Great Day in the Library!

Oh, my.  This week has been a roller-coaster ride of feelings and emotions.  Yesterday, the specialists' team met with the principal.  It was tense.  Very tense.  You know the story: we feel devalued by the teachers, he doesn't know how else to help us...what a mess.  It was pretty ugly (although things were worked out today).

Today was Day 6, which meant it was the last day of the rotation.  The book we read in K-2 from our state award nominated list, I had already read 15 times.  Today was 16-17-18.  I thought that I had heard everything.  But today's classes had whole new insights, new ideas, and it totally lifted me past the fact that I had the book memorized already and was more than a little tired of reading it.

The kids were doing a small writing activity after the book, and I was walking around helping a first grade class with sounding out their words.  One little boy had finished his writing, and I read it out loud.  He looked at me with the biggest smile and said, "You can read that!?!?!" And I said yes.  He said, "I never did that before!!" (write something that others could read).  Oh, my gosh, how totally sweet was that?!?! He was just so excited that I read what he wrote!

Another little boy, who is a bit of a behavior problem, did an awesome job on his writing, and I told him how excited I was that he did such good work.  Then I told him to read it to my assistant, who was equally impressed.  I swear, that boy floated out of the library today.

It was a really good day in the library!!

Extra Yarn

I love this book! The kids all amaze me with their insights, and I've learned new interpretations of the book from them.

After reading the book, we've done this yarn-wrapping craft (since we can't knit).  I got some branches from a tree that had lost a limb recently, and the kids have been wrapping them with yarn all week.  They're almost finished!!

Here are some pictures of our work:

Extended Day

At my school, the scheduled specialists (art, music, library, PE, computer) are assigned to a class at the end of the day for 30 minutes of "extended day" special.  I lobbied to have the same class at the end of the day that I saw earlier in the day so I could actually "extend" their learning.  It has been working out GREAT for us in the library, and I LOVE IT!

Unfortunately, the other specialists do not love it.  I can imagine that it would be hard to teach PE in the classroom (since they don't have enough time to pick up the kids, take them to the PE room, and return them before dismissal).  But I bring my classes back to the library, and those 30 minutes are priceless! We have used them all so well--I am easily able to extend whatever our lesson was that day for the class, and I manage to make it a little fun, too.

Yesterday, for instance, we were reading this VRC book called Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature. With this extended class, we drew lots of spirals on our scratch paper and watched a great video about Fibonacci numbers and how to make swirls with them.  It was way harder than it looked on the video (isn't it always!!), but the kids loved it.  It was something they'd never heard of before.  That is the beauty of extended day!

I love the extra time with the kids, even though the other specialists don't.  Sure, it's one more class to prep for, but in the library, it's not a chore at all.  There's always stuff to learn!

Oh no, George!

I have been reading this VRC nominee book to the kindergartners, first graders, and second graders.  It's really funny and the kids have really been enjoying it.  For the K and 1 students, we vote on what we think George will do at the end of the book (the ending leaves us hanging!!).  Today, one of the classes I read the book to voted 19 students thinking that George will dig in the trash and only 3 who thought he would walk by it.  Wow... these kids are cynics!!

Here's what the voting looked like for us:

This was early in the voting process with a class.

Since the second graders are a little better prepared to write, I created a little half-sheet activity where they would write what they thought George would do and why.  The kids did a really good job with it; some kids even colored the picture on their paper.  This one below, though, has been my favorite.  It's just SO FUNNY!!

It reads, "I think George will dig in the trash because he has that look."

Just how cute is that?!?! Love these kids!

Virginia Readers' Choice 2014

I do love the Virginia Readers' Choice program.  It allows me to create new lessons every year, discover new literature, and get kids excited about reading. Using the primary list, I study each of the books, troll the Internet for ideas, and create some of my own ideas for teaching the books.  Even though the mission of the program is for the children to enjoy these books as read-alouds, as a librarian, I cannot simply read a book out loud without doing some sort of literacy or comprehension activity afterward.

Usually,  I present my ideas for the books at our state librarians' conference, but last year, I was really disappointed in the quality of the conference and decided I needed a break.  I did not attend this year (it just ended yesterday), and I'm still glad about my decision.  The other morning, I received an email from a fellow librarian that just made my day:

• You may not remember me, but I sure remember you.  I cannot tell you how disappointed I was that you were not here to do your Virginia Readers' Choice session at the VAASL conference.  I sooooo look forward to it every year and this year has been particularly stressful for me since we have adopted a new catalog system and the budget cuts get worse and cause us to be swallowed into other areas so our supervisor is stretched to the max.  I have no idea what I would do without my volunteer since we have no aides.  And these SMART goals are just ridiculous.  Well, anyway...I missed you and just wanted you to know that.

