More New Books

 Wednesday - Went up to the office to mail a book back and there were three new book boxes waiting and the Scholastic Book Fair box waiting! I had to make two trips down to get them all! This was all my JLG books starting from August, so a nice non-fiction haul of new books! Chromebook issues today, had one of our techs in today and he was an old friend from Sprague! It was good to see him today as he worked on my pile of Chromebooks with issues. Read Rez Dog today - a quick little novel in verse. Very good! Thank you Mr. Bruchac! Had both lunches in. I haven't had the cart out and it's been so much quieter in the library. Makes me wonder! Got all the books put away that had been piling up on the shelving cart.

Thursday - Got an email that we're all set for our Time Capsule opening tomorrow and the student that is my aide and also did some research on it is giving a speech! She gave it to me today for practice! She even got to write it and did a great job. I'm looking forward to seeing that tomorrow. They are actually streaming it to the school since our lobby where it is is so small. Got all the new books out today. Not as many Chromebook issues, nor books in. Though I did have a student ask for her books that had been on holds and were ready to pick up. Went to the shelves, looked all over and when I finally pulled up her name, duh, they were on the little bookshelf I have on the table behind the check out counter I use for holds. I felt really silly. And last Friday I was at a party for a neighbor and as we cleaned up, I found out her daughter is a student at Leslie and she came into the library today to get a book! That was pretty cool. A better easier day today.

Three Days In

 Friday - I got in new books!!! I went up to the office and there were three boxes of new books that I ordered back in July! So excited! I got them all checked in. Put in their date due slips. Checked them all out because it's been so long since I ordered them! Chromebook issues all day again and had both lunches in.  It's been a few days, so I might have lost a few things.

Monday - Put up a display for the new books. I had to take all the old books down and put them away. I fell in love with Katie the Catsitter. So adoracatable!! I also wiped down all the tables today, they were getting pretty gross looking. Chromebook issues - I did a test count and yes, spend about 25% of my time with Chromebooks on average. Had both lunches in. Started to read Bridge of Souls - so very good! Love this series!

Tuesday - Gimme some Chromebooks! More Chromebook issues, both lunches in, finished reading Bridge of Souls. Checked out quite a few books and took some in. Got some textbooks for Mr. F's science class. Had to play Jenga with the Chromecarts so I could get to them. Had both lunches in, but didn't put out the Makerspace things today. So, the library was a bit quieter. I did send some kids out again today. Mask issues, eating issues. I get tired of telling them. 

Cleaning Up

 I spent a lot of time this morning putting away books. So many books had been checked in, but I hadn't put any back the last two days, so today was putting books back. Cleaning cobwebs and bug bodies, bits of things, who knows what on the shelving by the windows. Then I was thinking about Halloween and how students ask a lot for horror, scary, and creepy books, so I started to pull up those books to put on the shelves and started making a list off the computer program of those books so when students ask, I can pull it up. Plus I got to 'vet' the books on the list. Such as horrors of war are different from horrors of cemeteries. I did a lot of copy and paste, but still, a lot of work. Had both lunches in and ended up bringing out the other box of beads because so many students wanted to use them. We had our reading support classes come in today, three sets of them and a class from the DLC that went very nicely. At the end of the day Ms. C's class came in because her room was sweltering as again we have HVAC issues in the building. I do enjoy it when teachers come and 'teach' in the library. I get a real sense of what's going on in classes. Makes my heart happy.

142 to 417

 Tuesday - worked on the Schoolwide boxes all day since tomorrow we have our staff meeting and I can have them all ready for teachers to take. I took all the books and put them in alphabetical by title and worked on the spreadsheet and sent that out to teachers so they'd be prepared tomorrow. I ended up with 142 actual titles and 417 books! That's a lot of booty to give to teachers! I'm so excited for them! Had both lunches in. 

