Snowed In and Loving It!

A fabulous, beautiful, blizzard-ish snowstorm is still raging outside, more than 24 hours after it started on Friday evening. We have over a foot of snow, maybe close to 16 inches or so. It's hard to tell because of all the blowing and drifting. It's the most snow I've seen since I was a little kid. The dog loves it, and since our last two days of school (next week) have already been cancelled, I love it too!

We are enjoying some adult beverages and movies on TV this evening, after spending the day baking cookies and finishing up the tree skirt. I'm sure I haven't written about the tree skirt yet, but it is all because we got a second Christmas tree this year. I decided to make a tree skirt for it, and I am this close to being finished. At this point, it just needs the band around the edging and it'll be all ready to put under the tree. Phew! I wasn't exactly sure I'd have enough time to finish it, but thanks to all this snow, I do! The gift of time. It's my favorite gift of all.

Our Christmas party scheduled for tonight was wisely cancelled by us yesterday, when the snow was just starting. Certainly, we would've ended up cancelling it today if we hadn't already done it. The roads aren't passable at all. We haven't seen or heard a plow yet, although this neighborhood is, I'm sure, at the bottom rung of anyone's plowing ladder.

Not having school on Monday and Tuesday is a special treat indeed. Although it's too bad that all of our holiday festivities have been cancelled, at least we get two full weeks of Christmas vacation. Yea!

I am sure that my principal is thankful for the extra time with his family. He sure does work hard. After my observation a couple of weeks ago, he turned around a four-page evaluation of it in less than a week. And I know I wasn't the only person being observed, either. That's some serious dedication. The evaluation was very positive, and I am realizing now that it's been a long time since anyone had critiqued my teaching. It totally felt great to be told that I was doing things in a sound way.

I showed off my eval to my sisters and father, who were unimpressed and impressed, respectfully. My sisters, who are convinced that I am teaching in some second world area of our state, made fun of me for even being excited about it. Whatever...I feel like hanging it on my wall at school!

Updates

So I think my observation went really well. The principal uses this method where he writes down everything we say and then justifies (or not) why we say stuff. I think it's called the OATS method (Observing and Analyzing Teaching). I have to meet with him to go over the lesson, but he's out tomorrow, so we'll see if there's time this week. He came in during a second grade class and we had just gotten started. I read aloud a Native American legend to them, and then we all went to the tables to continue our research stations. So he saw me in whole group and then in small group settings while the kids were in their research groups. It will be interesting to talk with him about it, having not had an actual lesson observation since at least 2003! He left a note on the table that read, "You are the real deal. You are the kind of teacher I want my own kiddo to have." What more do I need to hear? I love Christmas time! Even though we try to be sensitive to all beliefs and customs (and I'll let the music teacher take the lead on that--"Hanukkah, or Hanukkah!"), I really have fun with two particular lessons this time of year. In fifth grade, I read them O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi and then we discuss and watch a dramatic retelling of the story. It's so funny to see the kids' faces when they realize what the couple has done, and it's also interesting to hear the connections they make to the story. A Korean student told me today that she has the story at home in Korean, and one of the boys remembered seeing a similar Disney version. Awesome! The other lesson I've been enjoying is sharing Robert Sabuda's holiday pop-up books with the fourth graders and then making an "evergreen" tree card (whatever...) following the instructions on his website. So so so much fun, and also so so so interesting to see which kids get the hang of the pop ups and which don't. There should totally be a state learning standard for following directions! I just love this time of year--relaxing just a bit (post-bookfair) and having fun with the kids.

Not gleeful.

Still in SUCH a bad mood! What is it? Being moved out of my library because of bookfair? Feeling worried about my upcoming observation? Managing to do 101 things simultaneously well when others can't do two? Maybe not getting a bonus this year (let alone a raise) because the superintendent doesn't think I'm a teacher? Pissed because someone decided to unlock and dismantle a computer/projector cart so they could use the laptop? A little bit of all of those, and a whole lot of the last one. This is what I hate the most. This is my biggest pet peeve: I do not like when people make my job harder. I do not like it when people's actions make my life more difficult.

Bookfair Joy

NOT. I am just so tired of bookfair. It is exhausting. I am very lucky to have our fabulous PTA and their many, many volunteers staffing the bookfair. I am more of a behind-the-scenes kind of girl, placing reorders, straightening piles, keeping the schedule running. Yesterday, I placed an order for books that were sold out. Everything sounded good on the phone, but when I got the box today, over 1/2 of the books I needed were out of stock at Scholastic. Oh, I am not happy. Not happy at all. Seriously! This is the one big reason that I left Scholastic five years ago. I am sorry that I went back. Good selection of books, bad customer service. I am wondering why the person on the phone at the warehouse didn't tell me the books wouldn't ship? Are there really no more of those books in all of Scholastic warehouses country-wide? I just don't get it. OK, time for Glee. I am going to get into a gleeful mood now.

Observe Me!

My principal emailed me today. (He had to work 1/2 day; teachers didn't.) He wants to observe me in the next two weeks. It will be my first official principal observation in 9 years. Seriously, nine years. I think I was observed once back in 2003, or maybe it was 2004. The assistant principal did it; it was fine. I am a little excited and a little nervous all at the same time. Of course, he wants to do it in the next two weeks, and next week is bookfair. That would be interesting, indeed! I think I'll suggest the following week. I will recommend any day except day 4. Day 4 is a difficult day for me. Day 5 is no picnic, either, but I can manage them. It's just unfortunate when management takes up more time than the rest of the lesson. I'd hate for him to have to see that, even though classroom management is part of the observation. I have three days of no school to get ready for the thrill of December. School children + christmas = controlled chaos.

