Celtic Christmas

Yes, today was playing Pandora all day on my Celtic Christmas mix. I love it. It almost covered the craziness of the students on a triple threat day. Winter Solstice day, Full Moon and the last day of school for the year! It was quite the day. I think I survived. Had my PA come and pick up the 3D printer and our K’NEX build set. I pulled out all the remotes that had been stuffed in drawers since probably before I came and deleted the ones with barcodes, made sure batteries were out and got them all in a box. Both lunches in and I thought A lunch would do me in, but I survived and B lunch was actually good today in comparison. Ah, the joys of the last school day! I took a couple of trips out to my car with stuffs. We also had locker clean out and got in lots of books. They did it the last 15 minutes of school and I got in a couple of carts worth of books. A few I hadn’t seen in awhile! I will get them checked in when we get back. Glad to go home and rest. See you in 16 days!

Cleaning Drawers

Today I cleaned out some old drawers that I had put stuff in a long time ago and decided today was a good day to revisit them. I found old sheets of barcodes for workbooks that had never been used, so I deleted them. I knew that was one thing they were trying to do at LMSS. I also threw away a ton of old, two to three years old notes on various things I no longer need. Also cleaned out another drawer of thank you’s and envelopes and put them all together. Found a bunch of notepads. I took a bunch of the cards and all the notepads but one and took them up to the staff room for anyone to take if they wanted. I also found some old book illustrations postcards and since I had enough to cover all our Language Arts people I wrote them all a note and told them something to the tune of ‘you help me pick out ..... books for our students’. I hope they like it.Had both lunches in. Got another box and filled it and added to my surplus pile. One more day, seven periods!

Pushing Through

Still light headed, still very achy, but managed to get through the day. I think I did too much yesterday, so paced myself a bit more today. Have all my carts empty and ready for locker clean out on Friday. Laminated some posters for a teacher who has been patiently waiting. Started going through best books of 2018 for middle schoolers lists and checked up on them to see if they are on order or if I think our students would like them. Goodreads had over 500! No, I didn’t finish their list! But I did get some good books added onto my order. Put away all the non-fiction today and cleaned off ten or so non-fiction books that really need to go mainly because I need the room and I don’t need three copies of a book no one checks out. Had our last STEAM day during lunches today and it was cool to see our students finish their water driven engine! I put it into the sink in the back workroom and we poured water on the paddles and it worked! It was so very cool! Good Job A lunch students! I am really proud of what they did. Then we had to take all the K’NEX and get them packed up and counted to go back to LMSS. I also had a substitute teacher come in today and he is one of the good ones. He’s just got that teacher presence that staff and students respect. He had some time and came in to talk about a few issues going on with him, and I had time to listen and I think he really needed that gift of having someone just listen. I think that sometimes the best thing we can do to our staff is to listen and I was happy to give him that gift. Stayed all the way, but it was close!

Whispers of Thank You’s

I think it’s part of the ‘Kindness’ week thing we are doing? I had several students come up to me today and say in loud whispers ‘Thank you!’ It was very interesting! I would not think I would get anything like that, probably more reserved for teachers but still it was nice! One said he was thankful I was their librarian (I didn’t try to tell him I wasn’t a real librarian, it wasn’t the moment for that!) and another said thank you for all the books I had for them. That was nice! I had a notice that we are doing a locker clean out on Friday, so I had to have carts ready. Drats. Most of my carts have withdrawn books on them! Yikes! So I put books on shelves where I already had withdrawn books and made signs so I’d remember which shelves had withdrawn books on them! I emptied just over three carts of books so I’d have carts for Friday. We also have a student who says they turned in their iPad in August, but no one can find it. So I did a final check today on the iPads I have back in the AEM cart and none of them had the barcode that is missing. I wish I had found it. One of the schools is looking for science book ‘C’ in Spanish and I had ten copies so I transferred them over and sent them off. Sent off four other book requests. Had to do an inventory on our poster maker paper. Mr. T asked if 4th period tomorrow he could bring down his Peer Helper group, and I said yes, looked good! Then I remembered that we were having an assembly tomorrow! So I asked him if he’d rather do Thursday with a full period and he said yes please! He even called me later to thank me again. I found two ‘lost’ books that were on the shelf today for students. Covered a book that for some reason didn’t get covered when I did all the books last week! How did that one slip by? I cleaned off the top shelf under the windows (dead rolly pollys made that happen) and redisplayed books that were in the wrong area or just needed a book up (I like to have three per set of shelves). I actually went home early. Made it ‘sick’ absence for the last 45 minutes of my day so I could get home and rest up. The office was fine with that. Even at lunch they were so nice and didn’t want to send students down, but I had cut my normal 30 to 20, so they let just 20 come down. They are so good to me!

Sick

I am so achy and hurting and can barely move that I called in sick today. Hope all went well.

Icosahedron?

Not sure I've ever heard that one before! But our PA put out a notice on this cool holiday ornament that students could make so I set up a little makerstation for it for next week. I will admit it took awhile to color in the 20 different circles for the ornament, but a very grateful change from all the book lifting this week! It was pretty quiet. I put away all the books Mrs. M and I had pulled for her class yesterday. Helped students find books. Made posters for the leadership kids. Labeled all my new monitors so hopefully they will get back to TIS one day when we're done with them. Had a teacher sign up to check out books Monday. Answered an email about Three Cups of Tea. I have several copies but one school had 22! So they are getting rid of most of them and then we had a discussion on wasn't there some kind of controversy about all that. I found a like to a Tom Brokaw interview and another LMA posted the same link! Ha! We are all ready for winter break! 35 periods to go!

Ni ‘lassui, Mellon

Had to laugh at our lastest Insider video for the district. It was all done by our language services division and was all in different languages with subtitles. At the end, the main host, said ‘Ni ‘lassui, mellon’ which he thought was ‘thank you, friend’ in Elvish! Ha! Loved it! We had classes in today with Mrs. M, and she was doing an activity with traditional stories, fables and legends in many cultures. We had pulled some yesterday, and I went in this morning and got some more out for her classes. It was time to permanently delete my deleted emails stack. I had over 3,600. So I pull up an organization and delete all those, and do that over and over again. I got down to about half that. I deleted more Prentice Hall Lit books and even took the lost ones, checked them in and then deleted those. Then I had to shift shelves. I moved 124 of the Prentice Hall Lit books. Moved over 550 Language Network books and nearly 300 Junior Great books. I’m sore! I even took some aspirin this afternoon since my left hand was really aching. I got all the Prentice Hall Lit books all on the ‘these are deleted shelves.’ Then at the end of the day one of our techs came in with the monitors and keyboards I had asked for back in September! I was so excited! I’m going to get some Raspberry Pi components to use with them! I sent in my order this afternoon for them! A great day, but I’m tired. 

Back on the Shelf

Today I worked on more withdrawing for the Language Arts side of inventory. I ran out of room, drats, again and then I realized I could go ahead and withdraw books and just put them back on the shelf with a label that they were done and just waiting for boxes. So I did all of our Daybooks and Sourcebooks that were on the surplus list. They were all over the place. Some had barcodes, some didn’t. Some were ‘lost’ so I checked them in and then withdrew them. I just ended up being very methodical about it all. Then I thought I got all the Prentice Hall Lit Silver books done, and no! I wasn’t. There are still over a hundred in the back of the student store. Rats! I was thinking I had knocked out three sets today. But no! I’m sure they will be fine sitting there until I get to them! Worked on some things with emails with the rest of the LMA’s like how many days until our overdues turn to lost. Automatic emails. Books on Tape Cassette. Seven more student contact days!

Transparent

I had recently seen Ken Burns’ Civil War series and in there he had talked about the old photographic glass plates and how people had used them for windows in greenhouses. In my book club we had just read The Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig and one of the characters has a greenhouse, again made with the glass plate negatives! So today as I was pulling apart old notebooks of teacher resources I came across these transparencies and decided to cut them to size and then cling them to our windows. I love it! So incredibly cool! I wish I had more! Got six binders pulled apart. One was big enough for a student, the others I put up in the staff room for anyone that could use them. I also did a bit of research on our overload of teacher science resources to get ready to get rid of some for when we do the science inventory. Then I realized that I won’t be here for that one! I’ll be retired! So I’ll content myself with getting the three inventories straightened away that I will be here for!

