Lilac Bonsai

I got a lovely lilac bonsai for my birthday and it's in bloom! So cute! I can see it out on our deck while I type. Last night I got a reminder that the AudioBookSync is out today, so I worked on a Flipgrid to show students how to access that. Rough, but well, I'm working on it! 

https://flipgrid.com/s/3e55afcae8ae

So, we'll see how that goes! I sent it off to the teachers. It took me awhile to get the code for just that video! Hopefully I'll get better about getting that code! Now to see about getting into the LA 8 meet today. A lot more students showed up today and I gave a quick blurb on the Audio Book Sync. I hope they take advantage of that. I feel a bit out of touch today. Just like I work and do what makes sense to me, but no one else cares? (though I know staff would jump in and say they do!!) Tried to jump into two meetings today, but my microphone wouldn't work. I was just mute! I tried to restart my computer and then joined in a different way, still nothing. Then I totally turned it of and joined in a completely different way and voila! There it was once the meeting was almost over! Ugh. I did get into Mr. A's class though, and that one worked in Google Meets and I could talk, and I could hear on Team, but no one could hear me. I will have some books for students tomorrow at the 10am meet. I thought we would have a Media Assistant meeting, but I didn't hear or see anything and the meet room was empty but for me. I did get in the bond meeting and I love that my idea about converting the old computer lab into a new room was taken. I'll be excited to see how that works out! Drats! Should have taken a screen shot of how that will look! But I do have my drawings, so it'll be close to those. More or less! Not to scale! I was a bit sad that when the old computer lab was shown to be the new AVID room and other space, that no one said it was me that came up with reusing that space. Just how the day went I guess. Thank goodness April is over. Worst April ever for me personally. 

Music

Thought there was a meeting this morning, but I guess not. It's too quiet so I finally turned on Pandora. Working on my Out of the Silent Planet quotes. Got an email from JLG about possible shipping of our orders and where they should go. Sent it to our PA and he's having Ms. M call since the books go to LMSS and not out to the schools and get that done. I also had a few tweaks on the change in the old computer lab I sent to our principal - the new 'reading nook' area will need electrical outlets and maintenance had replaced some of the lights over the main check out counter, but not all. Some are still the old fluorescent ones and they should go ahead and replace those as well. Had to take my hubby to the doctor, too many allergies, he has a sinus infection. Got back in time for the Wednesday staff meeting, lots of shout outs with our amazing staff. We had a time to put in what we have learned, done good with or accomplished in our own share time. Then off to pick up his prescription. I sent off Out of the Silent Planet quotes to the 7th grade teachers. Then tried to work on a Flipgrid for the book. I am just not very good at it. Or just a perfectionist! I'm not sure! Maybe I should have been a film director! I want this background, use my beach glass globe! Water color backgrounds but without copyright stuff all over them! I just want a picture for my talk! Ugh!

The Little Prince

I can’t find him. If he’s in an ebook, it has a wait list. I’ve gone through at least half of the online books and it’s not there. Drats. I finally signed up to go into work and pick up a copy. The 7th grade LA classes are working on what it’s like to live on another planet, and this is such a classic. *Computer Freeze! Lost all else - took a pic on my phone though!* Finished the Poison Eaters, it was actually really good. I was impressed. That'll have to be a book talk next week. I have ideas on how to illustrate some of the old practices of unsafe food additives. Bwahaha! Had a teacher request for online access to our History Alive books and I poked around a bit last night, but this morning I found TCI has a Covid support request that goes through June 20th and that would be a great thing. Mr. P has already submitted a request, like 30 seconds after I sent that information. I really hope he doesn't have to scan pages from him textbook anymore. I have a Classified meeting at 10, then to run over to the school and pick up The Little Prince and Last Day on Mars. While I wait, I pick up my next read, Cog by Greg Van Eekhout. So, there was no meeting. So I read until it was time to go to the school. Mrs. M was there and asked if she could come with me to the library so we could talk about using the old computer lab not for science, but for the AVID room. Science would take over their old one for their prep, so, since I offered, they are going to do that. We still will have a bit of that space by the 921's for a dedicated 'reading nook'. I like it. Then we had our staff meeting. I brought up that in my book club last night, several of the high school folks also commented that students are not engaging, getting work done and that they still need a grade. It seemed like everyone heard the senior note of: if seniors were good with their classes, you don't need to do anything else. I think they just erased the 'senior' part and went with the 'I feel good about my classes, so I don't need to do anything else.' I think grades come out today, so we'll see how it goes! I watched The Little Prince. Just on a chance, I opened up the TV and said "The Little Prince" and there was an animated movie in 2016 on Netflix! It was so good. Made me cry. Look it up! Watch it! Got Out of the Silent Planet for a description of another world for 7th grade and found the pieces I was looking for!