Still Sleeping

Oh, my. I am seriously wiped out! I have done nothing more than sleep and read since I returned from the conference yesterday afternoon. I've slept most of the afternoon away, and it feels divine!

I don't know if I've ever written about my friend Lynne Farrell Stover before, but I was hoping that she'd be at our state conference again, and she was! In fact, I was in the lobby talking with our organization's president, and she hit me on the back and said, "Remember me!?" REMEMBER her?!!? Seriously, I think about her all the time and have told many colleagues about her fabulous books. I was flattered that she remembered ME!

This is the first of her books of Magical Library Lessons. It has tons of great ideas in it, and the following books (available at www.upstart.com) are great, too! I bought a set of them and asked her to sign them for me; I already have a set at my library, but I decided that I needed my own personal copies. One of the books I won at the silent auction at the conference, and that makes it extra special.

We sat together at the author dinner (we did last year, too, and are both traditional girls!) and just picked up where we left off. The other people were very curious about her writing, and I felt like the prop girl, pulling out her books as she talked about them. Too funny!

If you're a librarian and you're reading this, check out her books. In particular, I like how practical her ideas are--not pie in the sky theoretical concepts that are impossible to implement in the real-life classroom. One of the best sessions I attended was one of hers for using the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. She had so many great ideas for incorporating economic concepts into lessons after reading the book. I'm going to find out when the movie is released and maybe do a One School/One Book/One Movie event. Hmmm....that means I'd have to read it 36 times. Sigh...now that's real-life librarianship!

State Conference Exhaustion

I am so excited that I get to sleep in until 7 am tomorrow. How sad is that?!?! Our state librarians' conference has been fabulous, but I am on overload. The past three days have been 16+ hours days of networking, sessions, tweeting, facebooking, eating, walking, and listening. Whew! I will look forward to a quiet 4-hour drive home tomorrow just to digest everything I've learned and decompress a little. Tonight's author dinner was with T.A. Barron. What a delightful man. So kind and sensitive and endearing. He had me teary a couple of times during his talk. Here's a great picture of him signing books before he spoke. His wife made his sweater, and it took her 20 years to finish it! Another author on a pedestal...

Lesson Planning Overload

It has been a busy few weeks! Along with my friend Jenny, I've been busy creating lessons to go along with our state's Readers' Choice book list. We are sharing them at a session of our state's School Librarians' conference this week. I am not sure if creating lessons is the right phrase, exactly. I've been developing extension activities to go with the books on the list. It's been fun--I love connecting with my crafty self every so often. I found a bunch of great ideas online from publishers, authors, and librarians. When I wrote and asked for permission to include their idea in our CD of handouts, I heard from everyone except two big publishers. Sad and typical, I have to say. Everyone who I asked was thrilled to be asked and included. This reminds me of an article I read recently in the NY Times about teachers charging for lesson plans and unit plans. I don't know how I feel about this. As I was searching for ideas to go with the book list, I certainly appreciated those people who put stuff on their sites and blogs for free. As someone who has spent tons of hours compiling ideas and working on my own lessons, I can see the need for seeking compensation for my time. Hmmm...I will keep thinking about this. In the meantime, I am going back to burning CDs of the ideas we've collected. There are over 90 pages of activities, so I am very glad that we're not handing out paper packets to the attendees. I feel green. I hope we have a lot of people at our session.

Sunday Catch-up

Yesterday, our building was open from 10-2. I got there right at 10 and stayed until almost 2 pm (I had a meeting at 2, so I left a little early), and what a difference it has made!!! It feels SO GREAT to get a little caught up. Sigh...I wish I didn't have to work on the weekends AT school to get caught up, but that seems to be the reality this year. I repotted some plants that I had purchased the first week of school. They desperately needed new homes, but I never had the time to do it. I processed some books--wow, did that feel good--that had been sitting in a box for 3 weeks. I cleaned up the back room--organizing, throwing away, putting away. Oh, it all felt good. Today, I was doing leaf rubbings with 1st and 2nd grades after we read Old Bear by Kevin Henkes. One of the kiddos came over to me with her leaf rubbing and said, "it's like looking at the skeleton of the leaf!". And that's what keeps me in education.

Perfectly Crooked

Where did September go? I truly cannot believe we are already a week into August. Someone mentioned earlier today that we've started our fifth week of school, and that really surprised me. It seems like week three. My schedule is KILLING me this year. I teach 30 classes a week as part of the regular specialists' rotation. My assistant (I know how lucky I am to have one) and I are just bombarded all the time. We never have time to finish a project, let alone take care of the multitude of things from our to-do list. The books are not getting shelved in a timely manner, and she is behind on getting the Readers' Choice books ready for the students (the program started today, and she was literally covering books as we booktalked them). She does not work like this; I do not work like this! This schedule is KICKING OUR BUTTS! I hurt my back the day after the National Book Festival, where I broke my camera. First story first: I was in line to meet John Irving, and while waiting to get my book signed, I took out my camera to take a picture of him (and Judy Blume, who was signing in the booth next to him), and the volunteers started yelling at me that I was not allowed to photograph John Irving. I wasn't asking him to pose nor was I holding up the line, and I just don't think that's right. So I took his picture. Not five minutes later, my camera dropped out of my hands, straight down on its lens (which was out), and broke. Karma. Bit. Me. In. The. Ass. I am happy to have my picture of John Irving, even though I missed getting photos of every other author I got to meet that day. Let me say that John Irving is one sexy man. It was all I could do not to say those very words to him when he was signing my book. Woah. Anyway, second part of the story: I hurt my back the day after the book festival when I bent over to pick something up and then couldn't stand up straight. I have been in pretty bad pain for a week now, but I've scheduled a doctor's appointment for tomorrow morning, so hopefully my students won't be offering to help me out of my chair anymore. And hopefully I won't be crooked anymore. Which segues perfectly into the wonderful book I read last night, A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban. I had to read all of our state Readers' Choice books for booktalks today, and I saved Crooked for last, and I'm so glad I did. I curled up in my bed under the covers and read until it ended. I'd like to say I was finished with it, but I could've kept reading about Zoe for another 200 pages. I want to know this girl! Growing up, my cousin Wendy had an organ very similar to Zoe's, and I remember all the fun we had with its rhythm machine, wah-wah bar (like for Hawaiian music), and full pedal board. The organ is just so 70's to me; it was a big part of our growing up, playing that crazy organ. Happy memories.