Monday Monday

I was given a gift of five boxes, so I packed them. Laminated some things for one of our counselors so he could finish a bulletin board. Finished prepping the last of the new books I got in with tattle strips and date due slips and covered the three paperbacks. Sent up a DVD drive to a teacher. Sent two books to other schools that requested them. I refused one request because I didn’t have a copy. I deleted some old dictionaries. I have plenty of nicer ones and they were so ragged I would be ashamed to send them to a class. Sent our surplus list to a high school and they were grateful. I checked books that are in our inventory against our surplus list to find more to withdraw since I had packed boxes. Had both lunches in. A pretty normal day.

No Jury Duty

I was actually disappointed! Rats! Again, I don’t get to serve. I have never had to yet. Came in and worked more in the back, back room on the rack behind the door. I nearly got everything cleaned out and got the dictionaries all reset on the shelves and they look so much better. I also pulled some that were really old and grody. Haven’t withdrawn them yet, but hopefully if my elves and boxes come it’ll happen! I took some time to self care today and read a book (it was a quick read!). Had both lunches in for the last day of Hour of Code. Concert was fabulous last night. Have a good weekend all!

Elves and Boxes

Had my PA in today to check out what was going on and how I was doing. So I showed him all the Language Arts books I had withdrawn and he was pretty shocked by how much there was. I told him that I really needed some boxes and elves to pack and move them out for Garten, ha! We talked Makerspaces, what else I envision for the library, including my roller castors for the shelves, taking out the pony wall, removing the kiosk computers and installing an overhead projector, maybe even a flat screen. There is still so much to withdraw. We also talked about resources such as things we’d do for Makerspaces and yet they would be resources for the school to use. I also tried to get out the rest of the books inside the back, back textbook room, but didn’t get them all. Concert tonight and maybe Jury Duty tomorrow. We’ll see!

Wednesday Withdrawals

And I did a bunch today. Had six plastic tubs of books that I let our IC know I had and she took them and found them all new homes in different classes. Some to Read180, some to System44, some to DLC. I was so happy to see them get a new life after sitting on a shelf for the four years I’ve been here. Mr. A brought in his classes for a test review today. That was really amazing. Had both lunches in for Hour of Code today. Withdrew an entire tables worth of English books. I had to move the boxes out of the way so I could stack these Language Arts books. Some of them were from 1998. That’s a lot!! I just got almost all the carts cleared of withdrawn library books, now they are all filled with LA books. Now I just need boxes. And I’m not even done yet. There was a lot of cleaning out that needed done and still a ton more to go. I’ll show all this to my PA tomorrow when he comes in. I think he may be a bit shocked!

LA Withdrawal

Today I had my aides pull out the Writers 2000 books that were in the back on two carts and withdrew them all. Also some Reader’s Handbooks. These are all on our surplus list and it’s either inventory them or withdraw them. So, I might as well withdraw them. There’s so many textbooks I need to withdraw, but since this year the focus is on Language Arts, that’s the one I’m focusing on this year. I only have about one cart of library books down here left to pack up, but three carts of the textbooks I’m working on. They are all so heavy, I’ve been using smaller boxes to put them into and then doing half textbooks and half library books to save the weight. Had more students work on coding today. Had six classes in to pick up new math textbooks. I had aides do the classes they were here for, but I did two classes that came in when I had no aides. Had only a few students in for A lunch and coding since I had to wait to let them in until I had finished checking out the math books. Had about eight students in during B lunch working on coding, so that was awesome! A good day, lots accomplished.

Snow Time

Well, on my display it’s Snow Time! And it’s cold enough at night to snow! But we have three weeks left to go and time to change things. I also got the Chrome cart to do Hour of Code this week, so that’s available for the students during lunch this week. I had about four for A lunch and three did it for B lunch. But fun to see the students working on the crafts, playing games, reading on their phones and one was doing Duolingo! Some just reading. A good time was had by all! I did the decoration for December, and made the poster for Hour of Code. Put in an announcement for Hour of Code as well. Finished a book for book talks. Packed more books for surplus. Worked the textbooks that the students didn’t have quite right and for my own OCD that they all have to face the same way. Just my personal quirk on that! Had one of the LMA’s want boy adventure book series that didn’t involve any magic (one of his students is not supposed to read those) so I walked around my fiction and came up with about ten series to hopefully catch his eye. Got two kudos from Mr. R on my getting him his science books, only for him to realize he gave me the wrong one, and I turned it around in enough time for his first period class. That was nice of him! 

November 30th

Worked on the new books getting them ready to go out. Had a class in today and had to get tables reset from the class last night and get out some dictionaries for them. Had to kick students out of the bathroom for locking the stall doors from the inside. One of them called back at me  'F*** you B****'!!!"  Had a discussion about language from our LMA group on a book. I made a comment and one of the ladies privately emailed me and was pretty PA about how a book I had (she took time to look that up??) had a European comment and was quite nasty and perhaps I'd better find my white out because she was going to let me know of all the other words I might want to censor from the book. Really??? I wrote her and said Please don't. I'm really fragile at the moment and I don't know what the impact is between reading and hearing (the original discussion was on an audio book from England, not the American version we have on the shelf). and I was fine with whatever the group went with. Did not hear back from her. When a Counselor brought in a student who needed some quiet time I begged him if I could have some too??? Took all the books I had pulled from our back lit room to edit them to reflect that they were in the 'lit' group rather than out on the floor. And put them away. I was so ready for the day to be over! I don't see next week being any better!

November 29th

Oh my! Totally forgot! It was a pretty mind numbing day! Spent most of the day getting out an old set of English books, Write 2000 and taking them apart. I noticed that the teacher notebooks were really big, and we just happened to need more 3 inch binders for our AVID program. So I pulled them apart, withdrew them (been on the surplus list for a long time) and managed to get about 11 notebooks for our students for them. A really great way to spend the day, culling old resources to make new resources for our students. A big win/win for everyone. 

Fiction 99.2% Done

Finished off the fiction section today and I’m at 99.2% done! That’s pretty amazing I’d say! I didn’t really think I’d get it done, but just decided to chunk through it. Huzzah! Had both lunches in today and scored volleyball again tonight! Took a look at the inventory for Language Arts - oh my! Not sure if I’m ready for that one!

Nineteen Days

Usually we only have three weeks before we go to winter break, but this year we have four weeks!! Oh my. I spent most of today stripping and putting due dates in new books! I love new books! I also moved tables around since the book fair is gone.  I nearly fell asleep it was so quiet today. I had STEAM in the library today and it was nice to see the students getting all excited about working with their material of choice! A great rain storm with some hail came down today, awesome! A few other normal duties of the day and ended the day with scoring volleyball games.

New Aide

Opened up the library from nearly a week off and had a new student come to me who is now my first period aide. That was a surprise! So I gave her a bit of a tour. Today is our AVID day, so I helped and she helped me do her binder check since I’d never done it before! She did need materials, so we got those, except she needed a new binder and the office didn’t have any. Hopefully we got it all done right! I also had her check out books to Mr. M who promised me mint chocolate if I got them to him before 2nd period. We’ll see. I also had this cool idea for my secret Santa gift last year, and when we came back to school, the little jar with stuff has just been sitting in the staff room, looking sad and lonely. So I had some quilt squares I had made last year and didn’t use from a shop hop and sewed four of them together for a mini table topper and brought in some batting for ‘snow’ and some other stars and put it all together for the staff room. I think only one person saw me, which is the way I’d like to keep it. Gives a touch of holiday to the room. Got a call from Junior Library Guild and had to tell them that I would not be renewing my order. Just not in the budget. Put out my scrapbooking stuff and had my 4th period aide kind of sort through it and put it in boxes. I was happy to see three lunch students using it! I also got in all my Scholastic money to the office today. Glad that is out of my room! Locked or not, still made me nervous! Scholastic did come today and pick up the cases and boxes. Glad to get those out of here. Had to go up and pick up paper from the office, our copier was all out. Got the computer cart out for the WOU class in tonight. Took down all the Book Fair posters from the hallways. I think I got them all! Not too bad of a day, one down, nineteen to go!

