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!