for our entire district. I can't even imagine how he must have felt. So I did leave around 3:10 to get over to Judson for our meeting and enjoyed a wonderful time with him and my fellow Middle School LMA's. Took a bunch of boxes in for one who had hers all used without asking her if she needed them (like for our surplus pick-up in two weeks!!). Glad I could help her out. Anyway, I've done what I can tonight on Mr. C's gift from us, and off to bed with pouring rain. Love to sleep that way! 

Deck the Halls

So maybe more of a 'deck the walls'. Took down my Nanowrimo window placing and put up a count down calendar for the last 15 days of school for 2015. I put up numbers and every day will cover one of the number with a book cover image, so today before I left I put up The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe  for my first book! Talked with our Language Arts people about Auto/Biographies and what they need to see. Possibly more like memoirs, recent celebs, about latinos and soccer stars. Very busy day. Had two classes in to check in and then check out books. Lots of other students doing that as well! Three classes in the library lab and it all made for a very busy day of checking in/out. Started to stamp my OBOB books so I can send those in for processing to get them back before January and the start of OBOB reading. Some of the books I got were only $2.50, some $1! Great deals! Still have our Book Fair, the driver got sick and couldn't make it, so maybe Wednesday they said. I had two of my South students help me start to put tables back since the rolling carts are all closed up. Got the last of my money up to the bookkeeper today so that's all done. Tons of students in and out today, but a great happy productive vibe going on. Loved it!

Tuesday the 24th

Finished off all the glueing today and did other repairs too, so I got through all the books on the picture from yesterday! Ran the Book Fair and closed it all up. Only made about $1500. I think down 25% from last year. We'll see how the online fair goes! Another long day - 7:30am and ended up leaving at 8pm. See you next Monday! Have I mentioned how thankful I am that I get to do something I love every day??

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Long Day

Repairs. I did a lot of repairs. Did not get everything done, but will finish the glueing tomorrow! Helped with our poster machine and did some laminating for them. Went over to LMSS in the morning to get our free book give-away, 16 new books for free! All new stuff that has come into  LMSS over the year to preview and we get to choose! So I did end up working from 8am to 7:30pm since I had to get in early to get my new books!

Below Freezing

So tonight is rumored to be below freezing, so I have one of the students paying penance help me close all the windows tonight. He came in after school and I had him check in books, then clean up our computer lab. Turning everything off, sweeping the floor, air dusting the keyboards. He did a good job. Had more sales today. I put more books away. Gave work to our substitutes that had prep periods so they came to me asking if I needed help. One I put to work putting back out all our Scholastic trinkets. After she finished that I had her straighten out the non-fiction shelves. Another lady finished up putting barcodes in the back of the math books, then later when she came back, I had her putting the numbers on the ends of them. Another sub came in just as a pack of boys came in with a project to work on and I asked if he'd ride herd on those boys. He did a good job, but those boys do not focus well at the best of times and on a Friday before nine days off, well, I'm not sure what I would have done without him! He did great, even though the boys were not near their best ;) Thank goodness he was there to take them on! I pulled old laminating off the books so I can relaminate them on Monday or Tuesday. Took money in from the fair. Got in our restock for the book fair. Rode herd on all the kids coming down to finish up projects and all for the grading day and conferences next week. Glad that one is over and no one got hurt! Fun times this morning. At the end of announcements they played "Shake it Off" so I started dancing behind the main counter & all my South kids got a laugh at that. Thought I did pretty good & one of the gals was dancing with me! Fun!

Penance

Had in three classes of students in to check out books today, only one with an aide to help out! They were the ones that had done the 'magazine reviews' I had put up yesterday and they were rather excited about it! Had our lovely DLC kids in today. They always make me very happy even though all the books they look at I have to put away! They love to carry the books over to the main counter and put them in the 'book drop'! They always make me smile. Sold a lot at the book fair before school this morning. That was good. Told several students today they had to leave the computer lab because of inappropriate behavior. I make sure I take a screen shot so I have proof! Had our behavior specialist come in and tell me that a young man had stolen from the book fair yesterday, felt remorse and wanted to make it right. He brought in three books to return to the fair, and the fourth he had written in, so he will bring money for that one. I told our Behavior S that he could work for me. She was like 'Really???' I said yes, that that would be more powerful than working for the custodians, so he worked for me an hour after school today. I shook his hand as he left and let him know I was proud that he realized his mistake and wanted to make it right. It truly is wonderful when a student comes to you and 'gets it'. It might take awhile, but they learn from us. Good for him! When I was done, I headed down to the gym and watched our Leslie Lions play girls volleyball. A nice end to the day!

Don't Take Mrs. Willer's Word For It...

So today I put up the 'magazines' that the students in Mrs. K's class made up. They turned out so good! She was only going to let me have one, but I said, I'd take all three classes! So she gave them to me and with my aide we collected books from their index card reviews and I put together this display. I remember from Reading Rainbow, when LeVar Burton would say "But you don't have to take my word for it..." (still love him! - reminisced with one of the teachers about RR today!) So I put up "Don't take Mrs. Willer's word for it....see what Mrs. K's class has to say about some great books!" Put me in a great mood all day! Did more book fair sales today, just seems so flat though. Not sure why, what is going on. But I'm hoping sales pick up. Looked through 220+ math books today to see if I could find a missing one for a student. Put away a cart full of non-fiction today (I had been slacking on it all week...) rode herd on a ton of students coming in to finish up projects before the grading period ends on Friday. Put the newly laminated jackets on books today to put back out on the shelves. Have a ton of books that need maintenance that I'll do next week. Seems like they are all giving up the ghost! A really good day! But aren't they all?!

Lock Ties

I was so smart last night to bring scissors and totally forgot to bring lock ties to retie up the Book Fair banner this morning. So in the rain and wind I had to go into the school, come back out to my car and walk it back out to the street and do it there. Ugh. Well, I do have them tonight so tomorrow morning I can just pull into the old bus stop and put it up, jump back in the car and drive into the school parking lot! Yeah me! Sold more books today. Checked in and out other books. Did all the rest of the numbering on the Butterflies....etc. math books. Laminated stuff. I had three book covers that were definitely worse for wear, peeling, flaking, so I peeled off the old lamination (sort of fun, like peeling off skin from a sunburn...!) redid the jacket on a Harry Potter book (put in the crack'n peel to strengthen the edges) and they all turned out very nice. Put in a request for a couple of Marvel comic encyclopedias from our Books Are Fun guys (they give us coupons to use for our library depending on what people buy! Sweet!) Got my book order finally sent to request approval.  Had Mrs. S's classes in all day to look at the book fair and check in/out books. Busy day! Cut off the banner on my way home - I really don't want to leave it out overnight, afraid someone will steal/deface/rip it. Tonight though the wind and rain would really give it a run for its money.