Tuesday November 20th

Finished getting in all my 18.75 hours today for the two days we work this week. Well, I really worked 19.25 hours since I was still packing up the Scholastic Book Fair and it took longer than I thought. We get Wednesday (today!) off, but still have to put in the hours as if we did work. The book fair was still out from last night and we had conferences all morning. I took a deep breath and started doing my fiction inventory of M - Q. Easy Peasy, until I noticed that my report on what was still unaccounted for was not M - Q, but M - Z...Whoa! I called my office and they were like, yeah, you can’t do a section, you have to do it all...great. I was so excited that I had done the section in just an hour and a half, feeling techie with using a scanner on a wireless Chromebook. Le sigh. So, I had them cancel that (remember I said on Monday that I had obviously not listened to something about inventory in a meeting...) and I started a new one for all of our fiction. Luckily, it added in the M - Q’s that I had already done! But the shelves are low and I ended up crawling on the floor all along our windows. My knees hurt! I got all the way to L, so fiction books A - Q are all done. I had to pick up all the book fair stuff that I had on tables for the PD for the early afternoon, so I got that all ready. I took my one hour lunch, ate and then walked four times around the school and went in to locate the missing books from what I had done. Some were on my display, but most were back on the lit shelves. Some I had converted to lit books, but some I hadn’t. I got my missing list down to just one page. I felt good about that! I also found some missing books that were from when I pulled books to withdraw, but never did actually withdraw them! I had them stashed with some reference books under a table in my back room and had forgotten all about them. Where’s that rolly eye smiley when you need it? After the PD was over, I put the book fair stuff back out on the tables for the next set of conference times. Did some laminating worked on finding more lost books, but since I would have to inventory behind all the book fair stuff, I decided to just do it later. I still have more books I need to withdraw from that section, so I may do that first. Had all the teachers in today buying books, more families in. Helped out students who needed to check out books, textbooks or just check their accounts. I had to start packing up the fair. So I put out boxes and put the books in them, but left the tops open for people to browse. Ended up with about $1,500 in sales and perhaps some online orders will happen as well. I bought five for the library, but want to use the money to get some new kinetic stools and maybe some MakerSpace kits. I finally got everything packed up and grabbed a pair of scissors to cut off the lock ties off the big book fair sign I put on the chain link fence. Grabbed the two standing signs and put them in the back of the car, went to cut off the lock ties and head to meet my friend and the scissors broke! Really??? So I had to go back into the school and get some scissors. A long day, but glad I have Wednesday off and can relax! I hope you all have many blessings to celebrate this long weekend. I have heard that you have to ‘savour’ the good in your life to make it stick. Savor the day, the blessings and I’ll be back Monday!

Monday November 19th

Was totally busy after work and forgot to post anything! Same thing last night! So you get both Monday and Tuesday on Wednesday! Monday morning I headed over to LMSS for our Pathway. From 7:30 to 11am. We are discussing our book read for the session, Reimagining Libraries. We had some great discussions on spaces (our new LMA is upset about how crowded his tables are in the library but his principal won’t let him change them, so I noted that when I came in, our tables were scrunched together and I decided I needed to check their ADA measurements got my tables the way I wanted with no qualms from my principal when I said it was now ADA and suggested to our new LMA also try that avenue, we’ll see!), inventory (which I obviously did not pay much attention to - see tomorrow’s post) played with our LMSS Makerspace sets. Then as things wound down I was ‘Oh, can we pick our new books now????’ Yes!! Every year we get a free pick day on all the books that LMSS has received from vendors and publishers over the last year. We each got to pick ten books and then some extras from a few other shelves. We stamp them, load them on carts and LMSS gets them ready for us. A good morning! Then I had three hours until I needed to be at Leslie. I could have gone in, but then wouldn’t be there for conferences with parents hopefully getting our students awesome books! Had lunch, mailed a package, took a nice walk in our lovely sunny weather, then time to go back to work. I pulled all the stuff out of my office and put it out on tables for people to peruse. Then I have my aides do book reviews and I still hadn’t written them up for our binder of book ideas from the first six weeks, so I sat down to work on that. Kind of sad that I should have had 14 reviews, but only got in 8. It’s the only thing I really ask them to do academically, and so far I have never failed a student (I only get to pass or fail them - no grades) because they do work really hard for me checking in and out and putting their books away. They love to do the physical work! Which is a good thing! Did have lots of parents in buying for the evening conferences. Met my head goal! So tomorrow will be better!

Last Day

The last day for the book fair, the grading period, peppermint fudge...yes, I had to buy some. The money was going to Relay for Life, so a good cause! The students were a bit crazy today, they get a whole week off, we just have long schedules for Monday and Tuesday. I gathered together all my stuff for our Pathway on Monday morning. Had another good day with the book fair. Only got in like four book reviews from my aides. Considering I didn’t do the last ones, I can’t really blame them. But it’s the only thing I really ask of them writing wise! They all do a great job in checking in and out books, sometimes they even shelve well! I might put in a comment at the semester, but they do a lot of work and they will all pass. Changed some of the WWI signs I had up. One to say that in ‘November’ rather than ‘next Sunday’ and another with the stats of the dead and wounded and how the US lost 2,700 soldiers in the last six hours before 11am because they were ordered to continue to attach even though they knew the war was over. So sad. I wanted it to be right so when parents come in they will see it during conferences. Had students in all day for various reasons. Science groups, math students taking tests. Individual students getting books for the break. Moved my Scholastic stuff off the tables for the PD on Monday morning and did a little rearranging of them. Should be good to go and it won’t take much to put out stuff for the conferences on Monday afternoon after I get back in. Turned in more money today to the office. And a book was returned that a student paid for, so they get a refund, but our regular bookkeeper is out, so I took it to our office manager. I was happy to give our staff their $5 off coupons when they came to buy stuff. I know it helps! See you late on Monday!

For the Want of a Nail

Such a good day. Lots of emails about OBOB and homework and book fairs. I forgot about homework. Now with only a couple of days left, our PA reminded us to do that. One was our statistics on digital vs. print resources. The other was how our communities use the library. I had already started to do that today before the reminder, but would have been nice to do it for a month! I’ll just have to keep it up for awhile. Then I ran through my catalogue and tried to find all the resources and adding up the resources. Very interesting! Ran the book fair all day and did quite a bit of business. Had both lunches in and sold a lot. Had two classes in this afternoon and talked to them about ‘for the want of a nail the shoe was lost, for the want of a shoe a horse was lost, for the want of a horse a rider was lost, for want of the rider, a battle was lost, for the want of the battle a kingdom was lost and all for the want of a horse shoe nail’ then I talked about the theft that happens with the fair and how it affects everyone from our school to the scholastic folks, to the drivers, to the people that make the books and items. Not sure how much they wanted to understand but I tried. Got to show them some of the books then we let them go. Some bought, some had me hold things. Some just checked out books. Had students from the science classes in today as well working on how our school is like a cell. School maps, the technology room is the nerves, cafeteria is the food for the cell, they were having a great time mapping out where things would be! Ended with having a LMA come over from the elementary school just two blocks over coming to pick up a book, and then scoring one of our volleyball games. A very good day!

Research

Did about $200 in Scholastic sales today. Had a special lunch time. Had special passes for about ten students at a time, they each had about five minutes then had to go back and let someone else come in. I am pretty sure now after today I will not be renewing my JLG account. Just don’t have the money for it and I can get the same books with just some research. So, we’ll see. Then I worked on my book for the PD Monday morning. I sent our PA a link to the drawing program I used last year, though I had to reset a password. Then I looked through a redesign of libraries using empathy as a start. It was pretty fascinating and I also looked at augmented reality how to video. It looks so complicated!!! And I had sales from the book fair all day. A great day.

Visitors

Today I had four classes in to check out the book fair. I get so tentative, just knowing stuff will get stolen really freaks me out. I know a Hogwarts key chain got stolen. Makes me sad ;( I had to work on my schedule for next week. I have to work 18.75 hours in two days, but I have to figure out how to get those into two days and be available when the parents will be around. Talked with Junior Library Guild about next years’ subscription and they cut me a bit of a deal to make it work. Thank you JLG! Then I worked a volleyball game. Quick post. Getting late!

Scholastic Day

I had to take the morning off to take my hubby to the doctor. And I got back to work just as Scholastic was there to drop off my stuff! So I spent most of the rest of the day getting the fair up and ready to go for Tuesday. 

Meeting!