  Wednesday - Staff meeting and teachers loved having all the books right out there where they could pick and choose! One teacher came back later and took a box of books and later this afternoon came in to let me know how much her kids loved having new books and were so excited to have them! That made me feel good! I took my stack of Chromebooks that had been turned in with issues and got them all logged in today for tech to come and pick them up. I had 32 that need some loving care by our amazing techs. I cracked up a couple of the library folks when we were talking about getting dates for turning books from overdue to lost and we were saying we needed something out of this world. So I found a Star Date converter. Today, October 27, 2021 was Star Date 47634.44  it made our nerdy sides happy. I handed out Zombi kits to our kids today. I thought they could work on it during lunch, but there were no needles for them to sew them together! So I gave it to them to take home. Chromebook issues all day - most common remark was 'I left mine at home!' Lots going on!

8 Hours

 Who knew? I was cut down to 7.5 hours back under our old principal, and now I find that I am supposed to be working 8 hours a day. No one ever let me know and I don't know how long ago that happened. Just last month? Oh well! Today was activity day so I wore my Bocce Ball shirt and brought in a Bocce ball.  Lots of Chromebook issues today as usual. Signed a teacher up for library time. Went through a ton of emails from last week. Totally forgot to get drug books for Ms. S! Must do tomorrow! Got in my Scholastic book I ordered. Talked with my new Scholastic rep. Checked in a lot of books and put a lot away. Saved some for my aides. Had both lunches in. Worked a tiny bit on the Schoolwide book sorting. A busy day, lots of little pieces and then scoring Volleyball! We won, but just by two points! It was two games to two games and the 5th game we won 25 to 23. Soooo close and some amazing plays on both sides. A dark rainy drive home.

Second Down

 Well, mostly. I do have a Teams meeting tomorrow for about an hour, but then I'm off until Monday! Huzzah! Today I worked on seeing if I really could pack up withdrawn books and put the boxes on top of the Chromecarts and I think it'll work. I finished packing up the Junior Great Books and I thought I had done all the Language Networks, but I guess not. There were a few down below the JGB's. I found that paper boxes are perfect to hold the science books as well. I took the Schoolwide books I wanted to keep (with permission! She said that anything to get the books into the hands of students was good!) so I prepped those to send into LMSS for processing. That took awhile. As did moving Chromecarts around to get to books and to get them in places I could get boxes on top of them. Chromebook stuffs again today. Both lunches in. Had classes come in the last half of the day just to finish up work. Did check in and out books today as well! Glad to head home and it'll still be light when I get there!

One Down, One to Go

 We only have two days of school this week. Which is kind of cool! I wish all weeks were just two days of work! I finished up the Schoolwide boxes today. Started to alphabetize the books on the spreadsheet and thought that might be something someone else could do during conferences. So I stopped. Had both lunches in. Chromebook stuff. Thought about how I might be able to start withdrawing the science books and box them up and put the boxes on top of all the Chromebook carts, I know I can get at least 2 boxes on each cart, so we'll give that a shot! Then off to volleyball and we won all five games! A fantastic end to the day!

Pallets and Schoolwide

 Thursday it was raining! I had to wait for it to stop, then waited for lunches to be over and for the pallets to dry out a little bit. Then I started to load them up. 70 boxes. I had a bit of help from my aides, but I didn't let them pick up the boxes, I didn't want them to get hurt. They helped push the special hand truck I have which really helped me a lot! I did some withdrawing of Schoolwide in the morning, then load, load, load all afternoon. Was so glad to get all those boxes out of the back room, which may fit all the Chromecarts out of the Library workroom Chromecarts so that space will be open again.

Friday I took the few boxes I couldn't get on the pallets and stacked them and I was able to get all the Library workroom Chromecarts into the back. While I did that, one Chromecart was a bit heavier than the others, and it was still filled with Chromebooks bC*! (before Covid). I put in a tech service ticket and told them that if they wanted the Chromebooks they'd have to take the Chromecart along with them! I hope they do! But probably not... I pulled all the boxes of Schoolwide out of the back so I could load more Chromecarts in that aisle. So I worked on those most of the day. I only have five more to go on Monday! Both lunches were in. Lots of Chromebook work again. We talked today about how much time we spend on Chromebooks, but we don't hardly do textbooks any more. We did a survey for work on the work for Chromebooks. So we'll see how that goes. I documented every charger out today and why I checked out extra Chromebooks or gave out another charger. Ready for the weekend!

