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Can you tell that I am just a little bit excited about achieving National Board Certification?!?!?! After planning to release the results last Friday, the NBC people had a little bit of trouble with their servers, so we didn't find out until this morning.  I checked it as soon as I woke up, and, thank God, I passed. 
Then I waited and waited for my study partner Vicki to share her news.  She passed, too!! So now I am completely happy.  Happy for me, and happy for her.  And I'm happy that this process is (at least for the next 9 years) over. 

And now everything else on my plate suddenly seems do-able.  Glad to have this not hanging over my head anymore.

In other news, I got to meet the author of Origami Yoda and Darth Paper today, the fabulous Tom Angleberger.  He was so wonderful and kind, and I **may** have talked him into coming to my school in March 2012.  He is speaking at a conference on a Saturday morning in March, and I asked him about coming to us on Friday.  So I'll email him and see what we can work out!

Here he is with some less than quiet and patient children who were in front of me as we waited to get our books signed.

"Why my mom is late..."

On Thursday after car riders' duty, I was walking four students to the office because their parents hadn't picked them up after school.  The students were all first or second graders, and one little girl said, "I guess my mommy overslept again." (It turns out that she works nights.) The other little girl said, "Is she nocturnal?"

Just so cute!

A Porcupine Book...or not

I was talking with my sister tonight.  Her son is a kindergartner, and being a teacher, she is enjoying school from the perspective of a new parent, and not just as a teacher.  And by enjoying, I totally mean "barely coping with the anxiety of."
So she was telling me about the books her son was reading in school, and of course, I asked about library.  He told her that the librarian read a book about a porcupine.  Hmmm...I was thinking and thinking about which book this could possibly be.  And then I asked, "Could it have been a hedgehog?" Maybe, she thought.  And then I said, "What Happened to Marion's Book?--I bet it was that one!" and my sister asked if it had something to do with a washing machine.  Yes, YES! I excitedly answered. 

I have to say, she was quite impressed.  She said I could make an app for that.  People could send me the vaguest idea of a book they'd read, and I could figure it out for them.  True enough, I could probably do that, for children's books, at least.

In a related story, a student came into the library needing "Ralphius Mouse" for his teacher.  Just as I would've interpreted it, my assistant figured he wanted a copy of Ralph S. Mouse.  So she gave the student a copy of the book to take to his teacher.  Two minutes later the student came back, this time with a note.  The teacher wanted a wireless mouse.  HA!! It could've gone either way, for sure.

Just one more reason to love these kids!!

Ah, summer.

Today is my first day of summer vacation.  I do still have work to do at school, and I do owe them one more day, but the tech people came by yesterday and wiped out our current computers in preparation for us getting new ones next week.  So, while I do have non-computer things to do, I am in no rush to do them.  What a great first day of vacation!!I slept in a little, got fitted for my new contacts, enjoyed a Panera breakfast, and event went to the mall. I was looking for curtains for the occasional room, but there are none to be had in my entire town.  I went to four different stores, and finally ended up ordering them from JC Penney. That was a little frustrating.
The school year ended with a bang: I got strep throat and missed the last 3 1/2 days of school.  Ugh--it was ugly.  I can't believe that I was so sick. So everything was delayed--overdue notices, inventory, everything.  We inventoried the Everybody section and non-fiction, but that was all we got to.  Our numbers were really good on both of those sections, so I am not worried about the others.  There were only 3 books missing from the E section--out of over 5,000 books.  And we are in the middle of a pretty big weeding project, so that needs to get done, too.  I am getting a little overwhelmed thinking about it all. 

The Most Fabulous Henry Cole

We had such a great day with Henry Cole, children's book author and illustrator.  He was simply amazing, entertaining three HUGE student audiences throughout the day.  He kept the 2-5 graders for over an hour, and they never took their eyes off him.  I WISH I could hold their attention like that.  Wow.  And although Henry has his presentation down pat, each time I heard it, it was as if he was telling his stories for the first time.  Students and teachers were all impressed. 
We sold lots of his books to everyone at the school, and Henry signed like a trooper for hours and hours. 
Henry and I got to talk about books, and authors, and illustrators, and industry gossip, which was just so much fun.  He told me about how much he loves Mouse Was Mad, which I had written about several months ago.  I learned that the cover was originally not supposed to be the color it is, but when an original got copied, the green color changed a bit and everyone loved the new color.  I was so glad to hear that Henry loves that book, because I love it too. (And I love Linda Urban.  For many reasons.)
Henry loved the things that I've been doing while reading his book to the kids, and that made me feel good.  The kids were so into it.  So into his book, and now so into him!!  What I love so much about his book, A Nest for Celeste, is how it made me more interested in history.  I had to find out about the passenger pigeons.  And then I had to find out more about John James Audubon.  That's one of my favorite things about being a librarian--that constant quest for information. 

What a great day!

How to Make Someone Feel Special...

...by the kindergartners. 

Me: We are having a very special visitor next month, Henry Cole.  He is an author and illustrator.  What should we do to get ready for his visit?

Kindergartner: Balloons?

LOL.  I think Henry would like that.  I wasn't quite expecting that answer, but we kept going with this line of thought.  After balloons came ice cream cake, dressing up, writing notes, making a big book he can rip through as he enters (!), and singing happy birthday.

I'm not sure when Henry's birthday is, but he might like all those things when he visits us next month. 

And I was just thinking we'd read his books. 

Just Sayin'...

Do NOT make your boss look bad in an email.  Especially an email that was cc'd to all the librarians, their assistants, and their PRINCIPALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

(And no, it wasn't me.  But I got to read the back-and-forth.  Not pretty.)

Laugh Out Loud Funny Kindergartners Keep Me Sane

One of my favorite things about being an elementary teacher is that I totally enjoy these age groups.  Not a day goes by that I do not laugh with the children (sometimes at them, but mostly with them...).
Yesterday, my kindergarten class and I were reviewing the Readers' Choice program books for our state, as we'd finished reading all of them and it was time to vote.  I asked a little boy who was particularly excited when I picked up I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean to hold it for the class and tell us about it. 
I tried handing him the books, but he put his hand out to give me something.  I could see that he didn't have anything in his hand, but I put my hand out.  He put his teeny little fingers in my palm and in his cute little voice, "Here's a flower for you."  And then, before I could even say thank you, he added, "It's your favorite color."  Tee hee.  Totally imaginary--there was no flower there.  But I loved it anyway.  I took it out of my palm and very gently set it on the bookshelf next to me. 
When I told one of my friends the story, she said, "What?!?! You didn't put it in a glass of water?!?!"  Even funnier.

The Most Important Need: The Need to Learn | Edutopia

The Most Important Need: The Need to Learn Edutopia I love this article. So what I needed to read, especially after I heard about two brothers at my school (different last names) who are moving out of their grandparents' home and into a house with their aunt, who will now be a single parent to seven--S.E.V.E.N.--children. If all I did for those sweet little boys was offer them a place of solace and a place to explore their interests, then my job is done. My heart is breaking. We have another student, a first grade girl, whose mother moved out right after Christmas. Just up and left the family--did not even tell them she was leaving. That poor little girl, coming to school with hair that her father desperately tried to brush and style and outfits that *almost* matched...I hope that she had a few moments of peace in my library where she was able to forget about her problems at home and get lost in a good story.