For the first time ever we middle school Library Media Assistants got to have a meeting during our working day to just discuss being in Middle School Libraries. It was amazing! We talked inventories and lost books and titles (Associate or Assitant, I said still made us an “Ass.”) We talked Hour of Code, Makerspaces, and got to talk with the district Technology Coordinator who is supposed to help all the district become more tech savvy. It was a good time. Before that, I put away all the non-fiction that had built up over the week and straightened out some of the shelves and read shelves that I saw were definitely out of order. When I got back to my desk, I had around 45 emails! Oh my! All because some poor lady hit to send to the entire district instead of just her school that someone had left a pumpkin roll on the front counter. Thank goodness most people disregarded it, but many ‘replied to all’ and thus the other 43 emails! There were more here and there throughout the morning, but with thousands of employees, we’re pretty lucky that only about 70 or so replied to everyone! I worked on new books today, adding some to my lists and some that I liked, but were not age appropriate, so they went on the wayside. I am really tending towards graphic novels, so I need to watch that. Then my sub came and I took off for my meeting. After the meeting I headed back to Leslie to score volleyball. Huzzah!

Library Con Live

Spent the morning at the virtual Library Con Live. Visited booths, listened to one panel talk. Got a few ideas for books and put them on my orders. It was really nice. Had four classes in today. Made a few more poppies to fill up the wall. Handed out my Chromebooks for students for the classes. Went over the notes for the meeting tomorrow. Sent out some books that other schools requested. Took a ring to lost and found. Looked at eBook statistics our PA sent out (at least the 2nd one was bigger so I could actually read it!). Forgot to tell my 6th period aides that I’d be gone tomorrow. But I did tell the 7th period aides. Put up all the Scholastic posters about the book fair. Got money for change for the book fair on my way home tonight. It’ll be a quick one. Only four days open during school and then the conference times. Not sure how much I’ll make. Hoping to buy some chair furniture and maybe my own STEAM K’NEX sets. But, not sure that will happen. At least I have the OnLine fair option going on until December. That might help!

11th Minute of the 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month

I hadn’t done a display up on the pony wall until I got to thinking that the 100 year anniversary of the end of World War I was this Sunday. Our students need to see this. My aides did an amazing job of cutting out the poppies for me today. I rounded up all our books on World War 1 and got them up for the display. I have a couple of great books that are out with students and hope they come back. I had Mr. A’s classes in today spreading out on the big tables to work on studying for a test. They were great and did a fabulous job of working together! I had students in A lunch for STEAM day and they just went right to the new K’NEX alternative energy builds I got in. It took a long time to put my honor display together, but I think it was well worth it. I’m so very happy with how that turned out.

Packed

We had eight classes in the library today in five periods! It was so cool!! There were two classes in at one time for three periods. So very cool!! I took my repaired books and got them back out there in circulation. I got in the K’Nex Alternative Energy kit in so I was excited to put those in the announcements for tomorrow and I made a poster as well for the hallway on the STEAM things. Unpacked the Scholastic Book Fair flyers and had my aides count them out so we can deliver them to teachers tomorrow. I pulled the posters as well and got them flattening. I got to help Ms. M’s students today finding books. 

Forgetting Day

Totally forgot to do this yesterday! Got busy after work. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it! All right I’m back! I worked in the back room today and decided to clean up books, and I also decided to take my Outsider books and put in their numbers in their records. That took awhile! I also attended a webinar on graphic novels. I spent a lot of time helping students with their Axis360 accounts. They were getting all kinds of messages on their accounts, from needing to reset passwords to just having the site tell them there were too many devices. I called our office and also sent in the feedback notice to Baker and Taylor. It’s hard to see students wanting to read and they can’t.

All Saints Day

Today I brought in a candle (fake, with batteries for the ‘flame’) and had that out on a table with some fall  leaves and made it look really nice with orange tissue paper and red tissue paper leaves. No one really asked about it, just one kid and he was all ‘Oh, it’s the Day of the Dead!! That’s what it is!’ Not quite, but good of him to make a connection. Did the actual book repairs today and we’ll see how they turn out tomorrow. Sent off the KEVA blocks and the one I tried to fix, didn’t fix. Darn. Withdrew a few more books and replaced a couple of them on my list. Since I don’t feel comfortable lifting boxes, I took a box, put it on the floor and filled it with withdrawn books. Then did another, and then did a partial box! Yeah! No lifting and I have another cart to use when I need to! Gave two book talks today and had five of the six books I talked about checked out, Yes! Fist pump here! Love it when that happens! A really good day, students were not too bad even the day after Halloween. 

Halloween Day

Read two books today! OK, one was really short, the other a novel in verse. Didn’t really take too long. Ordered in a new set of K’nex for our next STEAM projects. Had to glue a KEVA block that split. I put in some book glue and set it in my book press! Hopefully it will be good to go back tomorrow! Sent books back to schools. Had a teacher that needed 40 science books. Another needed two class sets of math books. Of course I was trying not to lift today. Ran the Scholastic video during lunches today. Ordered another replacement book. Had to help students use the copier. I have so much I want to do to get the withdrawn books packed up but don’t want to lift the boxes!! The students were actually pretty good today. I was expecting them to be completely wired because of Halloween, but they weren’t. Maybe the low pressure system over us and the very dark cloudy day helped with that! We’ll see how tomorrow goes!

Repair Day

I have a few books that need some repair, so I started to go and pull each book and make the decision if I wanted to repair it, replace it, or just get rid of it. When I had a book that had multiple copies, I went out and hunted them all down making sure they were either checked out, declared lost, or on the shelf. Then I took the broken book and made sure that it was designated as ‘out for repairs.’ Had two students come in with logging into Axis360 program. One was a boy that came in and he finally realized he was spelling Salem wrong. Glad we finally got that figured out. Then I had another student who we tried to change her password and the computer said ‘Access Denied.’ That was nothing I’d seen before! So we called technology and I was on the phone with them for quite awhile and he finally found the piece he needed to change so we could change her password. So I’m hoping she’ll come in tomorrow morning. I’ll look up her first period class and tell her. Had my aides get books for Mr. R - they pulled the books and I had to dash out the door because they didn’t check them out to him. Then they brought the old ones back and checked them in. Had students in for STEAM lunch today. I worked on an announcement about STEAM for next month and that the Scholastic Book Fair is coming. I set up our online fair dates. Then I tried to find the link for the middle school books. I had a page for all the individual book talks, but I wanted them all together, and I finally found it. I’ll probably play it during lunches. I also realized that we will only be selling at school for only 4 days. We’ll only be open for the week after Veteran’s Day holiday and then it’s Thanksgiving break. I’m not sure how that is going to happen and affect my sales. 

Reading Day

I keep doing too much lifting and such and really need my chest to heal. So I designated today as a reading day. I read so much out of work for work that I decided it was all right if I read books for book talks while I’m at work and it’s quiet. So I read my eBook today and once I resized the font for my computer at work, it went pretty well. I still had other things to do! Had to find a book that belonged to another school and was sitting on our shelf. Reset student passwords. Had both lunches in. Checked out calculators for Ms. C after I had to re-enter their barcodes since the computer said they were ‘not found.’ Had to take a book call slip up to a room since I don’t have aides that period. Answered a call from a mom who thought her daughters had maybe turned in a Salem Public Library book to me. I explained that yes, they occasionally turned up and I would take them down and turn them in within a couple of days if they came to me. Had another student email me that she no longer had the book that was overdue. I checked for it, and didn’t find it so let her know that it was still lost. Another student had a notice for a math book so we went in back and leafed through the math books of that title and didn’t find it. So, lots of little things here and there. Loved watching the clouds and rain out move across the valley today.

Classy eBooks

I got invited to go into a classroom today and talk about our eBooks! I was so excited! I hardly ever get out of the library! I went into the classroom for four periods today. I had so much fun! I finished one eBook today and started another. It was amazing!! The 57 Bus. Wow. I could hardly stop reading it. Now I only need to get into the app here at home! While I was gone, I had a class come in and use the library so I felt comfortable doing leaving the library. Had a great Friday, with our pink out day. Wearing pink to highlight breast cancer. I’m not sure about next week with Halloween. Today was pretty crazy since we started with pink donuts donated by Roth’s. They were gone before school even started. Our students really supported the fund raiser!

Rainy Thursday

Today was pretty quiet compared to yesterday, but still a good day to get things done. I finished up an order with Titlewave. I had asked our PA about using my ASB funds for subscriptions and he said, ah, no, they were to be used for replacements, so I pulled replacement books from the order I had going, created a new replacement order and then submitted my new order without replacements for approval. I got an email later saying the order had been approved. So I’m hoping they arrive before winter break for our students. Had students come in to get the text copy of a book that they were listening to. Answered emails. Put away non-fiction books. Pulled a few books that we had duplicate copies of. Looked up to see that I had withdrawn nearly 1,800 books from our collection. That’s a lot! Way more than what I thought! Got new 11 x 17 copy paper finally for our music people to use. They were happy. Read my eBook. Finished a paper copy that I had read part of and ended up checking out to a student and it got returned. And there was something else, but I had it in my brain and it just left. Oh well, maybe it’ll come around before bedtime!