Cloudy Day

Totally forgot to send a book talk on Friday, drats! So, I got up this morning and sent one of my favorite space reads, Last Day on Mars. I found one, and there ya go!  I decided I needed to try getting on our public library ebook bandwagon, so I requested a copy of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and it arrived today, so I set up my iPad, requested the book. Was sent to Amazon, and viola! There it is on my iPad Kindle! I'm pretty stoked that I got it up and running. And now I can tell students how to access all that. Put in my notes from Saturday's YALLSTAYHOME book fest (love their banner!) We had a good first System 44 meet with a few of the students who managed to get on. We did a Madlib with them, adjectives, adverbs, nouns. The students did well and we had a good time. Was looking up book trailers for the Little Prince and found an awesome movie. I think if I watch it, I can pull some stuff out about the book on a Flipgrid without the movie tie in. Maybe... Big changes announced in our staff meeting, we had decided to go next year to a trimester, but no one is sure if we'll have the money now (after Covid) to have the extra staff to support it. I was looking forward to it, but now, it will not happen.

YALLSTAYHOME Book Fest

Yes, a special Saturday edition of The View From the Leslie Library Windows, except really, it's from my windows at home. Watched three Zoom meetings from the YALLSTAYHOME book fest. It was great, saw some of my favorite Middle Grade authors and enjoyed the three meets I was on! Now I'm off to walk! The sun is out and the road is calling. Now for my notes on Saturday! The opening Keynote was good with a role out of Jo and Laurie - now I thought they did a remake of Jo with a modern day Laurie. I had forgotten that Laurie was the boy next door and her best friend. So, I'm wondering if this is a middle grade book? Well, Titlewave wasn't much help, they brand it YA, so I doubt our students will read it. I also attended Creativity in the Time of Corona - most of the authors talked about being kind to themselves and we all need to be kinder to ourselves. Realizing that you will have an off day and that it's OK. Some days, it is enough to survive. My favorite session was the PJ Cosplay edition - that was so hysterical! Shannon Hale came on in a Rainbow Dash onzie! Even put the hood up a few times! She talked about that her worst review said that she was larded and glacial. Oh my! A new book, but only rated 3-6 grade is Diana Princess of the Amazons. Wonder Woman as a kid, the only kid on the island and is clumsy, and not really any good at anything. Holly Goldberg Sloan said she would love to live in the world of Harry Potter. That her favorite word is 'friend' and what she's learned most about this time is that a friend is a friend forever. She has reconnected with old school friends from Eugene (yeah Oregon!) and they are still great friends! Carlos Hernandez was dressed as a lion and talked about his new Sal and Gabi book. And a favorite word - kakastacik?? That's my phonetic version anyways! They had fast question rounds and the energy and fun was exciting! Loved it. Hope next year it is online as well since I probably would never go to it (money plus aversion to Southern California!). Glad I sat in! So worth while!