Book Fair

Yes, our wonderful Scholastic Book Fair opened today and we did good! Came in and got computers started, then remembered I needed to put up our big Book Fair sign out on the chain link fence outside the school! So I ran out and did that so parents, students and passerbys could see that yes, we are good to go! Luckily I remembered to get change on Saturday, so I had change to put in the till. Got all the carts opened up and put books on top. I was taking into the back all the little trinkety stuff and finally decided, 'why don't I just put that cart in the back??' and that worked perfectly! Mrs. V brought in her students to browse and make sure they had library reading books. Sold about $129 worth today! I think that was the best first day ever! Numbered Butterfly books (the 8th grade math books..). Got a call from Scholastic that someone had found a very inappropriate playing card that was stuck inside a book, so they asked if we could riffle through all the books to look for any more of the cards, and they were willing to give us all another $50 scholastic credit they thought it was so important so I spent the last of the day going through all my books. Got over half done, so I'll do the rest in the morning. After I was done, I went and watched a little bit of our girls doing volleyball. It was fun to watch! Then outside to pick up my signs and put in the car for the night and I'm glad I did, the wind is really picking up tonight and I'm glad they aren't out there getting pounded!

Long and Short

Even though it was a four day week, it seemed so long! Got in the Scholastic Book Fair today so that will start Monday. Had my South students help me out. A couple of the boys helped bring down the rolling carts, then flattened all the cardboard from the new Chromebooks and took that all outside for me. One of the girls put together all the trinkety stuff. I spent some time pulling out my OBOB books, and finding books on the carts that were on my purchase list and hopefully taking them off so I can purchase them with my Scholastic $$! That would help a lot! Checked in and out today. Did some shelving. Got the techs to come in and check the Chromebooks with our gym to make sure they would work during conferences. Lots of just normal stuff, with a few good extras to the day! Love my job!

Rushing

So today I got in and quickly put up my word for the day. Took my box of Scholastic Book Fair flyers out to all the Language Arts teachers. Put the dates on my posters. Got an email from Mrs. M who asked if I could do a book talk for her 1st period and 5th period classes. 1st period was only a few minutes away! But I managed to pull a few books and give a talk on those and even got a few of them checked out. It was a bit easier for 5th period! Put in a blurb for our December newsletter highlighting our Axis360 eBook system. Asked for the book fair to be on the school's webpage. Had both lunches in today. Got our COW (Cart On Wheels) out so the lovely Mrs. T could get all the new Chrome Books in it and set up for teachers to use. I had to find a spot to put it in where it could be on charge so I pushed over the desk in the workroom and that seems like it will work out just fine. Various other books in and out today. Sent in my revised order for Baker and Taylor. Worked on looking up some new auto/biographies during the Leadership meeting this afternoon. After work I went to our PLC meeting, then over to the hospital to take a card and present over to Mrs. B. She looked and talked very much like herself, but also very tired. She said she's been sleeping a lot. She needs to heal! Sleep is good! Then over to Salem Public to pick up a book on hold. A good day and pizza waiting for me at home! Love my hubby thinking of me!

Two Alarm

Yes! Count them! One, and two fire alarms today! We had one in 2nd period and another during 5th period. I was a bit cold for the first one, but it really was quite lovely for the second one. I had students in the library both times, so had to get their names and teachers and send the notice in that those students were in the library. Spot #33 is the library line up spot. I do enjoy getting to go out of the back library door. The rest of the day was pretty much normal stuff. Put books into maintenance. Checked in and out here and there. Put away non-fiction stuff. Had both lunches able to send students to the library today. Then I got a call from LMSS that they had not submitted my order yet. It went to my librarian supervisor a month ago. There is no way we will get our books before winter break. I was so sad :( Then I looked at the order and it was $3100!! My order was only $1900! What happened?? It turns out that one of the librarians put an order together for all the middle school libraries, and they took her order and just added mine on top. Oh my! That needs to change! So I spent time going over the order from me, the order all together and pulling out some of my stuff, taking things I had ordered two of and reducing that to one. I did get approved to beef up our auto/biographies though, so on Thursday I need to take out any books of that genre and put it on that other list. So hopefully that will bring it down. My budget would have only been about $300 for the entire rest of the year if that had gone through. Wow. I thought I could get it all done today, but just not enough time left, so I'll have time to be thorough and get what I really want and need.

Breathing

So happy to hear our coworker is out of ICU! She still has a long way to go, but I gave a huge sigh of relief when the information was released this afternoon. Praise God!

So today I put out our books that had started as Nano Novels and that was fun. I thought we only had two, but we had on hand five! Yeah! Then I also did all our writing/English grammar books out on display, another fun thing to see out and about! Finished off numbering the Covering and Surrounding books (or was it the Comparing and Scaling??). Started to barcode the Butterflies// 8th grade math books. Checked out a lot of books today. Did a bit more work on my auto/biographies. Feeling very relieved!

Sorrow

Checked out and in 8 classes worth of science books today. Put away all the non-fiction. Checked out a ton of other books today. Added a few titles to my list to buy. Asked for some personal leave to celebrate our head of LMSS retiring next month. I am so upset though. As I left, one of my co-workers just before fell on the stairs. Straight back. Definitely a concussion if nothing else. Prayers for her please.

Left Out in the Rain

This poor sad book was left outside in our massive rainstorm last weekend. It was brand new. Only checked out three times. My soul was hemorrhaging along with this book. It is way beyond fixable for me. So the student said they will pay for it. I put it on my next order. Checked out three classes of new books today. Cleaned up the library for the parent club meeting tonight! It looked pretty darn spiffy when I left! Laminated some things. Put all the graphic novels away. Did some more ordering for books for after winter break. Cleaned off the back workroom table and scrubbed it. Got some of the books I repaired back out there today. A sad day. I shall have to have a memorial service for this book. A nice little bed inside the surplus box, a tissue. Maybe even a blanket. So sad.