First Day Down

Whew!! And what a first day it was! Things were blissfully calm in the library today, unlike the hallways, classrooms, and bus ramp. Our last bus didn't arrive until about 25 minutes after school was supposed to start, but the principal really did come in and give his message to the kids during morning announcements. He has unbounding energy. I think I feel more tired just being around him--how can that be? Library classes started today, which was new and different for us, but I really liked it. Why not just jump into the first day with both feet?!?! It was great, even kindergarten. I was a little worried that they'd cry when their teacher left, but they were fine and I was fine! No tears! No bathroom accidents! Dismissal was a bit crazy this afternoon, and I was mostly thankful to be sitting in my little room typing in the bus numbers ever so slowly. It took almost an hour for dismissal to finish: car riders went on forever, there was an accident at the entrance to the school, and some kids were temporarily misplaced. Well, I shouldn't say they were misplaced--they were just not listening to where they should go or what they should do! Thank goodness for laptops so I could continue to work while sitting there waiting for bus numbers to be announced. All in all, a productive first day. I came home and drank some wine and feel like I might be able to do it all over again tomorrow.

Sewing

I feel like I'm working in a sweat shop today. All afternoon, I've been sewing curtains for the library. I am enjoying it, but sewing lots of straight lines gets boring fast! When I finish this last one, I'll treat myself with an Eric Carle wall hanging I've been wanting to put together for a while. I know it's more straight lines, but it'll be fun!! School starts tomorrow with the kiddos. I'm very excited, even though I can't listen to the President's speech live (see previous post). Time to get back to the sweat shop.

Very Disturbing News

I am very concerned. Our school board has decided that we will not watch the President's speech on Tuesday. This is the wording that was placed on the county's website:

Because of logistical issues related to the first day of school and other concerns regarding the short planning window available, members of the XXX XXX School Board have elected not to have XXX's schools participate in the live presentation on September 8th. They have instead expressed a preference to make the President's comments to students available via video at a later date. The plan and procedures associated with making this opportunity available for XXX's students will be announced next week. I just don't know what to do. My first ammendment hackles are up. I sent an email of concern to our public information officer, with no response yet. Can a school board really tell us that we are not allowed to watch something? I sure hope that this is not politically motivated. He is our President, and he is making the time to address students. I cannot think of another President who did this. He is making lessons available and the speech can be streamed, listened to on the radio, or on cable TV. I am just shaking my head in disbelief. Is the school board restricting students' first ammendment rights? or mine?

Two More Weeks

of vacation left. Actually, a little less than that. I do need to be at school in two Fridays to meet the new teachers at their orientation. I am not totally depressed about the end of summer, though, and that's definitely a change from years past. We have a new principal. He is quite young and energetic and that is contagious! I am almost, almost, excited to go back to school. He sent a book to each staff member a few weeks ago, but I haven't yet read it. It's short and motivational, I can tell, and I know it won't take me long to read. I am sure that will cement my excitement for a new year to begin. My plans for the rest of the summer: Aug 17-19: visit my parents Aug 20-21: piano lessons and pack for the weekend Aug 22-23 last weekend hurrah in DC Aug 24-27: lock myself in the craft room and make progress on 17 unfinished projects Aug 28: meet our new teachers Aug 29-30: squeeze in the last moments of summer at the pool Aug 31: back to work

All the News that's Fit to Print

I got an email from my principal today. He got a phone call from the local paper; they want to do a story on me. He's going to call them back and find out the details. I am more than a little afraid.

LOC rocks!

I've just returned from a fabulous 3-day Teacher Institute at the Library of Congress. The Institute brought together 20 teachers and librarians from all over the country, and we explored using primary resources. We learned ways to incorporate them in our lessons, which was great, but the best part was meeting staff members from the LOC and going into the different reading rooms. I got a readers' card so I can go back any time and go into the reading rooms.

We used the tunnels underneath the buildings to get from one to the other (I didn't even know that there were three buildings!) and went on a fabulous tour of the Jefferson Building. My favorite place, though, was the Adams Building, which is a beautiful art deco style building. Here's a picture of a lamp on the side of the building.

We met the head of the Science & Business library, and she is a 51-year employee dynamo! What a cool person! Her area of expertise is household technology, and she was so excited to show us a neat collection of irons and other household items from the past.

Thoughtful Thursday

So yesterday was Thoughtful Thursday and I was the first recipient of my principal's thoughtfulness. Soon after my uncle and his wife arrived yesterday from Florida, the phone rang and I saw that it was school calling. (ugh) I picked it up and it was my principal, who said he'd hoped to reaching my answering machine (!). I chuckled and said I'd hang up and he could call back, but then he went on to tell me why he was calling. Every Thursday, he calls a different staff member on the phone to thank them for something specific that they've done. Yesterday was his first call, and it was me! He thanked me for doing Summer Library and let me know that he was impressed with my efforts for the students at Conway and all that I do there. What a thoughtful thing to do! I loved it, and it made my day (my week, my summer, my school year)!

