Searching

Today I had two classes come in not for book talks, but to learn how to use the search computers to look up books they might want to check out. I showed them our library media page on the school web page, then we went through the ins and outs of how to look up books and then find them! It was really fun (I looked up keyword zombies for them!) and I think they learned a few things. Just goes to show you how important it is to bring back our librarians!! If there were librarians in our elementary schools, I would not have had to do this! Did a non-fiction book stroll for another class today. Pulled books from the different Dewey numbers and walked through them for the classes. It was fun! Tomorrow I have to do a "How-to" book talk and have pulled some books for that! Worked on some of the Scholastic stuff today, funny how that is almost here already! Wow! They gave me a CD of book talks and I had to play it three times to get it to load and play all the way through it. Checked in and out books all day. Cleaned up some email stuff. I might think of some other stuff I did later! I did notice today during our first passing period, not one student ran, and they were so quiet!! I loved it!!

PowerPoint

Today I worked on a great powerpoint for the students to get them excited about BOB - Battle of the Books. We just do a mini version here in our district. Last year I didn't get enough support from the students, but the year before I had five teams all working hard! So I'm hoping we'll get enough students this year to make it happen! I have about 10 slides with a book trailer link and it took about 20 minutes to run, so perfect to do during lunches. I sent it out to all the other middle school LMA's for them to see. Checked in/out three classes of math books today, did more books but it was pretty light (that's why I had time to do the powerpoint!) Had both lunches open for the students to play Cool Math on the the computers. I feel very accomplished that I got that all done for November 10th!

Help

Today I had more help than I've ever had before! Then I had to find them something to do! A sub came in and a parent volunteer! That was perfect! I got to help some kids today find something to read and that was fun. I also had a meeting and had to leave at three and drive over to the meeting. A pretty typical day, with nothing extraordinary going on. Books got checked out, books got checked in. Students got help. I'm excited to have a great volunteer that'll be coming in every week! I'll be able to get some projects done! Yeah!

Today

What did I do today?? Finished the webinar. Gave two book talks. Checked in and out books. Shelved all the non-fiction. I know there must be more! But my brain is dead. I did score an incredibly awesome volleyball match tonight! Best set of games I've done!

A Little Bit of Everything

I had four classes in today to check in and out books. I put out a few more books from repairs. Covered two paperbacks so I could put them out. Watched part of a webinar on new books and got some titles to check out. Stamped some teacher materials. Finished my boo - k pumpkins and got them all up and set. We are having an AVID night tonight, so I took some of my color pages in my Beautiful Room and cut them up for bookmarks so they could have a maker table while people were waiting during the evening. Did some laminating for teachers, and redid some book covers while I had the machine going! Checked for some lost books today as well. Talked with a volunteer parent who is now cleared to come and work for me! Huzzah!

Boo - k Graveyard

Today I worked on a Halloween themed set up in the library. I made a tombstone 'The Boo - k Graveyard' and displayed a bunch of Halloween themed books and had my aides put up scary books up on their shelves. Checked out three sets of math books and checked in three sets. Did two of my Library of Congress booktalks - I really love to do those!! Checked in and out all day. Made a cat out of a discarded book and worked on some 'leaf' pages to sprinkle around the books. I have two sets of book picture pumpkins drying out and will finish them tomorrow! Loving how it is turning out. Also put out arrows on the Margaret Peterson Haddix poster and quotes on the hallway saying "This Thursday!!!" I think I'll flip them to say "Tomorrow!!" On Wednesday and on Thursday say "Today!!!" I had one student say he was going to go. Makes me happy! Checked the books I had repaired Friday and got them all out on the shelves. Got in some new books!! Squeeee!! Not very many (10), but some at least!! Put in their tattle strips and got them out there!

Pink Out Day

Today we finished up our Hands Are Not For Hurting week with a Pink Out day. It was so amazing to see the students participate! So many kids wore pink the halls were nearly totally pink during passing times. Very cool! I spent most of the day working on repairs. Did that in between taking care of the students. A lovely day! Our lovely staff got together for a pink picture at the end of the day! The black shirts with 'Fox' on them are to encourage our office manager who is currently in the fight.

Shake it Out!