Gloves On

Yes, this morning it was so cold I actually put on my half gloves to drive to work! It was cold! Frost on the rooftops, almost had to scrape ice off the window of my car. Got all the shelves named today in the back back room so I'm glad that project is done. Took down my Audio window and put up my two NaNoWriMo posters I have. I also had some flyers from Salem Public Library I put up also. Even had one teacher take one down and make copies to give to her students! Super awesome! Redid the audio shelves since we had gotten in a ton from Sprague so they are all on the shelf now. Cleaned up the books I was using for holding the shelves, put the shelves back on top of the rack in the back back. Checked in and out today. Got in a new book from an elementary, one of the spin off graphic novels from the Uglies series! I was so excited! I might have to buy the other one. Then a student turned in The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane  from his old elementary! I was so happy for him! I had threatened him with having to write his own story of what Edward had been doing since he was with him! Ha! Glad it came back and sent it off to its home school. Ordered some supplies to have on hand for staff and for myself. Did some repair work today. One of favorite thrills is suggesting a book and the student does indeed check it out! I love it when I have the opportunity to do that and it happens! Did it twice today! A lovely day!

Phantoms

Started this morning with noticing one of our brand new Jedi Academy: Phantom Bully books was missing! No one had checked it out and it was gone :(  I did find it at the end of the day as I was shelving books over in the 700's. I'm so glad it wasn't lifted! Then I had a student come in to get a new book. He has a fine, and had a book out. So I asked him where it was and he said he had brought it in and had just put it on a shelf. He thought over by fossils. Really?? We looked at the fossils and I couldn't find it. Again, as I was shelving at the end of the day I found it in the cat section! Which really made me laugh because it was a book on Audubon and there was a book on birds sitting in the middle of the cats 636! Ha! Got approval to send off the new books for processing, so packed them up and sent them off! Had my girls in again today to work off their fines. Using them to stamp and barcode the math books. I think they are enjoying it! Had another student in today getting a new binder since hers was broken. A friend came in to 'help' but did not have a pass, so I sent her out. Laminated early today since Mr. D had to get some stuff started, and didn't return! So since the machine was on I went and did all the stuff that had already come in. Had some repair books all good to go so changed their status and put them out. Flattened out all the rest of the cardboard boxes so my aide can finish taking them all out tomorrow to the recycle bin. I'm sure there was more, but time for me to go and read!

Electric

Took down the book graveyard today and Mr. R happened to be in the library so I asked him what they were studying in science and he said they were on electricity and magnetism so I tried to find books on that, and found a few, but not very many! Checked out two classes of math books. Numbered some of the new ones (100 or so). Took the math boxes and organized them. There were about 10 different titles in about 30 boxes or more all in a jumble, so now that we've gotten through a few, I was able to put them in like title piles and check to see when they would be used to get them done in a timely fashion. Got in a box of new books (Huzzah!!) and stripped them so they can go out tomorrow! Have another box of books ready to go out, just need to be sure my supervising librarian approves!

Zombook

Had a great day today doing book talks. I tried to make out that I was a reformed zombie librarian. That brains on video games and couches were just not the best eating, but brains that had done a lot of reading were so much better, and if you turn to books, why that was so much cleaner and neater and why be so messy when you could just read books yourself?! I did five booktalks and they were about half an hour each (maybe a bit more??) though I had said they were only going to be 15 to 20. I had so much fun talking about the books and the students were so excited about some of them. The teachers were very supportive and told me the kids were totally loved in to it and talked about which books they loved after I had left. I loved going out and seeing them out in their rooms. I don't get to do that very often, so it was really fun. I basically had to close the library while I was gone and in between talks checked out and in books. Had both lunches in today and let them on the computers since it was Friday. I went to find our latest books to fill up my new rack, and they were all checked out but one! I had to go back to a later list to find some books to put on there. Pulled down the posters I had put up on Tuesday. Cleaned everything up for the weekend. Put the garbage out and put in new liners. Got approval to have an eBook club. Loved being out with the students today. Poured outside the windows all day. Loved today. Have I mentioned that I love my job?

Posters and Names

Very enjoyable day! Had two classes in to check out books and had some help from our wonderful Senora G! She is really a joy to work with! Got my word of the day up (forgot to do it yesterday!). Sent off some books in the mail. Started to name the bookshelves for all the math books today. It was time to take off the masking tape names and put up something more permanent. Put away all the non-fiction (a whole cart full!). Had lots more students checking out audio books today! That was awesome! Later I heard that one of the students who has been having loads of trouble sat down with his book and audio book and was really into it for the rest of the period, made me so happy! They moved the poster making machine into my workroom today and now I have to find space for all the poster paper rolls. Not quite sure how that is going to work, but we will! Ms. V is working on a project and using one of my aides. It will be good for her! I'm excited that she can do this for Mrs. V! Got my students who are paying off their fines working on the next set of math books. Now to read a book for my last of my book talks tomorrow!

Forgot!

Was busy last night and forgot to post! Will be back this evening to do both! Numbered all the Stretching and Shrinking (like, 300 of them). Checked out to 5 classes. Shelved all the rest of the non-fiction. Busy day. Reworked the boxes I keep for packing. Tore down all the old ones and reconfigured the math boxes to keep. Threw away a ton of packing material. If I haven't used it by now, probably won't! It looks so much better in that corner now!

No Zombie Librarian

Working away this morning I happened to hear the announcement that costumes would not be allowed at school on Friday to maintain our learning environment. Ah, oh. I asked, but yes, that meant me too. No dressing as a zombie librarian to do booktalks. Oh crum. At least I don't have to worry about a costume...but I'll try to spin it somehow! Shelved more non-fiction today, down to just the 800's and 900's. I may get some special monies to beef up our biography section! That would be sweet! Our kids do a unit on them and we really need some new up to date books on current people. So, I worked on lists of current important people (most were celebrities it seemed like) and started my list of who I thought we might buy if that does come through. Quite the slow day today, only two classes in using the computer lab and then just random students coming in to look for books. Started to clean out my box area. I have so many great boxes from all the math books, I'm going to get rid of the others, so I started to work on that today. Laminated some things. Helped students look for books. At the end of the day I had Ms. P bring me a bunch of book posters her students had made and I put them up all over the library. I tried to keep them about where the book would be for the most part, but it'll be fun to have them up for the rest of the week!

R. I. P. Read In Peace

Really enjoyed putting up my 'tombstone' today at work and highlighting some of our creepy books. I'm not a real fan of horror or scary stuffs, but a lot of our kids are, so I hope these titles entice them to read on the graveyard side! Gave three non-fiction book talks today. Sent out the notice we'd be open for A lunch, and oh my! I should have checked the teacher's schedule because we should have been open for B lunch! Arghhh! It was a bit disconcerting to have a bunch of A lunch students already in the library when the class came in. So at least both lunches got time in here today! Checked out a lot of books, and in a lot of books. I started to shelve the non-fiction this afternoon. Had copier issues. Had some girls come in and work at lunch to pay off fines, so I started them working on the next set of math books. A very nice day!