I know that my sessions are well attended at the conference, and I get really good reviews, but for someone to take the time to write just shows that librarians are truly special people! 

Since I am teaching the books anyway, with or without the presentation at the conference, I have done the work for the books and compiled everything on a livebinders page (my new favorite way to organize my online life!!).  I sent the link to this librarian, and I am happy to share it with the readers of my blog (are you out there?!):  

VRC 2013-2014 Ideas

Lots of great ideas for teaching the books, along with comments as I teach the books and discover how my plans worked (or didn't).  Check it out!

National Book Festival 2013

We had such a great, memorable time at the National Book Festival yesterday! Here's how it all started:  I was texting my sister to tell her we were almost there, when I fell flat on my face.  I should be in a PSA about the dangers of texting and walking.  It  happened right outside the Ronald Reagan Federal Building (we parked under it), so I am quite sure it was caught on camera...from numerous angles.  A security guard was on me before I even stood up, making sure I was okay.  Mostly a bruised ego, until I started walking again, and then I realized I did something to my right heel.  Ouch!! But it's the Book Festival, PRESS ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I hobbled the block and a half to the book signings, which were right on 14th Street.  At least I didn't have far to go, since, as you know, I'm all about the book signings at the festival.  I didn't even leave that area yesterday--just planted myself in lines and waited for authors.

Here's who I met:

Katherine Applegate

Katherine Applegate was so gracious!! The woman in line before me (in the picture) is also a school librarian, and we talked for a long time before the author arrived.  That was fun.  Katherine thanked us for our work.  Oh, my goodness...thanking us.  I loved, loved, loved The One and Only Ivan, and now it's on our state readers' list, so many of our students will get to love it, too.  So excited to tell the kids about her.

Margaret Atwood--I didn't meet her, but she was at the next table, so I took her picture. Her line was crazy-long.

Jon Klassen

Jon was super-friendly, too.  We were discussing how the little kids just refuse to believe that something bad happened to the rabbit.  He has experienced it, too. Then, HORROR--he noticed that we had the wrong sticker on the book.  Of course, we had the book before it won the Giesel Honor, but we put a Caldecott Honor sticker on it by mistake!! YIKES!! I will fix tomorrow at school.  

Matthew and Jennifer Holm

I didn't bring any books for the Team Holm because I was sure their line would be crazy long.  But it wasn't!  Jill ended up getting a couple Squish books signed for Toa, and then she took this great picture of them.

Hoda Kotb

I love Hoda!!! We were waiting to meet Oliver Jeffers and there was this big long line next to us.  We were wondering who they were waiting to meet, and it turned out to be Hoda.  My sister looked at them with disdain and said, "Of course.  They don't even LOOK like readers."  HA! We got some good pictures of Hoda, who was so gracious.  She's quite tall and has bright white teeth.  And what a smile! Everybody got that smile.  She was posing for pictures with people until the workers put a stop to that.  It would've taken hours for her to finish signing if she did all those pictures!

My sister and Toa with Oliver Jeffers

Oliver Jeffers signing The Incredible Book Eating Boy for me.

He was wonderful, too!! And I loved his Irish accent.  Unfortunately, it started POURING when we were getting our books signed, so everything was super-rushed.  He was the last author of the day for us, so at least we were finished waiting in lines when the skies opened.

After we finished getting books signed, we sealed everything in waterproof bags and donned our ponchos and umbrellas and headed for the car.  We had an early dinner at Carmine's (a new tradition) and were back home by 7:30.  Not a bad day, hurt foot and all.

Stupid, stupid, stupid

So I did something really stupid.  It was a moment of frustration, and I was in an ugly place.  I am embarrassed about it.  And after I was called into the principal's office, I felt full of shame.  Not from anything he said or did, but just the sheer disappointment I caused him and the bad position I put him in. I really let him down, and I let a student down, and I let myself down.

For almost the past week, I have been struggling with feelings of never wanting to go back to school.  But I made myself, because I know that's where I belong.  That's where I have belonged for the past 21 years.  But how close I came to letting it go down the toilet.

Now I know what the kids feel like when they do something wrong.  How bad they must feel, and how having someone in their corner is really so important.  Throughout the past week, my principal was my biggest cheerleader and supporter.  He was the one who got me to school, past my shame and disappointment, and back to working with kids again.