More Schoolwide

 We had our morning meeting today and most of it is for teachers, so I kind of half listen, look over from time to time and do multitasking! Got all the new stuff on the cart for lunches today. Chromebook help, always. Worked on getting the Schoolwide boxes done, still not done. Got the notice that our surplus books will be picked up on Friday, so tomorrow will be a day to load up pallets. Had both lunches in and put a notice on the library doors for my lunch that said 'Library Closed. Open at 12:54' which is when the B lunch starts. I can almost get in my whole lunch that way between the student lunches and no one came into the library! I think that was the first time I didn't have students wanting help! I did turn off all the lights, so hopefully they thought I was gone. One of the LMA's said she has to go eat in her car to eat undisturbed! Jeans and a t-shirt tomorrow for the pallet load. It will be so good to get those boxes out and I'm already thinking I can at least get the Chromecarts in there and out of the library workroom. We'll see!

Saved by the Puzzle

 There is one little girl who comes in every day during A lunch to work on the puzzle and B lunch finished it yesterday. So we pulled it apart a bit and I put it out today for her to finish it (again!). And when she came in, someone, I didn't see who, had already finished it. She was so sad, couldn't believe it. I felt so bad, I went over there and it was done!! No one there fessed up. So I told her that she could pick out the next puzzle. She was like, 'you have more?' and so I took her and her friend into my office and opened up the closet and let them pick out the next one. She was happy. I was so glad I could give her a special treat. Today I started to pull apart the Schoolwide resources. So I had to throw away the teacher binder papers. Saved the binders for someone. Withdrew the boxes. Saved the books. That took just about the rest of the day. Got in my Makerspace stuff I ordered. So excited for a student who has asked every day if the new stuff is in yet so tomorrow I can say YES! Then I remembered that I have a 3D pen, so I ordered some more filament. I also got some glue sticks from my office. The usual Chromebook issues. Was a good day and I got to drive straight home! 

New Picture of the Library!

 

I am so happy with the way the library looks after the bit of remodeling I got to do! I had to take a picture last week and finally got it loaded today! Looking good Leslie Library! So the header picture is from the back of the library and this is from the left window side. Love it! Today I finished packing all the empty boxes I had and got all the Language Network books gone and some of the Junior Great Books. I now have 77 boxes ready to be picked up and sent Garten a notice today that they were ready and to contact me for a day to pick up. Both lunches in, More Chromebook issues. I put away all the books that were on the shelving cart. Had a new aide in today working with the EGC team and it went really well. Sent in an email on the Schoolwide kits. I had one of the curriculum people in and she said to go ahead and take them apart, but I just wanted confirmation before I started that. And began to look at the science books...so many. Each set has over 300 books (A - O) and we're only going to keep maybe a class set of each. We do use some quite frequently, so I will keep those. But others we have hardly used at all or ever. And they are on the surplus list. I also got to score Volleyball tonight! We did not do very well at all. Our team was miscuing and just not playing like they have. There were some really great rallies though! Then time to head home!

SLJ - DoD

 Today was the School Library Journal Day of Dialogue.  Some amazing authors and their stories of why and how they wrote what they did. I ordered some of the books that weren't already on my list from this summer and entered into lots of exhibits and picked up some nice 'tote' bag items to look at later. Had both lunches in. Still Chromebook issues floating around. I also got a notice from our PA that we had money to spend on our 'weeding' non-fiction for this year. $400! So I spent the afternoon after the conference looking at books for our 400 section. It's not much of a section! I thought, 'I'll get a new Dictionary/Thesaurus' and the one we had was 2008, and the one I thought to buy was also 2008! That would be silly! There were a few that I was excited about like the Welsh to English dictionary, but it was over 400 pages! Not going to happen! But I think I will buy the Latin/English dictionary. I loved it when I took Latin and realized how many words came from Latin. It really increased my vocabulary and my comprehension of why some words were spelled that way. 