2 Numbers

Felt so bad about the horrid laminating job I had done on Mrs. K's poster, I decided to replicate it and relaminate and it turned out better than I had hoped! I don't think she even noticed that it had been redone! Today I finished off numbering the Let's Be Rational books today and found two that had no barcodes, and I had no barcodes left over. Since I had found one on the floor and created a new one, I figured that it had to be operator mistake. So I ended up taking the 310 books and putting them all in order to find the two that were missing. I did find them though! So that made me happy. Got the barcodes remade and all the books back on the shelf! Pulled out the next set of math books, Stretching and Shrinking. Inventoried all of those. Got books together for non-fiction book talks on Monday. Took a document camera to the band room to replace the psychodelic one. Lots of books came in, and lots went out. Had classes in the computer lab, a few classes in the library. It was a great day!

Getting into eBooks

So I found out today I was getting into our ebooks all wrong, and I should have used our magic wall, then gone into Axis360 to read the book I downloaded. Maybe that's what I did at first, and then forgot?? Oh my. So I had two of my aides today go into the wall and download and start to read off the computers at school. That went pretty quick, so I may start an eBook club at school next month. Had some of the girls today work on leaves for my 'graveyard' scene. I'm doing an RIP tombstone, sort of, Read In Peace. Maybe a coffin with Goosebumps books inside and you have to check out and read the book you pull out of it? Maybe! Numbered a bunch of the Let's be Rational math books today (I think I keep messing up their name...) Checked out three classes of books today. Checked in the old books and scanned them. Messed up with Mr. C and our DLC class. I keep forgetting they come in on Thursdays this year and I told Mr. C he could bring in his science class to use the tables. Oh my. I ended up writing in the DLC class for Thursdays, 2nd period for the rest of the year! I also gave Mr. C one of my kudo bars to apologize that he had to move his class, then he went upstairs to Mrs. C's room where there was a small class meeting there and they moved so Mr. C could come in. It really was a mess. I felt bad :( Did some laminating and it turned out really bad. I am not happy. I may redo her whole poster for her it was so bad. That one though was not my fault at least! Classes in the computer lab today, lots of students coming in to check out books. I even checked out a book on CD today! Huzzah! That made me happy!

Back to the Future is Here!

Marty McFly came back to the future on October 21st, 2015. Can hardly believe I'm here today! I mentioned it to a few of our students today and they cracked up! Did a lot of cleaning up today on my desk. It was quite the mess and after having our marvelous tech in yesterday and him coming back today, I thought, might be nice to clean up. Also had my aides clean all the tables off with our approved cleaner today, so the library even smelled clean! Put books up on top of the shelves in the non-fiction section. Checked out books to one math class today. Aides finished stamping and barcoding the Let's be Relative math books, so I got that all cleaned up. Had three students working off fines today. Covered some books that I'd had on my desk. Did a repair. Sent off a couple of books to Straub. Too busy watching the movie! If I remember something else, I'll write it in later! Oh yeah, I did a spiel for the upcoming Newsletter on the book fair coming!

Score!

I was so excited last night. I had to do book talks today and the teacher wanted what was hot and new! So I had gotten back my two autobiographies on Misty Copeland and she was on Jimmy Kimmel last night! I tried to video this morning (it was hysterical) but couldn't, so went with a photo of her ballet with Jimmy and Guiermo and her dance company. Both books were checked out by the end of the day! I loved that book! And so glad I could bring  a very relavant picture in for the kids to see! Perfect timing! So, I did two book talks today and checked out books. Had three classes in to pick up their new math books. Finished off the Moving Straight Ahead numbering on those math books and started the next set. Got all the non-fiction put away and straightened up that area since it was pretty decimated by the students last week. Shelved the rest of the new books on CD we had gotten from Sprague. Sent out two books to other schools. Had the techs come in and check on a doc camera for our band teacher since I couldn't get anywhere with it this morning (Louie, Louiii, oh, yeah...) Worked with him on the crazy icons that came up with the Axis360 program. We had gotten rid of them, but then the program didn't want to work correctly. Laminated a few things. Moved the TV's on the big carts into the back room. So much better! Again, another busy day! But loved every minute!

Jumping

Felt today like I was jumping all day. Had a student come in very early to check in some books because he's getting a new schedule. Then had an email from our PE teachers looking for a document camera. I said we didn't have any, but would try to get one. Asked the building. Called over to LMSS and after talking with three people, got ahold of the person I needed (she wasn't in yet, then off in the building, then she called me back) and then I realized, duh, you could use the one off our meeting cart. Duh. Had that delivered 3rd period. Wanted to highlight more of our audio books so had my aide make up this signs for the books! She did a great job of getting them and I set them all up. Checked out five classes of math books today. Checked in the old math books. Fined a couple of students that were harder on the books than they should have been. Sent out a notice for teachers to request me coming in as a zombie librarian to do Scholastic book talks and asked them also for book suggestions for our library. Got some great responses to books to get in, and one request so far to zombie book talk! Have book talks tomorrow, and collected books after I learned she wanted new and 'hot of the press' books! So glad I asked! I had a stack of other titles, but swapped that around. Went around the fiction late today and cleaned a lot up. Then started to shelve the non-fiction. Got all the graphic done, then the 100's - 300's mostly done. It really needed it! After feeling a bit overwhelmed, left feeling very satisfied with everything and ready for tomorrow!

Half Day

Got into work at 7am and got some math books delivered to Mrs. K, then did some book repairs and off to our Inservice time. We talked about the great Databases we have, some Insignia stuff and talked OBOB. Then I walked 7 miles after I got home and now I'm tired! 

My Jungle, But Not My Monkees!

Crazy afternoon at school. I thought there must be a full moon or something, but no! Maybe because it's grading day tomorrow?? Our after school program, the kids were so rowdy, I ended up closing the doors to my office and back workroom and shutting my blinds! And then turning on Pandora (my Celtic shuffle) to muffle the sound! Oh my! But it was the perfect solution! Started the day getting the computer upstairs in the lab number to request it for NetSupport, then over to Mrs. C's room to change her bulb. Then into the library computer lab to try and turn on the new wireless projector. Could not get it to talk to the computer, called technology and duh, forgot to click on the new icon for it and connect. I felt really dumb. Duh. Then classes in to check out books all day. Classes in the computer lab all day. Had a rowdy couple of students dropped off in the library last period, and called our security guy to take one of them to the bathroom and next I know, he's escorting them around and Mr. M is absolutely furious with them. Oh my! Glad I let security handle them. Got more Moving Straight Ahead math books numbered. Got an aide started on the next math set. Worked a bit on the math inventory. Sent out books to other schools. Half day tomorrow! I am ready for it!