Wasn't Planning on It

Originally this was supposed to be just a half day, grading for teachers and for us, professional development. I guess that's not happening! So, I logged in today because it was our Language Arts 6th grade meet. All the 6th grade teachers and I met with about 26 students to talk poetry. It was fun. And the students were amazing! The poems they chose to share were incredible. Amazing, really. After the students left we talked about next week and what it would be like to live on another planet. So I'll pick out books like, Wrinkle in Time, Out of the Silent Planet (maybe? might be too advanced?) maybe The Little Prince? I have a meeting at noon now, so I think I'll look for books for a bit. I found a couple on the Axis360 eBooks - Last Day on Mars was fabulous! Then our optional staff meeting. Then our address by our superintendent, Christy Perry. Then I went for a walk! I have seminars tomorrow! So I'll make up time then.

Every Day

I sent this out this morning to our Principal and Assistant Principal:
I've been noticing, thinking about these optional staff meetings. It is a wonder to me how many of us attend. Every meeting. Every day. It shows our community. Our hearts for our students. Our hearts for each other. A place to gather, just a virtual hands up that says 'I'm here, I care, I'll be here.' It is truly a wondrous thing and I'm taking a moment to share this profound way in which we gather as community, even in the midst of disarray, to show up, to be the support for our students and each other, every day. Like the signs I still see say, 24J Every day. We will be here every day.
I then trolled through a couple of emails, pulled up my Teams, now heading into classrooms to see what's been going on. I love that Ms. N has my book talk videos in her assignment stream. I have four synchronous meets I'm a part of, and the first one starts in just a couple of hours! I'm a bit tentative, and we'll see how that goes! I have one on Mondays, two on Thursdays and one on Fridays. I just added them all into my Outlook Calendar and they will go until June 10th, our official end of school. Just did my first meet, it went ok. Did some navigating around, talked and chatted with students. It turned out well. Now to get ready for my Book Buzz webinar! A lot of the books were too old for our students, 9th grade and up, but there were some that looked appropriate, but I'll have to look them up! Luckily I write down titles and authors so I can check on Follett. Two pages worth! Then our staff meeting and our principal read out what I wrote! That was so nice! Then one of the LMA's had a link for a book talk but couldn't get on. So I followed her link and just clicked on the big orange banner with two books and the vimeo came on about them! They will definitely be on one of my lists!  Now I'm hoping to find my 1pm Google Classroom Meet. It was definitely quieter than the morning one! But I observed and watched the chat, only one student mentioned anything, but all was well. When the students get comfortable, I hope they come out more!

Scattered

I can tell I am really scattered today. Flitting around my work email and Teams, I forgot to eat any breakfast (just downed a bar and half banana at 10:30). Attended a Team meeting on 7th graders. Sent out my book talk for today, Lucky Broken Girl, narrated and we even get to see the author, Ruth Behar who was, yes, a lucky broken girl, in a body cast for a year from the waist down! Wow. I hope the students like it. Put an ebook on hold from Salem Public Library just to see how that works in case students ask. Also pushed out a link to a site that has an interactive story with the holocaust to our social studies teachers from a Facebook post by a friend who is also a teacher. Maybe it's because it's raining?? Supposed to pour all day, though I just stepped out onto my deck to see how my bonsai were loving the rain, they do, they told me. Registered for a webinar on new books coming out for tomorrow, the webinar, not necessarily the books! Listened to the optional all staff meeting, got some good tips. Need to ask if I can do anything for the two teachers assigned to me. Sent that out to both of them. Checked the new slide show for electives since being a library aide is an elective and asked for the description to be changed a bit from: 'Help with shelving, cutting paper, and more!' to 'Learn checking in and out books and library practices!' or a shorter one since there isn't a lot of space: 'Learn checking in and out books and more!' I'm not sure I've ever checked the library aide description in the description of aiding before. Remembered Jason Reynolds and his WRR, so found the next (#3) writing prompt and sent that out to our Language Arts teachers.