As for yesterday, I did some packing, some reading. Had both lunches in and it was so blasé. I did find a website to pick a word for the year that will be the word you live by, and that was pretty cool. I sent it out to the Language Arts teachers for maybe a writing prompt. That's all I can remember! 

Time Capsule News

 Oh my goodness! What a shock to learn that when Leslie moved to its new location, they actually opened up the Time Capsule! One of my aides found an article about it. They took some things out, put some other stuff in and then sealed it back up. I am kind of sad about that 😞 so we'll see what our principal decides to do. I found a picture in the 1971 yearbook. And another in the hallway just across from the library, then my aide found the article online. It was fun to sleuth around and see what we could find. I took an old notebook of transparencies and pulled them all apart. Then had an aide do the other one. That took forever. Had both lunches in and had the math team come and get their new books. Somehow I missed a teacher. I have no idea how that happened. I was short about two books for her class and I felt really bad and have no idea how I missed getting her on the list for the new books. She looked very disappointed. She came down 6th period and I grabbed the books out of boxes, got them all on a cart, then my two aides and I took off the wrapping from each book and got it done really quickly, then I had them take the cart to the teacher. I felt bad. Had more Chromebook work today. Worked on reading Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy. Really good stuff in there.

Time Capsule

 As I walked in the door this morning, I glanced at the little plaque on the wall about the time capsule from the old Leslie. I had to stop when I saw that it was to be opened this November! The 5th to be exact! I let our principal know. Now I'm kind of excited about what it all is! We had our tech guy in today and he recovered another 10 computers to come back on. He only had to take about 20 back to his office to get worked on. I did ten, he did ten, so we recovered half of what was there and we could get back into circulation. That was great as I answered questions and got that settled. I packed more boxes today and got rid of the last big cart of books that I had withdrawn last year. Then I started on packing up the Language Network books, they weigh 2.15 pounds each! That's a hefty little book! I had unpacked all those big math books, so I started using those boxes to pack them. I had both lunches in, took my lunch during Advisory. Then I started working on the teacher resources for those. They are big spiral bound books. So I had to cut off the spiral end and then roll them through the holes to the end. I noticed the section papers were nice and thick. Not quite cardstock, but good enough to make book marks out of them, so I did! They made a lot. I got through about eight of those. I put the rest of the papers and ends into our recycling bins. I had my 6th period aide work on the book marks as I worked on the old transparencies books. Back in the day when teachers all used overhead projectors (!), and started pulling those apart. There is paper between each transparency, so I am saving all of those and throwing away the actual transparency. I'll keep the notebook as well for someone to use. A pretty good day for a Monday.

Flame and Carts

 So many carts have been brought into my back rooms, all the computers for the kids, new math stuff, my discard books, I've been sending my principal other ideas for the carts. Holding for bodies. Storage for clothes for kids that need some. More than I want to remember! Then I remembered that all our metal from the Beachie Creek fire went to Cherry City metal, why not take them all there? So we'll see. I really think the clutter is becoming a safety issue. I also requested new date due slips, have to get approval then I'll submit that to reprographics. I also requested some new things from Amazon to use for the maker cart. NO paint or bottles of glue though! Not on the new carpet!! But papers for things, bookmarks, origami paper, beads. I think the kids will really love that. We had Advisory today and the students that come into the library are with our Behavior Specialists, so they are challenged kids. One of them was sitting at the table waiting for things to start, pulls out a bic lighter, and TURNS IT ON! A flame 8 INCHES high shoots from it. I must admit, I was freaked, demanded the lighter (he claimed it wasn't his, he had just found it outside) and when one of the Behavior staff walked in I handed it to him. I think he left with the kid and we had to have our school security fellow sit with the boys for the rest of Advisory and then our Assistant Principal came in too. Always interesting in the library. Oh, and I also had five classes in the library checking in and out books today, both lunches in. And why are students obsessed with having a Bible? I have more requests for the Holy Bible than I can imagine. All by boys. I actually got one of my two back today. I also opened a book that had a love note in it for the girl who had checked it out. Luckily in pencil, but deeply etched. Young love.

