Reading Year!

Friday is the kick-off assembly for Reading Year at my school.  Our theme this year is, "Virginia is for Readers."  I thought that was so fun and original, and then one of my new kids said that her school did that last year.  Oh, well.  So much for originality!

Our students will be placed on teams that are named after the regions of Virginia--did you know there are five?  It was my job to write a skit for the teachers to perform at the kick-off assembly.  I was wracking my brain trying to think of something fun, but quite frankly, I don't think that Virginia's regions are that much fun.

Then one day, a student said something that sparked an idea in my brain.  I can't even remember what he said, (but I do remember the student!), but it made me think of the book The Scrambled States of America  by Laurie Keller.  So I grabbed both copies off the library shelf, found my own copy somewhere on my bookshelf, and read it a few times.  I wrote a play in the style of her book, and it's called "The Scrambled Regions of Virginia." The Piedmont region decides that he doesn't like being in his place in the state, and he throws a party and gets all the other regions to switch places, too.  It's not quite as much fun as the book because we had to throw in some learnin' to tie it into the state standards.  But to get the kids ready, I read Scrambled States to every class (grades 1-5).  That would be 30 classes.  Thirty times I said, "Hi, I'm New Jersey.  I'm not new, and I'm not wearing a jersey.  Go figure!" in my best Sopranos accent.  Thirty times I said, "My friend switched places with California and all I got was this stupid t-shirt."  Oh, it was FUN!!!  "This is Illinois, and I need to buy an airplane ticket to, um, well, Illinois."  Oh, we laughed hard!! Thank you Laurie Keller.  It was so nice to rediscover this gem with my students.

It is a rare book that can be enjoyed by students all the way from first grade to fifth grade, and this is definitely one of them! AND, the movie is so cute, too!! I believe we watched a Weston Woods production.  The animation and voice-overs really brought the personalities of the states out.

    

"I like your blonded hair!"

Those were the words uttered to me by a first grader this morning. 

So I'm going gray.  So I gave up the hair-color fight.  So I got some highlights to blend the gray.

Blonded?!?! Really?!?!

I guess we'll see if blondes really have more fun.  :)
And no, there will be no photo.

Completely, utterly, totally exhausted

I am done.  Stick-a-fork-in-me done.
This week has been so hectic in the library! I know that we had meetings only three mornings: Monday, Wednesday, and today, Friday.  But the week flew by! I worked until after 6 pm and still will have to go in on Sunday to at least resemble being ready to open on Tuesday.  Oh, my.
The library was used for meetings this week, and we were cleaned up for the Open House, but all the tables and chairs were still set up for this morning's meeting.  As soon as it was over, my assistant and several other teachers took everything down while I met with the specialists (again).  Then I doled out PTA t-shirts to the new people and anyone else who wanted to buy one.  Then we had our PTA lunch.  Then, I got a call from a librarian needing help importing her student data.  While I was on the phone with her, one of my library cohort students (who got a librarian job!!) came in to look through my files and so we could chat. 
My assistant, who is just so fabulous as usual, left around 4 feeling guilty for it (!), and I was able to get a few other things done before just packing in it at 6.  Sigh...

Hopefully, Sunday will be enough time to get things ready for the kids.  If I have stuff ready for them, the rest can wait.  I don't know when exactly it'll get done, but it can definitely wait!
Today at our faculty meeting, our principal asked me to read Thank You, Mr. Falker to the staff. I was doing great until I started crying!  Then I heard the teachers all teary and it just got worse.  The whole time I was reading the sappy parts, the feel-good parts about being a great teacher and making connections with kids, I was talking to myself in my head--just read the words, don't listen to what you're saying...think about your horrible schedule this year...think about how you have to eat lunch at 10:30...think about your AP leaving next week...--but it didn't work!! That Patricia Polacco does it to me every time!!

Sunday Night Dread

It's my last Sunday of freedom. My last Sunday without the Sunday Night Dread.  Actually, I have a little dread since it's the last Sunday without it.  I know it makes no sense. 

I love my job, I love my students, I love my administrators and colleagues.  Yet every Sunday, I dread the thought of another week of work. 

I love summer so much.

When life throws the book at you...

Today, I met with a librarian who is new to the elementary school setting.  She's been a librarian for several years, but this summer got de-staffed from her high school.  The only other job in her district was at an elementary school.  Oh, my. 
Let me just say, as an aside, that if the tables were turned and this happened to me, there would be tears.  Copious amounts of tears.  I do not heart high schoolers.  They have facial hair!  They are taller than me!  They show flesh that should not see the light of day! My attitude about this major career change would not be half as good as the person's I met with today is.
So basically, we talked about what elementary school librarianship is.  It's a lot more teaching than she is used to.  It's a lot more fixed (as in schedule) than what she's used to.  And she's going to be all alone (which is mostly a good thing) instead of working with other librarians. 
I put all of my lessons on a flash drive, and made copies of other important documents that might be helpful.  We talked alot about collaborating with teachers (when is there time for that?!?!), Dewey Decimal System, the importance of routines, and about loving the children.  Most of all, I hope she loves them. If she loves them, the rest will come.