Hottest Graphic Novels

Today I looked at my Teams calendar to see that I have a webcast at 11. Nice. Hottest Graphic Novels for Spring 2020. I sent that out on our LMS Team chat in case anyone else wanted to hop on board with that. I have an IA meeting at 10, webcast at 11 and staff meeting at noon. Going through the classrooms I've been invited into to see assignments, and oh, look! A Google meet for 6th grade on Friday! Cool! 7th grade lit is on Thursdays at 1. System 44 is 10:30 on Mondays. Turning off notifications! Sooo many! Thanks Mr. R! Completed the staff wellness survey. Didn't answer some things because I'm not a teacher. Had our classified staff meeting. Lots of good interaction and ways to support our teachers and how to put that onto our Google docs. Now onto my webinar on the newest graphic novels! Argh! Just lost all my notes from this point. Now to rewrite. Loved the webinar and got some great titles I need to purchase for my school. Then we had our optional staff meeting, and I love that so many people attend. It shows such great community! Now I am reading a new book for booktalks, The Poison Eaters all about the Clean Food Bill and how that got passed. I already have some great ideas for a book talk, maybe I need to do more exploring with Flipgrid! I need a book talk for tomorrow, so I looked through book talks and found a favorite, Lucky Broken Girl. It's even narrated by Ruth Behar and has her in it! I love it! Back to reading and taking notes on Poison Eaters! I also got a meme site through one of the other LMA's that I pushed out to our staff. How to recognize the four points of a meme. Very well done! I must admit that I go for the emotional 'Oooooo, that's sweet' ones. Oh, and I need to listen to Ms. M and her principal message to parents. Well done Ms. M! You look like the calm voice of reason in a sea of uncertainty, guiding us through the waves. 

And a Gracious Good Morning

If you guessed Lily Tomlin as the phone operator, Huzzah! I sent the 'plan' I drew up of the library change for science to our premiere science teacher Mr. R. I also copied Ms. M on it as well, so she'd know I sent it out. She got back to us and asked the science team to look it over and decide if that was something they wanted to look at or not. I sent out the Monday Book Talk to Language Arts, the A Girl on Schindler's List book. Every story is important, and I thought the parallels of when a dictator comes in and attacks against our own COVID virus might be interesting. I checked out the YALLSTAYHOME book festival page and found a workshop for shop teachers that I sent on to our Industrial Tech teacher. I'm waffling on signing up for anything since it's over the weekend, but I may for the PJ Cosplay, such great authors. Helped out our counselor. He called on the Team app and we couldn't talk at first, then he called again and we got together. It's for a new student that is just coming in, so we found where to log him into and how to log in and we'll go from there. Did sign up for the PJ Cosplay! And the opening keynote. Time for the staff meeting. And sending out from our LMSS office the good news that MackinVIA is giving us free ebook access to over 3,700 titles for a month. That should help some of our students! Trying to set up a YouTube account for book talks, and it really isn't making much sense. Well, I'm a bit protective and don't want to give my phone out. So, maybe not so good. But at the same time, if anyone can do a YouTube video, I should be able to as well. Not sure if Flipgrid is the way I want to go. Finally got to see the recording of the Live event with our Superintendent that was on Friday. I was very frustrated I couldn't get on, though I tried three different ways. Glad she reminded me that technology is not always going to work! Amen! And later...I got a message from a teacher that my 1st period aide does not have a digital planner! Oh my, totally forgot that they do not have another 1st period class! So I had made a copy and shared that with that student. Hopefully, they got it! I'll find out tomorrow!

Friday the 17th -

My birthday, but no party. I did send out my Friday book talk for the Language Arts staff and also let them see my Flipgrid I did. Then onto all the emails from publishers on their new books and services they are offering to people. I would typically just delete them, but now, I have time! So I added a couple of titles and checked out a few more emails and added some more. Totally forgot and didn't get in for the Bond meeting check in yesterday afternoon. Drats. So, luckily they recorded it, and I watched that today and thought, 'what about using the old computer lab for a prep room for the science wing?' So I drew this up:

I told my principal about it, and we'll see where it goes. That part of the library is very underused and if they do put all the science rooms down in that wing of the building, that would be a perfect fit perhaps for extra sciency things, prep room, storage, etc. So we'll see where that goes. I did write most of this on Friday, but forgot to post. So I must have gotten older!

