The daily life of a Middle School Library Media Assistant.
Today was the first day of the new semester! I have four new aides and two repeats! So I got my new aides orientated and had them start to work on the Order in the Library. I worked on the sign and getting things ready for the Great Kindness Challenge. I made a sign and printed out the checklist and highlighted the ones that students could do right on the MakerSpace cart. I noticed that all my nice fine markers are gone. But one. Rats. That makes me so sad. I had to leave early today for a doctor appointment and found that I won’t be back in the rest of the week. Hopefully, this will take care of my issues and as of next Monday, all will be well!
I love these three day weeks! Finished up the semester today and it was busy. Packed four boxes of surplus books. Got another cart emptied of math books with that! Had four classes in to check out books. Had A lunch in. I think all the students I need to have removed are taken care of. My two Chromebooks that went missing were returned to me! Put away all the rest of the books after school was out and won’t be back until Monday! Oops! Forgot to send in my grades! Will do that now!
January 22! All the books from putting up the Native American books needed to be put away, they were just stacked along under the windows, so I did that this morning and looked at the shelving my aides have done. Some all right, some not all right! Like they took the books in their sections and just shoved them around! Oh my! Since I was thinking of aides, I asked for a list of my aides for 2nd semester. The ones I didn’t know, I looked up to see if they checked things out. Four of them don’t even check out books!! I asked to have them removed. I know three of them got taken out, but still don’t know about #4. When I looked that student up, he has notes that he does not read, nor make the attempt and has behavior problems. Oh my. Not a good fit for the library! Hopefully he’ll be gone by Monday. The others will all be all right. Some I know, and some are great readers. I also had a DLC student on the list so I asked his teacher to come down and we talked for awhile and decided that he wouldn’t quite be up the duties I ask my aides to do, so he was another one that won’t be on my list. Both lunches in again. B lunch finished the puzzle. MakerSpace and the four Raspberry Pi carts out again. Did some reading. Sent off eight of The Red Pencil to Houck for a teacher there. Things went well today and our raffle boxes for the reading growth of 6th grade students is a huge success. They come in with their golden tickets and pick the prize they would like to try for and drop the tickets in that box. They have about ten choices! The teachers came in today and asked to use the library for the party, but then there would be food and they are going to hold it in the Commons instead. Teachers think things out so well! One more day to the end of the semester and I only have three book reviews. Tomorrow is the last day for them to turn them in!
Yes, last night I was too excited to post because I was working on a quilt block for a quilt guild in Australia who are making quilts for families that have lost everything in the fires. I finished it tonight. But back to Tuesday, January 21st! I had a request from a teacher who had her students make frames and pictures and research on Native Americans. The most popular topics were the code talkers and the Native American mascots in the country. On the frames are pull out cards that tell the research the student did. Nice! An aide came in and started to take down the books I showed him on the main shelf under the windows and put up the frames. He put all the books on the left of the windows and all the frames to the right! It was cute! I of course, moved the frames so they were across the entire shelf under the windows and put up books that had Native American themes. We had more than enough fiction books to do that I was proud to see. I had been lazy and sluffed off putting up the books in the 900’s from laying them down for Christmas, so I did that, putting away the old ones and displaying new ones. Had both lunches in, so put out the MakerSpace cart and the Raspberry Pi carts too. New puzzle out as well. It was a good day, two days to go! Another three day week!
Well, because I was out Wednesday and Thursday doing medical things.
I got a few ‘glad you’re back’ from staff and even a couple of students. Took Ms. M the last two When books for her reading groups and found that someone had taken her the rest of the Masterminds books that had come in. So I had to go back into our program and actually receive them and then check them out to her. Mr. A had some students bring down four broken calculators, and only one had a barcode. So I banded the ones without barcodes and will hopefully find them when I check in all the rest later at the end of this school year. I took up four requests for refunds for students that are now at South HS. I tried to check out The Soul of an Octopus to a requesting staff member and it wouldn’t, so I sent a message over and the book was still ‘lost’, so they had to declare it found, and then it let me check it out! She was so happy! I did some reading and put away my books. Did some laminating since I wasn’t in on Thursday. It was a lovely day and I was glad to be back! Only three days next week too! Monday is a holiday and Friday is teacher grading day only! I’m loving short weeks!