Summer Library, part 2

Summer Library was fun today!! It wasn't as busy as even our slowest day last year, but I didn't do as much PR for it, so I half expected it. But it was pretty steady all day, usually two or three families in there at a time, so it was exceptionally manageable. A good start, really. Austin brought all his tools, even though we had nothing to fix, but I oohed and ahhed over them, the reciprocating saw, the trim saw, the pile driver or something, and several other of Craftsman's best. Austin was a big help as usual, and our regulars were happy to see us again. I met with our new principal today for about an hour (!) and we got to talk about a lot of library stuff and school stuff. I told him I was starved for leadership, which is totally true, and I think I'm ready to be behind him 100%. I hope I don't live to regret those words... A good start to summer, indeed.

Summer Library

starts tomorrow! I am excited, mostly. It's the third year for Summer Library, and now people are expecting me to do it. And they're expecting my fabulous hotdogs, so I went to the warehouse club today and bought the food supplies. The PTA is funding summer library (thanks, guys!) and so I spent almost $200 of their money buying drinks, paper products, snacks, hot dogs, and other goodies for the families. I haven't done as much publicizing this year, but I hope we'll have a good turnout anyway. For the past two years, I sent postcards to every family in the school the week before we started, but I decided not to spend the money on postage this year. That added up to a couple hundred dollars, believe it or not! My fabulous former student, Austin, will be back to help me this year again. It will be his third year, too, and I haven't seen him since last summer. I am sure he has grown; he'll be an eighth grader this coming fall. He sent me the funniest email the other day; here's an excerpt. I won't bother to correct his punctuation (who needs periods?!?!) or spelling. It's just priceless the way it is:

• looking forward to this or next Tuesday what ever comes first... lol. im going to be staying at my grandma's (nana's) house Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. they are leaving to go to buffalo on the 10th of July for my grandpa's mom's birthday (80th B-day) so my mom will be dropping me off at her house the week they are gone and I will be riding my bike to [school] as I am told? :) so when I come the first time I will bring the Craftsman tool set I bought so if we need to put something together we can do It fast... the set cost me $250 but I got a drill, saws all (reciprocating saw), 5 1/2 in trim saw, light, and a impact driver (I love that thing 900 lbs driving force) but a little loud but it drive long screws in fast and easy unlike a reg drill... and it is a 19.2 volt die hard battery set (2) but its real nice... and then dell sent me $200 of replacement parts for my laptop. a new screen cover and a new keyboard (old one's "enter" key broke off) but it's all good now.... I had to take the whole screen apart to replace the screen cover... nothing broke and now its like the day it came out the box... (on the outside) lol..... hold on I have to take the battery off the charger. ok so me and my best friend Ricky have been making money cutting ppls lawns for 20-40$ depending on the size. we just got a free riding lawn mower from a person that we do lawns for. they messed that thing up so bad.... the deck was bent and was hitting the back tire... the blades U don't even want to know. she hit something hard that caused the deck to get bent back and tared the deck apart so now when the blade spins it would hit the deck. we still need a belt for it. the front stearing was all messed up and him and his dad have been working on fixing it... the operation station (where the stearing wheel is) was all cracked so we had to but a piece of metal on it and we put 60 rivets in it so its strong now... the engine works and sounds good. could use a little carb cleaner but ya it still runs good. he has put about $120 in it and still needs to get a belt so he may end up putting $150 in to it... but that is all it should need (knock on wood). we'll see. my grandma is still unemployed and her unemployment check has run out so the only income is from my grandpa... I was over at her house I think last weekend or the one before that and U had to be there my nana and papa were getting competitive playing bowling on the Wii... that was funny... my papa almost hit the TV off the stand... but ya well I cant wait to come and help U out and take your whole day telling you what has happened in the last 200 days (give or take) but ya well talk to you Tuesday... and happy 4th of July!!!

Seriously, who wouldn't want help like that?!

Back to reality...

The fabulous trip to Italy, Monte Carlo, Greece, and Turkey is over. I am in those post-vacation doldrums, trying to get back on east coast time and doing laundry and getting the house back to the way we live in it (we had dog-sitters here for 2+ weeks).

I'm also OD-ing on Internet--having been without it since June 18, I had a million and a half emails to weed through, and lots of blogs and other things to catch up on.

There were so many highlights to the trip. Rome is my absolute favorite city now, and I would move there tomorrow if I could.

Here's a little library-related part of the trip: a visit to Ephesus and the Library of Celsus. It was build around 110 AD and housed thousands of scrolls and books. I bought a resin statue of the library to have on my desk, along with some columns to show the kids when we study Ancient Rome and Greece.

Arrivederci!

I am heading to a Mediterranean cruise of Italy, Greece, Monte Carlo, and Turkey tomorrow. I am skipping out on my last teacher work day to travel to Rome for the start of our vacation. I have been a bad librarian, though, doing virtually no preparation for this trip. I have been so busy closing out the school year that I haven't had time to even think about the trip! Ciao! Blogging will resume after July 3.

Hello? Hello? Anyone home?

That's how I felt today. I made phone calls for the better part of the afternoon, trying to get in touch with parents about their children's overdue books. I think I talked to four parents in person, and they each had no idea that their child still had books checked out. I left a bunch of messages, but the worst thing was the sheer amount of phone numbers that are disconnected or changed.

I am interested to see how many books come back tomorrow. I hope it is more than several, but those are high hopes, I know. Some parents just don't care. Their kids don't care, and I know where they got it from.

Some kids are just so glib when I ask them about their books, and it makes me want to scream. Just bring the damn book back, kid!!

We have no recourse at the elementary level in getting books back. At the middle school level, kids can't go to school dances, or field trips, or all kinds of good things. Here, I got nothin'. I have even asked teachers to send me their kids during recess so they can write a letter home, and I think I've had about 7 different kids this week. That's it.

