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.