Christmas in the library

I know that it's terribly un-PC to celebrate Christmas in school, but we couldn't resist jumping on the book-tree bandwagon that's making its way through libraries everywhere.

The week before winter break was our second (very slow) week of bookfair, so we had plenty of time to get creative.  Staff and students loved the trees.

Can you see the chairs set up in a tree shape?!

We have some plans to make a snowman out of books, too, during January.  Here's the inspiration photo:

Why I Am Loving Middle Schoolers

Two things from yesterday:

1.  Middle Schoolers do not expect you to put band-aids on for them.  In fact, they look at you funny if you open the package and start taking the tabs off.

2.  Upon seeing my empty cornucopia on the bookshelf, one of the girls said, "A cornucopia! Like in Hunger Games!" and I asked what I should fill it with.  The answer?  Weapons.

There you go.

Weeding, weeding

I know there is a rule that one is not supposed to weed the collection in one's first year at a school.  I have broken that rule.  Desperate times call for desperate measures.

The age of the collection is not good.  The average age is 1998--16 years old.  There is so much to do.  I started out working on fiction, innocently enough just moving books to spread out the collection a little.  But as I moved books, it was obvious that some of them just had to go.  How many Dear America and books of that oeuvre are there?!?!?!  We had over 200.  HAD! Those books are gone, gone, gone.

There were lots of old and ugly books, and after discarding them, I put them on a cart called "Old & Ugly" and the students still scooped them up. Here is one of  my favorites:

I just love that little blurb next to the kids' heads: "Is gorgeous as great as it looks?"  If only someone could answer that...

But this book has been my all-time favorite, and I even learned a little something about James Michener AND South Pacific when I looked it up:

Priceless, just priceless.
There is a lot to do, but I've done a preliminary weed of picture books and biography, in addition to fiction.  Non-fiction is the crazy-big part that is left to do, but I seriously don't even know where to start.  Between the outdated titles and the mis-labeled (damn that Melvil Dewey!!) books, I will have to touch and fix every single book if it doesn't get weeded.

I think that I won't even start non-fiction until Christmas.  There are a lot of other things to do before tackling that half of the library.  But it's exciting!! I love it!

One Pang of Regret

I truly have had very few regrets about moving from elementary school to middle school.  I don't regret leaving the library I started (which was in great shape to hand over to someone new...unlike the library I inherited), I'm not sad about leaving the little ones (whom I adore!!), not sad about leaving my colleagues (except a few... D.W. you know I mean you!).

But on Monday night, the night before school officially started, I read this Facebook post from a former student, who is now a mom (click the image to read it without being cut off):

How else would a child know about Elizabeth Blackwell except through Judy Moody (1st yellow arrow)?!?! When Jodie responded as she did (2nd yellow arrow), I immediately teared up.  I do not have this kind of knowledge of middle school books yet.  And will I lose this crazy encyclopedic knowledge of children's literature? Sigh.

That was really the only moment when I had a pang of regret leaving what I know well. I know that I'll learn MS literature as well as I know children's lit, but it was such a watershed moment. Thank you, my former student Jodie, for enriching your daughter's life with Judy Moody and mine by staying in touch after all these years.  Thank you Megan McDonald, for teaching me about Elizabeth Blackwell.

I'm Not Afraid of Them!!!

All summer long, I have been having anxiety about not liking middle schoolers.  It had me really worried!! But--good news--we had our 6th grade open house last week, and it was great! The kids were awesome! Even the eighth graders who were there to help were super.  I am very excited to start school with them in one week!

Tomorrow begins teacher work days.  I am excited to work with a new faculty and see how things run in a different school.  I grabbed an old yearbook to try to get to know the students and teachers more.  I might make some copies and organize things in folders with their names and pictures.  That would really help me get to know everyone.

I am really excited to get started!!

Settling In

I have been going to my new school at least three or four times a week since we got back from vacation, and progress has been made! One of my friends came by today and was excited to see how much things have improved.  Whew! I finally started unpacking my own stuff today--I emptied most of the boxes of books and files that I had brought.  Now I just have a bunch of plastic tubs to empty, which I'll start on tomorrow.  My office is definitely looking like I've moved in! I even got my computer up and running today, which was kind of fun.  Actually, it has been nice not having a computer set up--I HAVE to do the manual labor instead of working online.

