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.