Please, please, God, let some more books come back tomorrow.

Lightning Strikes Twice

In our usual mid-Atlantic way, we've been hit by a few intense thunderstorms lately. On Tuesday night, our school was hit by lightning. It knocked out the phone lines, our media retrieval system, the fire alarm, and several of the air conditioners. When I got to school, the fire alarm was going off, and I found out that it had gone off 47 times that night. Yikes. We didn't even realize that the media system was affected until we tried to play a video around 10:00. The technician spent most of the day Friday trying to fix it, but pretty much all he got done was the diagnosing of the problem. Hopefully, they'll be out again next week to fix it. We only have 7 days of school left, so I am not terribly concerned. Wednesday evening, our house was hit by lightning! I was giving a piano lesson in the front room, and a thunderstorm was just getting revved up outside, but it was hardly worth worrying about. When the lightning hit, it was the brightest light, the loudest sound, and a pretty strong vibration. As far as we can tell, it hit a vent on the roof and jumped to the roof itself then through the electrical systems in the house. The electrician came out Wednesday night just to check everything (1/2 the electrical was shot) and then again on Friday to repair the rest. Today, a roofer repaired the outside damage; then the AC guy came to fix the transformer that got fried. The insurance adjuster was here most of the morning. We're still waiting on the phone and internet and alarm system, but our awesome neighbors gave us their WEP key so we could use their wireless. We are making progress!

Testing

It continues. How long has it been? A week, two? A month? Ten years?!?! It feels like forever, but it is almost over. Today, I took my library show on the road. That was fun. not. I had to move a fishtank with my actual frog life cycle creatures on the cart down the hall to second grade. All the critters made it: the tadpoles, the froglet, two goldfish, and a frog. Later this afternoon, the frog was deceased. I hope it wasn't the trauma of the move. Or the realization that he couldn't jump out to freedom. Poor thing. He was very cool, too, sitting on the rock staring at the big world his little siblings couldn't see yet. Alas, a big thunderstorm is brewing here and I am signing off for tonight. Tomorrow, I'm going on a field trip to the White House. I'll be reporting back, be assured.

I'm a Shusher

I really try to buck the librarian stereotypes we all know and hate. No bun. Not a cat lover. Rarely a cardigan. No glasses hanging from a chain. But today I was a shusher of the worst kind. Our state testing is happening all around the library (but thankfully not IN the library), and I was just so nervous about my kids disrupting the students testing. All day long I was shushing kids.

This Friday is the last day for student checkout, so I think that after Friday, I'll just go to the classrooms to teach. It would certainly be less stressful for me to not have to keep 25 little ones quiet all day long.

The Friendliest Flower

Today we had our last elementary librarians' meeting of the year. It was fine...inventory, state testing, etc. No big deal. Our supervisor is retiring effective July 1, and we weren't sure if her position would be posted, but we found out today that it will be, so that is good. She told me to dust off my resume, but quite frankly, I'm not really interested. I do not want to be in charge of people. I do not want to continually fight an uphill battle to get people to understand that we are teachers, too. I do not want to have to play the political games that I am sure go on at the district level. No thanks. I'll stay in my school in my happy little library. The last lesson plan sharing meeting was tonight, too, and it was just so much fun. We had a blast, as usual. Laughing and getting off-track and being a little unprofessional. Such fun. Another librarian told us that she watched You've Got Mail over the weekend, and I shared with everyone that it was that movie that made me want to become a librarian. When Meg Ryan's character is in the Foxx bookstore helping a customer because the clerk had no idea what she was asking for, I just knew I wanted to be like that--so knowledgeable about children's literature. That was a watershed movie for me. A watershed scene. I could watch it all over again. Don't you just love daisies?

Why I Love Children

A kindergarten student made this book for me today. It is modeled after The Library Lion. I think it's even better. Check out my bling at the end.

The student even included a title page...written and illustrated by Jessica. Just too cute.

Gravy

A got an email today from a fellow elementary librarian who said he was burned out. I am feeling kind of bummed out now because he is obviously not loving what he's doing at his school. His exact words are, hold on--I'll copy and paste them from his email--"I'm getting tired of trying to convince teachers that I am capable of doing something meaningful with their kids." Hmmm...I have been thinking about this comment all evening. On one hand, I understand what he means. The year we opened our school, I was doing an explorers unit with third grade, and one of the teachers said, upon looking at the research packets her students completed, "Wow! These are the same explorers we study!". No lie. That comment made me realize that teachers don't automatically know what librarians do. I thought I'd explained my job to them, thought that my asking for curriculum maps indicated that I'd be teaching along with them, thought that they'd know my time with their classes was meaningful. Apparently, I overestimated something--what, though?--myself, teachers? I am not quite sure. On the other hand, there are some teachers who treat me as an integral part of their curriculum. They ask to collaborate on lessons or ask me to focus on certain things with their students. They understand what I do; they know that library class is a meaningful part of their students' day. Recently, one teacher who had spent many, many hours on alternative (to standardized testing) assessments made it a point to tell me that my lessons had been used in many areas of the students' portfolios to show understanding of different topics. These were lessons that I'd done on my own, lessons I created to correlate with the grade level's curriculum, without any input from teachers. As a librarian on a (mostly) fixed schedule, I don't have time to collaborate with the teachers (since I am teaching their classes during their planning time). I have to come up with my own meaningful lessons and just do them to my satisfaction. If the teachers like them and realize I can help lighten their load a little, that's gravy.

Inspiration

I love my fellow librarians (well, almost all of them). This afternoon, I was still trying to come up with a lesson for kindergarten (which was due to arrive at 3 pm sharp) and just not having much luck. I looked through their curriculum map to see what had been going on recently and what was coming up, and nothing struck my fancy.