These are the important words, "You're better than this."  "You're too good for this." "We need you here." Those are the words that kept me going, that keep me going.

The New Year

I just love that teachers get two times a year for New Year's Resolutions! Of course, there's January, when the rest of the world get to make them, but just for us in the education world, we can also make them in September.  I am going to try hard this school year to be present--to do one thing at a time.  I so often try to squeeze in something else when I should just be focused on one thing.  That's my goal.  The start of the school year is always hectic, but it's been good this year.  I am feeling organized and fairly on-top of things in my library world.

Readers of this blog know that the main reason I love teaching is because I can laugh with the kids every day.  OK, sometimes I laugh at them, but mostly it's with them.  This past week, our first week with students, all teachers had to eat with their class in the cafeteria.  The specialists were visible down there, too, as it should be.  I ate with a group of kindergartners on the first day, and when I sat down next to this little boy, he looked me up and down and said, "Are you a kid?"  HA!! I just love the cluelessness of these kindergartners!! Just too cute!

This year, for the first time, my principal asked for a copy of my pacing guide add to our staff shared drive.  Usually, I make one, but just for myself, as I go.  Since my lessons are always based off what's going on in the classrooms, my map depends on the classroom activities.  But whatever...I pretty much know when the teachers are teaching what, so I've been working on that for the past week.  Non-stop!! I want it to be great, so the details are taking me a lot of time.  I've been going through the state curriculum and aligning each lesson to it (no Common Core for us!) carefully.

I Have the Money!!

This is what sweet little Thomas was yelling (yes, YELLING!) to me as he came into the library first thing Friday morning.  No one else was there yet, and he was so excited to find me.  "Miss R, Miss R! I want to buy this book!" and he was holding the book up high for me to see.
I was laughing as he explained that he had enough money to buy the book.  He loved it so much.  He came right into my office and gave me the book and his money:

Why, yes, he did have enough money!! That is a bill for a trillion dollars.  And President Abraham Lincoln is right there on the front.
I am indeed glad that Thomas loved that book so much, but I had to explain it to him that he couldn't buy it, no matter how much money he had, since it was a library book and lots of other boys and girls love that book too.
It was a great way to start my Friday.

He Got Me!

We are working on our annual Battle of the Books (BOB) program with third, fourth, and fifth graders.  The kids have about 3 months to read eight novels specifically chosen for their grade level.  I've been really talking it up with the classes, trying to encourage more student participation.  In some classes, especially fifth grade, participation wanes, and I can't put my finger on why.  The kids are SO excited about it in third grade, and then fourth grade is pretty good, but fifth grade always has the lowest participation.

So as part of my goal to have more kids participate, we've been talking about the books every time they come to library.  I give the kids updates on their participation, and then I ask them to tell about their favorite book and why.  We also talk about books they didn't like and why.

The other day, I had a fifth grade class that wasn't particularly excited to read the books, so I was really trying hard to build excitement.  One little boy, Coleton, talked all about why he didn't like Fairy-tale Detectives.  (I don't exactly blame him--it's a book with girl characters and I didn't love it, either--but I didn't tell the kids that!!)

So today, Coleton came in with a very dour look on his face holding another BOB book, Kensuke's Kingdom.  He put it in the book return while saying, "You remember how I tried Fairy-tale Detectives and didn't like it?  Well, this one (and he shook his head and frowned)....(and then he paused)... WAS GREAT!!! And he smiled a big smile, knowing that he totally got me!! I LOVED IT!!!! Then he told me all about why he loved it and exactly how long it took him to read it.

Coleton had no idea how he made my day today.

Snow Day!!!

The view this morning from the front porch.

There is just nothing more renewing than a snowday!! Snowdays even beat professional days, if you ask me.  I was a complete slug this morning, getting up at 8:30, transitioning to the couch and a yummy breakfast, until almost 2 pm.  Then I went out and shoveled.

I left my flashdrive upstairs, which is equivalent to leaving it at school as far as I'm concerned, so working on the school's newsletter is obviously out of the question.  I celebrated today, as I do all snowdays, with cosmopolitans, my favorite go-to adult beverage. At this point, I am kinda hopeful that tomorrow will be a snowday, as well.

School has been going pretty well lately.  I'm still totally burned out on the 6-day specials rotation, but at least I've been doing fun stuff with the kids.  Fourth grade has been working on atlases and this rotation is playing some fun online map games (from National Geographic) that they are enjoying.  I am making the groups that did not make good progress on the atlas activities finish before getting to the computers.  I should've announced that at the start!!