Non-Fiction Volleyball Scoring

Today I had five 7th grade classes come in and check out non-fiction books. I gave them a little speech on Dewey, and pointed out the chart on the wall. Went through about 7 books for each class. I checked out three classes of them myself! It seemed to go well. I checked out 9 classes of 'Kercheski Method" math books. A very busy day! Then after work I volunteered to score the volleyball games (5 of them!), I think I did a pretty good job and had fun with the students! 

Setting Mistakes Right

Today I really had to work on fixing up some flubs. After I got in and got the library ready for the day, I waited until 1st period, then drove over to Parrish and picked up the Crash books that Ms. B has been asking for it must be a month now. My first request got lost in email detritus. My second request was for a Kit, which is usually a class set, but this wasn't. Then I was supposed to pick up a class set on Friday at our Inservice, but totally spaced it. Never even crossed my brain paths. Then Parrish was going to bring it over last night on her own time and that didn't happen. So this morning I just took the bull by the horns and drove over and picked them up. She was so sweet about it! Brought them back and took them straight to Ms. B who was overly grateful I thought since it took me so long to get them! Argh! Walked in during a girl giving a book talk on Mr. Lemoncello's Library, and wanted to stay to hear it! I felt bad I disturbed her book talk. Set up a projector for a sub so the classes could watch a DVD on the screen rather than just on the TV. Checked in and out. Helped a teacher work NetSupport and she loved it! Thank you Mr. A for that great training! Had my PE/injured aide work on the Moving Straight Ahead workbooks. Showed her how to stamp them, top and title page, then put the barcode inside the back cover. At the end of the period I went to help her clean up before she had to go to her next class and she had put the barcodes on, but not in the right place. My fault for not checking on her!! Luckily she hadn't pressed them down very hard and I was able to pull up all but three and reposition them! That was a relief! Had a cart full of non-fiction for book talks tomorrow, so figured out she had five classes coming in, so I counted out five sets of books to talk about to give the students ideas about what to check out. Pulled more non-fiction to put on my rolling rack for them to see as well. Shelved half of my non-fiction then had a lovely sub come in and do some work for me. Got in new books!! I just sent them to LMSS last week and they are back already!! Stripped them, put on date due slips and they are ready to go forth into the world! Had the sub help me with that as well. She did awesome! Last part of my day I numbered math books and checked them through inventory. A busy day, but I felt good about making things right!

Putting Things Away

I put away all the books I had taken out from under the windows, I think they all got done! Put away all the Egypt, India and American Revolution books. Put away a bunch of the non-fiction books today. Got some books with OBOB straightened out. Talked to one of our LMSS office people about the barcoding on textbooks and she said yes, I was right, they need to go inside the back cover and not outside with tape over the barcode, Huzzah! Got in 30 some odd boxes of the rest of the math books - oh boy! Put up a new display on that grading day is coming up Friday! Be aware! Turn in that homework, it can't get graded if you don't turn it in! (that was my son's biggest kerfluffle!) Paid my social dues, bought some Pete the Cat books for my granddaughter for her birthday. Checked out a lot of books today. Pulled some non-fiction books to book talk Wednesday. Tried to track down the Crash books for Ms. B. They were brought last Friday and I totally spaced it. Can't believe I did that. Loved the day, loved the kids, even the ones that drove me crazy!

Inservice Day

Had a great Inservice Day today! It really was amazing! We had a technician from Technology Services come out and show us how to get the most out of our NetSupport program for monitoring students on the computers. It was fabulous! We were popping questions to him, laughing, learning, 'Ah, Ha!' moments. Truly a great session! Then we worked on starting our inventories for the math books this year, google calendars, and then a session on making READ posters. I went back to the school and made my new display to highlight and call attention to our audio books! I hope they check them out! Went over the Librarian list to see what books they are recommending compared to what I have. Checked for a couple of lost books. Pulled books to go with our audio books. Answered emails. Almost creepy was tallying up the marks for our OBOB contest and we had 7 books that had 7 votes apiece and one of the books is Counting by 7's !  That really freaked me out! Checked out some of the OBOB books to take home for the weekend. Cleaned tables. I think the custodians may have come in and cleaned the inside of my windows?? Maybe? I'll see on the next sunrise! Have I mentioned lately how much I love my job? ;D

Library Packed

We had so much going on today! Came in to find the library in a mess. Usually the LEAP crew has it pristine, but not today. Had to push in a ton of chairs, clean up some stuff. Talked to the head of LEAP and he said that he was very sorry, but a student had a meltdown and that kind of threw things into a different mode. Ah, the explains it. I've never seen it that bad before. Three classes came in to check out new books. I had four classes in to use the computer lab. Got the math books from upstairs and inventoried them all, then checked them out to the teacher who had been using them. Inventoried our Moving math books. Tried to get my new Axis360 account to let me browse the whole district rather than just the middle schools and couldn't do that. Had a visit by my supervising Teacher Librarian and we had a good talk. Took down all the books under the windows so hopefully the custodial crew will clean the windows tomorrow! Did a little bit of laminating. Started to number the Moving math books. Checked in all the classes of books.   Ran a lot of them through the remagnitizer. Did some quick repairs and put a lot of books into maintenance status. Got a count on the OBOB books to which ones we will use for the tournament next May. Inservice Day tomorrow! I'm excited to see how to run our NetSupport at it's best!

Checking out an eBook

I must admit I am very proud of the work I got done today. I contacted AR and they resent the quote I was looking for so I passed that on to the 6th grade language arts teachers and our principal. Not a bad price for the service it will render to our school. I also managed to download and check out my very first eBook from Axis360 from Baker and Taylor! I picked Stargirl  for my first check out and really am enjoying it. Then when I got home tonight I went into the App Store and loaded it onto my iPad. I may take in my iPad tomorrow to show the students as they come in for lunch. I want to see them really get into it and check out books! I also took all the Scholastic books I ordered and wrote them up and sent them to LMSS for processing. Shelved all the non-fiction. Talked with some great parents about their son's account and we put a notice on that he could only check out one book at a time for now. After school and I got off, I went down and helped out at our track meet. Pointing the runners to where they needed to go. It was fun and a great day. Cloudy, and just a touch warm, but perfect for running. Afterwards a student thought there was a bus so we went around together and Mr. M said, no, there was no bus after the meet and let her come into the office to call her dad. He is such an awesome principal!