To tomorrow when I go in, I'll start on those tubs, which have combinations of stuff in them (so they wouldn't be too heavy to move).  There are books, decorations, stuff from all over the library in them, so it'll be a little slower unpacking the tubs than the boxes.

I bought what I thought was a filing cabinet from an online yard sale a couple of weeks ago; it turns out it is actually an old pattern cabinet from a fabric store.  It's much bigger than a filing cabinet, and more versatile.  Here's a picture of the first drawer.  Don't be shocked:

It is a ridiculous amount of pencils and pens.  Overwhelming, really.  In all my years of teaching, I have never seen anything like this. I suppose it's better to have too much than to walk into a situation where I have absolutely no supplies.

I have started labeling things that I've organized.  The drawer you see above is called "Things that Write."  Below it is "Things that Clip," and "Things that Stick," "Things that Measure," "Things that Cut." Someone told me once that my organizational system is like an episode of "The $25,000 Pyramid." Try it! What could be in a drawer called "Things that Clip?!?!?" GO!

I'll post some before-and-after pictures when everything's ready to go for the new school year.  I'm excited to have this organization and moving in part closer to being done so I can concentrate on important stuff!

Handing Over the Reins

Wow.  So many emotions today! I went to my new school yesterday and spent a couple of hours looking around at the books and the setup and the mountains of accumulated stuff that I will have to trash.  It was really overwhelming.  I don't even know where to start, there is so much to do.  A good friend of mine was the librarian there many years ago, and there is still stuff there with her handwriting on it.  Yikes.  And that's just the stuff.  That's not anything that matters, like, you know, lesson plans, or books, or students.  Everything I look at is just something to deal with so I can concentrate on what really matters.  I'll be spending a lot of time there in the upcoming six weeks, for sure.

I went to a reading conference today that was pretty good.  Not great, but then again, when I keep my expectations low, I usually say that.  I saw some librarian friends there, and that was great, as always.  I saw a colleague from many moons ago when I first became a librarian, and that was awesome. We caught up on all our mutual friends and even snapped a selfie (sorry, not included here!).

Then, and this was such a wonderful thing: the librarian who is taking over the library at the school I'm leaving was there, and we got to talk for a few minutes.  Oh, I feel relief knowing that she will be the librarian there.  I was so worried that my replacement would be someone brand new to the library world (not that there's anything wrong with that) (I know--I was that person once, too) who wouldn't appreciate the great shape that library is in.  I am a little more at peace tonight knowing that it will be in good hands.

Tomorrow morning, bright and early before it gets ungodly hot, I will be moving the last of my stuff out of my old school and into my new one.  It's really just still hard to believe that it is all happening. Wow.

Middle School: where 'special' is not a noun.

I am feeling nostalgic, reading through some old posts about my school.  The highs and the lows, the good and the bad, things I'd forgotten and things I'll never forget.  Last week, I interviewed for, and was hired for, a middle school librarian job.  I accepted.  I told my principal about it on Friday afternoon, our last day of school, but he had already spoken to my new principal, so he knew before I had a chance to tell him.
We didn't say much, as I think we were both just weary. Tired of the fighting, tired of dealing with one another, tired of being disappointed in each other.  It has been a long school year, and things that happened back in the fall seem like they were a million years ago.  That incident in September faded away, and that child and I had a wonderful year together.  Then the afternoon in October/November, when I saw a teacher do something inappropriate, reported it, and then she resigned. I had a hard time coming to terms with that. The specialists had a meeting in December with our principal regarding our concerns, and that was difficult.  Then, in late February, he and I had that huge blowup.
More recently, I had an incident with a classroom teacher who was treating another specialist rudely.  I was reprimanded in an email from the principal that I promptly deleted.  The only part of what happened with that teacher that I feel even remotely bad about is that it occurred within earshot of students.  The rest of it felt completely justified.
What feels strange is that this year felt like the best year with my students that I've ever had.  We did really meaningful lessons and read great books and just generally enjoyed each other's company and time together.  As always, they made me laugh every day (my favorite part of teaching). I rarely raised my voice and only wrote one referral this whole year.  The kids were happy, I was happy teaching them, but on the administrative front, every step seemed insurmountable.
Teaching on a cart for 3 weeks was completely ridiculous, and I was resentful that I was the only specialist (except for the computer lab teacher) evicted from my space.  She and I are the only two specialists regularly correlating with the grade level curriculum, and we're the ones kicked out of our rooms.  Where is the justice?!?!
So many little things have happened, so slowly, that have made me miserable at this school.  I didn't want to leave just to leave, but I have to admit that there is a little bit of that in my decision.  I will learn to love middle schoolers, and I already love the new library and principal.  Change is good, and I look forward to learning new stuff, reading new literature, designing new lessons, and getting good at something different.

