On My Knees

Today with the end of the six weeks coming on I decided to take each of my aides and comb through their sections book by book to see what they needed to work on. It was kind of fun, since I rarely go through like that - even in my own section I'm ashamed to admit! It did take time though and a few times I had to stop and take care of other business that came up. Pretty much took up my whole day. By the time I went through all twelve aides. It was a very, very good day!

Vaulting

That's what a student did today over my main check out counter during one of the lunches today. I couldn't believe it. He's an off the grid student, and I had gone into the back room to get a book for another student and I guess he thought I'd be gone long enough for him to do it. Well, I guess not. I heard he also tried to get another student to do it. I sent him out of the library, told him he was not welcome back tomorrow. Then I spoke with one of his teachers and he will have to write me an apology. A good one. That I can read. At least five good sentences long. So, we will see. Got in books other schools had borrowed. Sent some others back. Got all my non-fiction books put away. I had two shelves worth since a teacher had brought back all the books she had checked out for a student project! Looked at the Scholastic spring video for the middle school books and I was kind of disappointed. In my preview pack is only two of the books in the video. All the other books are other titles. The books I got were good, but usually it seems that we get in more than just two titles to show off. That was disappointing. Did some laminating today. Took my Battle of the Books attendance sheets and typed out the names - sooo much easier to read!! Not sure if we'll have it tomorrow or not. We were scheduled for forecasting with South High School counselors, but now I guess they may just go to the classrooms and do it in there. So I have no idea if they'll be in or not. Answered back a request from an agency if we might consider helping a transitional student to work in the library for a possible job opportunity out in the real world. We'll see where that goes. I'm all for it, except I don't want to also be working with my aides while the outside student is here. It won't be until next year, so we'll see. 

Back in the Saddle

Yes, I took Friday off. Not feeling at all well. But better today. Until I realized that a student somewhere along the line had taken a mini USB device that was for our wireless projector to use with a teacher's Surface Pro or Chromebook. Our IC says they cost about $200. I had been worried about it as well as our tech guys that came and put it in. Can't believe, or well, would have liked to know that students would leave it alone and not take it. Teachers can still access, but a bit more round about way. Trolled through all the emails. Worked a book repair. We have one full cart and another shelf of books to put away, so hoping that by tomorrow they will get down to a manageable size. Had two classes in to check in/out books. Off to yoga class. Be gentle with me!

Aide Reviews

Worked on the last 6 week aide reviews by my aides today. Got them all done, typed and printed up and in our review binder. I was short one, so I did one myself to finish the page. Got in my new order for supplies from Central Stores. Needed some tapes, some glue sticks, and other assorted items. Cleaned out my book repair box so I could put those tapes in there! I had so much contact paper I threw a ton away. These are pieces I've kept after covering books, so the peel away bits that I use when I glue because they still just peel away off the dried glue! Sent off some books to other schools, got some in from schools that had borrowed. Did one book talk today. Had both lunches in. Not feeling well. Am thinking I just need to stay home tomorrow and take care of myself. I don't often do that, but thinking it might be for the best. Ugh. Hate to not work, but hate to spread germs as well.

17 Minutes

Today we honored the students who were in Florida. At 10am, we were told we could go outside, so I went with my aides and I felt to honor them I needed to sit, so I did, in the midst of a great gathering of students. Peaceful protest is out inheritance I told them. A way to let the people who make the laws know that something needs to change. I spent most of the day working on a list for Mrs. K, rounding up the books she needed from our back room. I had done some yesterday and finished up today. Had one book talk.

Snow??

Today we were asking all day, will it snow? Enough to make a difference? We saw little tiny flakes on and off all day. They even cancelled all after school activities and evening programs. But nothing still even tonight. I did three book talks today and talked about our latest books on my cart and then read them a bit from How Dare the Sun Rise  which is just an amazing book. Lots a check outs today and check ins! So a great day in the library! Our teacher that came in with classes, Ms. K, wanted a list of books for her students that embraced cultural racism or just general diversity. I had sent off a quick email to our LMSS PA and he called, so I called Ms. K over and we both talked with him about what she was looking for. He came back with a great first list and then I sent him some other criteria for her and hopefully he'll enjoy finding lists for her students. I was so happy to be with both of them to get what we needed. Did a bit of laminating at the end of the day. Sad that there is no wrestling today, but hopefully they'll reschedule. Worked on an award book list that one of the LMA's put together. Some I already have on another list, a few I'm not sure about. We'll see. 

Quiet....

With the three day weekend looming, it was a good day in the library. I spent most of it working on finishing up the books I have on the cart in my office for booktalks on Tuesday. I don't remember any more of the particulars, but again, a very quiet day!