Student Picks

I'm not sure what I did today! But I worked all day! I found my Crack'N Peel that I've been looking for! I ended up calling reprographics and they had it! So I ordered 50 sheets. Then I tried to get the Due date master scanned so I could send it in to reprographics to make new ones, and didn't do it! That was so frustrating! I still haven't heard from AR for a quote, not sure why. I'll have to contact them tomorrow. Had my aides do like a staff pick like they do up at Powell's books instead of a book report. I'd rather have students inspire other students to read! I talked with two of our language arts teachers for their students to also write reviews! I'm looking forward to that! Got in our Access Math books so I processed them in and got them checked out to our teacher who needed them. Did some laminating today. Helped a teacher with their projector that is dimming out on them. Didn't get it fixed, but she will probably end up putting in a tech ring. So much still to do!

I forgot to mention that the study hall teacher had to do a training in the library computer lab and his sub didn't show, so they brought the students to be in the library while he was in the lab. The girls got a bit bored so I grabbed one of our new books on yoga and it was fun to see all the girls doing poses in the corner of the library!

Egypt, India & the American Revolution

I didn't have any ideas for my non-fiction display this week, so I asked the Social Studies group what they were teaching, and here you go! It was fun to pick out the books and get them all in there. I finally had to stop! Did some fiction in there with them as well and a student even checked out one of the display books today! Checked out two classes of Accentuate the Negative this morning. Worked the books on display around the library and decluttered a bit because it was bugging me! Too many books out! Finished numbering all the Looking for Pythagoras books today so at the moment we only have one more set of math books to finish up. Got in more Realidades 2 workbooks for students to purchase and let Mrs. C know and she had an aide come down and get them right away. Got in some 11x17 paper that made our copier happy. He's been wanting that fourth drawer filled since before we left in June! Covered two of our books I had sent off because they had the wrong title on the barcode. Glad they are back! Had our staff meeting and got 3 kudos from teachers for taking care of them. Mr. M just smiled and put them on my desk. I got more last year than anyone else (blushing) we have such an amazing staff, I'm always surprised when I get one! 

Cookie Sales

Today we had our assembly for cookie sales. So, the periods were a bit smaller and I didn't have to go since I have no aides 6th period! Yeah! Got a cart of literature books ready for Mr. B. Got notice from Mrs. B that they will be working on the Declaration of Independence, Revolutionary War and Egypt for her Social Studies classes this week. So I started to think of books that I'd put out on my non-fiction shelf. Came up with a huge scroll I made for the library at Alexandria! It looks super cool! Did a lot of shelving so our carts would be empty by the end of the day. Got call slips together for books on hold for my aides to deliver. Had our PermaBound rep come by and we actually got to chat for awhile. He gave me a free book - gotta love that! The rest of the day was fairly normal. Had some students in to look for books during A lunch that slipped in, stayed too long, so I let their teacher know. Let students into the computer lab for lunch and they were happy! They could only play cool math games or do homework, but they pretty much obeyed, even if they asked several times for other things to do! Glad I don't have a meeting tonight! Ugh, my windows are so dirty, I might see about something to do to them over the weekend. They are pretty disgusting.

What Did I Do Today?

Sometimes I do feel that way when I get home! What in world did I do for eight hours?? Then I think back and yes, it comes! Did three classes of book talks and checked out two of them myself. Shelved books so our carts were all cleaned off, well, at least until that last class came in. Packed up all the books that had come in over the summer and have them ready for LMSS to process. Wrote out the sheets for all those. Laminated a few things with my new rolls. Got some new books from Scholastic this afternoon and my new display racks! Went to our Middle School Library Assistant meeting over at Crossler. That was well worthwhile, can't wait to share with teachers a couple of our new websites we have up and I really need to check out an ebook on my iPad here to try the new system we have! Redid some labeling on a few books. Handed out new projector filters. Found some Access Math books in a classroom, but still had to ask for some for another class from one of the high schools. Had lots of my booktalk books get checked out! That always makes me happy!

AR Contact

This afternoon after emails from our Language Arts teachers, I emailed the AR people and then decided to just go ahead and call (last time I just emailed, I never got a response~~) after a lovely chat with Zach, I had all the information I needed for the moment and a promise of a price quote in a couple of days. I will also get a phone call from our Oregon account exec and that will be great. Love their new non-fiction program as well. Glad to get that contact set and the wheels turning. Checked out three classes of books today. It was pretty mild. Funny story of the week. A student comes in and has a book from last year. They have had it since May. Then they ask if they can check it out again! I said, 'well, if you haven't read it since May, it might be time to let it go and let someone else have the pleasure of reading it.' They left it with me. I think I heard a heavy sigh! Had a teacher come in and do some laminating and I ran in to tell her to be careful since the rolls were almost out and there came the little tag on her last sheet. So, I ended up changing the rolls today and it worked nicely! Had three students come in from study hall today and wanted on the computers. I really didn't have room for them at the moment since our computer lab had a class in there, and I had students searching for books on those computers. So they decided to just write. After the class that was checking out books was done, I let them on and with our NetSupport, I saw one of the girls immediately start logging into her facebook account. Ah, no! I sent her back to study hall. Also talked with Scholastic today about our upcoming book fair and got a few things set to go for that. After work today, since it was nearly on the way home, I stopped at the Scholastic workshop and had a great time listening to ideas, getting a new cute book (!) and feeling very grateful for all I've been able to purchase for the school. Having a feeling I may give all teachers a 10% discount for anything they buy. Up to what I have on the books anyways! I may do some booktalks as a zombie librarian ~~~  booookkksss, more boookkkksss...

New Audio Books!

With much good thanks to the Librarian at Sprague Mrs. H! She was looking at her audio books that were appropriate to Middle School ages and sent me a list and they arrived today, all rebarcoded for our school and ready to go! I'm so excited! Came in and found books that I had sent out, put back in my mailbox shelf! So I took them back down, and redid our district mail to send them to where they are supposed to go! Picked up a projector, DVD player and speakers from a teacher. Replaced a lamp in another projector. Did my word for the day. Had Mrs. M's class in first period to check out books and that took into second period to finish them all up. She came back fifth period for the same things. Got the old, old, really ratty American Nation books all transferred to us and got them all checked out to Mrs. B. Had my third period aide take those up and the box of teacher materials for the new math books up to Mr. G. Got all my non-fiction shelved and got through the last bits of stuff on my back counter that have patiently waited since I came back to get to them! Just odds and ends of things that came in at the end of the year that I didn't have time for. Barcoded math books. New barcodes for some others. Shelved all the non-fiction. As well as the rest of the cookbooks I had set on the counter by that section and forgot about until today when I went to shelve over there...Another busy day and more checking out tomorrow!