Spines & CPR

It wasn’t a quiet day in the library, but watching our 8th graders work on hands only CPR was a real treat. Our Salem Firefighters came in and talked with the students, then had them work on the dummies until they all had a chance and learned to do it right. I answered emails, finished up my long overdue window! I started it right when school started up and then drifted in and out of ideas and decided that since today we wouldn’t have much traffic, I really needed to finish it! I had brought in stuff from my scrapbooking stuff at home and I think my ‘spines’ turned out really nice. I got inspired by a teacher who was talking about windows and mirrors as you read a book, so I started with that. Went through some ordering pieces on PermaBound and Titlewave. Worked on my reading for our Pathway that will come up Thanksgiving week. Read my eBook - Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein - don’t know if I will ever get used to reading those. I will have to hug my print book tonight. When the firefighters came in I decided that I’d take a picture of the dummies having some reading time before the students came in. Ha! Even a dummy can read!

STEAM Day

Tuesday is our STEAM day in the library during lunches, so I spent some time today getting ready the sets of circuitry for the students. I get really excited about it! Worked on book orders today. Our librarians had done a talk during the Inservice on great high and middle school books and they shared those titles with us. So the titles showed up in the Titlewave orders. I went through the list and marked off the books I already have then went through the ones I didn’t to decide if I wanted to get them or not. I also sent out an email to the other middle school LMS’s to make sure they looked that over as well. Finished another book spine for my window. I really need to finish that off! I was excited because I only needed to do one more spine, then I decided I needed to take the math one and cut it in half because it was yellow and so much bigger than all the others! So, now I need to do two more! Though my ‘windows’ spine turned out really cool! I had our PermaBound rep in. He is a real amazing guy and I’m working on replacing my very well used books - like Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, graphic novels. Tried to take it easy today, my chest is so sore from popping my sternum. I did something last night to irritate it and I nearly called in sick I was so hurting last night. 

No Kitty

It was a sad day, the first day I didn’t start my workday with my kitty, Pippin helping me get ready. We lost him this weekend and I kept looking down to see if he was waiting for his morning treats. I had him for 15 years. They day was kind of a blur, and I was so hurting in my chest from my kayak debacle on the 13th. By the time I got home Monday night I could barely move without pain. I managed to get through the day, but sadness overload it all. Amazing how what goes on in your personal life can effect your work day. Everything got done, but this is now Tuesday night and I can’t even really remember what I did. Glad that one is over. 

eBook eXhaustion

I had six classes in today for teaching them how to use our eBook resource. I had so much fun doing that! I showed them how to get there, signed in, to check out a book. It was so cool to see students reading off their Chromebooks and I also had students that downloaded the app on their phones to check out and read!! I am so excited!! We checked out a ton of books and even had students put books on hold and audio books on their phones! An amazing day and I am just in heaven getting our students to read!!!

Go Earthquake

We had our earthquake drill today and it was nice and really a perfect day outside to practice. I had my sunglasses all ready to go since I had heard that since it was 10/18 we would have the drill around 10:18am. All went well. We ducked under tables and I had a couple of extra students in making copies. After our building was declared unsafe, we were directed outside. It was lovely. I think they should have sent us all home since the building was unsafe. But oh well, back in we were miraculously safe to return. I got my Classroom Go set from the American Go Foundation today! I was so happy! Look at all the swag! I had no idea that they would send that much stuff! I am one happy girl! Now I just need to learn how to play! They had a DVD so I tried to play that and it didn’t work very well, so I went on the website and watched a couple of the tutorials on it. I did two book talks for classes today, 6th and 7th period. Wrote out a thank you card with some old Leslie Lion cards to thank them. I had classes coming in tomorrow for our eBooks and I’m excited about it! I’m going to have all the students actually check out books tomorrow on our program. Then I had a teacher come in at the end of the day, and we looked through our books and I found an old class set from Gary Soto, Taking Sides and she took a book to go through it tonight and then she asked for a class teaching guide, so we looked online and it was a bit confusing, so I thought, wait a minute, that’s an old book and in the file cabinet in the back back room, I had a drawer that has study guides in it and YES! It had a study guide in there for that book! My PA also came in today and I showed him my Go set and he picked up the 3D printer one of our teachers had and was done with. A fabulous day and I get to go home and take a walk and kick through crunchy leaves 🍁.  

Cleaning

I noticed that the cord on one of my aide passes was all unraveled, so I decided to fix it. While I was cutting it down, I got out my glue to stick those ends together so they wouldn’t unravel and looked into the drawer where I kept the extra cords. It was a mess. So while the glue was drying, I worked don cleaning up that drawer. I had a bunch of file tabs all over the place, so I collected them all and threw out old ones that had yellowed (no, they weren’t yellow to begin with!). Got all the cords into a bag, threw out a lot of old stickers, paper hole reinforcement stickers. All old stuff that is not used anymore. I moved our shelving cart out to the cart I put in front of the main check out desk. I decided that the books I had on there, some of the new ones, were really not getting any use, so I took away the regular cart we had been using and put withdrawn books on it. There were a lot of diversity books on the cart so I shelved those so my aide wouldn’t have to do all that. She does a great job with the non-fiction and the graphic novels, and I thought I’d put those away for her. While I did that, I started to pull some of the old books. Some of the country books that were from 2003 and older. A day of emails, helping students and other small tasks that added up. Volleyball scoring tonight and book club! A busy afternoon and evening.

STEAM Day

I had to take time to set up the next circuitry stuff for STEAM for lunches day. I did lots of little things all day. Finished up the paperbacks that just came in so they are ready to go out on the floor. Finished up a book for book talks on Thursday and quickly read a couple of others into a bit to talk about them. Had students in resetting their passwords so they could access student view, and a ton came in before I was even done with my lunch! An IA brought them all in and lined them all up and I stopped my lunch and took care of them. By the time I was done, we were well into B lunch and I had to have one of the STEAM students run a note to the Commons since I was still busy with resets! Crazy! I had to run the laminator so I could have my papers laminated for the Teams #2 projects on the circuitry, so I did the other two jobs that were there as well. Got a replacement PermaBound in. Sent in a couple of tickets for things. To change a staff member to Leslie, to reactivate a bar code, to add in another book. Then after school I took the scratch coding class at LMSS from 4:15 - 5:15. A long day! Long day tomorrow but Thursday I am just coming home!!!

Next

Started our next six weeks today. I sent out an email about our eBooks to get our students into going that route and I got two responses already to get them started! I’m so excited! I got in the last nine books of my Titlewave order, so started to strip them and get them ready for the shelves. I do have book talks coming up Thursday, so I may save them for that. Got the six math classes ready for Kercheski check outs. Had my aides check them out, then I took them over to the classroom at the end of the day. Read a little bit to get ready for book talks. Doing Jefferson’s Sons right now, fascinating! Can’t wait to book talk it Thursday. Scored volleyball after school today. A good day.

PD & Withdrawing

I went to my PD this morning on Living Well and Self Care. It was pretty good, though I nearly fell asleep a couple of times. I guess I was relaxed and doing some self care! Then I went back to school and withdrew four carts of books. Took the 16 new books and stripped them, put in the date due slips. Helped out a few teachers, then time to go. See you and the students are back on Monday!

Pathway

We had our own Pathway today all book based on Reimagining Libraries. The three and a half hours just flew by! We talked about all sorts of things and if my notes were not out in my car, I’d list some things. We all said that Flexability and Advocating were important! Overwhelmingly so! A great half day and a time to do errands during the day!

Helping Hand

We had three and a third of Mr. A’s classes in today for a math game using playing cards. The students had to add up their hands, but the spades were negative numbers! They really had a great time in here and the noise level was really loud, but really exciting to see them all so engaged! We did have one class that ended up leaving early because they were throwing around a wadded up piece of paper across the library, and no one fessed up to doing it, so Mr. A had them pack up and go back to class. Oh well! The rest of them were very respectful and had a great time! I finished off the cart of withdrawn books and did a bit when I sent an email to teachers about how if they didn’t take them they’d end up in the text sea, like in the Thursday Next series. Made my day! Loved that series! Then I helped Mrs. V with some cut outs for the PD tomorrow. She had ten pages of tiny little cut outs that she was starting to stuff into ten envelopes and I told her, ‘I can do this, you have way more things you need to take care of than putting little questions into envelopes!’ It took a little bit, but she is amazing and I was glad I had the time to take that load from her! Got all my stuff ready for the meeting tomorrow morning and looking forward to all the errands I need to run in the afternoon since I’m off!

