I Heart My Principal

I had my first-ever parent conference with her yesterday. When I left the classroom, I pretty much left parent/teacher conferences behind. In all my years as librarian, it was the first time a parent wanted the principal present for our discussion. I had been dreading it all week. Background: Before Christmas, a second grader returned books that were caked in banana (from an unfortunate meeting in his backpack). He didn't even bring them to me, but instead just put them in the bookdrop. Fortunately, my eagle-eyed assistant noticed the books and brought them to me. I kept them in my office and talked to the student about the damage, giving him a copy of his account so he could take it to his parents. A week or so after Christmas, I gave the books back to the student, explaining that they were still checked out to him and that I couldn't take them off his record because I couldn't put them back on the shelves in that condition. A few days later, the account summary was returned to the classroom teacher with a note from the boy's mother stating that there was nothing wrong with the books and that she wouldn't be paying for them. She included her phone number, so I called her to explain the school's position. Our discussion, which was quite tense and at times, heated, would have to continue in the presence of my principal, at the mother's request. The meeting was yesterday after school. My principal was SO SO SO awesome. I purposely didn't tell her very much about the situation, only the very basics. She hadn't even seen the books before the conference. She was behind me 100 %. It was so awesome. She looked through the books incredulously as the parent was telling her that there was nothing wrong with the books. She point blank asked the parent, "You don't see that there is damage to this book?" The principal got nowhere with the parent, either, and explained to her that while we could not legally make her pay for the books, paying for them was the right thing to do. The parent refused, and the principal said, "I am concerned about the message that this is is sending to your son." It was so great--it was exactly what I was thinking but knew I couldn't say. The principal was so strong. She didn't back down. She let the parent know that we (the school) didn't agree with her decision, and that it was the wrong decision. I cried when it was over--it was just the stress of the situation. I always cry when I am stressed. My principal thought I was crying for the child--which I guess I was, partly. I was more crying because this parent was SO STUPID. People should have to take some kind of test to be a parent. Ugh. My principal decided that we will allow the student to check out just one book at a time. If he returns it in good condition, then he can borrow another one. Since we have an open library, he can come in everyday if he wants a new book, so we aren't punishing him for his parents' stupidity. We did the best thing for the child. That's what matters. Even if his parents didn't.

Old Technology

Who would've thought that a TV is old technology? This concept was brought up at our librarians' meeting yesterday. Our county is opening some new schools next year, and we are hoping to install mounted data projectors in the classrooms instead of televisions. This is an interesting step forward, although it is not without its concerns. I am wondering if there are other schools (especially elementary) out there that use this technology. In other news, yesterday marked the official end of our book shipments. Every book we ordered is now officially in the library. Some still need to be cataloged and processed, but at least we have them. Most of the equipment is in, and we are waiting on one supply order. It is a GREAT feeling to know we are almost caught up. A funny thing happened yesterday: I was trying to get a class lined up to go, and they were being fairly uncooperative. This little girl was standing in front of me practically on my toes. I looked down at her and said, "What?!?!" rather impatiently, and she smiled and said, "I love your outfit today." She was just so cute. Oh my goodness. And it was a new outfit that my sister bought for me. Oh, another funny thing happened today. A fourth grader noticed that I had a Battleship game on the shelf. He asked what it was for, and I told him that sometimes kids play it when they've finished checking out books. He said, "Oh, I thought you played it on your break or something." I laughed OUT LOUD at that one. That was the funniest thing I heard all day. That's what keeps me here. Those kids keep me laughing.

Professional Days

How much do I love my principal? She allowed me 1 1/2 professional days to deal with all the boxes piling up in the back room. A whole day and a half where I didn't have to teach--I could just make progress and get things put where they belong. Oh, it felt so good!! I created such a mountain of trash on Thursday. At least 9 trash bags full of styrofoam and probably 30 boxes all flattened out waiting to be recycled. I should've taken a picture, it was so impressive! We are still waiting for a few deliveries, but mostly everything has arrived and is barcoded and into the system. Over the holiday break, the overheads and CD/tape players and listening centers arrived. What a relief! Teachers were very excited about those overheads. Now if we could just get electricity to our computers...

Thank God for Snow Days!