No 180

 I closed the library today for students to finish their iReady testing and not that many showed up. I was a bit taken aback. I had maybe 40 all day rather than 40 every period. I got all the checked in books put away and cleaned up the books for the classes coming in tomorrow. I went through all the Chromebooks that had been turned in and I seemed to find ten that were really all right and put them back to available. Then I took the ones that needed to be sent back, put them in piles of what was wrong and sent in a tech ticket on that. I had 33 Chromebooks that need to go back. I had students bring in more Chromecarts. We don't use them anymore and tech doesn't want them. I have 13 in the library workroom now, along with the four carts with the new math books. Three more Chromecarts in the textbook room and there are at least three more coming. I asked if we could move them and kind of got a 'there is nowhere else to put them' response, which really sets off my clutter alarm. I am really hoping they can find a place for them, but I have no idea how. Shipping container maybe???

NonStop

First of all our weekly meeting. Ms. G asked me to make some book talk slips for her kids. She wants the jacket blurb, and the first two pages all on just one page. I had done that last year and I managed to get her the ten she asked for me to get for her. I was so busy today. Classes in every period. I finished getting the math books ready for their teachers. Each book was individually shrink wrapped and I had to unwrap about 152 of them! That's crazy. I managed to get all the books checked in today from classes, but didn't get anything put away. I will do that tomorrow when I have iReady kids in the library. I had four shelves of books come in. I also got some books for another teacher who needed books to test bridge structure weight holds. Since I had some great books I was discarding and he took them. I had to mark out all the stamps and barcodes and mark them withdrawn. Chromebook issues here and there as well. Glad I got to just go home this afternoon.

iReady Help

 Today I was approached by my principal who asked if I could open the library up for iReady testing without our Instructional Coach there and I said, sure! I plunked the testing into my calendar and have Thursday set completely aside for testing. Then I saw the numbers of students that need to complete, about a third of them need to finish! Not sure what I've gotten myself into, but hopefully it'll work out. Had both lunches in today. I found out I could put out my little stools again, and the students loved having them out. I also had a student offer to clean up the Makerspace cart. I put her name in for student kudos for this week. Because of her, other students as got to enjoy using it as well! Finished up that cart of books and yes, they were all withdrawn already, thank goodness. Now I just need to box them up. Emailed a bit on the new math books, and it looks like we won't even barcode them, but let each teacher have a class set. I just want the boxes for my withdrawn books! I put away all those science books I got in yesterday. Checked out books here and there all day. Did some Chromebook things as well. A satisfying day all around!

VolleyBall!

 I got to score my first games in Volleyball tonight! Such exciting games! A real battle back and forth with high numbers from both teams, a real contest! Loved it! It went to almost 6:30! Crazy! Work was a bit quieter and easier! I had a cart in the back room I didn't know if I had withdrawn the books on it or not, so I spent a lot of time working on whether these books were in the computer or not, and so far, I've only found one that was still an active book. Checked in a whole cart and a half of science books from Mr. F. Had both lunches in today. 

Friday the 24th

Classes in all day and those are my favorite times. Ms. G's classes were in all day and what a great end to the week! Got in our new math books, so I checked them out and then with help from a teacher moved all 28 boxes from the complete other side of the school into the library. That was a lot. They are mega math books, huge and heavy. Glad they came and we'll get them some barcodes and out to teachers.