Today we participated in the Great Shake Out along with a ton of people all over the country. Unfortunately, it was during a nasty bit of rain and wind, but staff had been given a heads up so we were prepared, got the kids under desks, then outside and back in quick as could be. It really was the quickest we'd ever been out and back in. Book talks happened today, three of them! I did my Library of Congress speech and I am so loving to do that! Included Kate DiCamillo, past National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and Gene Luen Yang, our current Ambassador. Then I talked about Margaret Peterson Haddix who will be at the Salem Public Library next Thursday. Had four classes in our computer lab. Checked in and out a ton of books. My first period aides put all their books away this morning, and I have a full cart ready for them to put away tomorrow! I got all the non-fiction put away today. Laminated for three teachers, maybe four?? Sent off some books for processing from one of our students who donates books to us. Sent off book requests for Sasquatch by Roland Smith and two books on the Maori from Australia. Added a book onto my book cart. I will just keep adding until they send it in! I am so hoping books come in before winter break. 

Had Time

Spent a part of today finishing cleaning up in my office. I had a pile of papers I went through and cleaned up. Taking out the library page of all the newsletters, putting barcodes on calculators I had piled on my desk and putting the ones that don't work in a box ("They're dead Jim."). Put the extra wheels for the white board with it back in the workroom it's in now. Got the books from last inventory that had invalid barcodes all re-entered thanks to the lovely Ms. M down at LMSS. Part of that pile was book lists of things I needed to look at to order, so I did that and added to my Baker and Taylor order since it hasn't been approved yet. I know they've been busy with a huge project for the elementary schools, but at this rate we'll be lucky to see new books before winter break. I had to look up each book, check to see what grade it was geared for, get the ISBN and log it into my cart. Had one class in today to check out books. They were very wild. I was surprised since I usually have our lunches be the noisiest, but lunches were silent compared to this group! Glad to get more great books on my order! Volleyball scoring again tonight! I love watching all the girls play!

Research

Today was pretty easy. We only had one class come in for new math books (which I had forgotten about after talking with the sub just this morning...!) There were a ton of books to check in. Checked out a class set of science books to Mrs. C, then checked in three class sets of books from Mr. G. Got to spend some time looking at the websites we visited last week and put together a quick "Look at this! Look at that!!" Piece to send out to all our Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies teachers. I also sent that out to our special ed teachers since one of the links has a 'reader' function for research reports. Put away all the rest of the non-fiction after a lovely helper in the office came down and did some. Did a bunch of laminating and finally had to change the laminating rolls. I really dread doing that but today went pretty slick and easy. Asked about getting the new phone extensions for everyone and our PA put together a Google doc for us to all add in our new numbers. Sent in a request for adding in some books I found last year when I was doing inventory that didn't have working barcodes. So I sent in the ISBN's, barcodes, title and spine label. Seemed to be easier than sending in the books, but we'll see what the office says.

Hands Are Not for Hurting

At least I am more on top of this than Banned Book Week! Today starts Hands and Words are not for Hurting week here at school. The focus this year is on "Who is the most important woman in your life?"  So after a great email from one of our counselors, I brought out our books of strong women and then set up a craft table for students to make their own hands to display here in the library. They do it in the Commons, but here I wanted them to also consider putting in the name of the most important woman of their life on the hand. I had several students from both lunches do it and I believe that some were doing it as I left from our after school program. I also did four book talks today. Two on the Library of Congress talk and one on some of our non-fiction, 600's, 700's and 921's. Checked in three classrooms of math books. Not to mention checking in and out a ton of books today! I was so happy that two of the classes I booktalked had aides here to help me out! Found that one of our books wouldn't come up in our search, so I sent the title to our office and there was a glitch in the MARC record, and they fixed it. Then I tackled our Scholastic books for the book fair, reading a chapter of each until I got the gist of them. I think tomorrow we'll be a bit more quiet! I'll hopefully get the library in better order!

Statewide Inservice

An amazing gift to all of us! We spent half the day at Salem Public Library and the other half of the day working in our libraries. I checked out a book on my way out too! Finished off 'Kercheski-ing' math books for Mr. G. Laminated. Organized my work notebook. Talked with Scholastic about the upcoming Book Fair. Talked with Ms. C about the atmosphere in the library during lunches. Loved going to Salem Public, seeing their resources, getting a tour. I am definitely sending out emails to staff that Mrs. S would love to come and show the students the ins and outs of doing great research using our databases. A very rewarding day! 

PLC

Today we had a three hour PLC and so I went in to work to put in my one hour I still needed for the day. Made sure all the computer lab computers were turned off for the four days. Did two 'Kercheski' method math classes. Put paper in the copy machine. Our PLC time was good, but the webinar we had with EBSCO was phenomenal! I can't wait to share it with our teachers and go "You should be using this every day!!!" I have dinked around in it, but this was a great reminder and new tricks to use that have me wanting to share with our staff!