Write. Right. Rite.

Yes, the sun is out again today! Got two comments on my Restart Flipgrid, but I watch it and know I need to redo it. It will never be seen by the Language Arts group! Contacted the ladies who are at LMSS today to see if my order has come in. No, still in processing, but at least it's there! Before we left I got my budget and it was at $00.00! Perfect! Though I see on the order my DNE (Do Not Exceed) amount is $730.60, but the amount at Follett for it is $837.07. Sometimes LMSS will throw in a bit extra depending on their budget, so maybe the book fairy visited my account and threw in an extra $100! Could be! Now I'm going to look over my Follett inbox to look at a 500's list. There are a lot of good books in there. I just went over my summer list, and there were books in there that won't be published until after July 1st, so I took them off that list and made a new fall book order list and put them on there. Now to look at more new books that are coming on the scene to add to orders. I get a lot of emails from publishers that I actually have time to go through! I hate it when I find a great book but it's rated high school, This Boy by Lauren Myracle. All right. Went through lists of upcoming books and added some to my lists, my summer after July 1st and then the fall which will go out probably at the end of September. Had our Optional Staff Meeting and I must say I'm impressed with how many still show up, nearly our whole staff every day. I think it shows how much we need the connection to each other. I'm so excited that Jason Reynolds is the new National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature that is very cool! And he's doing writing prompts! His platform is to Write. Right. Rite. I'm excited! The one of 'create your own medal' was nice, but I love his 'create your own tattoo'! Because it's not the ink or where it is, but the story that is behind it. Very nice Jason! I sent links to my Language Arts teachers and put it on our LMA Teams webpage. I might have to write something myself! Now for the LMA meeting!

Cloudy with a Chance of La Hacienda?

Hoping we might order La Hacienda to come for lunch today! Just getting started, took out the mail for Scholastic out to the mailbox right away, they've been coming earlier! There is a Master Schedule meeting, but I'm not involved with that since I'm not a teacher, so I don't attend those. Found out from our benefits department that if I am actively working and have benefits, I don't need to apply for Medicare at this time. I was so confused! Glad to have that out of the way for a year! Now to find something to do with my roles on the Master Calendar. To find something that sounds so productive like Ms. G has on hers! Just got distracted that there are two chickadees coming in and out of the birdhouse our neighbor made for me! So cool! Sent a book trailer to Language Arts peeps on Lila and Hadley, I soooo want to read that book!!  Came up with some points for my roles during the rest of the year. Will role out book trailers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Now for a bit of reading for the book I'm recommending for Friday, Restart. Then I worked on my Flipgrid. I got a video recorded (after about 20 restarts!!), but have to tinker to find out how to change, add new ones, etc! Not too bad for a first effort!

https://flipgrid.com/s/63d544c60004

 Here is my basic schedule I put on the Data Team Sheet:

*Book Trailer Push to LA *Classroom Checks *Lit work resources *Meets - staff

*Classroom Checks *Lit work resources *Meets - staff - LMSS

No, did not do La Hacienda, but did go get lunch from Taco Bell!

Hanging Tight

Started today with calling Scholastic to do my financials with them. I am just going to put the little bit of money I collected into my own account and write them a check. That was how I can do it! Thank goodness I didn't have any checks! With no office and no access to our bookkeeper, I'm glad there are no checks made out to the school I have to figure out! Then I went onto a call from technology and it appears that I cannot reset passwords because I am on a personal device instead of a district device. So, I had sent out instructions yesterday, and now I have to modify them already! Of course! I put that out in a meeting with the teachers today. I also accessed my IA instructions and have two classes I'll support so I've asked the teachers to bring me in to those. I'm packing up my Scholastic monies and am going to deposit those! Had the classified meeting today and I am involved with two teachers for support and for resources for the school. Cool beans! This afternoon I took the deposit of the Scholastic monies to the bank and wrote out the check, printed the invoice and got that ready to go in the mail tomorrow morning. Checked in here and there. I also went to my Aunt's house this afternoon because the mask I made her didn't fit the way she wanted! We went to elastic over the ears and had a nice distance chat while I hand sewed on the ear straps. 