T'was a Quiet Day

I'm thinking of Paul Simon's 

"Was a sunny day 
Not a cloud was in the sky 
Not a negative word was heard 
From the people passing by"

So it was very quiet today in the library. One of my aides was gone to the orchestra field trip. Two others were just gone. We did not have anything much to do, so I worked on some more ordering. We also got a notice that we were all to get more diversity books from LMSS and they had compiled a list of those. So when the list came out, I went through it and took out the books I already had. And I also made the comment that I really do not like the little 32ish page books. I think they are a waste for the money spent. So later this afternoon we got an email from Mr. G and he explained the shorter books were for the low level readers we have. So, possibly. We are showing the movie "Hidden Figures" next Wednesday, so I stood in the hallways during passing calling out "Read the Book! See the Movie" and Mr. C across the hall would point and say "Next Wednesday!!" It was funny! Spent some time covering the rest of the books that came in while I was gone. Did some laminating and horridly messed up a set. I had started to run them in, then realized I had two together, tried to reverse, got the one out, then realized after I was done that the reverse had really screwed up the set, so I had to recreate them and redo them. Thought I'd left the laminator on, but no, it was cold, so had to pull them again and reheat the laminator. (Where's that shake your head smiley when you need it....). But, I think they turned out fine at the end! 

Orders

Got in my budgets today so I needed to work on my spring orders. If we don't use all our budget by spring break, we can't count on having it. So I spent quite a bit of time today looking up the new books, the award winners, other new books coming out this spring. I ordered some supplies too for the library. Our special tape and some other supplies. Put away my books. Had my BOB students in today for lunches and was disappointed with A lunch, only 3 students turned up, but B lunch was much better! Cleaned off a few carts and got things put away. A great day! 

Boxes

I had four boxes sitting in the office and finally got around to them today. One was a box of advance reader copies that were sent out by Salem Public Library. They had some to give away and I said yes! Any free books are great! Another two boxes were from Scholastic. One with all the book fair stuff and another with my replacement Vietnam book. Another box had books that finally came into LMSS from an order that were delayed to finish off that order. I also had a package of more Book Fair preview brochures that I put into the Scholastic Book Fair box. I went through all the books from Salem Public and decided I should check the grade range on them and only 7 of them met middle school standards, so I emailed Sprague and they took the high school ones. I packed them up and sent them on. Also stamped and packed up the seven books I could take along with the Vietnam book to send for processing. I finished off checking in the books I got in and then made a list of the other books not on any of my lists and got them ready to go on the cart. We had a very quiet day in the library. The South counselors were in to talk to all the 8th graders about coming to South next year. They filled every period except 7th nearly from bell to bell with all the information they needed to let the students know about as a first step. So, not much went on in the library! At the end I was very happy to see our Leadership class use the projector along with a Chromebook and work on doing a video announcement in the OCL (old computer lab). That got me very excited to see them doing a project like that. Then after work I stayed to score and time keep the wrestling match. We lost, but some good matches went down! 

Aloha!

I really did enjoy my time in Kauai with my hubby as we celebrated his 65th! I never worried about work because I knew Ms. M would do a great job and she did! Took me awhile to troll through all my emails that were left even though I left an 'out of office' message. Deleted a lot, but also answered and responded to the ones that needed it. Had to do a CELL survey and commented on the lack of meetings and the fact that we have a great new library program that we know the easy stuff on since we've done textbooks with it for awhile, but the library side is new and we have had little to no training to use this great resource to its full potential. Worked through the stack of 'Bud, Not Buddy' books to get them all ready for Ms. B. I checked to make sure they were all checked out to her and got them on a cart. Sent back four that we don't need. Took all our new and old interactive books and made a little set of bookends for them all and made labels for them that say 'shelve with interactive' and put that right by the spine label. We have about 30 of them now. I wonder if I should do that with a few other of our sets? Checked in the 5 boxes of books that came in while I was gone and Ms. M had put on a cart and started to put in their tattle tape and get them ready. I have a group of books that I'm puzzled over. I don't have a list for them and I think that they were from the Thanksgiving holiday book give-away I plucked from. That's all I can think of anyways! Looked for a math book, talked to a new student today and helped her find a book. One of our students was sooo glad I was back. That really made my day. I am tired and still have to unpack! If I think of something else, I might post it! Goodnight!

Aloha!

A very busy day! 5 book talks today and lots to get ready for next week when I'll be gone. Cleaned up my office, made sure people knew I'd be gone. I nearly ran all day. Talked to the students about some of our new books and the Black History book timeline. We checked in a lot of books and checked out a lot too! I'll be back on the 12th!

Black History Book Timeline

I think I did an awesome job creating a 'book' timeline for black history month. Starting with slavery all the way to Obama and great things people are doing now! I love it! Put away books today on the cart and the animal books I did have up on the counter there! Came in to find a whole row of books pushed over, then my desensitizer was missing. I happened upon it over in the 'S' section of fiction. The stamps were gone, but found them in the drawers. Mr. J had put them there since students were stamping each other during the after school program. Called in Bud, Not Buddy books from all over the district for Ms. B. We were up to about 29 coming in by the time I left today. Had a talk with Scholastic about our next book fair. Covered more paperbacks. Put all the repair books I had on my desk in a repair box and marked them in the system as out for repairs. Will have some maybe book talks tomorrow? New books? Not sure! But I have new books on a cart that I can take out there!