12 Days of Work Left

A great day in the library. Had classes in today that weren’t looking for books, but doing their ‘one pagers’ on their recent book read and sitting at the tables so they could all be in their small groups. It was so cool!! I’ve started talking up the idea to teachers as they come and go! Got all the rest of the repaired books put out, and had just three that need more work. Sat on the phone with our bookkeeper for awhile so we could figure out why in the world is my ASB Junior Library Guild fund so low?? Well, it turns out that it was funded by students and parents paying off their book fines and there is now a whole separate account for that and there was quite a bit of money in there! I was worried! How was I going to pay Junior Library Guild when that comes up to renew?? But now I know, so all is well. Got the new invoice from Escape Fiction and sent that to our principal for review. Got the news that the books I sent in to LMSS got all processed and are on their way back to us!!! SQUEEEE!! So excited to get new books in!!! Did some laminating after school. Both lunches were in today. 

13 Left...Don’t Catch One on Your Tongue!

We were busy today, not so much in checking out, but lots of other things going on. I made a new little bulletin board with a ‘books are like a snow flake...’ with the idea that they are all different, but then on the bottom I put a tiny notice that said ‘But Please don’t try to catch one on your tongue...’ we had a sub come in and she cut out some gorgeous snowflakes, I did a few and my aides did a few. Did a talk for Mrs. M and her students on how to use the catalogue search to look up books by genre and also to use the Lexile numbers and navigating other interests off a book. It was a bit of fun! I got hung up on ‘realistic fiction’ and really puzzled over why we didn’t have any books in our system, so googled around and tried ‘interpersonal relationships’ and there they were! My PA came in today and we talked about the library space, how to get our teachers and staff to use this amazing place in our building. From maker spacers, to surveys, to student input to putting back up our projector, using white boards for student interaction. Lots of great ideas! We were going to have a presentation on the interactive projectors, but so few could come, that we asked our presenter if we could do it another time and she agreed, so hopefully in January we will get that going to see about interaction. Had a new student today and he did really well, showed him around the library, had him pick a shelf to put away. Started to check the books I repaired to see if they could be put back out and got about 15 all set up to head back onto the front lines! Off to make Christmas cookies for our Bible Study group who will all be here tomorrow!

14 Days and Kenny G

Yes, I did not write last night because I got home and then off to see Kenny G right here in Salem! We were so excited he was coming here! My hubby does a jazz radio show on our local KMUZ radio station so we bought tickets months ago to celebrate our anniversary (#42!) and the day finally arrived! But, back to work! I got all my Battle of the Books books all stamped and off to LMSS so we can be sure and get them back in time for our students to start reading after we get back from winter break. Did lots of housecleaning today, just two book talks for Ms. R. We were pretty quiet. That’s all I really remember! So on to the real today!

15 Days to Go!

That was my theme for the new window board I made counting down the days until we leave for winter break. Very similar to the one I did last year! Also redid my counter top for the non-fiction shelf with winter themed books. Love it!! Taking down the old ones and putting up the new ones took a lot of time today. Also helped a bit with getting the Scholastic Book Fair off! Glad that is done and over with. Took all the rest of the money up to the bookkeeper so she can send off the check to them. Put away most of the books from the displays, but then I get distracted! A student will be in the library during 7th because she broke her foot, along with the boy who is still there with a broken wrist. I had one aide get moved into Read 180 program and they gave me a new aide, who I noticed was on the OSS (Out of School Suspension) list for today and tomorrow....not sure how I feel about that... A very busy back at work day and I think it helped me feel better! My back feels better and though I still have a bit of a sniffly nose, my spirits are up and things went well today!

Thankful Hug Give-away

A long day at work before our Thanksgiving break and I started off with a huge hug from an employee that used to work at Leslie. She fell down our stairs a couple of years ago, backwards and really hit her head. She is finally back to work part time at LMSS and I went in to get some books for our annual book give-away and to give her a hug, a card and some flowers! She was so very glad to see me and we both hugged and cried for about 20 minutes! She was so inspiring to our students and had a great marketing program there, that was shut down when she couldn’t come back because of the brain trauma. But so good to see her and that she’s working again, just part time, but still!!! Working again!!! Made my whole Thanksgiving weekend!! I picked out my books and headed back to Leslie. Book Fair was up and running with help from some of our other staff. I delivered books, laminated a few things, ran the book fair and then the rest of the day I worked on my three boxes of books I needed to repair. I went through lots of our book glue!! They will now all sit and dry over our five day break and we’ll see where they are when we come back! Ready to put back on shelves or for ‘other’ interventions! Had to pack up the book fair. Started about 5:45 since I had to run out and get my signs, then started loading in the boxes with their wares, it took me until about 7:30 tonight to get everything all done, and I was done too! So thankful that the book fair is over, I got most of my Battle of the Books books all bought thanks to the book fair, and a great day! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