Starting all Over

Today is the first day of our Long Distance Learning, so we are all learning! Staff and students! Today I am concentrating on getting all my book reviews up on my blog here. It had been a long while and I often use it for book recommendations for students (and staff). I had to get my Leslie Library history list and my Salem Public Library list together and I have a few books that are my own. After I finish with the two that are my own, I'll put them out in our Little Free Library and set them loose! It's getting a lot of action out there! Got all my reviews done with morning. Had two Microsoft Teams calls, one with our office manager on how to get a student signed into their Chromebook and another call with a teacher on getting her student logged into our Axis360 program. Great to be able to help! I also downloaded flipgrid and thought I'd do my own videos, but I found Words on Fire online! So I sent that out to Language Arts team. 

Should be Friday!

Had two meetings today, our noon staff meeting and then a meeting with our Superintendent of schools. As we gear up for long distance teaching, good to have the reassurance of those in charge that we will get through this. Plans for keeping our sanity. That being in community even if only online is a good thing! I started reading my first book talk book today, Restart by Gordon Korman, and am enjoying it! I will work on the Flipgrid when I get done! I wish I was a video guru! I could have so much fun with this! Worked on a few things with our LMA team. Resources for students and I ended up connecting them back to our district English 6 Digital Learning Standards Map 2020 - since they were already there. I did link up our DLC staff to the Tumblebooks access. I often wondered why we had Tumblebooks on our webpage, but now I know! Because one day our DLC kids would really need this great resource! Was nice to sit on my patio this afternoon and read, and knowing I was working! Have a great weekend and remember to be kind humans!

What Day Is It?

I have to really think about it sometimes! Today I contacted our Scholastic warehouse to let him know that I never unpacked all the brown boxes that came with the book fair. Sent an email to our LA 6th team about Opposing Viewpoints for their Argue Issues unit they are to be working on. I went over Opposing Viewpoints to check it out first! That was fine, now I'm into Books and Authors and I'm seeing a summary, but not sure if I can load the book! I'm seeing if it will load on my district cloud! We'll see! Argh, had to write my PA to ask if they are just snippets or if we can download the entire book. I wish!!! Going through all the Google Classroom trainings. So glad I'm not a teacher! They are on such a learning curve! I'm also going to look at flipgrid for book talk videos! I also sent an email to our Language Arts teachers that I can be a support in helping students with finding books and reading books and also sent a resource path to social studies teachers to use for their students. Already have an add into Ms. R's class and she put in an assignment for them to put in a book recommendation! That was from my talk with my PA who asked for suggestions for eBooks! Yeah!

Virtually Done

Middle School Magic virtual conference was all morning! Then our noon staff meeting. I'll be back later, probably tonight with more about the conference. After all that time sitting in front of my computer, I made the choice to walk over to the school and pack up the Book Fair since I didn't know if we'd be let back in after today. It's a little over three miles, a nice day and I cut through the neighborhoods to angle over to Leslie. There's a beautiful patch of forest and meadow I got to walk by that I felt I could just breathe, relax and take in this gorgeous space just a couple of blocks off one of our busiest streets. When I got to the school, one of our IA's was happy we met, she had taken one of the Chromebooks home before we left but didn't have the power cord, so I took her down to the library and yes, it was there in the cart! She was so happy. She also said they had just announced that the schools were closed for the rest of this school year. Oh my. I called my hubby and asked for him to bring the car so I could bring home my personal items. I had two pictures at least that would not be fun to walk home with and I could bring home a box of books for book talks! Yeah! I got the book fair all packed up and talked to our custodian on duty about the time frame, would they be there and how that would all work out, seems that it will be fine since custodial will be there. Hard to realize how much I miss our students, my aides, my online students for first period, my drop in students working on projects, even just standing in the halls during passing greeting students. I often dreaded having students in during lunches, because some of them really should have been outside, not using their energy in the library, but yes, I even miss them, the ones that were quiet, the Makerspace getting it out and cleaning up. I don't think I realized how much of my day was spent interacting with students. Feeling it. We'll make it through!  Be safe, be kind and keep reading!