STEAM in the Library

Had our first STEAM day in the library during lunches today and the students had a great time! I only had six for each lunch but they were right into it! I had circuits and KEVA blocks for them today. They were really into it! Made me very excited! Prepped more withdrawn books. Got an aide to check out a class set of M science books and take to Mr. M. We also did six classes of math books Kercheski style and had them delivered by the end of the day. We had Ms. W come for the rest of the iPads and she used my aides to run slips to classes to have students come in. One more day in the first six weeks! And still only two book reviews from my seven legitimate aides! Can't believe they are waiting until the very last minute! It's only 3 - 5 sentences! Come on aides! Get 'em done!

More Withdrawals

Worked on another cart of withdrawing books today. I still have so many to go! But I know the library will be better for it! Yellowed pages, some not ever checked out (for like ten years), others with damage. I’m glad I did this, but I only got part way around, so I have more to do! I got some little bags at Craft Warehouse this weekend and they were perfect for my marbles and I pulled out the Battleship game and they worked for the ships as well! Though now, I only put one side out, with a note to contact me and they have to ask for the other set up and the two sets of ships and then check them in when they are done. It was a pretty good day, and after work I got to ref a volleyball game! I’ve watched them for two and a half years, so I could about hold my own. At this level it was pretty easy. Most people knew the score and all I really did was whistle the start of the points, whistle for time outs and the end of the game! I might have to get my certification one of these days! 

Homework

We have our first pathway on Thursday and I hadn't finished my book, or hardly started! We had to read the introduction plus chapters 1 & 2, so I spent time this morning since it was quiet and finished reading. Then sent an email with my Powerpoint from last year about how I wanted to change my library. That seemed to be some of what the book was talking about. Then I had to look up what TEAL was Technology Enabled Active Learning. And found an amazing bunch of design resources on Pinterest. Very, very cool! I sent that link out to everyone as well. Then for some reason I got a crazy idea that on our video school resource, Insight 24J, that I would nominate our PA Mr. G to be a co-host on the show! It's around 7 minutes where they spotlight a department and that department helps get information out to the school employees about what's going on. The head of that said 'great idea! I'll put him on the list!' So I can't wait to see how that turns out! I did get the classroom set of Go though! Got the approval email today! So I decided to add the Hikaru books #1 - 3 to my next order, 3 of each. The rest of the day was busy with students here and there. I finished getting out all the new books I got in yesterday. Stripping them, putting in date due slips. Good to get those out there! Glad I finished my homework and have new ideas for the library. Now I just need the money! Off to the Elsinore tonight to see Herb Albert and Lani Hall. Really looking forward to that!

No Go

I still might be able to get the kit with just the games, but the manga set is already all taken. Drats! And I had jumped on that right away! Hopefully I will still be able to get the Classroom set with just boards and pieces. I had already asked for that, so we'll see. Talked with my PA about the Rubik's mosaic set. He called and said, "Did we get you Rubik's Cubes??" I laughed and said, no! I was checking them out, but still needed to be sure I could pay for the shipping to send them back at the end of February. Did I say I had signed up for a Scratch coding date? I did, for next Tuesday maybe?? or the Tuesday after that. I can set up four stations with my Chromebooks. Did more withdrawn books and took a cart up for Mr. G's classes tomorrow, then Mrs. P asked for a cart as well, so I took her up some as well. Had classes in all day to read and check in/out books. I did three of the six myself. It was fun to hear Mrs. M do book talks! I loved hearing her! I think we will do STEAM day next Tuesday. I even put it on my calendar! Rain coming in tomorrow! Can't wait to see it out my lovely windows! And at the end of the day, two, yes TWO boxes of new books! One was my JLG order and one was the Diversity order from our PA. New Books! Made my day! I will fondle them tomorrow! I also starting reading the book we are studying for our Pathway on Re-Imagining Libraries. I found out I was to read the Introduction and Chapters 1 & 2. Better get on it! Happy that I see I've been working out some of the things she's talked about already!

Marbles and Go

Today we got an offer from our PA that we could be eligible for a full set of manga books and some Go boards and pieces! I was on it right away! My son plays Go and even did some this summer when he was in Japan at the clubs. We get 23 volumes of Hikuru (?) which is a manga that you have to play Go while you’re reading. Then I also asked (not sure if I can double dip, but I’m trying!!) to get a classroom set of Go boards and pieces. Then I pulled out my Chinese Checkers boards and had my aides put them together and I’m going to order a set of marbles because I really have only half the marbles I need. I need baggies though to hold the marbles and I can pass out to each student who is playing. I also got students to sign up for STEAM in the library. So next week we will start STEAM days. I had a display in the library with the KEVA blocks and our electronics set up and I got a good response! That made me happy! Helped Mrs. M get books today for her students when they come in today for their worksheet and reading. Put discard stickers on more books. Packed up three boxes of books that have been looked through. Don’t know if I have the energy to let the students comb through them all. If they haven’t checked them out, will they want them? Sent a cart of withdrawn lit books to Mrs. T. It was a busy day!

Halloween Genre

I did it. Cut out about 2/3rds of the Goosebumps. I had nearly three shelves of them on a cart because they were over in my reference section, because it had room! It doesn't anymore! So they were just wandering around. But today I had them out because Mrs. S brought in her classes and I gave a sort of book talk on creepy books. I was funny because I admitted I didn't like the Halloween genre. I told them keywords to look for in the search. I did point out the other books, and gave a pep talk on the one creepy author that I have read, Mr. Edgar Allen Poe! I told them he was the Stephen King of his day, and on that note, no, we did not have any Stephen King. They were all 'NO!!' I told them to go to Salem Public! We started tardy sweeps yesterday and did three more today. So they gather the students that didn't make it to class and bring them to the library. We were full for all the sweeps. I decided to start going through the Goosebumps and anything that hadn't been checked out since 2016 went in the withdraw pile. Some of them were printed in 1989! And they sure looked like it! I got in my announcement for STEAM in the library and made a poster to put in the hallway. I think I have to pitch it more! So tomorrow I will put out the KEVA Blocks and my electronic build case and see if I can get students to sign up! So many play the games in the library, checkers, chess, connect four, Uno, I hope I get enough people to do this. I also signed up for the Rubik's mosaic from the lending library. I asked for 50 blocks and they send out 25 guides. So they will come after the winter break for six weeks. I'm excited for them to come and I hope the students are too. I worked on my orders and got in more labels and sharpies from stores. I also got an opportunity to show Ms. C our textbooks. How old they are. How beat up they are. She even took pictures of our Realidades 1 books and echoed my sentiments, that students look at the class and electives when they see the condition of the books that they are handed. Another serendipitous moment!

Monday the 1st

Can’t believe I forgot to do this last night! Oh, well, yes I can. It was pretty quiet in the library today. Mr. R wanted more science books so had my aides check them out to him and take up during his prep. Withdrew more books. Thought I had an appointment at 10:00 with our Scholastic Rep and that was the Central Time Zone! It was at 8am! So I spent nearly an hour on the phone with her. Another fair on the way, another bit of moola for the library! Withdrew more books today. Brought down the cart with books that I had up in the staff room and had it in the library for when the teachers had their meeting this afternoon so they would pick them up! Hopefully anyways! Had both lunches in. Our person that used to do the lunch passes for the library is on a different assignment now so I have to walk them down and find someone to give them to. It’s not near as convenient. I know I did stuff all day, but none of it really stuck with me. Oh well, now I’ll actually write about today and get a bit more in!

Longish Day

Again today, Mr. G was gone and possibly 10 or more students came down first period to get books. I went upstairs to find Mr. S teaching and told him that the students were not to be sent down. Then I came back to the library and saw a cart with two boxes of withdrawn books and took those up to leave in Mr. G's classroom so the students would have something to read without setting them off across the school. It was a stroke of genius, even if I say so myself. I worked on getting LIT books ready to be offered up to teachers. Had students in all day here and there to check out books. Some to check out US History textbooks. Had both lunches in for quiet reading today. Sent off books to other schools. Received the book we are going to study for our Pathway - Libraries Re-Imagined. I had a lady in doing a report for a contractor for work at Leslie in with the bond work that is to be done starting next year. She was working on a proposal. It was serandipidous meeting that I could speak with someone working on perhaps some of the changes I envisioned. Who knows? It could happen!