That was Different

I have to work 2.5 days through today and tomorrow so I get Wednesday off! Huzzah! Love that schedule! Today I started at 8am, even though I wasn’t supposed to start until 9, I had to go to my Pathway this morning. Childhood Trauma and how that affects Learning. So very good! Then on my way back to work around 11, I asked my hubby if he wanted to meet me for lunch at one of our favorite places, La Hacienda - it’s not far from Leslie, and he did! So I had a nice lunch with him before heading on to work. When I got back to work, I had a phone call that we had our book give-away tomorrow and to be sure and come to meet someone...our teacher that fell down the stairs and really hit her head horribly hard is doing part time work at LMSS!! I was so excited! I had heard she was there, so I found out what time she came in and will go over there to pick my books and greet her! I made up a quick card for her (hey, we’re in a school right? We have construction paper, pictures, glue sticks....!) and sent out a notice to staff for them to come and sign. I checked in a whole bin full of books and put away most of them. Sold a few things here and there to parents of students who came in for conferences after 4. Had two girls from other middle school libraries come to see my library and how I have it done and we had some good talks and I got a good recommendation for my students who want to read high school appropriate books - to send home a letter to their parents/guardians/whomever to sign before I give the student the book. Loved that. Took up book fair money to our bookkeeper and we counted the batch I had turned in last Friday to our office manager and the new one I had ready for today. Trained our IC on how to collect book fair money since I had to leave for the day at 5:45 and conferences go until 7. (Or 7:30, I forget which!) She is so amazing! Work from 10am - 7:15 tomorrow and then I am done until Monday! Huzzah!

6 Weeks Done

Forgot all about this last night! Book Fair went well today, has a lot of purchases! Finished up covering the Outcasts United books a gift from the Salem Public Library Foundation, then sent out an email to all the teachers that a class set was ready to go as well as five adult versions! I got immediate response from two teachers! That's exciting! I had also sent them all the blurb from SPLF with some of the events that will happen in February. Our second six weeks are over! Conferences next week on Monday night and all day Tuesday which means book repair time for me!

Depressing Reality

Found more items missing today from our book fair, so we're at about $100 worth of items I know are missing. That makes me so very sad. Listened to a webinar on the OSLIS Gale site today. Took awhile between everything else going on in a normal day! Covered some books. Had the laminator get all balled up on someone running posters through and I had to finagle with it to get it all pulled out and running the right way again. Crazy sad day.

Meeting

Today we had a meeting in the library of the South Salem Connections (I think it was!) There was a lot going on in the library. Lots of students coming in to complete work. Students coming to the book fair. And we had this meeting set up for around lunch time. We had to put almost all the tables together, and a lady brought in sandwiches and other munchable things for the people who came. They talked about our Peer Mentor group and what they’ve accomplished, as well as some of the other things our student body has done. It was very nice. Since it was over lunch, I handed our passing person two of our old lunch passes and if the students were coming down to buy, she could send two at a time into the library to get their purchases and then leave so someone else could come in. It worked pretty good, though my regular students were not happy about it I was told! But there’s no way they could have all come in with our meeting. Tomorrow they’ll be in and happy! Had a $25 hat stolen today. That makes about $50 stolen that I know of. I’m sure there’s more. Made about $200 today, so not bad considering we were basically closed for lunch. I made out our overdue slips today, and the computer formatted them different, and I was like, oh, I like the portrait style more, printed them up, put on the notes I do by running them back through the printer. As I was writing down the classes for the students I haven’t done before I noticed one thing, No Book Title! The notices were short, so they got the call number and barcode of the book overdue, but no title! I was a bit tempted to do them again, but decided not to. Next time I’ll make sure I have them the landscape way with the titles on them! 