Sun!

The sun is shining right onto my computer face, ugh, will have to move it or maybe the sun will move behind one of the trees behind me. Starting the day with reading over the guidelines coming up for long distance learning. The Distance Learning Resources. In the Secondary Education Distance Learning Guidelines there is a point in there that students need to read at least one hour a week. That is quite a low minimum, but so very glad that we have been beefing up our online books the last several years! The Middle School Distance Planning Overview. I am looking at all of these since I've signed up to be a resource for the Language Arts classes and I need to know how they are going to work that and be ready for questions about not only book access, but also our other resources. Mondays will be a key date for seeing what lesson plans are for the week. Now to check out the Language Arts shared documents. Looking at the ELA Grade 6 Digital Learning Standards Map 2020: Looks like they are doing Argumentative Essays, so I will be sure to direct them to the Opposing Viewpoints in our OSLIS portal. Love, love, LOVE all the reading resources at the bottom of that! Great job Kari Caulder for getting those all in one place!! Amazing! Love the Library of Congress link! Grade 7 is going to be working on Creating Literature - that would be the Writing Fiction area. I'll have to go through our online resources, I have lots in the library, but not accessible. Perhaps direct them to being Pen Pals? Like I Will Always Write You Back - even though it is non-fiction, just the idea of sharing your life, and letting the writing take off from there might help some of the students. Perhaps even share Camp Nanowrimo for some ideas. April is also poetry month and a lot of students are getting into that with Kwame Alexander and our novels in verse. Now onto 8th grade - Utilizing Narrative Skills. I'll have to look at some things. Maybe suggest plays? Those are all narrative! I know the teachers will have their own ways to handle things and I'm just another resource for them to use. I am always so impressed by our teaching staff and they are so way beyond in their thinking of how to teach students. Just amazing to watch them work and see what they do. Sent a note of encouragement to our IC - she gave me a great note months ago, so I'm turning it around and back at her! Not much for the math DL, but checking them all out anyways. Science too. Social Studies, there we go. Aztecs, Indigenous peoples, Oceania and Africa - all great for our resources. Justice and Equity and Equality for the 8th graders. There are some links, but not to our media resources. I'll bring that up at our LMA meeting today. That's it for now, I'll be back later. Had our noon meeting, they are getting shorter and shorter! There is so much work for the teachers to do, it's a good thing. Checking in once a day is good, information is good, then let us go to work! I have another meeting at 2, and will be working on some other things between now and then, like lunch! Our LMSS meeting went for over an hour and it was the first time we'd all gotten together. We talked that technology is the only ones who can reset passwords (we used to be able to do that!). Asking for feedback on what eBooks we might purchase or beef up for online use. Moving our Axis360 move up the Library page so it's easily seen. That teachers can add time for individual reading over the district's one hour a week requirement. And one LMA used Flipbooks to start doing book talks so she sent us an example. I'm sure there was more, but those were the main ones I jotted down. Have I mentioned yet in this time that I love my job?? Yes, I do.

Contact

Today I put a link into a resource sheet for our students on the eBooks, Axis360 that we have. She had a lot of other reading resources, but not that one. I let her know! We had our all staff meeting at noon and after that I contacted all my student aides by school email:

Hi xxx,

     I hope that you are doing all right, taking care of yourself and your family.  Just want you to know to not worry about any library aide grades. You did great work! And I know you would continue to do well if we were at school. We are not sure where the next few weeks will take us, but I hope at some point to have you back as an aide again.