Today was our third snow day this winter--a new record, I think, for our county. It is unusual that such winter weather would occur this early. I am not complaining! On the first snow day and again today, I was able to go into work for most of the day and really get through some of the things that have been backing up. Teaching six classes a day leaves little time to address the administrative parts of running the library, so these "extra" days have really helped me stay on top of things. Today, I made it most of the way through a cartful of books that needed to be changed from the vendor's classification. I mean Junie B. Jones in the E section? I don't think so. It felt good to work my way through that today. We've been circulating books since we arrived at the school, and now our video/DVD collection has completely arrived. Unfortunately, the media retrieval system isn't up yet, and so teachers are unable to show videos on their TVs. Some brave ones have hooked up players on their own in their rooms, but they're getting anxious for the rest of our AV equipment (including overheads and CD players) to come in. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival, too. So the kids have been really hard on the books in our new library. I have had lots of talks with them about loving our books, but they're just not used to treating the books as well as they need to. I'm not sure what else to do, but we've already had two books get mushed banana all over them, one book get lost, two books have water damage, and one that was eaten by a dog. And we've only been checking out books for two weeks!! YIKES! Lots of people have come by complimenting the library. It makes me feel good that they like the look of it and the positive feelings they have. I've worked hard to create that atmosphere, and I'm glad people appreciate it. 2 1/2 more days until Christmas break. Oh, happy day!

Check out my new digs!!!

Everything is ready for the kiddos! The books are on the shelves and ready to check out. Classes will start coming tomorrow. They came in today to see Ronald McDonald, and the kids were wide-eyed upon seeing the library. It was very cute!! Here are pictures of the greatest library in Virginia:

WE'RE IN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This has been a heart-pounding week! On Friday morning, our book rep waited at the building to instantly find out the results of the inspectors' visits. The fire marshall approved the last thing with the sprinkler system, and then the building inspector did his duty, and WE GOT OCCUPANCY!! It's a good thing, too, because the books and the movers were on their way already. We got the OP at 10:30 and the books arrived at 11:15. Cutting it a little close, eh? There were 23 pallets of books that contained 424 boxes of books. Another box showed up later that day all on its own. We started shelving the books later Friday afternoon and continued on Saturday. We took today off because everything was moving along swimmingly. We will finish tomorrow. The library looks AWESOME. The books are just fantastic--clean, stiff, beautiful. We have found a couple of "oops" glitches in the order: my fault, I'm sure. We got 21 copies of two different books and 11 copies of a third. I am sure that I was clicking a little too fast and didn't catch the error. Oh, well. We'll send the copies along to other libraries in the county. These books won't go to waste, that's for sure! I am actually excited to go to work tomorrow.

Not so close...

Bad news. We can't get into the school tomorrow. We can't get in on Thursday. And Friday is looking iffy. I'm a little sad about it, but there's really nothing we can do until the county gets the occupancy permit. So far, no permit. So far, the fire marshall is being a stickler (which he should be!) and the school is not ready. I have become good at waiting. I can wait a few more days.

So Close!

Lots of last-minute details are being hammered out (literally) at the school. My boss and I met this afternoon to discuss the arrangement of the shelves and computer tables in the library. She made a little mock-up of the library with moveable shelves. Pretty funny. I think we have it worked out. We went to the school today to check on the progress since our last visit, but the foreman said we weren't allowed in because of an impending visit from the fire marshall. We thought this was a good sign that the fire marshall was inspecting the building. Since were away at our librarians' conference since last Wednesday, we feel really out of the loop with what's happening at the site. Hopefully, we'll be able to get in tomorrow and see if everything is really ready. The book rep called to say that we may have to delay the arrival of the collection until Thursday because of the weather forecast. They're calling for rain on Wednesday, and leaving the books out on the sidewalk during thunderstorms just wouldn't be a good idea. She's going to keep a close eye on the weather and let me know tomorrow. A lot depends on whether or not the moving company can delay shipment and delivery until Thursday. I'll keep us all informed.

good times ahead

Everything is on track for the collection to arrive next Wednesday. In just a week, the books will be at the school and we'll be putting them on the shelves. This is SO exciting. How beautiful is that photo? Everything bad that's happened at the 2nd-3rd grade site will be a bad memory in just another week, as we focus on our brand new facility... where I don't have to share anymore, or be painfully nice anymore, or try to get along anymore. I'll be in my place with my rules (which are much friendlier than SOME of the rules we've abided by lately) and we'll all be HAPPY. Gone to our state conference for a few days. Like there's not enough going on...

you should see my library!!!!

