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 I have so much I want to do to get the withdrawn books packed up but don’t want to lift the boxes!!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!