SuperMoon

Checked out five classes of science book 'K' today, and actually had to do them all myself! Also ran a report on overdue books and had them all printed and ready to hand out for my fourth period aides to deliver. 85 students and 124 books are overdue, already! Put out moon books today since we had the SuperMoon last night, hoping the students would be interested in that since a lot of them did watch. Started to pack up the books I need to send to LMSS for processing. Checked in and out regular library books today (some of the students that got slips came in, yeah!) Took a look with Mr. G on the new math teacher resources. Decided I really need to label and make sure everything that is on the sheet is actually in the box. I suppose I need to stamp them all too! Shelved all the cookbooks I had out from last week's display. A busy and very productive day!

Friday On Hold

Had our Spanish teacher in today with her students to access some computer based websites and I got to call technology for every period she had students! One call was to get the computers updated to Adobe Flash player, the other calls were to reset student passwords so they could log into the computers. So I got to spend a lot of time on hold waiting for the next available tech. I did get a few other tasks accomplished today! Pulled apart my book press and three of the books came out really well, one didn't. They'd been in there all summer, most to straighten out the water damage from being in the freezer (yes! handy tip, if you have wet books, put them in the freezer! Even better if you can press them in between something! The freezer stops damage and then slowly - like months - will actually wick the water out! It works!) One I took out though did mold. Drats. It belongs to another school so I will have to buy a copy to replace it. Also took some of our oversized books I had pulled off the fiction shelves and recall numbered them to fit on our Everybody shelves or the 398.2 for legends. Much better places for them to be. Checked out calculators to a teacher because she has an aide that is testing them all to see who works and who doesn't. That is awesome!! Changed out a lightbulb for her projector as well! Checked in and out books here and there all day. Managed the students coming in to the library. Found some old social studies textbooks for a teacher at another school so they are sending them over. A very enjoyable day, even with the moon almost full!

Regular Day

Today was pretty normal. Had four classes of students come in to turn in old books and check out new ones and I had to handle three of them myself! Did a bit of numbering on the Looking for Pythagoras books, did some laminating. Shelved a lot! Did my mandatory training for the new school year and let our office manager know. Just a few odds and ends here and there. Nothing very special, but a good hard working day.

You Never Know What Doors...

The Right Book Will Open... Love the bulletin board I made today. I just hope it stays together! Doing a design with just taping it to the window behind there is harder than using an actual cork board where I can staple things in! A smaller version of the one I did at Sprague, but I still love it! Worked more on my book order today. Checked out to kids. Had my 3rd period aide do Order in the Library. They have all done really, really well! I'm impressed! Worked with our copier guy again, but I managed to get the staples to work on my own without him! Those old assembly skills come in handy! Found a place to order the air filters for our projectors and sent that in to our office manager. Talked to a book seller. I feel bad when they call because I'm not going to order from them and I know it hurts their business. Helped a student and parent with the StudentVue where they can look up grades, assignments and other things after school today. Ended up calling technology and got it done! Worked on a draft of my article for the newsletter. Tried to work on my mandatory training, but arghhh! Could not remember my password and couldn't find it either in my files! So, I have a new one now and will get that done tomorrow afternoon. I thought today, 'I need to order some good boy books', so will look at that tomorrow!

Boxing Day

So today I packed all the rest of the boxes I had out. Sorted out all Mrs. J's science things, keeping the current resources, some of the good resources I put in a special section, but the rest went into boxes that will go to surplus. I have 18 boxes ready to go! Checked out our document cameras and one of the two worked, so that went to Ms. C's room and I took her other one and the other spare I had that didn't work and put in a surplus request. Had our copier guy come out and he did a ton of stuff to it, but I forgot to tell him about it not stapling, even though it has a full staple thing in it. Sent an email to our office manager to get more staples for it, get some filters for our projectors and order more Realidades 2 workbooks for those students. Changed a bulb on a projector. Worked on my order. Still too low!! I need at least $2000 before I submit and not there yet. Looked up all the books I checked out up at Barnes and Noble the other day and ordered most of them. Got some others that are just coming out. Laminated at the last minute! Mr. M walked through looking to see if I had laminated and I was concentrating so hard on my book order, I had totally forgotten about the laminator! I quickly turned it on and only had four sets of things to run through! I only had to stay an extra 10 or so minutes! 

Order!

I had my aides today work on 'Order in the Library' to check their shelving skills! Only one of them had time to really work and got 9 done and only has 2 left to do tomorrow! Impressive! Checked out 3 class sets of science book 'K'. Got all the rest of my new to us paperbacks covered. Did numbering on about 50 Looking for Pythagoras books. Had Mrs. H from Sprague send me a list of audio books and asked if I wanted any of them, oh YES! So I went through my books to see which audio I could pair with a book and ended up with about 20! Sent in a $400 order to Scholastic since I had to use at least $200 before my next book fair. I needed a new bookshelf and could not find it, tried searching, and finally found it in furniture! It was called a tabletop book browser! That made me laugh! Got some more little paperback book individual little display holders. So we'll be able to put out more awesome paperbacks I usually don't do because they flop over if we try to just stand them on the countertops like a hardback. And of course, books!! A day of ordering! Love it!

Non Shelving

Had to leave right after work to Oktoberfest! So I'm getting back to this Sunday night. Friday ended up being very quiet. Had a few books I checked on that did get paid, so I cleared those accounts. Had an aide work on the graphic novels, and I'd given out the fiction to others, so I decided to shelve all the non-fiction myself. That took awhile! I straightened up books while I was out there too, put up a cookbook display on the non-fiction shelves. Worked on putting the numbers on the Accentuate the Negative since the aides had finished all the stamping and putting the barcodes on them. I had two huge stacks to do, both ends, but got them all done before the end of the day. Worked a bit more on my B&T order. It was a good day!  Today is Sunday and I drove up to the Barnes and Noble store in Bridgeport to get my hands on new books! I love to see and feel them and not just on a computer! Spent a good two hours writing down titles, authors and ISBN #'s! Too much fun!!

Buying!

Today I only had three classes in quickly to get some books. That was great. I went up to Ms. B's room and got her projector and replaced the lamp and it's now working. Then I got another call to replace another lamp in the classroom. The IA called up, got the equipment model, I had a lamp, grabbed it and a Phillips head, ran up to the room, replaced the lamp and had it in and working before the end of the video they were showing! Yeah! The copier was just a little crazy today, but we had paper issues. I finished up the box that was sent down yesterday, and there were four more reams that had to be brought down. I boxed up some more surplus books. Then I decided I really needed to take some time to get on my book order. I got a lot done. New books, filling in lost books. Pulled up the lost books from last year, $3200 worth of books did not come home. That really disturbed me. That's a lot of money. Got my class list all set up finally! Yeah! Then we had techs in the building, so he set up my computer for Net Support to watch the kids when they're on the computers. A much needed tool!