It’s held after school Tuesday through Thursday for students that have D’s or F’s for them to get extra help to complete assignments. So the library after school is quite the scene. I got in more books for Ms. M this morning and got them to her. There were still boxes in the library workroom from the math manipulatives that no one ever took, so I broke them down today and put them in with the recyclables. It was about time! I did some repairs. Got the new books ready and put them out on the shelves. Shelved the non-fiction today. Put out the MakerSpace and Raspberry Pi carts for lunches. Had both lunches in. A lunch is very busy, but not so much B lunch. It’s pretty quiet! I think I like it! Had a teacher ask if they could set up a Kindness Station in the library for the Great Kindness Challenge. I was excited! Perfect for our MakerSpace! I put it on Yammer as well for other libraries to think about setting up! It’s during January 27th through the 31st. I sent off a couple of asked for books. And got in some books for students and got them out to them today. In some ways a very nice day.
Today was our last lockdown drill for the school year. We had the orchestra class in for AVID and then the drill, so I had a whole class in our safe zone today. It went well and they were really good. I did ask today why we had two drills for this in the same semester? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have one during each semester? Once during the first semester classes, then one during second semester and have it just after second semester starts? Say within the first two weeks of February? I sent that to our principal and she said she’d bring it up at the next meeting, that it made sense. I got out all the MakerSpace equipment today and get that going again, as well as a new puzzle (I found one of the two missing pieces from Exploding Kittens under a computer cart today!) Got out all four of the Raspberry Pi carts. Sent out the library google sheet for sign ups. Had a student email me to ask about the 3rd book in a series. I’ve never had that happen before! It was pretty cool! I think I need to let LA teachers know to tell their students to email me for help! Got in more books for Ms. M. Requested The Soul of the Octopus for a staff member. Had both lunches in. In AVID this morning they had students look at their grades and see what work was missing so they could make up assignments, so I asked all my aides today to take the opportunity of being in the library to work on anything they needed to for their grades. I’ll keep up that pressure up until grading.
We had our classes in today who finally have a permanent teacher for the first time all year. I felt really bad for them, but so glad they have a teacher who they respect enough to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner to come down and check out books. I helped quite a few of them and got to know this teacher a bit. Had both lunches in, and an all around very busy day in the library! Great way to end the week!
Had a 4 hour nuclear stress test yesterday. My sub for the day called in sick so they had someone else come in who didn’t have a clue as to library stuff! I felt so bad since my sub folder didn’t have instructions for them. Ugh. I feel awful about that. So I redid my sub folder and my ‘other instructions’ binder to make sure that won’t happen again. Our copier has been crumpling papers, on about every other copy. So I called that in to our office so they could get a tech out. Did some reading and sad that my Exploding Kittens puzzle is missing a piece. So sad 😞 Withdrew some old books. Put away books. Had both lunches in.
I did five classes of book talks today, about 14 different books and only one got checked out. Man, I just feel like a failure when that happens. But they got introduced to new books to them, so I was happy about that. I did a bio/autobiography book, then a couple of fiction books. I then spent the time helping students, talking to their teacher. I also put books and ordered in some books for Ms. M. We went over her list and and decided on some. So, we’ll see. I went through the boxes that Mrs. M brought from home and picked out cards, some games, some beads and few other things for our students during lunch and MakerSpace time. Got a call from JLG on our new commitment and our rep for Leslie. Talked to our new English teacher and showed him our library and the back rooms. We had a room clear for a student that got sick, and luckily the library was empty so the rest of the class came in while they got it cleaned up. My 5th period class got done very quickly and I was able to let the B lunch kids come in. After school they began a new after school program in the library, so I had tons of students in the library with teachers and IA support for them to get lessons done. All in all, a great day in library! I love it when it’s busy and students and staff use this incredible space!
We were all back today and it went well. I had to start with turning everything on. I had unplugged all the computers over break and got them all set and started. Opened up the drapes on all the windows. Restarted my computer. Then I worked on other stuff. Went through the AVID slides with my three 1st period students. Took all the holiday books I got in for the DLC students that had to be checked in and sent back. Only three went to the same place, all the other five were to different schools. I also sent back a book a student had requested and was done with, so it went back to another school. Helped students with the copier since it had been awhile for some of them. Put away my books and put back up display books that I had laid down for the break. I had my aides go and put up the books in their sections as well. I have book talks tomorrow so I went around and picked out books for that. Had both lunches in, but no Makerspace today. Ms. M asked if it was all right for the new after school program to be held in the library and I said, of course yes! She also cleaned out a bunch of games, puzzles and makerspace stuff, so I said I would take it and go through it. Then I asked for help with the Scholastic Book Fair since she was having a parent meeting tonight. We'll see how that turns out. I also had a request from Ms. M for lit group books and tallied up what we had, what was available in the district and then sent her the list for the ones we just don't have in the district. That took awhile! I put the TV up for the meeting this afternoon back along the long wall and had my aides help me move tables that were a bit out of place. Maybe the library got vacuumed over the break! That would be sweet!