Crawling

Oh my! That’s how my day felt today, like I was just crawling along! After 2nd period I was certain we were already into fifth period, but no! Did good on the book fair today, about $400. I cleaned up old emails. Went back and took a look at things I had left as reminders, like, what about getting an entry set up for our Super Multi DVD Drives, and had kept looking up ‘multi’ in search. I never saw it, so I asked Ms. D today where might that be and she had put it under ‘LG....’ with no ‘multi’ in the title! So I got those 5 DVD drives barcoded today and ready to go. Well, two of them were already in use! And another got checked out this afternoon! Glad they are getting some use already! Had both lunches in today for the book fair and it was nice to see the kids buying stuff they wanted. Packed up more discarded books for Garten. Did just a lot of interaction with students today in the book fair, getting them checked out, getting teachers a few things. Even had a sale before I went to score volleyball from a mom who was coming to see her daughter play! Our girls didn’t do very well today, but Thursday is another game! Hopefully they will do better!

Book Fair Opens!

Yeah! (Just picture Kermit the Frog waving his little arms and yelling 'yeah!!!' and that's how I feel!) Got into work early so I could hang up our banner and get the signs out before today's storm hits with wind and rain. And I was so bummed on Friday, went to the bank to get change for the book fair and they were closed. For Veteran's Day. I managed to get most of my coin change from my hubby who has a Tupperware container he dumps all his change into. Then I went to Safeway and bought a bag of potato chips - got three $5's and a couple of $1's. I had a $5, so that made my $20 in $5's! Then I went to Winco and bought more chips, some raisins and a Kombucha and asked to get my change all in $1's! And he did! My hubby and I had $8 in $1's so I was set! So I managed my usual $60 in change for the book fair this morning! That was close! And I did have students in right away buying, so glad that it was ready for them! Had three classes in for book talks and I asked if I could show the book fair trailers and their teacher said yes, I could, so I did. During one showing, the fire alarms went off, luckily while it was sunny and not raining, but the wind was cold!! Did about $110 today, so better than my usual first day. I didn't get any of the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid books in, so I had to order a box. I hope they get here tomorrow, but if not, I'm sure they'll be here by Wednesday. I was very unhappy that someone stole a fidget spinner from the pack. Then, when a class was in, another one went missing. I let the teacher know and after school, one of our teachers found one of the missing ones on a chair, under the table in the far corner of the library from the book fair. So, at least one was found! Got all my books put away this afternoon. Had a teacher take the last of the books from Sprague, and that made me happy that they will have a new home! 

Book Fair Delivered!

Spent most of the day working on covering the Outcasts United books. Did some laminating, just daily stuff (this is Monday so I don't quite remember!!) The book fair arrived 5th period and so I spent the rest of the day opening the cases, pulling stuff out of the boxes and recording what was in what box so when I go to pack up, I'll know exactly what box had which stuff. Made it so much easier last time when I did it that way! I'm really liking that we can put the book fair all in the old computer lab and everything can go in there! Lots of other cool new stuff, some fleece blankets, book bags (two I really like1) - one huge omission!! None of the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid books! I know my fair was packed before it came out, but I was really hoping a box would come my way and it didn't - ugh! I still have some unpacking to do for Monday, but most of it is done! Hoping we can do $3,100 on this fair! Looking forward to a nice three day weekend up with my daughter, her hubby and granddaughters at Great Wolf Lodge! Never been there, so it'll be interesting!

Got You Covered

Well, all right, only half of you. Today I pulled out my class set of Outcasts United to get them covered with our clear contact paper. It just helps making them last longer. I had 40 to do, and I think I got done about half. So, a good day. Both lunches were in. Did some emails of stuffs for a bunch of different people. Had three classes in to check in/out books today and did a mini book talk for two of them. The library was never really quiet today, but glad to churn out those books! I'm hoping to release them to teachers next week!

Scholastic Kind of Day

The Scholastic Book Fair is nearly upon us and I had to kick into gear today! Posters went up, brochures went out, toolkit checked, announcements sent in, notice for our online school site went in. Teachers notified, sent out a link to the book trailers. Definitely a Scholastic kind of day! I did one book talk, then found the DVD with the book fair book trailers on it, so did that one for the next class. Ran the trailer video all through both lunches. Had to write up a student today for not running, but rather bouncing down the halls, looked right at me and bounced right by, went down a hallway and into Ms. V and Ms. K, turned around, bounced right by me again and off down the other long hallway. He got written up several times today from what I heard. Gave some Penzey jars to our after school program and they were looking for jars to start painting in a week or two! So good timing! Off to score volleyball tonight, the 7th grade girls have their opening game tonight!