I thought I should do something on natural resources with them, especially reusing materials, since that's one of their curriculum standards and I hadn't touched on that at all. I IM'd my good friend at a middle school (she used to be an elementary librarian) and just like THAT, she had a book idea for me. Of course, then she had to teach a class and didn't give me anything else but a title, but that was enough! I put together a pretty darn good lesson plan, I think.

This is one of the things I miss about not being on a grade level. Being the only one in my building who does what I do gets a little lonely sometimes. Thanks for the idea, Jenny!

It's so peaceful here!! (not)

OMG My head is still pounding. What a day. We had our reading parties today--pizza parties for about 60 kids. I pre-ordered the pizza from our local Domino's yesterday, and tried and tried to call all morning (from 10:45 on) to double-check the order and give the school's credit card number. No one picked up, and about 25 minutes before we needed the pizzas, my assistant suggested I drive to the store and find out what was going on. Why she didn't think of this sooner, I don't know. (kidding--she is so awesome!) As I am race-car-driving to Domino's, I continued calling. I finally got through and the man told me he'd just arrived and that our order would be late. How late? I asked. 15 minutes, he said. You can get 20 pizzas to me in 30 minutes? I asked. Yes ma'am, he said. Call me crazy, but I didn't believe him. I drove into Little Caesar's and asked them for whatever they had "Hot and Ready". I got enough for one class and held my breath that Domino's would come through. We finally got the pizza, 45 minutes late. Domino's didn't charge us, which I totally appreciated, and I suppose it was a Herculean effort to even get them in that amount of time, but now I know not to count on Domino's again. When I got back from my outing to the pizza place, the library was roaring. Not roaring with the sound of children--roaring from something on the roof that was very, VERY loud. It went on for hours. We had to shout to each other across the library all afternoon. I had such a headache! It turns out that it was the AC motor, and it finally went kaput around 2:45. I just can't tell you how loud it was, except that when it finally quit, the silence was killing me! Of course, the maintenance man walked through the library literally 3 minutes after it died, so he didn't get to hear all the roaring and had to take our word for it. Tomorrow is Space Day, so there will be more excitement and craziness at school. I am already exhausted just thinking about it.

AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

Oh, it was one of those days. Mondays are always so busy for me--I think that I come up with crazy ideas over the weekend, and my brain is just running on overdrive when I get to work. I had to make myself sit at my desk and answer some emails before starting on any of the new projects.

At the elementary school, you know that we are run by the clock. We have six classes a day for forty-five minutes each. It's a pretty tight schedule, and it takes all of us (teachers and specialists) being considerate to get through the day smoothly.

One of our grade levels has been consistently late dropping off and picking up their students. They are usually 5-10 minutes late arriving at special, and then 3-8 minutes late picking up. As specialists, we have tried all different kinds of strategies to get this grade level on track. We have asked politely, we have asked administrators for help, we have emailed numerous times, but nothing seems to work.

Today, the teacher I had was five minutes late arriving, and six minutes late picking up. This ran into the time of the next class. I was walking around the library, readying things for the next class (a mere four minutes past when the first class should've been picked up) and happened to see the principal in the hallway. I went into the hallway guns a'blazing and made her come into the library to see what was happening. She noted it and said she'd attend a grade level meeting to address it. The late teacher finally came in and apologized, but I just couldn't listen to her. I told her that the time for words was past; I needed actions. I didn't want excuses or apologies or anything from her except that she arrive on time to pick up her class. I was STEAMING mad. I'm almost over it, but not quite (as you can tell). To be so consistently inconsiderate is infuriating to me.

Followups

Three things: I paid for my dog-eaten library book today. $26.00 ouch. And now I have a souvenir to show my students.

Meanwhile, I am loving my lessons this session. The days just fly by, and every period is different enough that I don't get sick of hearing myself talk. Mostly because I am not talking very much! (And that's the way it should be, I know!)

This weekend, we have our state school librarians' organization's quarterly board meeting. It's like a 6 1/2 day work week. Fun, but I always feel like I need an extra weekend to catch up.

Our first sewing class was CRAZY! I had 7 little girls who had never sewn on a machine before. Oh my. Most of them got their first project started at least, although I thought they'd finish them! One of the sewers tripped over her machine cord twice, and the second time, it went crashing to the ground. The poor thing was near tears, but I downplayed the whole incident and sent her over to my machine. Last night, I brought that machine home to work on it, and woah, was it a mess! The wheel would not even turn, the bobbin winder was smashed to smithereens, the light bulb broke, and the ceramic (!) wheel and metal (!) housing were cracked. It took a couple hours of work to get the machine going again, but it seems to be sewing perfectly. It certainly looks like crap and will never thread a bobbin again, but at least it still sews. It's an OLD Kenmore machine that's obviously a workhorse!

Inspired

I was working on my curriculum map for the rest of the year this past week, trying to get things aligned with what's happening in the classrooms. There are only 8 weeks of school left! EIGHT WEEKS!!!!!!!! A couple of the lessons I'm working on last for several weeks, so there's hardly any time left at all this year. That happens every year: I feel like there's SO much time and it's only October and then before I know it, it's the end of April and everyone's going on field trips and I have only a few classes left. Whew! I borrowed a lesson from a friend of mine in our district and tailored it a bit to my taste. Third graders will be working with the thesaurus to re-write nursery rhymes. Rhymes be damned--we're learning a new resource! Kindergarteners were so busy working on our state readers' choice list that I didn't even have time to do community helpers with them (they study them in March), so I made up a Smartboard activity today matching helpers with the tools and special clothes they wear. Interactive! Come on, administrator--observe me now! I guess my inspiration is coming from that light at the end of the tunnel. Every year, I feel like it all comes together a little better. It's only my ninth year in the library--there's always room for improvement!