Boxing Day

 Yesterday I took off for appointments. Today I had some catching up to do! My sub did a great job and after I checked through some things, I was pretty happy with how she took care of everything. I guess I am replaceable! Did more work with Chromebooks today and decided I had enough to check out two to every teacher. Did some ordering, had both lunches in. Packed up boxes. I was happy that I got all the Language Network 6th grade books packed up! And all the teacher clean out books as well. I only have one cart with books on it that I still need to go through. And I got new books!! Three sets of Junior Library Guild and one set from Scholastic and a few from summer school program that some Leslie students came for. Did one tiny lamination before I left. A very nice day and students coming in tomorrow!

Classes and Math

Monday was a megathon of Language Arts classes coming in to get books. All day. I checked out so many books! Made me so happy! That was Ms. G's class. I got to help some students as well, and that always makes me happy when I get a chance to suggest a book and the student picks it up! We also got in a ton of books and I didn't even wait for my aide to check them in, I had to get the pile down myself! Only had one lunch in and got a delivery of math books, now to find out how many boxes each of our 6th grade math teachers need and sort through the boxes to find the Volume 1 ones. A very busy and great day!

Tuesday was so much quieter, except for lunches! I think we had all our passes in and then some kids came in from Ms. S's class to return and check out books. It was crazy! I finished up my Mandatory Training for the year and could not believe I didn't get 100% on two quizzes! I have always gotten 100%! Oh well, just shows I'm getting older! Delivered 4 boxes plus 6 books to Ms. R for the 6th grade math books and 12 boxes to Ms. C. Then I had to decide where to put the old ones from last year and where to put the new ones from this year for Volume 2. So I moved over the computer boxes and put the math books beside them which freed up room in the other aisle. I'm also working on packing up the old discarded books. Some from me, others from teachers when they had to clean out their rooms for moving this summer for the science remodel. I even got to read a bit today. All in all, another great day.

Lockdown Friday

 Checked out a ton of books today to Ms. G's class. She had them in for five periods. I went around after each class left and put out new books, pushed books on shelves back together or added a book end. Put away non-fiction books. We also had our lockdown drill today and it happened during Advisory. So I did have a class in and showed them how we do that in the library. Worked on my next book order. Checked out Chromebooks to students who had forgotten theirs at home so they could do their testing. Reading Darius the Great is Not Okay. But glad that it is Friday and I could go home. See you on Monday.

A Wednesday and a Thursday

 I came into work on Wednesday to see police cars, all over the place. On the street I came in on, another pulling into some new houses across the gully, and one that was sitting by Leslie's front door. I passed by him and noted that I had seen several cars and he asked if there was someone who could pull up student names for him and so I took the officer into the building and no one was in the office! So I told him we'd head down to the library where I could pull up names and there were our principal and assistant principal getting ready for our meeting and I turned the officer over to them. The reason they were out in such force turned out to possibly be false information. We did test our lockdown procedures and went into a Level 1 Lockdown with our new announcement system and it worked really well. I did some laminating after the meeting and worked with students all day on tackling Chromebook issues. Either solving it or turning in the one they had for a new one. Had my first lunch in and I must say, I was pretty impressed with the students and how they handled themselves. It went better than I expected. I worked on the old Makerspace cart, taking away the paint and glue and just putting out the stuff I didn't need to worry about getting into the new carpet, but I didn't really have it out, just had the games out. We had a fire drill and I was so busy closing all the fire doors in the library that I totally forgot my mask to go outside and to come back into the building, drats!! 

Thursday was a regular day and I put in my first finished book notice to Ms. Smith on Ancestor Approved. Very nice book! I also got her 20 picture books checked out for next Monday for her next unit. Checked out Chromebooks to many teachers today since we have so many. Found out that I need to make a tech ticket for the returned Chromebooks that have issues, that will take some doing! I have to break them up into groups of the same issue, write the ticket with how many and then Tech will pick them up and bring new ones. I took those that had issues and marked them all as 'out for repairs' just to keep our records straight of what is really available. Checked out books here and there today. Had a math class into the library because the internet wasn't working in their room for the iReady testing they were doing. Worked on more Makerspace things and since I won't let them paint, I found we had a ton of watercolor packs and decided to make take home bags of some instructions, a pack, some watercolor paper. We'll see how it goes! I could not print them in color :( so I'm working on that for my instructions. A not too bad day all together though I am ready for Friday and the promise of rain.