New Stuff All Around

So many new things happening this summer at Summer Library!  I got TWO hermit crabs!  The visitors who came today voted for their favorite names for them, but I didn't have time to read the votes, so I will report on that next week and post pictures of our two new critters.

I got a new Beta fish today.  His name is Booker the Third.  We've already had Booker and Booker, Jr.  This one is red.  We'll see if he has a good life next to the hermit crabs.

So I started painting the puppet theater today.  I got a couple of coats on the front, and the color is a little lighter than what I'd pictured, but it's not bad. 

Then, and this is the most fun thing I've done in a long time...

I learned to WELD today!!!

I think this has opened a whole new world of home improvement projects for me...

Puppet Theater!

I am so very excited about my almost-finished addition to the library: a puppet theater! (or should I spell it theatre?)
My student library aide built it for me today after we found the instructions last week online and I picked up the materials at Home Depot this weekend.  Here's how it looks so far:

Here's the person who built the puppet theater posing behind his creation:

I think it will be awesome for the kids.  It's very cute with a shelf in front of the stage (for props?) and windows on the sides that open on hinges.  I am hoping to re-vamp my whole library program this year to incorporate literacy stations, and puppet theater would be one of our stations.  There's lots more to this in my mind, but I'm still working through it and not ready to write about it yet.
So now I have to decide what color to paint it.  Any suggestions?  I am thinking dark purple with yellow stars on it.  Maybe a black velvet curtain to hang behind the stage?  I will have to look at some pictures online for inspiration.

Skippyjon Jones

I have been reading Skippyjon Jones books to the kindergarten students for the past two weeks.  We have laughed pretty hard, especially when we listened to Judy Schachner read her books aloud, although I have to say that my Antonio Banderas-inspired accent has definitely improved of late!
The kids L-O-V-E these books and really did well with them.  They especially love how he bounces on his bed and how his mother always calls him by nicknames, and how his closet holds all his adventures.  They were shocked by Skippyjon when he talked back to his mother, "You aren't the boss of me!"--oh to see their little faces when Skippy said that! Out loud some kids said, "Yes she is!" and others said, "I got in trouble for saying that!".  One said, "That's backtalk."  (You know he's heard THAT before!)
So I've had Skippy on the brain lately, and the other day, I took my  dog Cosmo to the vet because he had an ear infection.  The vet was looking at him and said, "Cosmo, your ears are too big for your head." Now, those of you who know Skippito Friskito like I do know exactly what I said, in my very best Spanish accent: "Your ears are too beeg for your head; your head is too beeg for your body.  You are not a Black Lab, you are a chihuahua." 

The vet, not having children herself, has not yet met Skippyjon Jones, and had no idea what I was saying.  It was a very funny moment to me; probably not so much to her.  The kindergartners like my story, too, and they totally get the joke!

Just Going through the Motions

It's been a rough month, this month of May (and here I thought April was the cruelest month).  My mom passed away last Sunday, rather unexpectedly, but certainly not outside the realm of possibility for someone living with Alzheimer's for over 10 years.
I was with family for six days, and came back to work last Friday.  I definitely felt like I was just going through the motions of teaching, but if felt good to get back to the normalcy (if it can be called that) of the elementary school day, if not the routine. My colleagues were so, so kind, and I felt like I needed a sign on my chest reading, "I'm on the edge!  Do not hug me or smile sadly at me or welcome me back to school."  I did end up saying that to a few friends, and it was good for a a little laugh.
As if there has not been enough change in my household and life this month, I've also decided to apply for National Board certification.  I think it will be a good reflective process, which is always a good thing.  Now that I have a new administrator (one who values me and what I do), it seems like a good time to improve myself professionally. All I did so far was read over the timeline and apply online.  I will owe them (I don't even know who them is!) several thousand dollars within the next year, and hopefully gain a lot more than that back.  I think it will be an exciting thing to do, although I'm not feeling passionate abou it yet. Just going through the motions...

A Bad Name

At the end of each day, I sit in a little TV studio off of the library, typing in the bus numbers as the buses arrive to pick up the kids.  One of our third graders passes through the library on the way to his mother's classroom, and he always yells out hello.  Some days, he brings me snacks.  He usually has a story to tell.

Today, he said, "So I have a song stuck in my head.  My brother taught it to me and I can't stop singing it."  I asked, "What's the song?"

SHOT THROUGH THE HEART, AND YOU'RE TO BLAME; DARLIN', YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME!

Seriously, for a million dollars I wouldn't have guessed Bon Jovi. 
Love that kid.

Not Drowning

My principal gave all the specialists a professional day today.  I used it to my full advantage.  Of course, I had a patrillion things on my to-do list but didn't get nearly as much accomplished as I'd hoped.  Sigh...
I thinked my principal for the day today and told him that I didn't get ahead, but at least I felt like I wasn't drowning anymore.  And the sad part is that I take solace in that!
The specialists met for over an hour today and got a lot of preliminary planning done for the end of the year craziness.  It will still be crazy, but I feel like we're not behind the eight ball like we have been in years past. 
I didn't do much planning for the rest of the year, but I have a vague idea of what will be happening.  Oh, I think I forgot to mention that the library will be closed for almost three weeks in May/June for our state-mandated testing.  I am sick over it, but it's the way it has to be and other teachers and librarians are in the same boat as me.  At least for two of the three weeks, it would be after the time when we are done checking out books for the year.  And certainly, I can teach in the classrooms instead of the library, although I will miss my home!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

that's what my sister would say about my recent award.  It's one of her favorite sayings.