Checking

Had classes in every period today to check out books. All six periods. It was quite the ride! Assigned my aides to book shelves and I have to say, they all took looking at their shelves and taking care of them very seriously! It was very cool to see them shelving and straightening things up. We checked out quite a bit today, some of the 7th graders had books already, but a lot didn't. We also had our drill on condition 1, 2, and 3 today in case of external and internal threats. I thought the library would be empty and I could just work (quietly and kind of in the dark!), but I had four students from another class in with me. I was able to email the office to let them know they were with me and they were very good about going into our safe zone and following directions. After that I was able to open all the boxes of teacher resources for our new math books and get those all in boxes and labeled and let our office manager know they were all here. Also began to pack the empty math boxes with books for the surplus pick up in the fall. I think I got seven boxes ready to go. Cleaned up cardboard and packing materials. Had my aides deliver books, calculators and laminating to teachers today. Responded to emails. Wrestled with our copy machine. All in all, a great day in the library. Plus I was able to give our LEAP program some great double cardboard from the boxes for their art class to practice on. That made me happy!

Keeper of the Books

I just love it when students come in looking for the bookkeeper, it always makes me smile.  I always say "I am the Keeper of Books, but I am not the bookkeeper!" then I show on the school map or tell them where she is upstairs in the office area. Another student made me just grin today. He held the door for me when I came in and I asked him how he was today. He said it was his birthday, and he was really hoping for cake when he got home and to go spend the night with his cousins over the weekend. It was just a great conversation, no barriers, just two people chatting. Made me smile. I did a lot of smiling today! Two orientations to 6th graders today and checking out books. The IA with the class had me teach her how to check out and she was so great! We had fun checking books out to the students! I also had four classes come in to check out math books and did four classes of Kercheski Method for more math books. Finished up the Shapes and Designs math books with stamping and barcoding. Had my student who was working off book fines come in today with her lost book! Yeah! It had only been checked out once before, so I was glad it was back! And she doesn't have to work anymore! Did some laminating for three teachers tonight. I took in a little timer I had, and when I turn on the laminator, I set the timer for 10 minutes. If not done, I give it another 5 minutes. Works great! Got caught up on all my notes from students. Some to see if their old school can find their lost book or if it was paid. Others to ask for a book we don't have. Then I got more - ha! Love my job!

Booktalks for 8th Graders

Came in today and already there was trouble with the copier machine! So I helped out with that. Did my word of the day and put it up. I got the great opportunity to booktalk for the 8th graders today and up my book age a bit. They did check out some awesome books I talked on! It was great! Did that for four classes. Checked out books to Mr. H for his class sets. Also checked out math books a la Kercheski to Ms. S. and got the rest of her books ready for checking out tomorrow. I had the boys and my student work on the new Shapes and Design books so all I had to do was write the numbers on the ends. We are almost all done with that group, then on to the next math book! First period was crazy. I had a class of 8th graders, then all our South students came in this morning. It was a bit on the overload side of things! I had a student come in 6th period and work off her book fines, and she's almost done with that! I'm so proud of her! She did a great job working with our math books, then helping me check out! During the staff meeting today, I worked on the math books and putting their numbers on the ends and got all caught up with the books the students had stamped and barcoded. Checked out a few other students here and there since they weren't with their class when they got books before and some kids came in to trade out their library books and get new ones. We had quite a few students with overdue books out from last year or other years, so we note that and we talk about options to get those taken care of. They still get to check out one book at a time until they are taken care of! Another fabulous day in the library! Books flew off the shelves!

9-11

I could not let today go by without a memorial to 9-11. So  I brought in my fabric and gathered the books we had. Most of our kids were not even born yet. I had a group in this morning that will come in about every other day and one of them picked up our Tribute book and looked at it during 1st period, but that was about it. I may do this one more year, that will be 15 years. I'll have to see after that. Another great day in the library! Two orientations with book talks and a lot of the books I'm talking about have been checked out! Makes me happy, but then I need to find more books to talk about and put up! I still have more on my cart, but they are paperbacks and need to be covered, so that will happen Monday! Had my aides finish up all my Kercheski check outs today. We only messed up one class, so that was easily taken care of! Got Mr. S and Mrs. C's books all done and taken to their classes. Handed out Realidades workbooks to the students that paid for them (new ones have been ordered and are on their way!).Quite a few of our kids still have books out from last year. So they only get to check out one book at a time until those are taken care of. Most of the students were "Oh, yeah, that's on my shelf at home!" Hopefully they will bring them in! Some were from other schools so I had to contact the other school to see if it was there, or if it had been paid for. Had two students in for lunch and one of them left a nasty surprise on one of our search computers. Just made me ill. Not only that I saw it, but that another student might have. I didn't know her name, but I did know the girl she was with. Ended up taking a picture with my phone and sending all the info to our campus monitor and our behavior specialist. Checked out a class set of Language Network to a teacher. Tried to help another with document camera issues, but the two doc cams we had wouldn't work for her. Off for the weekend with books in tow. I still have classes coming in for booktalks next week too! Must get busy! I had one of our teachers in today and as I rattled off books and talked about them, she asked me (have you read all those?), I had to say yes! Of course!

Caution, You are in a Library

Took up Mrs. C's spanish books up first thing this morning. Then I got ready for five classes of 6th graders to come in and get the library orientation and check out books. A very busy day! I did go along the shelves and put books up on top to begin with, and made sure I put up books that I could do a book talk on. Three classes got orientation and book talks, two got just the orientation. Checking them out took a long time! I had aides half the day and that went really well when they were around, but the rest of the time I was on my own! Most of the classes ran over the period time (but luckily they were block classes, so no big deal) but the last class I made sure to give them the information quick and check out books right away so they would be done by the time the bell rang and they did! One piece of my blurb I was really proud of    (and will put it here when I can!)   A very busy day with lots of talking then off to our Rogue Librarian PLC meeting at the Ram! My blurb:

Caution! You have entered a library! There is more death, lies and betrayals than you will ever experience. Things can get graphic, consequences play out. Princesses to break your heart or your arm, and dragons to pet or turn you into ash. Zombies lurk on these shelves and love conquers even vampires. Magic reigns, cooking triumphs and fairy tales twist ancient myths to urban truths. Beware! These books are not safe! There are also tales of great sacrifice and love, angst and compassion as the characters struggle with their own misconceptions. Everyone learns. Enter at your own risk!