On the Third Day

Our students had to go only three days this week while I still have one and a half days to finish the week. Today I gave two book talks - again with my incredible Library of Congress shirt and talk! I love doing that! Checking in and out for them. Then three classes of math books 'Kercheski' style. Students in and out of the library all day. Students in the computer lab. I took a box full of The Outsiders (67!) out to my car this afternoon to take to the LMA at Judson tomorrow morning. Printed up a poster, but it didn't all print, so the teacher is making another copy of it all in bold, so it will hopefully pick it all up this time. Cleaned up all the poster making rolls and boxes on the counter. Just a regular day all in all. Though the day went by incredibly fast!

Haddix

Today I got all charged up that Margaret Peterson Haddix is going to be at our Salem Public Library! Her poster was upstairs, but I took it down and printed up a bunch of her quotes. Then I made two copies, put a poster and copies of quotes in the library, along with all the books we have by her. Then I put the same quotes and stuff outside in the hallway by the library. It looks really good! Lots of checking in and out today. Had classes in all morning checking in and out books. Got all the non-fiction put away and since my 5th period aide wasn't feeling good, I did all her set of graphic novels and cleaned up that section of the shelves. Glad to highlight a great author and I hope the kids pick up her stuff! Still so good! I also scored another volleyball match tonight. So great to watch these students play! I love it!

Guinea Pigs, Ferrets and Parakeets

That's what I felt the library embodied today! We had two classes in to check in and out books. Four classes in to check out Spanish workbooks. Three classes of math books done 'Kercheski' style. Students in and out all day taking tests, checking in and out books, working on the science projects, our South students in, both lunches in, an amazing cacophony of students, reasons and goulash! I love it though! Even as I long for a peaceful moment, I am so happy our library is getting way more use this year than last I do believe!

Library of Congress

I got to do book talks today and wear my new T-shirt from the Library of Congress! I was so excited to share some pictures off the net, and talk about Thomas Jefferson and his library becoming the basis for the library! Then I got a great segway into how Kate DiCamillo was the U.S. National  Ambassador for Young People's Literature, appointed by the Library of Congress! What a great tie in to talk about all her books! That was very fun today. I got to do that 2nd and 6th period today. Checked in and out lots of books today. Sent out my aides with call slips. Didn't get finished with all the Spanish workbooks but did get enough done that they will be able to pick them up on Monday (135!! Covered, stamped and barcoded!). Then I did a class set of math books for Mr. S. 

Stump to Bowl

So today I had my aide take the stump I had out for my Giving Tree display up to the wood shop class. The teacher thought he might make a bowl from it, so I'm excited to see if he does that! Took the branches out to my car. Had three classes in today to check out books. Lots of individual students as well coming to work on work sheets, check out books. Science students doing a project on lead in drinking water. Covered more Spanish workbooks. Collected books for book talks tomorrow. Had a sub work on shelving the non-fiction for me. Did some laminating for the firemen that came in to teach students how to do CPR, then take the dummies home to teach their families and community. So they had lesson sheets they had me laminate. Was so glad to do that! Did some more laminating after that as well. Got in a bunch of textbooks from South HS that were Leslie books that were turned in over there from former Leslie students (I actually remembered one of them!).

Whatever Day

Crazy day. Redid my poster just inside the door. Covered more workbooks. Checked in and out all day. Had classes in the computer lab for four periods so did a lot of resetting passwords and helping them get onto the computers. Had the techs come in so I roped them into doing all sorts of things. Taking the old projectors away. Getting 2 of the new wireless down to the PE teachers. Getting the other three out into classrooms. Catalogueing all the old projectors out. Harvesting them for parts (lamps and filters). One of my favorite things was a student that came in, dropped off a book then was getting ready to leave. So I commented that 'oh, you didn't find a book today?' And she said "No." Then we got to talking about our cats and she said she loved a good cat book. I showed her one of the cat books and then mentioned The Cat at the Wall by Deborah Ellis and the girl ended up checking that out! A good day! Then I went to score volleyball after my shift and that was fun. I really am enjoying doing that!

Covering

Spent most of today covering those workbooks, I got at least 40 done and started to put on the barcodes. Pretty quiet library day. Lots of students in to renew their overdue books (!). No classes in though. Got a call and talked to a mom about volunteering for me, so we'll meet on the 18th. The year is rolling on by!

Notices

As soon as I got in today I printed up all the overdue book notices just since September! Nearly 300! I had to look up where each student had their Language Arts class and got them all separated by class and by period for that class so the teachers could hand them out. That took awhile! The rest of the day was taken up with helping students find books and then covering more Realidades 1 workbooks. Hoping to get those done by the end of the week. I got a 'kudos" for doing that from our Spanish teacher!