On Friday, I was named Regional School Librarian of the Year.  Now, I am not much into bragging about myself, and certainly there were other librarians nominated who are doing the same kinds of things I do, but it feels really good to be recognized for all my hard work.

My principal (the one I heart) nominated me, and I had fabulous letters of support from my reading specialist and two members of the PTA board.  I worked really hard on my application packet and tried to address all the elements the judges would be looking for.

Wow.  I am just on cloud nine!

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.

I LOVE this guy!

I don't know where I've been.  I don't know what I've been doing for the last month.  Wait.  I know.  I've been teaching all day every day.  And I've been finishing up one reading program and gearing up for another one.  I've been spending every minute reading and writing for an online class I'm taking. 

School is nuts.  I am constantly feeling behind the 8 ball.  I don't like that feeling, but there's just not time in the day to get everything done so that I feel prepared and organized.  My principal offered to give me a professional day, but honest-to-God, what I need is a professional period every single day.  Our school baord has voted to add 20 minutes to every school day so we can make up the lost time (from the snowdays), and I asked my principal for that time in the library, doing library things.  But I don't think it's going to happen.  It sounds like we're all going to be in classrooms for that extra time.  Sigh... If I had that extra time every single day, I could make a little headway on all the library administrative stuff that's not getting done.

I happier news, I have to relate a story from one of my first grades.  I was reading Abe's Honest Words to them as part of our famous Americans study, and as I held the book up to show the class, a little boy burst out, "I LOVE this guy!"  It was just so cute. 

Snow Day Crochet

We are on snow day #7, and I've been staying busy working on school stuff (of course) and sewing and crocheting.  My first afghan is finished!

It's brown and blue--I love that variegated yarn.  Those are some of my favorite color combinations.  The solid areas are a light brown.  It's very warm and cozy--perfect for cuddling up on the couch. I've been working on this since June, so I'm thrilled to have it finished.  It wasn't so much fun to do during the hot summer months!

I just started a baby blanket.  It has motifs, which I haven't worked with before, but it's pretty simple.  Little granny squares in the middle (40 of them!) and then worked together and bound with some shell stitches.  Here's the progress so far:

and here's what each motif will look like.  It's pink and brown, the baby-to-be's colors:

We are off again tomorrow, so I'll continue working and posting. And another storm is headed our way Tuesday into Wednesday, so I may be home even longer... 

Teeny Tiny Little Flakes

of snow are falling.  They've been falling for about three hours now, and nothing is sticking to the ground.  The weather forecasters are predicting 18 to 24 inches of snowfall in our region over the next two days, and because this storm started as expected during the day, schools cancelled last night for today.
It was great getting to sleep in and not having to wake up to listen for a delay or cancellation.  Cosmo and I snuggled until about 8:30 and then had a lazy morning.  K and I went out for breakfast and to do one errand, and traffic was unbelievable!  I am glad we're back in waiting for the storm to hit full-force.  Bring. It. On.
After last weekend's snow, our work day on Monday was cancelled, school was cancelled on Tuesday, and then we had more snow Tuesday night that cancelled school on Wednesday.  We had a 2-hour delay on Thursday, and now here we are.  So I taught for a total of four hours this week.  Woah...
If this storm brings us as much as is expected, I doubt we'll be having school until at last Tuesday of next week.  Good thing I brought home some work to do over the long weekend.

Snow Days, Snow Days

I love snow days.  I love snow.  I love that I live in an area that can't clear snow in a timely manner.  We got about 9-10 inches of snow on Saturday, and school was cancelled today and it has already been cancelled for tomorrow!! How exciting is that!
Today was a work day for teachers, so the only thing that changed was that we could work from home.  I went in to school from 11:30 to 4:00 today and got a bunch of things checked off the to-do list.  As I was leaving at 4 today, I was thinking that what I really needed was another snow day.  And by 4:08, I heard on the radio that my county was cancelled again.  Wishes do come true! I am so excited that I get to finish up my to-do list.  That will at least put me on track for the rest of the week (sigh).
I am so looking forward to tomorrow!! (And, as I always say, "School is so much fun without the kids!")

She Looks Like Me!

A beautiful moment in the library on Tuesday: one of our little African-American students, when she saw the picture of Jerry Pinkney at the end of Little Red Riding Hood, said, "He's Black!" and then as we were discussing the book, she pointed to Little Red Riding Hood and said, "SHE looks like me!" And it was true.  I had been hoping that someone would notice that LRRH is a character of color.  I didn't know if I should've pointed it out to the kids overtly, but if it came up in conversation, we'd talk about it.  This little girl was so excited.  She was touching her hair and look at the cover of the book. 
And then--I could not have scripted this moment any better--a little later the girl shows me the book she's checked out, and what is it? The Little Match Girl, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.  I don't even know how she found that book.  She's a first grader--certainly she did not know where to look on the shelves?!?! Maybe the book was out on display and she saw the illustrations and the name? I'm just not sure, but I loved the moment.