My Dog Ate It

Cosmo ate my library book. My library book from the public library. Uh oh. I feel like such a bad library patron. I am going to try to get Cosmo to reenact the crime so I can videotape it for my students. I think they would like to see it, and I'm pretty sure Cosmo will oblige. Hopefully, it will show the kids that mistakes even happen to their librarians. I want them to know that we are responsible for what happens to library books when they're checked out to us. It is a good lesson to learn.

The book, in case you're wondering... The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (which has been a delightful read so far.)

Sewing in the Library

I am not sure what I've gotten myself into. The PTA asked for interested adults to offer enrichment classes after school to the students, and I thought I'd offer a sewing class. A sewing class!! For kids!! Yikes. The reality of sewing with children is slowly dawning on me, and I am AFRAID!

I just hope I can thread all those machines. I'm a little worried about that. What should we make? I am thinking a pillow, a totebag, maybe a book jacket or something? It's only four sessions long, so how much time will we really have?

Hopefully, I'll go through my stash of fabric and let the kids use up stuff that's not my style anymore. Or maybe I can go to the fabric stores and beg for some cheap material that the kids can use.

It could be fun.

Woah.

I am completely blown away. An author commented on my blog. A real author. Author of the book I just got in the mail. Someone read my blog besides me. Last night, when I saw the comment, I was higher than the stars. Tonight, thinking about it, I am still there!

I'll have to really start thinking about my book reviews now. Maybe it's time to get serious. Oh, that sounds like work now. At the moment, I am completely hooked on Zach's Lie by Roland Smith. Roland spoke to some nearby middle-schoolers, and I got to sneak over and listen to one of his presentations. He is a friend of Jerry Pallotta, and I got to tell him, "I'm one of Jerry's cousins!" (Jerry told me to say that.) I am not, of course, but I could be! Roland was so perfect for the middle-schoolers: fast-talking, sarcastic, funny. I can see why they loved him.

Anyway, I will booktalk Zach's Lie to our fifth graders this week and next. I think they'll enjoy the suspenseful plot. No more time to blog--time to read!

Blah...

Ugh...I am sick. Sick as a dog, although my dog is never sick. It's just a cold, but woah--it has hit me like a ton of bricks today. I even called in sick this morning. The woman I called was like, "You never call in sick!" I know...I know. I slept all day, me and my dog curled up on the bed snoring together.

I got a new book in the mail today from Amazon. It is so very cute, and I am already thinking of ways I can use it with the kiddos. It's called Mouse Was Mad by Linda Urban and Henry Cole. I love Henry's illustrations--there is just so much fun in them. I just noticed now that it is not scheduled for publication until May 4, 2009. How did they release it already? I am confused; I don't know how that happens. Oh well, I am thrilled to have it. Look how the words in the title get bigger. So cute.

Movin' on Up!

Today, I did something very exciting. I got to speak to a college class of prospective elementary teachers about the library. About how they should hopefully use the library and librarian in their future schools. My number one focus was that librarians are instructional partners. I described how we can partner with them for student success. I talked to them about how our lessons correlate with what they are teaching in the classroom, and how we can collaborate to create meaningful lessons for students. We spent a little bit of time talking about censorship and book challenges. That was interesting, mostly because I recently read an article from SLJ on self-censorship that has really stuck with me. I feel very guilty about certain choices I've made, especially And Tango Makes Three. My good friend Henry Cole illustrated it, and I love the book, and I own a copy, but I have chosen not to put it in the library because I am worried about parents' reactions. And I know it is wrong. I was very excited about getting to talk to a college class. Here was a funny thing on the campus tonight: there is a biannual speaker series, and it was tonight. The guest speaker was Sam Donaldson. And me! Just not to the same audience.

Let Down

I am feeling so let down today. It is a sad feeling that I've not shaken yet, even though it happened at 9 this morning.

One of my duties is to run the morning announcements. We have a cast of fifth graders, a fifth grade camera man, and a kindergartner to say the pledge. I type up the script and we practice it and go live, all in the span of 30 minutes.

Our new-ish PE teacher (2nd year teacher) wanted to help with the broadcast, and the principal wouldn't let him run it but would allow him to assist me. Sigh. Help like this I do not need. He rarely comes on time (the studio door is always locked and I've instructed the students not to even LOOK at him if he tries to come in after we've started) and even when he promises to work with the students before the broadcast he finds other things to do. Today, he came in as the pledge leader was leaving. Whatever. There was nothing I could do at that point to keep him out. The kicker though, was that his cell phone rang--twice--during the broadcast. I am rolling my eyes still! Then he started whispering to the cameraman, who knows what he was saying, except that he was the closest thing to the microphones and guess what got picked up?!?!

When the broadcast ended, I just walked out of the studio and went in my office and closed the doors. He knew I was mad at him. He even emailed an apology. I am choosing not to accept it right now. He makes my job harder, and THAT I do not need!

I had some pretty blunt words for him after school when he tried to come in again and apologize, and I do believe I shocked him. He needed to hear it, and even if I feel slightly bad about being so direct (calling him a screw-up and a colleage I could not count on), he deserved it. Maybe it'll sink in (I'm certainly not the only one frustrated with him) this time.

Sigh. What do you do when a colleague lets you down?