Quieter Day

 No classes in today so I was able to poke my head above the Chromebook waters and get my bearings a bit. I still had students coming in to get Chromebooks all throughout the day. We had a glitch in our district, and I heard even through the country that Google was having problems. I had four students come in saying that they signed in, then the screen just went back to signing in. Luckily I saw in our library chat that everyone was having that problem, so I had students go through with me and Tech had gotten things to where they could sign in again. Yeah Tech! I got Geography books up to our Social Studies teacher today - he was down and I asked him when he wanted them, and he said, 'oh, last Friday' so I was able to find a moment and get them out and checked out and up to him. Had Leadership students come and take some of the Chromebook boxes they had all come in for a project. I boxed up withdrawn books. Took a box of Chromebooks upstairs to our DLC kids. Then their teacher came down and we went through my AEM cart and got the rest their devices for the year. Had students who didn't bring their Chromebook today and wanted one for the day, but policy is that every teacher gets one extra for class, at the moment until we are all done with students, which we are close to, but not quite there yet. Took my aide's attendance on time today (yeah!). And finished up with just a hint of lamination and working with a teacher on grammar resources. Cleaned up my desk a bit. Did some emailing with our JLG rep on the new bid for this year. Made passes for students to come to the library during lunches starting tomorrow. I asked if only five could come. That would be perfect. But really we could 40. Le sigh. 40. I hope I make it through lunch time.

Absent

 Well, my new aide was probably counted as absent today because I totally didn't tell anyone she had arrived! I did send an email to our office manager after I got home, but my bad :(  I hope she didn't get a call to her folks that she was gone! Lots going on today, mostly checking out books! We checked out sooo many books today and still Chromebooks as well. It was pretty constant. I had 8 classes in, two of them to check out Chromebooks and library books as well! Then I also had assorted students come in because they weren't here last week and a couple of lists from teachers who needed Chromebooks for their students. Another very busy day! I got some staff to come in and take some of the boxes the Chromebooks came in (yeah!). I also finally got paper! We were still using the paper from 2019-2020 school year. Quite the accomplishment from the usual practice! I also got in two bigger sizes that we were out of. I'm tired! But the rest of the week should be fairly easy, until Wednesday when I need to let students into the library during lunches again...since classes have up to 36 students, they were excited I could have a bunch more! We'll see! I'll pray for people to reserve the library during lunches 🙏, lol!

One Year Ago

One year ago I fled my home on the Little North Fork River as the canyon filled with flames, driven by wind and we learned that our new-to-us home burned to the ground. We had already been in love with it after only 2 months. My principal had called as we drove out through the flames that had not yet engulfed our home, but we knew, it would soon be gone. She was so kind, but I decided to come in anyway and work so I wouldn't have to think about what was probably happening, but hoped not. Today I waited as I worked on putting the library back together. There was a morning meeting (I was a bit late because I had to wait for a pilot car on our highway as crews cleared out burned out trees - is that a valid excuse for being late??), I worked on putting up books, cleaning up areas, putting up bookends for shelves and bringing out 20 boxes of the Chromebooks our students would pick up the next day. The inspection to say yes, we could move in was at 2pm. I answered questions from teachers, helped herd students that were not sure where to go to the right classroom. An exciting day! Finally, about 3:45, I got the call, we were in, exactly one year after we lost everything. A blessing, a fantastic day. We were so happy!

September 9th - Chromebook handouts. All day. Every period but one. Ten classes came through! Some students even checked out books :)  Tired, happy, ready to head out to my new home after I did some cleaning on the rental we had.

September 10th - More Chromebook checkouts. 13 classes today. I got to eat lunch during the Advisory period since there was a class in the library during that half an hour. And today, straight home!