What If?

What if I didn't have an assistant in the library?  How would our program change? I am having a hard time even thinking about where to start--it would truly change our program for the worse, in many and every way possible.
1.  We'd have to limit open library visitation.  Students could only visit the library during their library class time.
2.  We'd limit the number of books students could check out based on how many books I could shelve in a day.
3.  Teacher services (putting in videos, pulling books, etc.) would have to stop.
4.  Reading programs would have to be reworked and scaled-down.
5.  All the "extras" I do (website manager, morning studio, newsletter editor, SCA adviser) would have to stop.

How could we make it work? Perhaps by taking the library out of the specials rotation and making it a completely flexible schedule.  I'd have time to collaborate with teachers and develop research units.

The county to the south of us has just announced plans to eliminate 131 positions for next year.  The county to the east of us is planning to eliminate library aides at the elementary level (and ALL sports!).  It's not long before this nightmare might become a reality in my district.

Tears

I was just sad today.  An underlying sadness, and the tears were right at the surface all day.  The kids were good today, my lessons went well, but I just didn't feel much joy today.
First, I overheard something this morning and when I asked about it later, I found out more of the story.  A colleague's husband is leaving her.  They have children, and he is just being stupid.  He doesn't even want to visit his children, which is the part that kicks me every time I think about it.  I get it that people fall out of love with each other, but what happens when a parent does that to his children? It is just sad.
Then, I had this class of very good students, and there's that one kid.  You know the kind I mean--the hard-to-like little bugger.  At the end of class, I asked his teacher if she loved him; I needed some words of advice to help me love him.  And she said that she was working on loving him.  And I told her that I just needed something to love about him. 
She pulled me aside and said that he was a child of divorced parents and that the principal recently called CPS because the kid came in obviously upset and roughed up.  Turns out his mom beat the crap out of him that morning, pulling him by his hair across the room.  Nice. So I am going to try to love this kid a little more.

amazon PRIME!

Thank goodness for Amazon PRIME shipping! I usually get my books the second day after ordering them, but my fabulous copy of the Caldecott Award-winning book The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney arrived today, barely 24 hours after ordering it! Thank you, UPS and Amazon-shipping gods.

Sure, call me late to the party, call me a bandwagon-jumper, it's okay.  I know. I am not usually a huge Jerry Pinkney fan (his watercolors, while beautiful, just aren't my favorite illustrative style). But this book is beautiful!  The simple and gentle way he tells the fable is just perfect. 

I think my love of it comes from two different things: first, I recently read his version of Little Red Riding Hood to our primary kids.  (I like this version, even though it's a bit gruesome.  Little Red is a character of color (!) and the story is set in winter--which makes a whole lot more sense as to why Red is trapsing through the woods to see her sick grandma.) It's classic Pinkney, and other than those two things I just mentioned, nothing about the book stands out to me. 

The second event is that I have just finished up 18 readings of Once Upon a Banana with the kids, a fabulously fun wordless book.  So I am in the mood for more good wordless books, and I love it when things just work out.  See? It looks like I planned to do a wordless book unit with the kids, or maybe a Jerry Pinkney sandwich (with a little David Small in the middle!). I'm good like that.

Day 5

Today was Day 5.  It's the fifth day I've done this set of lessons.  I am, simply, tired of saying the same things over and over.  Day 1 is always a little rough, not too bad, but it's the first time I'm teaching the lesson.  Days 2 & 3 are great--I'm in a groove.  Days 4-6 just keep going downhill.  I just get tired of saying the same exact things again and again.  It's the first time for the kids, and I try to keep that in mind, but I'm just tired today.
We've been reading Once Upon a Banana by Jennifer Armstrong and David Small in kindergarten, first, and second grades this rotation.  It's really fun, since it's a wordless book, and the students, all of those grades, love the story. To do it with the classes, I show the book using the projector.  We can see all of the details better than if I held the book in front of the kids. 
Yesterday, as I read the author's and illustrator's names to the students, the thought hit me that I wasn't exactly sure what the author did for this story.  Did she write the plot the way the students and I tell the story from looking at the pictures?  Did she go to David Small and say, "I have this idea about a rogue monkey who litters and craziness ensues, and it happens all around a city block and there are a ton of characters"? I'm just not sure how that works with a wordless book.  Maybe she outlined the story and then the illustrator sketched her ideas? I'd like to know! David, Jennifer: do you google your names? Maybe you'll get a google alert and check the blog and let me know!

Shop-PING!

So I had this third grade boy say this to me today as we were talking about Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  What will you be doing to think about MLK that day?  Apparently, he'll be shop-PING! I hate to say that I probably will, too.  Kohl's sent me a 30% off coupon. I'm not proud.

In other news, my principal has added more to my jobs.  Now when we call the buses at the end of the day, I have to repeat back to the outside person what she said.  I really like sitting there in silence, so I am hoping this doesn't have to last too long.

We have a six-day specials rotation, and now I have to put which day of the rotation it is on the website calendar.  Is this not something that the teachers can be doing in their weekly/bimonthly newsletters? Seriously...I am rolling my eyes. This becomes a real pain when we have a snow day and I have to change all the future rotation days.

Just griping.

