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 Then I came back to the library and saw a cart with two boxes of withdrawn books and took those up to leave in Mr.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.

6th Grade

First day of school with all of our 6th graders! I love it! You can meet so many! There's time to talk and the school just feels bigger with only a third of the students there! Nice. I had to hand out schedules this morning. Then just did bits of things all day. I had a teacher want us to make posters for his class on expectations and he did them poster size! Our poster machine just works with 8.5x11 inch paper so I had to resize them down! That was a bit of a learning curve for me! But I did it. Got the projector ready for new classified information meeting this morning. Sorted through a ton of emails. Got 70 history books ready for a new teacher and some teacher materials. Got 38 science books for another. Was out in the hallways on breaks to help out the new students. Took in some American Nation books from a teacher! I got rid of all of ours (I thought!!) the first year I was at Leslie! Oh my! I had about three of them I had kept for old times sake, but they are really old! I found a spot for them on a shelf under our other history books for now! Cleared another cart. Talked with a teacher about her 6th grade classes coming in this week for orientation and to check out. Had the Leadership students come in and move the tables around to ADA requirements. Cleaned one that had had lots of coffee and snacks on it and had gotten stained. Took down my window display and I have an idea for a new one, but still rumbling around in my head. Everyone comes tomorrow! Might have to bring a Pepsi to get through it!