Feeling Better

I was feeling so much better today. I was ready to call in yesterday to stay home today, but had some energy! I had three classes in today for book talks. I had a great time with Mrs. S's class. She wanted books that had something to do with the 1960's. So I pulled books on the Civil Rights, the assassinations of the Kennedy's and King. The Vietnam war, Goodall and Carson, Ali and Guevara. I tied them all together and it was fun. Then I had two classes that chose the books I book talked except one. I always love that! Sent requested books off to other schools. Both lunches were in today. 

Befuddled

I should have maybe stayed home today, but no, I didn't because I really wanted to help score at the volleyball game tonight and figured it would look a bit suspicious if I stayed home sick then came in to score! My poor little brain was spinning its wheels as I deleted the order the math books came in. Had to reask Mr. G about the program he talked to me about yesterday. Asked about Spanish math books to realize I just needed to check with the other LMA's and two of them had them, even though they weren't in the system (or so I think!) I started to pull and withdraw LIT sets that no one has touched in years so I can offer them up to the teachers for their classes as I cleaned out books I had put back in that section in June and hadn't actually put away yet. They are put away now! Looks so much better back there. And I found Black Beauty!! I was so excited! Now I just need to find the student that wanted it! I did score the volleyball game. Took 45 CPM advanced math books up to Mr. A. And I think I may be able to get through tomorrow. I was totally going to cash it in, but feel all semi all right - unless that's the Anacin, Pepsi and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups talking. I have three book talks tomorrow, so I'd like to be there for that. Time for bed. Trying to get in good sleep.

Yellow Heart

My PA came in today with two 3D printers for two of my teachers! It was very exciting! To see my PA and the teachers getting all excited and exchanging ideas and possibilities was very cool! There was a SD card with a trial project on it, which was a yellow heart and Mr. C gave it to me because I had gotten him one of the four 3D printers available. I have it hanging on my bulletin board in my office! I cleaned up some stuff out of the back today. Took some teacher science resources and put them back in the old textbook room. Took some other teacher resources and put them in the back back room. Took a box of books that need repairs and sorted through it. Put away two stacks of math books I had piled up. Got my cart of books (six shelves of withdrawn books) up to the staff room for teachers to sort through and brought down the books from the first cart. Put those in a box for students to look through and take for their own. I needed to work on the 921's and ended up going ahead and weeding it out. I got nearly 3 shelves of books out. Had both lunches in. Did a bit of laminating, three book covers for me. They had gotten torn and needed to be redone. Got them back on the books and ready to put on the shelves tomorrow. Almost called in sick, but made it through! Worked on my new order for PermaBound off the order I was putting together last June. I rethought a lot of the books, but did keep some on. I need to decide what to repair and what to replace. Early bed tonight!

Black Beauty

I'm a bit sick, sneezing, feeling low. I thought about calling in sick. Went to bed super early last night. But, made it in. Had four classes in today to just check out books and three of them were when I didn't have aides! Had fun with the students getting them what they needed. Except one student wanted this anotated Black Beauty book. I thought I had it, checked all over and under and around and could not find it for her. I hate when that happens. I'm still thinking about it in my head. Finished covering the last of the paperbacks. Worked on my next Titlewave order. There were some books from the last order that didn't come in, so I added those on. Had some books I found at Powell's that I needed to order too. Went out with my aides and checked how they are doing with shelving books. Had Ms. W in again today getting students their iPads from the AEM program. Helped her out with that just a bit. Called in a couple of students for her. Got the cart ready for the staff meeting this afternoon and then we also have our WOU cohort in tonight. I saw them in there as I finished up scoring the volleyball game. It's a Monday!

Quiet Reading Day

I've instituted a 'Friday is Quiet Reading Day' during both lunches and I really like it. It was great to do that today. Had to set up the projector for Mr. C for his 6th grade classes today in the library so they could discuss what was a joke, what was mean and what was bullying. So they talked about situations, what it fell under and how they perceived that situation. It was pretty interesting. I had the computer/projector cart set up for Mr. C and he had two classes in. One got done pretty much, the other didn't. So they will be back Monday. I had to close the shades so they could see the screen! But by 6th period, it had gotten pretty cloudy, so didn't need it as much, but still did anyway. Signed up for our Statewide Inservice to take a class on Self Care. That was a focus from our superintendent, so seemed like a good choice for the day. We have five meetings, but three of them are going to be with our Middle School Library Media Assistants - perhaps we are Specialists now! That's what is on my sheet for my hours. I'll have to ask. Signed up for the LibraryCon Live session. That was pretty interesting last year, so I'll try it again. Set up an appointment with our Scholastic Rep since Book Fair will be here before I know it! Got both Mr. C and Mr. M set up to get 3D printers for the month of October. I had the name wrong when I searched, and the area I needed to search in. Got all the hardbacks from my book order stripped and out on the shelves today. Started to work on the few paperbacks. Thought I'd make it easy for Mr. G's students who have to have a book for his class on Fridays for independent reading by getting some 'building' type of books out for them to choose from. I had four students come in, and moments later, Mrs. V walks in and shoos them all out! Mr. G is gone and they were told that there would be no library time today and would do worksheets in class instead. Had another set of students come in to take a test with an IA. Another group came to work on tutored math help. Had a lady come in that works with our AEM program and was going through my iPads and which students had one, which still didn't. Which students were no longer in the district, so she took those away. Ms. S came in while she was there and had called down her students to pick them up so they all got to talk with our AEM lady and she had them check their iPads to make sure they were all running correctly and some extra tips and tricks. That was great timing! This is a bit scattered, but the gist is there and I've been having internet issues! Posting before I loose it! Looking forward to the weekend!

Brownies

I took in brownies today for the staff so I wouldn't eat them all! It was much appreciated! We had a crazy schedule with an assembly today. I put in an order for PermaBound today and that was fun to do. I got in my container of KEVA planks! I was so excited! I was going to sit on them for a day or two, but I couldn't help it and started with letting my aides play with them. Then our A lunch kids are pretty quiet, so I let three of them play with them as well. They really made some great structures! Fun to see six of them all together at a table when they'd never get together otherwise and play with the planks and go through the booklet that came with it. Made me extremely happy. I sent out the email to teachers about our other Makerspace kits. Then I let one of our teachers know that we have a 3D printer you can check out and he got so excited. So I went into our catalogue, but it wouldn't let me check it out. So I sent in a tech ring and they will get it rolling I'm sure. Did a bit of laminating and then left to enjoy a beautiful afternoon.

Classes In

What a great day! I loved having classes in and just circulating among the students answering questions, helping find books. It was awesome! For six of the seven periods it was heaven! There's really not much else to say! I did volleyball scoring again tonight. A great cap to a great day in the library!

Finished Up

Today I took the book sets that had been in the non-fiction room and moved them back out into the fiction side of the library. I had all the Dear America books, Lemony Snicket, 39 Clues, Warrior cats, and not sure what to do with Spirit Animals yet, but I'll find it a spot. Bashed my hand that I messed up camping this summer and begged for Neosporin for it. It opened up just a little, just a few spots of blood, but I was so unhappy because it was doing so well healing! Made barcodes for some of our Schoolwide sets that I had in, but didn't have barcodes. Asked a school to send mine back and send her the one that belongs to her. Asked another school about books that have her stamp and barcodes, but don't show up on our system. She said to yes, send them over, so I will! Helped our custodian replace three of our circular flourescent light tubes that had been flickering. Did a massive ton of laminating tonight. One of our PE teachers made puzzles and I had eight baggies of puzzle pieces alone! That was interesting. I had three that got messed up, so I had to cut them out and work them. Then I had another set I had done front to back for a staff member and when I got done her post it note was laminated on top. Oh my! I cut it out and relaminated that as well. Checked out several iPads today. Asked to get in a KEVA Makerspace kit from LMSS. I couldn't find it in the catalogue and no one really knew why so they are looking at that while I just got to put in a tech ring. Ready for classes in all day tomorrow!