Lesson Planning

What else is new? Well, actually, I feel really guilty that my lesson plan book has been mostly blank for the last three weeks.  Don't get the wrong idea: I've had meaningful lessons for my students and I have been aligned with the state standards!  No worries there!
I have just been lax about writing down what I've been doing.  Some of the grade levels are in the middle of a several-rotation project, so it's not that I'd have written down anything except "Native American research, week 4" anyway.  Although there was one rotation of third grade that I couldn't for the life of me remember what we'd done.  I had to do some serious mental stretching to remember back to the first week of December.
I am back on track now.  Everything is at least caught up; several grade levels are planned well ahead of this rotation (which begins on Monday).
I worked at school for about 3 hours today and got a lot done.  One of the exciting things that I took off my to-do list was to copy my lessons for a fellow LMS.  Here's her email:

Hello,

I was at the [state] conference and I loved some of the ideas that you all
shared. I am brand new to the library this year, and I was wondering if
you had any other great ideas that you would be willing to share? I am
looking for as much help as I can get.
Thanks so much,
C. F.

How nice was that?!?! I emailed her back and got some more information and then just decided to copy all of my grade level lesson folders for her.  This way, she'll have all my other great ideas as well as my not-so-great ones.  (C'mon, they can't all be fabulous!)
In other news, I'm working out a new lesson for our third graders.  They have to know about Cesar Chavez this year.  (?!?!) My friend Lynne Farrell Stover developed a lesson using this book.  I am excited to read the book and do the economics lesson that goes with it, AND help out our third grade teachers at the same time.

Snow Day!

Gotta love my mid-Atlantic state.  They are just not equipped to handle snow like my home state is.  We have less than an inch of snow, and my school district has cancelled school today.  It seems crazy to me, but I'll take it.  The gift of time.  It's my favorite gift ever.
The school will open at 10 today, so I'm going to go in later today and do a little work.  I've always said that school is so much fun without the kids.  And I mean that in the nicest way.  I left a few things there that I would've brought home to do over the weekend (thinking there's no WAY we'd have the day off today), so I'll go in and do a couple of small things and then bring home stuff to do over the weekend.

I've been thinking about my pledge to blog every day, and I just don't think it's realistic.  Some days, I just have nothing interesting to say, and I don't want to post just anything on here, so I will revamp my pledge to blog more frequently, but just not every single day.
This is what I would've blogged about yesterday: we were doing our ocean research in fifth grade and as I was going through the papers at the end of the class period, I noticed one student who had nothing but his name on his paper.  When I asked him about it, he told me that it took him a while to decide on an animal, and he did the reading but didn't write anything down.  His animal? the gorilla.  :(

Well, maybe he looked at this picture on the Internet.

What do I say to that? Seriously?!?! A gorilla?!?!? I told him that that was the lamest thing a student had ever told me.  I know that might've been a little mean, but c'mon! A gorilla?!?!

Putting Off Work

I am totally procrastinating tonight. I have checked email, Facebook, my RSS feeds, and now I'm even writing on my blog before doing my actual schoolwork.  I know tomorrow will be a bit easier if I do what I need to do  tonight, but I am just not feeling up for it.
One of the "extras" I do at school is the morning announcements program.  We have a cast of 3 on-air personalities, one camera person, and a guest pledge leader.  I type the script for the kids each day and also create a PowerPoint loop of announcements and menus and birthdays that runs before the announcements start.  I usually create the loop at the beginning of the month and have everything on it for the whole month--all the lunch menus and birthdays, etc.  I am totally unmotivated to do it tonight.  Tomorrow night won't be any better, nor will Thursday.  I suppose that if I just update it each morning this week, I can do the bulk of it over the weekend.  That sounds way better to me than spending two hours tonight doing it.
I am the Queen of Procrastination.  Speaking of being a queen, I am reading The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County to our kindergarteners and first graders.  The book is really growing on me.  The story line is pretty far from what any of our students can relate to, but the illustrations are really great.  The kids have really enjoyed studying the collage techniques of Shelley Jackson.  After we read the book, the kids cut the letters of their names out of old magazines and put them on a nametag, just like on the cover.  It's  a little like a ransom note, but we don't talk about that!! I even made a label to put on the nametag that tells of the inspiration for the project.  The kids have really had fun with  it.

In fifth grade, I pulled an ocean research pocket out of my filing cabinet (and by that I mean my butt). No, really.  I had done the lesson some time ago and kind of forgotten about it, but it turns out that that's what they're studying in science right now, so it fits in perfectly. You just have to love when it works out like that.

Wet books :(

I could cry.  Over the Christmas holiday, sometime after the Blizzard of '09 as our 16+ inches of snow melted, a leak formed in two corners of our library.  One corner leaked all over the mounted TV and zapped it.  No big loss.  I can easily live without TV in the library--hardly use it at all, actually.
The leak in the second corner, was, however, much more devastating.  Two entire cases of books.  10 shelves in all, were destroyed.  Completely-waterlogged-and-molding-already-destroyed. My principal and I found it at the same time this morning, and he was even more upset than I was.  He just kept pulling books off the shelves and saying, "no more...no more damage!" as I stood there shaking my head. 
He made all the right phone calls and soon our library was swarmed with people from maintenance, central office, and the construction crews.  One man took pictures and let me know what I'd need to do next, which is to print a list of all the destroyed books and AV equipment so he could submit it to our insurance company.
Unfortunately, we have $1,000 deductible, so we won't be able to replace everything, but hopefully, I'll at least get to replace the most popular titles.
Such a sad start to 2010.