On Friday afternoon, I spoke with someone who had been in our new building. She said that I should stop by and see the library. I mentioned it to my principal, who said, "They'll turn you away! You can't just walk in there!" I told her I'd take my chances and leave if anyone said anything. So I walked right in. Walked into the cafeteria and through the halls and directly into the library. The beautiful library. The library with carpeting and shelves. I was so excited, I wanted to do a little dance. A man was still assembling the shelves, but he was almost done. He was very friendly, and I was just gushing over his fine craftmanship. It just made my weekend to see the awesome progress going on there at the school and in my library, in particular. The collection arrives on November 16. I will be there full-time at that point, organizing the books and equipment and AV stuff. Yikes. So much to do. I almost forgot to mention that the librarian at the other school and I had words last week. She is having a bookfair next week, and was quite eager to get the information to our students about visiting the bookfair. I said to her, "It seems that you're more than willing to have our students' money in your library, yet you do not actually want the students there." We discussed things tersely for a few minutes, and I could tell we were getting nowhere, so I ended the conversation by saying that we'd be out of her hair in a couple of weeks anyway. which is true. I can't wait.

NO joking

Things still haven't been resolved at the site of our 2nd and 3rd graders. The principal saw me on Friday and didn't mention anything, so I knew she hadn't resolved the situation. Lunch with my boss on Thursday was wonderful. She felt sorry for me and told me so and it made me cry. I just teared up a little-no sobbing, which was what I felt like doing. I was trying to remain professional. I told her everything that I was experiencing at that site, and she asked if she should talk to the principal; I told her that maybe we had gotten to that point. I ventured that if nothing was done soon, I'd be forced to say something, and it might get ugly. My boss said that it's not my place to do that: it's hers or the principal's. I'm just a colleague. I can respect that--IF SOMETHING ACTUALLY GETS DONE!!!!!!!! Friday night, I was scrapping with some new friends from my school when my assistant told me that she got scolded during checkout for allowing kids to borrow joke books. JOKE BOOKS. Evidently, the librarian does not allow students to go to the shelves behind the checkout desk, which is where the 800 and 900's are. I just can't believe this. I emailed my boss today to tell her. This really should, I mean really should send her over the edge. It just about did me! The good news, GREAT news, actually, is that the carpeting was installed this week in the new library. The shelving will arrive next week, and we're on track for the Nov. 16 collection delivery. This was just the news I needed at the end of a long week, and it has put me in a GREAT mood. :)

Still waiting

Well, the issues with the librarian at one of our sites still aren't resolved. When I first spoke to the principal, which was about 3 or 4 weeks ago, she assured me that she'd talk to the librarian. All this time has passed, and they still haven't had the (much needed) conversation. A few more things have happened with the librarian to make our students feel not welcome in the library, so I emailed the principal on Sunday. I was in her building today, and she told me that she did, in fact, get my email and that she was looking for a way to bring it up with the librarian. Quite frankly, the time to be nice is over. What that librarian is doing is a crime, and she shouldn't be allowed to treat students the way she does. I have a lunch meeting with my boss tomorrow, so we'll see what she says. She is aware of the situation, but takes the position that the principal has to deal with this. (I think--we'll see tomorrow...) In other news, I am loving my classes. The kids are, for the most part, really really good. I have no more discipline problems than I had last year at a school that is quite different, demographically, from our new school. Kids are kids.

Not such a good one

Today was a tough day. First, I observed a class that another specialist was teaching. It was part of our "colleague" program, which is kind of like mentoring. The class has a very difficult child in it, and she handled him so well; I was impressed and I even learned a few things. But it was stressful knowing that I would be in that same class tomorrow with that troubled student. I hope tomorrow goes okay. The afternoon was a little rough. I think I try to pack too much stuff into the period, and I get stressed out and try to rush things. The faster I need them to move, the slower they go. My last class today just about did me in--they were horrible! Even the principal came in to check on us. She could tell I was at my wit's end with them. Sad to say, but her presence didn't help. These kids are a tough bunch. So the part I feel really bad about is that one girl did the exact thing I told the boy next to her not to do, and I said to her, "That was dumb." Oh, boy. I've never said something like that to a student before, although I have thought it many, many times. That's why the principal came in--I think she heard me say it. Tomorrow will be better. Friday!