Third grade is mired in their Famous American biographies.  I enjoy it, and it is pretty self-directed, but there are a few kids in each class who are just so dependent on someone pointing out every single answer to them that it just saps my energy.  At last I have I&E time at the end of the day to work with them in very small groups.  But it's so hard to get around to 25 kids during a 35 minutes period.  I can barely touch base with all of them, let alone follow up with them.

Second graders are working on their Ancient China research, and yesterday had a visit from the CRRL librarians for Chinese folktale storytelling.  The librarians did a great job, and the kids' reactions were just priceless.  My favorite librarian tells The Seven Chinese Sisters in such a funny way--the kids still talk about it a year later.

We've been enjoying the Anansi tales in first grade and kindergarten.  I kind of wish the Eric Kimmel versions had a little more, um, Africa, in them.  I wasn't in the loop when they were published, and I'd have to do some serious digging into the reviews back when the books came out, but why isn't Anansi a little more African? We have enjoyed the stories, but they certainly don't look like they're part of our Black History Month recognition.  (And I know it's March...it takes a while to get through the rotations!!)

Fifth grade has been my favorite class this rotation.  For the past several weeks, we've been learning effective online searching techniques.  I've long avoided teaching the kids about Google searching, but I finally came to the realization that they're all doing it outside of school, so I should at least help them do it a little more skillfully.  It's been a good unit.  We got to the point where we were evaluating websites' validity, and I tricked them for a minute with the Endangered Northwest Tree Octopus website. Well, maybe more than a minute.  Our plan was to analyze other websites the next rotation to try to determine their validity. But then I got them this past week. Instead of viewing websites, I told them that their teachers had requested we do a little review of explorers for our upcoming SOL tests.  So I hand them a 1/2 sheet of paper and directions for getting some facts about the explorers they'd studied this year.  Little did they know that I'd set them up with the spoof website All About Explorers! Ooh, I got them so good!!!! They totally fell for it, until a few groups started reading a little more in-depth and discovering the inaccuracies in the explorers' biographies.  Such fun!!! I had to make them promise not to tell the other classes of fifth graders, and it worked!! Are fifth graders that gullible, or do they just trust their teachers so much?! I had one student who was hurt that I would trick him like I did.  I tried to explain that the Internet tricked him!!  Next rotation, we're starting Media Literacy, which is a most fun unit to teach, too.  Happy times in fifth grade!

Award Winning Thoughts

I am so happy with the Caldecott Awards this year! The week before the awards were announced, I had read This is Not My Hat to the first grade classes, not because I was predicting anything, but because we'd read I Want My Hat Back as part of our state readers' choice list.  So I thought they'd like Jon Klassen's new book (which they did).  They were very excited to hear that it won the Caldecott, and we put the Award sticker on it right away. Notice it has the perfect cover for a medal.

Because of our subscription to Junior Library Guild, I had most of the award and honor winners already.  Great choices all around.  This fall, I got our copy of Extra Yarn signed by Mac Barnett. Double win for Jon Klassen with that one!! Where to put the silver medal, though? Maybe cover art designers can think of this in the future--just a little corner, that's all I need!

I took Creepy Carrots to the book festival, too, to be signed.  It's very fun, although I haven't read it to any classes yet.  My nephew sure enjoyed it!

I wouldn't be any kind of librarian if I didn't give a shout-out to One Cool Friend, written by Toni Buzzeo.  She's a librarian, so I triple-love this book.  Anything that David Small illustrates is tops in my book, but this was still a total surprise to me! Notice the area in the lower-left corner for the medal. 

When I took I Have a Dream: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. out of the box recently, I knew instantly it was Kadir Nelson.  His books are just classic.  There is no mistaking his style or his books' shape.  It is beautiful and of course a shoe-in for the award.  We got it just in time for MLK, Jr. Day, and the teachers ate it up.

Ellen's Broom was an enjoyable book, but not on my radar for the CSK illustrator award.  I am partial to the style to the illustrator, Daniel Minter.  Woodcuts? Scratchboard?  I'm not totally sure, but I know it appeals to me.  The story does not seem all that original to me; where have I read something like this before, I don't know, but I feel like I've heard it already.  At any rate, I'm glad for Daniel Minter.