Sunday Night Dread

I have it.  I always get it, but it's not too bad tonight because part of me is actually excited to get back to work.  I love vacations, I love summer, but I love the routine of work even more. 
Bring on those kiddos in the AM!

Jannook!

That's the name of my most favorite Christmas present this year, the Barnes & Noble E-reader called the Nook.  I fell instantly in love with it the moment I turned it on and even thought of a great name for it.  The first book I read on it was South of Broad by Pat Conroy.  (I love his writing, even though I didn't love the story.)  I am now reading a Malcolm Gladwell book called What the Dog Saw.  It is enjoyable and light reading.  When my bookclub meets next week, I can download my next book, hopefully, whatever we decide on.

I wanted the Nook for two reasons: first, I absolutely hate holding books in bed.  They are heavy and clumsy and my hand usually falls asleep trying to hold them.  Second, I cannot wear my reading glasses in bed, and I have to hold the book a little too far away to comfortably read the text.  The Nook only weighs 11.2 ounces, and it has several different fonts and sizes to choose from.  Problems solved!
I think it will even get me reading more books for school!

Ambitious Resolve

I am going to blog every day in 2010. I am laughing as I type this because I don't know if it is even possible. I am trying to think if there's at least one interesting thing I do each day. This might be hard at the beginning, but hopefully it will get easier as we go. I've often said that it's laughing with (and at) the kids that keeps me in this profession, so if I can remember the funny moments long enough to blog about them at night, then that might make a good collection. It's good to make resolutions. Mine are to write everyday on my blog and to spend more time with friends. I think both are doable. Oh, here's the tree skirt I made before Christmas: Isn't it kind of cute and crazy-quilt-like? I love it, especially the trim. That was the easiest part, yet it's what I was most worried about.

Snowed In and Loving It!

A fabulous, beautiful, blizzard-ish snowstorm is still raging outside, more than 24 hours after it started on Friday evening. We have over a foot of snow, maybe close to 16 inches or so. It's hard to tell because of all the blowing and drifting. It's the most snow I've seen since I was a little kid. The dog loves it, and since our last two days of school (next week) have already been cancelled, I love it too!

We are enjoying some adult beverages and movies on TV this evening, after spending the day baking cookies and finishing up the tree skirt. I'm sure I haven't written about the tree skirt yet, but it is all because we got a second Christmas tree this year. I decided to make a tree skirt for it, and I am this close to being finished. At this point, it just needs the band around the edging and it'll be all ready to put under the tree. Phew! I wasn't exactly sure I'd have enough time to finish it, but thanks to all this snow, I do! The gift of time. It's my favorite gift of all.

Our Christmas party scheduled for tonight was wisely cancelled by us yesterday, when the snow was just starting. Certainly, we would've ended up cancelling it today if we hadn't already done it. The roads aren't passable at all. We haven't seen or heard a plow yet, although this neighborhood is, I'm sure, at the bottom rung of anyone's plowing ladder.

Not having school on Monday and Tuesday is a special treat indeed. Although it's too bad that all of our holiday festivities have been cancelled, at least we get two full weeks of Christmas vacation. Yea!

I am sure that my principal is thankful for the extra time with his family. He sure does work hard. After my observation a couple of weeks ago, he turned around a four-page evaluation of it in less than a week. And I know I wasn't the only person being observed, either. That's some serious dedication. The evaluation was very positive, and I am realizing now that it's been a long time since anyone had critiqued my teaching. It totally felt great to be told that I was doing things in a sound way.

I showed off my eval to my sisters and father, who were unimpressed and impressed, respectfully. My sisters, who are convinced that I am teaching in some second world area of our state, made fun of me for even being excited about it. Whatever...I feel like hanging it on my wall at school!

Updates

So I think my observation went really well. The principal uses this method where he writes down everything we say and then justifies (or not) why we say stuff. I think it's called the OATS method (Observing and Analyzing Teaching). I have to meet with him to go over the lesson, but he's out tomorrow, so we'll see if there's time this week. He came in during a second grade class and we had just gotten started. I read aloud a Native American legend to them, and then we all went to the tables to continue our research stations. So he saw me in whole group and then in small group settings while the kids were in their research groups. It will be interesting to talk with him about it, having not had an actual lesson observation since at least 2003! He left a note on the table that read, "You are the real deal. You are the kind of teacher I want my own kiddo to have." What more do I need to hear? I love Christmas time! Even though we try to be sensitive to all beliefs and customs (and I'll let the music teacher take the lead on that--"Hanukkah, or Hanukkah!"), I really have fun with two particular lessons this time of year. In fifth grade, I read them O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi and then we discuss and watch a dramatic retelling of the story. It's so funny to see the kids' faces when they realize what the couple has done, and it's also interesting to hear the connections they make to the story. A Korean student told me today that she has the story at home in Korean, and one of the boys remembered seeing a similar Disney version. Awesome! The other lesson I've been enjoying is sharing Robert Sabuda's holiday pop-up books with the fourth graders and then making an "evergreen" tree card (whatever...) following the instructions on his website. So so so much fun, and also so so so interesting to see which kids get the hang of the pop ups and which don't. There should totally be a state learning standard for following directions! I just love this time of year--relaxing just a bit (post-bookfair) and having fun with the kids.