Great thanks to our Assistant Principal for setting up a sign up sheet so it was orderly and I was able to do it all myself. That was a great tool as one class cycled in, and then out. A few moments and the next class was in. Tired, but 40 boxes, 12 Chromebooks each, 480 were checked out and I do have two more classes on Monday that couldn't fit in Friday. 

6th Graders In the Building

 Today the 6th Graders got the whole school to themselves. I love it when they are here. They are so polite and shorter than I am! Ha! I really did have fun helping them out to find their way in our crazy school. I sent some The Giver  books to another school. Checked out a whole cart of books to Mr. A. Tried to find more Touching Spirit Bear  for another teacher. Sent notices to tech about why did no one rewire my doors so they would automatically open and close every day? So now they stay locked, all the time and I either have to prop them open, or answer a knock every time someone wants in. :( Not very smart. I also struggled with our staff laptops. I couldn't check any of them out. One of our new custodians actually found a box labeled "IA computers" and I was so excited! And again, they are not in the system. We had a technician in to work with some other people and I waylaid him and asked what was up, and he responded that staff computers are not in the system. So I can just give them out. Hummm. I was able to give out some this afternoon, and staff was happy. I also packed up and put the rest of the computers into the boxes that we had found last week also in the room off the library that were most likely computers that were packed up from students last spring and never made it down to technology for their clean up and reboot. I also helped out our new EDGE teacher who was given a home in the room next to the library. He was very appreciative of my support. That was nice. Laminated several things at the end of the day and off to home. All the students will be back tomorrow!

Last Week

I was excited to see the changes in the library after bond work. The carpet is beautiful! The pony wall is gone! The kiosks around a support beam are gone! But for some reason, they put the gates back in - What??? The workers said the orders were to 'remove and re-install them'. Ugh. Right over the new carpet. And my principal and I had said to not put them back up, but apparently, no one told the workers :( They have got to go! I spent the week putting the non-fiction onto the new shelves that I had taken off last year, that was a lot of books! I finally got them all done and I think there is room for all the graphic novels over there. I decided I didn't really want any of the old wooden shelves in there, it does look so nice and clean! I also noticed as I was moving books, the carts made a quiet 'shoosh' noise as they moved over the carpet. That was soooo cool! I love it! We had all teachers in one day for new year meeting, and the next day ALL staff were in the library and there was room for everyone! So very, very cool! I also had 70 boxes of Chromebooks that are to be handed out to students. Twelve Chromebooks in each one with their chargers! They were heavy and I was glad to have my cart. I loaded four boxes at a time and took them into the back. Where they settled nicely into the space on the floor in between where all the non-fiction had resided for months. It was a perfect space! I also took the boxes and put them in order to just make sure that I really did have all 70 boxes, and I did! And they are all in the system and ready to go for check out. A very busy week for the four days (we always get the Friday off before Labor Day weekend) and all is well in the library! Students arrive Tuesday! (which is really today, but I had to wait on this because, well, I was just being lazy).

Thinking About This Year

 What a crazy time last year. We finally did go back to in person school and it was really nice that I could be in the library and work on getting books weeded. The library was up for bond work and I really needed to condense the non-fiction. My alcove got finished and I had submitted a grant for new furniture and access to the outside garden from our back door. I also had two book orders go in this summer and hopefully will go back to find boxes of books waiting for me! We are also rebuilding our home on the Little North Fork that burned down in the Beachie Creek fire last fall. It was a very stressful, busy, crazy time but I must give amazing kudos to all the people in the district that helped me out with so many different kinds of support. I am looking forward to see what the new year holds. I am wary of the new covid numbers and data. And I must admit, being part of the online team was excruciating! But, we made it. I think I did make a difference to a few students here and there. Hopefully, or I guess we will move into our new home (certificate of occupancy or not!) on August 29th - that’s when we can get Movers to come and get our big furniture & stuff and take it out there. And I go back to work on the 30th. I was hoping for more time to enjoy and get our new house up and running, but it is what it is. At least, I will be home, come commute or online!