I really identified with that story of the frog in the pot of boiling water.  Things had gotten so bad so slowly that I hardly noticed.  But over the past five or so years, my job has gotten more difficult, I've had less support from administration, more strain with colleagues, and a greater "us vs. them" mentality. It was time to take myself out of that pot before I boiled to death, metaphorically speaking. Middle school will be entirely different, and while I am mentally up for the challenge, I am still quite nervous about it.  The quote in the title comes from my sister, a middle school teacher; I think I will learn to appreciate it more and more every day in my new job.
I dread having to pack up my office and clear out all the crap I've accumulated in the past 9 years.  Ugh... I have no boxes, no big plan, but it has to get done.  I would like to be finished at my current school by Thursday, have a nice long weekend, and move into my new digs the last week of June.  That is my plan.  I'll report back on how it actually goes.

Bookfair Warehouse Sale

Well this was kind of fun...I volunteered at the $ch0la$tic bookfair warehouse sale they held today in my city.  I took a day off and spent most of the day at the fair.  I was supposed to work from 9-5, but at 3:30, there were ZERO customers in the sale and I was falling asleep at my post.  So I got myself out of there and took a nap instead.

I got to choose books ($10 for each hour I worked) that I will give to our library--got some of the newest books in the popular series.  I was texting my assistant in the morning to find out which books we had or didn't have, and then I realized that I had the Destiny Quest app on my phone.  That was PERFECT for today!! I would do a little search for a title and instantly know if we had it or not.  I love technology!

Then, I was so bored that I caught up on Facebook and Twitter and my school email, and everything else I could access.  I had straightened and restraightened and consolidated and grouped books for hours, and there was literally nothing else for me to do there.

Here is a picture of my favorite book that I discovered today.  I did not buy it--but I totally should have!! (It was paperback--that was the deal-breaker.)

Why was this book not on the best sellers table?!?!

Community Helpers

Back in March, we did some picture research on community helpers.  The kindergartners were studying that topic in social studies, and they really did a great job looking for specific items in the pictures of our community helper books.
This, from a student in our autism program who never, ever talks or participates, completely floored me.  There is so much in those brains that I don't understand.

Not only are her drawings completely understandable, she labeled her pictures! And how much do you love that chef?!?!

Open Wide...A New Profession!!

No, not for me, sillies!!! Last Friday, I was waiting with a kindergartener for his bus to be called (it was very, VERY late), so we were chatting a little.  In my usual nosy way, I asked about his parents.  He told me that his mom was a "gentle hydentist."

How cute is that?!?! Of course, I knew exactly what he meant.  Just one more thing that makes me love these kids!!

Transfer

So.  I put in for a transfer.  I am now dreading going to school, as I'm sure my principal will not be happy.  Two weeks ago, we had a h-u-g-e falling out.  HUGE. And although we worked through it and are "okay," I still went through with submitting the transfer intent.  I had threatened to do it during our blowup, and the more I thought about it, the more it seems like something I should at least look into.

I know that the grass is not always greener, so I will not transfer just to leave my current school.  But if something opens up that sounds better than what I have, I will have to think long and hard.

Thoughts in my mind:
1.  I've been at my current school for 9 years.  That's the most years I've ever worked at one place.
2.  I started the library at my current school--it will be hard to leave.
3.  We have 900 students--it's a LOT of management.
4.  The specialist team at my school is not particularly strong.
5.  I do have very, very dear friends at my school.
6.  Two schools in my district have "double classes"--two classes at the same time.  This is definitely not greener grass to me. This is babysitting.
7.  I think I should work with a needier population.
8.  I'd like to work for someone who is not a micro-manager.
9.  I'd like to work somewhere that I am valued for how I help teachers teach their curriculum.