Not gleeful.

Still in SUCH a bad mood! What is it? Being moved out of my library because of bookfair? Feeling worried about my upcoming observation? Managing to do 101 things simultaneously well when others can't do two? Maybe not getting a bonus this year (let alone a raise) because the superintendent doesn't think I'm a teacher? Pissed because someone decided to unlock and dismantle a computer/projector cart so they could use the laptop? A little bit of all of those, and a whole lot of the last one. This is what I hate the most. This is my biggest pet peeve: I do not like when people make my job harder. I do not like it when people's actions make my life more difficult.

Bookfair Joy

NOT. I am just so tired of bookfair. It is exhausting. I am very lucky to have our fabulous PTA and their many, many volunteers staffing the bookfair. I am more of a behind-the-scenes kind of girl, placing reorders, straightening piles, keeping the schedule running. Yesterday, I placed an order for books that were sold out. Everything sounded good on the phone, but when I got the box today, over 1/2 of the books I needed were out of stock at Scholastic. Oh, I am not happy. Not happy at all. Seriously! This is the one big reason that I left Scholastic five years ago. I am sorry that I went back. Good selection of books, bad customer service. I am wondering why the person on the phone at the warehouse didn't tell me the books wouldn't ship? Are there really no more of those books in all of Scholastic warehouses country-wide? I just don't get it. OK, time for Glee. I am going to get into a gleeful mood now.

Observe Me!

My principal emailed me today. (He had to work 1/2 day; teachers didn't.) He wants to observe me in the next two weeks. It will be my first official principal observation in 9 years. Seriously, nine years. I think I was observed once back in 2003, or maybe it was 2004. The assistant principal did it; it was fine. I am a little excited and a little nervous all at the same time. Of course, he wants to do it in the next two weeks, and next week is bookfair. That would be interesting, indeed! I think I'll suggest the following week. I will recommend any day except day 4. Day 4 is a difficult day for me. Day 5 is no picnic, either, but I can manage them. It's just unfortunate when management takes up more time than the rest of the lesson. I'd hate for him to have to see that, even though classroom management is part of the observation. I have three days of no school to get ready for the thrill of December. School children + christmas = controlled chaos.

Still Sleeping

Oh, my. I am seriously wiped out! I have done nothing more than sleep and read since I returned from the conference yesterday afternoon. I've slept most of the afternoon away, and it feels divine!

I don't know if I've ever written about my friend Lynne Farrell Stover before, but I was hoping that she'd be at our state conference again, and she was! In fact, I was in the lobby talking with our organization's president, and she hit me on the back and said, "Remember me!?" REMEMBER her?!!? Seriously, I think about her all the time and have told many colleagues about her fabulous books. I was flattered that she remembered ME!

This is the first of her books of Magical Library Lessons. It has tons of great ideas in it, and the following books (available at www.upstart.com) are great, too! I bought a set of them and asked her to sign them for me; I already have a set at my library, but I decided that I needed my own personal copies. One of the books I won at the silent auction at the conference, and that makes it extra special.

We sat together at the author dinner (we did last year, too, and are both traditional girls!) and just picked up where we left off. The other people were very curious about her writing, and I felt like the prop girl, pulling out her books as she talked about them. Too funny!

If you're a librarian and you're reading this, check out her books. In particular, I like how practical her ideas are--not pie in the sky theoretical concepts that are impossible to implement in the real-life classroom. One of the best sessions I attended was one of hers for using the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. She had so many great ideas for incorporating economic concepts into lessons after reading the book. I'm going to find out when the movie is released and maybe do a One School/One Book/One Movie event. Hmmm....that means I'd have to read it 36 times. Sigh...now that's real-life librarianship!

State Conference Exhaustion

I am so excited that I get to sleep in until 7 am tomorrow. How sad is that?!?! Our state librarians' conference has been fabulous, but I am on overload. The past three days have been 16+ hours days of networking, sessions, tweeting, facebooking, eating, walking, and listening. Whew! I will look forward to a quiet 4-hour drive home tomorrow just to digest everything I've learned and decompress a little. Tonight's author dinner was with T.A. Barron. What a delightful man. So kind and sensitive and endearing. He had me teary a couple of times during his talk. Here's a great picture of him signing books before he spoke. His wife made his sweater, and it took her 20 years to finish it! Another author on a pedestal...