     I hope you are getting in some reading. Don't forget about all the great eBooks we have on our Axis360 platform through the school! Your Language Arts teacher should have the link right on their page. If you need it, please let me know I'll make sure you have that information.

     Let me know if there's anything I can do for you.

     Please be safe out there, 

I hope I get back some responses and they feel comfortable in reaching out to me if they want. I also put that into our LMA Team drive for other LMA's to see if they wanted to do.

3 Best Parts

Had two meetings today with our school network and then with our Superintendent. Our school meeting went fairly quickly, and I spoke up on how amazing it was without knowing that this event would flip our world, that technology started two years ago to replace all computer labs with each classroom having its own computer cart. Today and yesterday the district gave out literally thousands of computers to students to take home to start long distance learning. If they hadn't been proactive at taking that stance that our district needed to do that, we would not have had the ability to equip our students for learning from home. Kudos to Technology and the folks who pushed to make that happen.

Our superintendent asked us to reflect on the three best parts of this week and three of the best learning ideas you did this week.

Best Parts:  Teachers excited to teach, even if remotely; getting to work on the bond work that includes the library; able to send out resources for our teachers to use

Best Learning:  Microsoft Teams! We'd already done quite a bit in our Library Media group, but now with teachers and meetings, quite the learning curve;  Getting back into our digital learning resources with Gale; setting up my home computer to be able to work from home!

All in all, an important week as I did really a lot of things just from home. I miss my aides, and the student contact I get. Walking around my library and playing with the books. But I was amazed at what I accessed and worked with just from here at home. We've been tasked with doing nothing work related for the weekend, and I'm all for that!

Thought it was at 2

So, I had two meetings today and I thought one was at 2, but no, it's at 3! Oh well. So working on this instead. I attended at Webinar from Gale learning on using their school platforms. It has changed a bit, but it was only half an hour long, so they did a lot in just that half hour with high school programs and a bit on the elementary side. I started working on an email out to all our teachers on how to access that from our OSLIS page, but they also had a great page on how to teach from the corona side, and I can't find that web address and we're supposed to get that emailed to us, and I haven't gotten it yet. Then we had our staff meeting and I asked to talk about all our resources available and they let me come in and encourage our staff to use them and for staff to encourage our kids to use them. I also checked out our OSLIS news and they have a virtual summit coming up on April 8th, so I signed up for that and let our other LMA's know about it. Now, I thought our Bond work team was to meet at 2, but no, we are meeting at 3. I think when we set up the meeting, we thought we'd have to wait until school was out for the day. There is a place in Leslie's bond work to do some things in the library, and that's why I want to give some input! We had a great meeting online and I got to speak with several of the people involved in getting Leslie ready for their bond work. Our Director of Design and Construction, our Head of Construction and one of the architects! The scope of what they need to do is amazing and the library is just a small part of what all needs to be accomplished! I'm looking forward to seeing what the library will look like!

Just You and Me

I'm going to just try and add to this when I work on something. This morning I went onto our Insight 24J and found the Teacher Professional eBooks that we have and sent the link out to our staff. Our IC asked why she couldn't get on there, and figured it out that it didn't need her full work email, just the last and first name from before the @. Then she asked how I was doing, so I replied with what I've been up to and that yeah! I finally got in my picture for the student slide encouragement show they want to put on! This was mine!

I like it! I also sent an email out to the teacher who is across the hall from the library to see how he is doing. I dorked around on the Insight 24J and tried to get into our Academy for Teaching and Learning, but there's no access at the moment. I was hoping to find some OnLine classes. Maybe because most of them are meetings? I'll have to find out. I also went in and edited our email overdue book notices, I changed the details from email to "Internal" - I just need to remember to turn back on the email notices if we come back! We may not I have heard. I also posted in our LMA Teams a reading log for us to post what we are reading. Noon - getting set for our virtual school meeting. I wasn't in the right one, but then yes, we are live. We are still mandatory reporters. Check for concerning comments. Our PA also did a post on Teams about audio books so I added in that Amazon is also offering audio books for free as long as the schools are closed.