This is the book that threw me over the edge, though: Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson.  I just cataloged it the weekend before it won the CSK Author Honor, but I hadn't read it.  So I brought it home on Monday night and read it Tuesday morning over breakfast.  Then I cried.  And cried.  And cried.  I cried some more on my way to work.  I cried when I told my assistant about it.  It is just so sad! It is the most perfect  book for discussion, though.  But I don't know if I'll be able to read it aloud to a class! I plan to show it to my principal this week because it is a great accompaniment for the 26 Acts of Kindness program that we're doing at my school.  It's amazing, really.

Immi's Gift

This was my favorite state award nominee book, so I saved it for last.  Our school just launched a 26 Acts of Kindness program, and it was so awesome to hear the kids make that connection to the book. So I read it 18 times. I didn't get tired of it, not once.  What I especially loved was how the kids responded when I read the last page.  Every single class of second graders gasped.  They totally got it.  Some of the first grade students got it--I heard a few gasps.  Not one kindergartner got it without a little explanation.  But that's okay--I assume it's a developmental thing.

I had a few different activities to go along with the book, but every class ended up doing the same thing, which was to draw and color one of the things that Immi got from the sea.  Then we put all the items (ahem...maybe not all of them) on my K-cup igloo.  I can't believe I forgot to take an "after" picture. 

I'll take one tomorrow and upload it to this post, but for now, here is the igloo before we decorated it.  I collected K-cups from my own home and from my assistant's.  We had almost half of the cups pictured below! (yikes) Then I had to ask the teachers for help.  Thank God for caffeine-addicted teachers! I had the rest of the igloo completed in two days! The igloo in all its K-cup glory:

Ok, so you can see all the kids' creations on the snow around the igloo.  I hot glued most of them to the igloo and even inside it.  That picture will appear below (after I take it tomorrow!).

It came out so cute--I just love it! The kids enjoy looking for their object on the igloo, and if they don't see it, I tell them it's on the inside!  (I couldn't fit them all on the igloo.)

Day 6: Soul-crushing

I am so tired of this schedule.  I just don't think I can bear it much longer.  Every night at dinner, I am asked how my day went.  And for five days in a row, I say, "Just like yesterday...Just like yesterday..."  It's true--my day is EXACTLY the same for six school days in a row.  This always spans a weekend, and depending on the number of days in a week, sometimes two weekends.  It is interminable. And so. so. depressing.

I'm in a bad place right now.  My principal always talks to us about all the good we're doing, and how we can say we're just one little bolt riveter on the ship (it's a big, long analogy), or we can say that we build boats that carry our soldiers as they fight for our freedom.  So I can say that I'm a lowly, elementary librarian teaching the same damn thing six days in a row or I can say that I help grow children.

So I really try to keep this in mind: it's not my lessons that matter so much.  It's what the kids learn about themselves and the world around them that matters.  Except today, when I was teaching a fifth grade class.  For quite literally the 18th time, I was teaching the same lesson with the book Mirror, Mirror, which is on our state awards list.  Last rotation, I read it to them, and this time, they were performing one of the poems with a partner.

In all the classes, I talked about what it would look like when they were performing and what it would look like when they were in the audience.  One of the things we discussed, without incident in 17 classes of third, fourth, and fifth graders, was appropriate clapping.  A little chuckle and trying out of inappropriate clapping. Then back on track doing it appropriately.

Except this one fifth grade class.  One of the boys insisted on clapping with his palms cupped together.  As I tried to explain to him that this kind of clapping would not be appropriate at a poetry reading, he just kept doing it.  Once he told me he forgot, once he just shrugged, and when I said that I'd have to write a referral, he said, "for what?! Clapping?" When I asked if it would matter more if he were to get a referral for it, he said, "Not from you."

A referral for clapping does sound ridiculous.  But it wouldn't have been for clapping--it would've been for defiance.  During checkout time, this boy and two friends (for reasons unrelated to the clapping)  and I had a little sitdown.  It was there that he said, "I HATE YOU! EVERYBODY HATES YOU! THEY HATE COMING HERE!"

Woah.  Nothing like hearing that to make you question what you do every day.  I know that this boy has a lot of issues, and a lot of anger.  Things happened in his young life that should not ever happen to a child. Even though I know all this, his words still bother me.

His teacher came in around that time and I told her what happened--not the whole thing about the clapping, just what the boy said to me.  She acknowledged that he does say things to adults that are hurtful. (true)  And she also reminded him that he often feels this way and says these things when adults hold him to high standards. (very true)

So what do I do?  Lower my standards? Not expect as much from the kids?  Or the kids who come with all kinds of baggage? I just don't know.  But today I feel like I just cannot keep doing this schedule, this monotonous-same-thing-every-day-schedule for another. single. minute.