A - TwMM - W - L - V

Lots of things went on today! It was Monday, so our focus on AVID first thing with binder checks and making sure students have what they need for the week. Then Mrs. C brought in her math classes to pick up Thinking with Mathematical Models for six periods today. I finished up that three tier cart of books to withdraw and started having my aides sharpie out the 'Leslie' stamps. We also had our lockdown drill today. I was happy that our library doors did automatically lock and unlock! I also scored volleyball tonight! Our first games! We only won one, but perhaps Wednesday we'll do better. We lasted a bit longer than we were supposed to because we totally forgot how long the 5th game was supposed to be! We played to 25, but really were supposed to stop at 15! Heavens! I couldn't remember from last year! I know now! 

First Full Week, ✔

8th grade math was supposed to come in, but they didn't, Mrs. C forgot! so it was pretty quiet in the library today. We did have Mr. G's classes come in to get a reading book since he has them read every Friday (it's the shop classes) and some from the Language Arts classes, but otherwise quiet. I finished off a whole cart of withdrawn books. All marked out, all with discard stamp and date. All with labels over barcodes and spine labels. Just a lot of work! I was glad to see that they did use the library last night for the AVID family night! Yeah, all that work was worth it! Not much else went on today. Just cranked out the books and I'll put that cart up in the staff room on Monday to begin that process. Lots more to go!

Open House

A nice morning and I got out our tall roller ladder with the nice stairs and rails and got it into the library to take down our old 'Nonfiction' letters and the numbers where our fiction now is. I got the ones in the old computer lab down and put up new ones so there is some direction back there. I have more to do, but got the basics down. Listened to a webinar while I had lunch today. Had two classes in and did some book talks for them. Talked to our principal about getting the iPads and Chromebooks out to our students who need that extra support so I put together a list of teachers and the students they have now that had those devices last year and sent that out. Then I looked at our school calendar to see if our classes were coming in and ah, it says that the AVID family night will be in the library right after the Open House (which I didn't think anyone would come into!). And the library looks a real mess!! So I rushed around and started to straighten shelves and display books and so yes, I stayed over about half an hour, but the library looks at least presentable if anyone does walk in! One of the teachers thought the library would be too small for the meeting, but you never know. I'd rather prepare for the company than not! We also had maintenance and technology in to try and fix the doors into the library. They work, most of the time, but they still glitch out every great once in awhile. So our evening custodian got on it and finally one of the maintenance people went in and found that some of the wires in the door handle were crushed and replaced them so hopefully we will be good to go! I was excited that he was the first one to realize a problem, and fix it! So we'll see what happens tomorrow! I also started to check over the cart of books I withdrew to put new (Discarded) stickers over the barcodes and blank stickers over the spine labels. Hopefully that will stop anyone from thinking a real library book is a withdrawn one! Also gives me a look to see if my aides did all the work I asked them to do in crossing out all the 'Leslie' stamps. Missed some stuff, but mostly pretty good! Worked on my new book spine as well! I wish I had them all done, but it's been busy. So busy I hadn't even looked at my book requests from other schools. One I said no to, since it was a brand new book, the others I got ready and sent them off! And for the first time, I had both lunches into the library. The kids loved it!

Unimpressed

That's how I felt with the 8th graders today while I did book talks. I had 5 classes in today. That was a lot! They had a sub and he was really good with the students. I had one student that was a bit attention hogging. But she apologized and that was unexpected. I really appreciated it. Started my next book spine for my window display. Did all my mandatory trainings today. Got my first call for the AEM iPads so I went through the cart and pulled out the six called for and couldn't check out two of them because they are not residing at my school! Hopefully when I get in they'll have gotten them transferred so I can check them out and give to the teacher. My aides did a fabulous job and I gave them their fiction shelf assignments today. Lots of clouds and rain, and we even be open during lunches tomorrow!

9-11

I put on my 9-11 display today. Still impacts me. These students weren't even born yet. So I got to tell my story to a few classes today. About how libraries are holders of the stories.  I think they heard me. I also talked about the books from World War II and how that generation is passing away. And how we need to remember and keep those stories. I had three classes in, and one I missed telling those stories as students came in and needed help to log into their Chrome books. I finished up the sign in sheets for the rest of the year and got those printed up and in the binder. Showed my aides how to mark out the stamps on the books I've withdrawn. Today for some reason, this day is hitting me hard.

July Order In

I got a call from the office today that my book order I had placed in July had arrived! Huzzah! I was so excited! But first! I had four classes in today to get orientation and check out books. A lot of the students had already been in, so that made it easy, even got in a book talk for one class as I roamed down the shelves! I love doing that! Had my aides do some deliveries, check in the old Medieval History books that Mr. P brought down. Did not have to find or ship any Geography Alive books because the school found theirs, yeah! Kercheski'd two math classes for Mr. G. Checked out same for Mr. A 7th period. Withdrew a cart full of books to get that process started. I have books that need to be withdrawn EVERYWHERE! I even had to unload my box cart of books so I could pick up the new ones! I always love it when I get in new books! Got them all accounted for, now to strip them and get them ready to get out there!

Friday the 7th

Got to thinking, 'did I do the blog Friday night?' and checked, and no! I did not! I had in five classes for orientation (though most had heard it from yesterday) and so I mainly let them just go ahead and get books. I dug out all the Goosebumps books I had that were in with the redone reference section and were on the floor, under a desk in the back room. I got them all out on a cart and then got out the cart so I had access to the file cabinet and got out the rope that hung on the gates and the door. We have this crazy electrical plug in that sits out in the middle of the floor where students could come through and step on it, trip, all sorts of grave ideas of mishaps. So I looked at that to see if it might help. I don't think so. Pushed the desk back, kept the rope out to mess with, later I had an aide put all the other books back under the desk. I also had a meeting with a lovely lady from Oregon Corrections about a quote for some new furniture for the library. They make really good, really sturdy stuff so she is going to get me a quote. Six new chairs and two round coffee tables to add to the room. We'll see what it comes in at. Thank goodness Oregon doesn't have tax! The colors we can have are awesome and I want all different colors! Now I just have to hunt up some grants for the money to pay for it! Glad it is Friday and I have nothing on the agenda for the weekend! Huzzah!

Brutal 6's

What was I thinking?? A full, only second day of school, and I schedule 6 periods of 6th grade library orientation coupled with 6 classes of Spanish coming in to check out their workbooks and promise 2 teachers I'll Kercheski their math books for their 6 classes each for tomorrow with only 6 aides for the day that only had their first day to work in the library yesterday?? I survived, but just barely! The orientation talks went well and I was happy with them, but when I didn't have aides it was really hard to get all the Spanish workbooks checked out and all the library books checked out. Classes are huge and several of the 6th grade classes didn't get in very early and by the time they got in and had their talk I was trying to check them all (I had lines!!) even after the bell rang for passing. I did love to talk to the kids though. It was sweet! Got all the workbooks checked out and don't tell, but I had to work an hour over to get all the math books done. I will take it easier tomorrow, mostly because I should be able to! And our IC was still there and said she would make sure I got to make that up tomorrow! We watch out for each other! I was running all day long! Came home and finished off my last third (the gooey side and top frosting) of the Tuxedo cake from Konditeroi's that my hubby had brought me a couple of days ago. Self care is one of our focuses this year and that fit the bill rather nicely!

Everybody!!

Everybody was back today! It was so good to see all the students from last year that were still here! I handed out schedules today and then came back to the library. I have no aides the first two periods of the day! That was surprising! Right now I have six aides, so we'll see about tomorrow! Helped with print down at the copier since the one in the office is out. Loaded paper. Trained my aides. We started with expectations and then a library tour, front and in the back. Then I had them work on the 'Order in the Library' game. One aide said they got all done, but I'm a bit skeptical. So that took up a good part of the day. I had two teachers drop off math textbook paperwork - they give me students, ID numbers and we check out by that and then give the books to the teacher to hand out in class. Since I am still training my aides, that seemed to be the best way to go at the moment! We will try tomorrow with Spanish workbooks and see how that goes. I also need to write up my orientation for the 6th graders for tomorrow! Have been thinking about it, but didn't do it yet. Got to be a bit creative and work on my window bulletin board today, so we'll see how that goes. Pretty happy with the one 'book' spine I worked on. Did a poll from the other LMA's on how they do their lunches and yet serve their students during that period. Sent that to our admin as well as a change on the first break being during passing. I asked to move it up a bit so I'm available to be out in the hallway during passing and they agreed. Wrote a nasty note on the paper cutter we have. I need to rewrite it and make it more positive. Someone used it today and put too many sheets through and rode the blade up onto the bar so it stuck. No one said anything and just walked away. Makes me angry. So, I reacted. But I need to reword it and put a positive spin on it. Not just my frustration that it happens more often than not.