I have more.  It's just too late for me to think of them all.  But I'll be back, mulling this over some more.

Spring Reboot

Yesterday, I went to one of my state's regional librarian conferences.  It wasn't the one for my particular region, but it was fine--plenty of people I knew, and I got some good ideas.  The conference for my region was held pretty far away, and I, of course, couldn't get professional leave to go on Friday.  But the conference I attended was about 1/2 hour away and on a Saturday--WIN/WIN!
At the start, I had a little something to eat while I sat with some librarians I did not know.  We had a great discussion about genrefying our fiction sections.  I am leaning more and more toward it...much to think about here.  It could be a good summer project.
Then I went to a session about a local man who was a civil rights leader (not on our state standards) who was friends with others who are on our people-to-know list.  All the attendees at this session got a free copy of the book--awesome! I am excited to share it with the kids and help them make connections among all these people they're supposed to know about.
My second session was so fun--an old friend presented a session about controversial literature and literature that makes a social commentary.  She noticed me in the audience about 1/2 way through the presentation and stopped to say hello.  Afterwards, we got to talk for a few minutes.  Another librarian came up and announced herself as the presenter's first groupie.  We laughed and let her know that I was officially the first groupie several years ago!
Then it was time for lunch, where I met a new friend, a librarian getting her MLS online and hoping for a school library job next year.  Our lunch time passed too quickly as we found lots of things we have in common.
The third session was a sneak-peak at our state award list for next school year.  I'd already seen the list, but not all of the books, so it was nice to start thinking about that already.  I picked up a few of the books from a vendor who had a great deal, so I can start working on them over the summer. Ooh, I just stopped to order one from Amazon.  The presenter mentioned that it is hard to get; indeed, Amazon had no copies in stock, but I bought it used from a third-party seller.  At least I will have it, as I'm sure librarians around the state will be clammoring for it soon.
I visited with a couple vendors after that and then decided to bag the fourth session and keynote and just head home.  It was a good day, and just what I needed to recharge for the spring.

Prodigal Book (or Borrower, I suppose)

When a long-overdue or lost book makes its way back to the library, I feel like the father in the prodigal son parable.  I am always so excited that the student returned the book, even though I may have been secretly mad that they lost a book in the first place.  Just yesterday, a little boy brought back a book he borrowed in the summer; I'd thought that book was long gone.  I totally get that parable now: 40 years of hearing it in church, and it takes a 7 year old boy to make me understand it.

January thoughts

Well, we've already had 5 snowdays and 2 or 3 late openings because of the winter weather.  Actually, some of the days were "ice" days, and we had one "cold" day during the polar vortex.  I love myself some snowdays, but when we're down to two banked days and it's not even mid-January, I start to worry.  We'll be making up any days over our banked time, and that means we'll work federal holidays and that our early dismissal work days will be gone.

One of my colleagues shared with me a wonderful tool called www.planbook.com.  I am in love with this online resource! One of my January resolutions was to beef up my lesson plans, as the current four-word phrases I put in my calendar probably wouldn't stand up to my principal's scrutiny.  Not that he has ever asked for them--and before you judge, know that I have lesson plans typed up in the format we use at my school, but it's not often that I consult them and update them.  After 14 years of being a librarian, I kind of have it down--I hope that doesn't sound arrogant.  When I write down "atlas--week 2" in my plans, I know exactly what that means I'll be doing.  I follow my curriculum map, which is complete with SOL correlations, so it's not at all like I'm just flying by the seat of my pants.

Anyway, with my new online planbook, I have everything in one place--calendar, state standards, a template that I designed, a place for notes, and lots of flexibility to accommodate my 6-day rotation and our wacky schedule with extended day classes, early dismissal schedules, etc.  I can send a link to my plans to a substitute (although I usually write much more detailed plans for a sub), and I can add files to the plans, and even print them out for my principal (if he ever asks).  I think I can post a link to it when I get it all filled out and ready to go, so look for that soon.

We're predicted to get a little snow here on Wednesday, and anyone who lives in the south knows that it doesn't take much to call off school.  Here's hoping for another snow day!!