Meeting

Today we had our first elementary librarians' meeting. Twelve of fifteen librarians signed up, and I think 10 showed up. Not bad. We shared lessons that we'd done and gave copies to the others. Then there was a rather spirited discussion about flexible and fixed scheduling. There is great disparity in our district in regard to the number of classes librarians teach every week. A few schools have a modified flexible schedule of some sort, but most have fixed schedules, with librarians teaching from 23 to 39 classes a week. Principals are not interested in hearing the research about how flexible schedules can improve student achievement. They are more worried about the classroom teachers getting planning time every day. . . sometimes, at the expense of the librarian's plan time. Doug Johnson wrote an interesting article about fixed scheduling. I agree with many of his points, especially about some kids not getting access to the library in a flexible schedule situation. This happened to me with fifth grade--they were "too busy preparing for SOLs" to schedule extra library time. So I only saw those kids once every two weeks. A second grade teacher's class was able to come to the library every day for a week while we completed a wonderful Ancient China unit. Anyway, one librarian suggested that adding itinerant librarians would help us with flexible scheduling. Some of us disagreed, saying that then we'd be exactly the same as art, PE, and music. We'd teach our 30 classes a week and be stuck with fixed scheduling forever. So what's the goal--ensuring ourselves a plan period every day or creating a flexible library program? I think we aren't unified on this yet. And we can't do much unless we are.

Illuminating

Being in three different schools every week has taught me a lot. I have learned, most imporantly, that we really have no idea what goes on day-to-day in each other's libraries. In one of the libraries I see three times a week, SO MUCH more can be happening. The collection hasn't been weeded in years and needs it BAD; the shelving scheme makes no sense whatsoever; who knows what's going on during class time. I do now. And my eyes have been opened to the huge differences among programs at our schools. More oversight is needed. Students are not being served equally. Students, in fact, are being done a disservice at at least one school. It makes me mad. In other news, I am preparing centers for my new library. I will have them at tables for the students to do after they check out or if they can't check out. This will be an exciting addition to my program.

What I'm Reading

I have been consumed by A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. It's the Oprah Bookclub pick, and while I don't usually jump on the Oprah bandwagon, this one was different. I am almost finished with it, and it is GOOD! I stay up late reading it, I get up early to read it, I rush home from work to read it. I know I'll be sad when I finish it. There will be a void. In the world of kids' books, I've been reading Jack Gantos's Jack Henry Adventures, a delightful little series about young Jack Henry. I've read parts of it aloud to my 4th/5th graders, and they loved it. Oh, and the classic Sideways Stories from Wayside School. We did a Readers' Theatre on some of the chapters and the kids loved it. I met one girl who, after hearing some of the book from me, ordered it from her monthly book order. She was so excited to show me; I was excited for her.

How much do I hate AR? Let me count the ways...

At one school, the librarian won't let our students check out any book that is marked as an AR book. This is simply unacceptable. At another school, the computer tech put our kids in the AR system, which legally, she cannot do. Additionally, it would be a big problem when it comes time for us to move--we can't take the records with us...kids would take quizzes again, want us to transfer points, what a nightmare. What a headache it all is.

Made My Day

So today I got an email from my principal, who is not the overly-communicative type, and she wrote some very nice things to me. She said she was "honored and blessed" to have me at her school. It made me smile. Comments like these from her are few and far between, although she really does notice all that her faculty do for her. She just doesn't often thank us. So this was a special day.

responsibility

Those kids who were fooling around yesterday afternoon have a new job. We should've started this long ago: they are now "buddies" to the littles, leading them out of their building and onto their buses. We loaded everything eight minutes faster with their help! This is a good thing all around.

still sufferin'

What a day! This cold is kicking my butt. I wish I could take a day off. Today at the bus ramp, two kids were fooling around and one of them conked a girl in the face. Her nose started bleeding--gushing--and I rushed her into the building to see the nurse. I have just never seen a nosebleed like that before. So much for universal precautions; what do you do when a kid is bleeding all over the bus ramp?! Say "hold on--let me get some gloves"?!?! She's okay now. Her mom picked her up and she didn't have to ride the bus home. Yikes. My adrenalin was pumping. Other than that, we had a fun day. Lots of 4th graders today. The littles got to check out those brand new books. They loved them! I learned today that unattached dust jackets and 5 year-olds just don't go together. Those DJs were off before I could even think about it. Lesson learned.