We Are All Ambassadors

We were very honored to have Mr. Andrew Young speak at our assembly today for the Harold Schnitzer Spirit of Unity award! It was amazing that this man who walked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mayor of Atlanta, came here to our school! It was put on by the Wholistic Peace Institute and we had three schools here today to be awarded. Our own Leslie, Blanchett, and Jesuit schools were here to show how they have impacted their communities. He talked about we all, all of us, in the halls, in classes, in our school, in our families, in our communities are all ambassadors of peace, and we have a choice every day on how to make that happen. After he talked he rode in his chair around the gym and let students ask him questions! So that is the only reason I got even close to him! He did not make it down to the library, but all the important people here for this did! It was a great morning, and we were all very blessed to hear and see this great man, talking as if we were all a guest in his living room. Very cool! Back to business, had math books to check in, I gave two book talks today on realistic fiction. I had a stack of books that I asked the students to thumbs up or thumbs down on whether a book was realistic or not. They did really well and I think they engaged better than if I just talked about it! I sent off two small boxes of books to two other schools today, and a big box off to LMSS to process for us. I had to talk to our bookkeeper about a girl who returned a book she thought she lost, so she paid for it, then it was found! But the computer didn't have a payment on it, just that it was lost, so we are going to keep an eye on it to see what the computer says tomorrow! A fabulous day, glad I got to be a small part of it!

Ready!

I had my aides today make sure their shelves were perfect for our visitor coming on Monday! I am so excited Ambassador Young is coming to Leslie! Big wigs planning people were in today looking around, talking with our principal, making notes. I went around at the end of the day and did some additional straightening up, displaying diverse books, cleaning counters, even cleaned out my office so if they need space to stash stuff, they will have it! I loaded up 3 boxes of books I had for repair work, the box I have ready to send to LMSS, the box of books that other LMA's haven't requested, a box of books that's been on my file cabinet since last June. Cleaned off the main check out counter, cleaned off my office desk. It looks so clean! I might have to keep it that way! Wrote up the last of the books for the other LMA's to consider and had two responses, so I put those aside to ship out on Monday. Had both lunches in today. Had a call from a book seller and had to tell them sorry, we don't do that anymore. When we had librarians in the schools, they would take a look, but now we have to abide by our contracts and just don't have time! One of the LMA's Ms. M got a Crystal Apple award last night! She's been at her school a long time and recently became it's LMA, so she is very involved there. We are all so happy that she won an award! 46 people were nominated, and twelve got awards, so that's pretty special out of the hundreds and probably a few thousand of district employees! Gave a good look around the library and I think we are all set for Monday. Didn't close the windows this week, just so when they come in they'll see our beautiful view! I'm one happy LMA today!

Jumble

Today was a jumble of a bunch of little stuff. I did get all the rest of the textbook stuff properly put away. Did my shelving. Talked with a teacher on helping out one of our students in activities in the library. Possibly doing some shredding and some book organizing off our cart. Did a bit of ordering. Packed up another box of discarded books. Went into the box Sprague sent and checked the books I had thought about adding to Leslie. Most I kept, a few I put back in my 'other' box to look at after I get these all ready to go. So excited to go see "I'll Push You" tonight with my favorite librarian Mrs. H! We did the Camino Primitivo last summer (2016) and it'll be fabulous to see another journey!

Cleaning

When I got in this morning, all the chairs were up on the tables, so I decided it would be a good idea to have my aides clean up for our special guest who arrives on Monday! I had them put all the chairs down, dust the shelves and books. Clean the tables. I took down my Halloween display and started to work on a Thanksgiving one. It's coming along, but I'm not happy with it. Got a message back from our technology guy to do some more research on the span wall and to get some teachers involved. I asked our IC who I should talk to and she suggested Ms. P and she's the head of the technology committee! She was so excited! Mr. M is behind me, and Mr. G our LMSS PA. So now I need passionate teachers who love technology and are willing to build lessons around using this amazing piece of technology. So, things progress onto another step! I put away nearly a whole cart full of books that belong in the back. I nearly got them all done except for the 7th grade math books. Science got done and I fixed the books that the aides had put in the wrong place, all the LIT books are back on the shelf, all the 6th and 8th grade math books got put away along with our Core Connections for our accelerated students. Had one of our counselors come in and start arranging stuff for a meeting and I was "Woah! What's going on? LEAP is usually in here after school" well, she had reserved the library, and yes, there it was on the calendar, but I had no idea nor did Mr. J who runs the LEAP club! So we hunted him down and he was so accommodating! He would just keep the students in the Commons until the meeting was over, then they'd come to the library. I also put away a bunch of books today from my shelves! I even repaired a couple of books! Time for bed for me! I'm tired!