OMG it's over!!

I truly cannot believe that my first year of middle school is over.  That was truly one of the fastest years of my career.  And I cannot WAIT for next year! My colleagues roll their eyes at me, but, I am serious!  Now that the space is organized and the collection is in better shape, it is time to GET EXCITED ABOUT READING!!! I am so excited to plan reading promotions and get the kids more into reading!

My smart goal (ugh--for those of you having to do them, too) for this year was to increase fiction circulation by coding the books by genre.  I put a colored dot on the spine label of each fiction book to help the kids know what genre it belonged to.  Circulation went from about 8,500 last year to over 12,000 this year!! I am so excited!! I'm not sure what to attribute the increase to, but I have some theories:

• Better organization: the paperback books that had siblings in the regular fiction books are now relocated to be next to their hardcover relatives.
• Better variety: instead of promoting the tried and true books that all the kids read anyway (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, 39 Clues, Warriors, etc), I weeded the excessive copies we had of those titles and encouraged students to choose something similar, yet different.
• Weeding: getting rid of the old, outdated, unattractive books helped students find better and more interesting books, both in fiction and non-fiction.  Fiction was my focus for the 1/2 half of the year, but tackling non-fiction definitely helped our circ numbers.  
• Reading: I read more this year than I have in many years.  I thank my dear friend and colleague Jenny for being a great reader-librarian role model.  I was able to talk to the kids about what they liked/didn't like and recommend books based on that.  When I finally read Divergent, I felt like shouting it from the rooftops!  The kids were horrified that I hadn't read it.

My principal was hands-off yet supportive.  He allowed me to try out new stuff and checked in often enough that I knew he was interested--but not overbearing.

Last summer, I spent most days cleaning out the rooms off of the library proper.  I looked at the shelves, but not knowing better, I thought everything looked pretty good.  It wasn't until we started using the collection and the catalog that I realized what a disaster it was.  Trying to find a book was so frustrating, and using the catalog was futile, since most of the records were incorrect or incomplete or both.  The entire first semester was spent cleaning up the catalog and weeding the fiction section.  Consolidating the paperback books into the fiction section was also a must, and it revealed lots of duplicates.  What a waste of money!

Most of the winter months were spent adding AR quiz information to the catalog records.  I can say that we have now updated all books that have AR quizzes--both the book label and the record are intact and correct.  That was huge.

Then, in late winter, I started tackling the non-fiction shelves.  What an awful, awful nightmare.  Who knew I'd find books about Soviet George and West Germany! Seriously?!?!? The school opened in 1996, long after the Iron Curtain fell and Germany was unified.  Unbelievable.

I haven't even talked about the kids--how I adore their quirky strange selves!! They were really the best part of the job and made the shit-show of the physical space bearable.  Next year is going to be just really, really awesome!!

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.

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.

I Heart My Principal

I don't know how to put a little heart in the title.  I should try to figure that out...
So my principal sent out the list of people who would be going into classrooms to do interventions, and my assistant and I were both on the list.  I sent an email to the staff to let them know the library would be closed the last 1/2 hour of the day and went to my assigned classroom at the end of the day.
I didn't think it went well.  I worked with a student who needed some one-on-one time, which was fine, but on the second day, the teacher informed me that we'd be doing "fun stuff" at the end of the day.  Puh-leez.  Is that why I'm there?  I think not.
Anyway, my principal called last night to tell me that he hadn't realized that the library would have to close, and he certainly didn't want that to happen.  So he assigned my assistant and me to the same teacher, and we are able to switch off and keep the library open.  And I'll get a little quiet time at the end of the day (little is the operative word here).
So I wrote a thank you note to my principal that said, "I [heart] my principal.  Thank you for being flexible, for recognizing differing needs, and for not being afraid to change your mind."  I really mean it.  I love working for this guy.