Two Awesome Things

Two awesome things happened in my library today. First, a student made a comment today that completely blew me away. I was reading Henry's Freedom Box aloud to a fourth grade class (it's one of our state's Readers' Choice books), and on the second page a student interrupted my reading (interrupted!) and said, "Miss R., that was a simile." I stopped reading and set the book down. I asked him to repeat what he'd said. His friends wanted to know what he said, and I made him say it again louder. I was just beside myself with joy. I didn't even know what to say to the student except, "Yes, Robert, it IS a simile." I felt flushed. I had to fan myself. It was a beautiful moment, one of those moments teachers dream about. It has renewed my faith in teaching and in students. OK, now for the fun stuff. Our author visit with Jerry Pallotta was completely fun and exciting for the kids. I had a great afternoon with him (and of course, that's the most important part), even though he is a Red Sox fan. He was great with the kids and they learned some stuff and didn't even know it. My fabulous library intern took pictures of the event with his fancy wedding-gig camera, and here are some of them: This is Jerry Pallotta with his lion skull on a student's head. The kids loved this and Jerry also did it with a (much smaller) monkey skull. That was pretty silly, too. I love this picture. The activity room was completely darkened, and he was up on the stage in front of the ceiling mounted projector and screen. Take a close look at this picture. We see the lion's skull in Jerry's hands, we see the shadow it casts near the bottom of the picture, and we see the large illustration of the skull on the screen. Very cool.

Hey Kids, Look at This!

We had a great afternoon with Jerry Pallotta. He did two shows (his word) for the kids and signed books for almost three hours. We were set up in the activity room and he brought kids on stage and made them laugh. He had control of that very large room the whole time, and he even managed to include a little bit of teaching and learning in his talks. During his signing time, he was making deals with a couple of boys trading sports cards. It's something they'll never forget, I'm sure.

When I was introducing Jerry to the little kids, I caught the face of one of the boys who mouthed the words "Jerrrrryyyy Palllllottttaaa" with me as I said it. It looked like he was so excited--like he was meeting a rock star. So cute. One of our kindergarten classes had been brainstorming ideas about the visit and decided that they should dress up to meet Jerry Pallotta. They were all in nice dresses and the boys wore ties. He took pictures with that class after the show and another picture with just the boys and their ties. Again, so cute.

My library intern brought his fancy camera along, so I'll post some photos as soon as I get them.

Family Math Night

Even though I wasn't terribly excited about Be Excited About Math Day last week, I definitely got excited about Math Night this week. Well, I was excited at how awesomely our math specialist incorporated our upcoming author visit into her program. Author Jerry Pallotta will be at our school this Friday, and he has written many counting books and math concept books. The math specialist had a table of his books (with order forms for signed copies) and little counting, addition, or subtraction books that the kids could make on their own. There were flashy stickers there and glitter markers and stamps and stamp pads. The kids had such a great time!

I even made a special vest for the occasion. I bought some fancy number fabric from my favorite online store and whipped up a vest (lined and everything!) on Sunday. Here was the super-cool fabric:

BEAM Day! (not)

Aren't you excited? Aren't you excited about Be Excited About Math Day? I am not. Let me tell you why. Be Excited About Math Day is being held in the Library.

If this were a school-wide event for students, I would Be Excited. Really, I love math! But this is a stupid district-implemented PR event for parents who are NOT Excited About Math.

We're going to show un-Excited parents how Exciting Math can Be! We're going to stage (oh, yes, I said stage) a Math lesson in the library so parents can watch. We're going to prepare a class to Be Excited about having parents watch them in the library learning Math.

Meanwhile, my classes and I are banished to the classrooms for the day. I am NOT Excited.

Christmas in February

I've had a Christmas cactus in the library since the first holiday after we moved in, 2005. It had blooms on it that year and none at all since then. This month, it has started blooming and it looks fabulous!! We gently refer to it as developmentally delayed. I am just happy that it is flowering at all. People think I have a green thumb because there are lots of plants in the library, and every so often a new one appears on a bookshelf tucked in among the natives. When people ask, I tell them that the plants thrive on neglect; if I started paying attention to them, they'd probably die. That's not totally true, but pretty close.

Movie Day

There's a cold-wave racing through our state this week, and that, coupled with our district's lowering the heat as a cost-saving measure, has made it pretty chilly at school recently. Our boilers apparently also conked out, and some of our classrooms were in the 50's today! The art, music, and PE rooms were all in the mid-50's, but the library was a comfy 64 degrees. So with about four minutes to go until our first class of the day, we decided to bring all the students into the library and show a movie. I just grabbed something off the shelf and we showed "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" by Judy Blume. It was originally made in 1986 and it was just perfect. Every grade enjoyed it--from kindergarten through fifth graders. Even I didn't mind watching it six times today. I even found a favorite quote: the mom says to Keith, "Mice are not my favorite animals." The way she says it is just too cute. Then we had a little happy hour after school and now it's time to enjoy a four day weekend.

Advocacy

Today, another librarian and I had a meeting with our library supervisor to discuss advocacy. In this time of budget shortfalls and cuts, we want to do everything we can do increase our visibility and indispensibility in our district. She was all for it!! We brainstormed lots of ideas about how to do this, and I am very excited about getting started with it all. Advocacy intimidates me a lot; I equate it with being a salesperson. But I suppose I have to get over that feeling, since I am selling myself and my program. I'll keep you posted!

new stuff

So I found a new blog to visit, and it has totally inspired me to be a better librarian and a better blogger! The Orange Room is my new favorite place on the web, and one of the reasons I like it so much is that it is updated often. I started my new class tonight, Technical Services, and it went pretty well. The students were very excited about the syllabus, mostly because it contains virtually no out-of-class assignments (besides reading). We'll be doing a lot of stuff in class and this will make all of us happy. Over Thanksgiving, I went into the craft room, and the calendar was still set to August. I realized at that moment that my entire fall was consumed by the Reference class I taught. I'm going to try not to let that happen this time around! The fourth and fifth graders are working with almanacs this week, and the class I had today actually groaned when I told them it was time to put their almanacs away. What a nice moment. I love the almanac, too.