Lesson Planning Overload

It has been a busy few weeks! Along with my friend Jenny, I've been busy creating lessons to go along with our state's Readers' Choice book list. We are sharing them at a session of our state's School Librarians' conference this week. I am not sure if creating lessons is the right phrase, exactly. I've been developing extension activities to go with the books on the list. It's been fun--I love connecting with my crafty self every so often. I found a bunch of great ideas online from publishers, authors, and librarians. When I wrote and asked for permission to include their idea in our CD of handouts, I heard from everyone except two big publishers. Sad and typical, I have to say. Everyone who I asked was thrilled to be asked and included. This reminds me of an article I read recently in the NY Times about teachers charging for lesson plans and unit plans. I don't know how I feel about this. As I was searching for ideas to go with the book list, I certainly appreciated those people who put stuff on their sites and blogs for free. As someone who has spent tons of hours compiling ideas and working on my own lessons, I can see the need for seeking compensation for my time. Hmmm...I will keep thinking about this. In the meantime, I am going back to burning CDs of the ideas we've collected. There are over 90 pages of activities, so I am very glad that we're not handing out paper packets to the attendees. I feel green. I hope we have a lot of people at our session.

Sunday Catch-up

Yesterday, our building was open from 10-2. I got there right at 10 and stayed until almost 2 pm (I had a meeting at 2, so I left a little early), and what a difference it has made!!! It feels SO GREAT to get a little caught up. Sigh...I wish I didn't have to work on the weekends AT school to get caught up, but that seems to be the reality this year. I repotted some plants that I had purchased the first week of school. They desperately needed new homes, but I never had the time to do it. I processed some books--wow, did that feel good--that had been sitting in a box for 3 weeks. I cleaned up the back room--organizing, throwing away, putting away. Oh, it all felt good. Today, I was doing leaf rubbings with 1st and 2nd grades after we read Old Bear by Kevin Henkes. One of the kiddos came over to me with her leaf rubbing and said, "it's like looking at the skeleton of the leaf!". And that's what keeps me in education.

Perfectly Crooked

Where did September go? I truly cannot believe we are already a week into August. Someone mentioned earlier today that we've started our fifth week of school, and that really surprised me. It seems like week three. My schedule is KILLING me this year. I teach 30 classes a week as part of the regular specialists' rotation. My assistant (I know how lucky I am to have one) and I are just bombarded all the time. We never have time to finish a project, let alone take care of the multitude of things from our to-do list. The books are not getting shelved in a timely manner, and she is behind on getting the Readers' Choice books ready for the students (the program started today, and she was literally covering books as we booktalked them). She does not work like this; I do not work like this! This schedule is KICKING OUR BUTTS! I hurt my back the day after the National Book Festival, where I broke my camera. First story first: I was in line to meet John Irving, and while waiting to get my book signed, I took out my camera to take a picture of him (and Judy Blume, who was signing in the booth next to him), and the volunteers started yelling at me that I was not allowed to photograph John Irving. I wasn't asking him to pose nor was I holding up the line, and I just don't think that's right. So I took his picture. Not five minutes later, my camera dropped out of my hands, straight down on its lens (which was out), and broke. Karma. Bit. Me. In. The. Ass. I am happy to have my picture of John Irving, even though I missed getting photos of every other author I got to meet that day. Let me say that John Irving is one sexy man. It was all I could do not to say those very words to him when he was signing my book. Woah. Anyway, second part of the story: I hurt my back the day after the book festival when I bent over to pick something up and then couldn't stand up straight. I have been in pretty bad pain for a week now, but I've scheduled a doctor's appointment for tomorrow morning, so hopefully my students won't be offering to help me out of my chair anymore. And hopefully I won't be crooked anymore. Which segues perfectly into the wonderful book I read last night, A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban. I had to read all of our state Readers' Choice books for booktalks today, and I saved Crooked for last, and I'm so glad I did. I curled up in my bed under the covers and read until it ended. I'd like to say I was finished with it, but I could've kept reading about Zoe for another 200 pages. I want to know this girl! Growing up, my cousin Wendy had an organ very similar to Zoe's, and I remember all the fun we had with its rhythm machine, wah-wah bar (like for Hawaiian music), and full pedal board. The organ is just so 70's to me; it was a big part of our growing up, playing that crazy organ. Happy memories.

First Day Down

Whew!! And what a first day it was! Things were blissfully calm in the library today, unlike the hallways, classrooms, and bus ramp. Our last bus didn't arrive until about 25 minutes after school was supposed to start, but the principal really did come in and give his message to the kids during morning announcements. He has unbounding energy. I think I feel more tired just being around him--how can that be? Library classes started today, which was new and different for us, but I really liked it. Why not just jump into the first day with both feet?!?! It was great, even kindergarten. I was a little worried that they'd cry when their teacher left, but they were fine and I was fine! No tears! No bathroom accidents! Dismissal was a bit crazy this afternoon, and I was mostly thankful to be sitting in my little room typing in the bus numbers ever so slowly. It took almost an hour for dismissal to finish: car riders went on forever, there was an accident at the entrance to the school, and some kids were temporarily misplaced. Well, I shouldn't say they were misplaced--they were just not listening to where they should go or what they should do! Thank goodness for laptops so I could continue to work while sitting there waiting for bus numbers to be announced. All in all, a productive first day. I came home and drank some wine and feel like I might be able to do it all over again tomorrow.

Sewing

I feel like I'm working in a sweat shop today. All afternoon, I've been sewing curtains for the library. I am enjoying it, but sewing lots of straight lines gets boring fast! When I finish this last one, I'll treat myself with an Eric Carle wall hanging I've been wanting to put together for a while. I know it's more straight lines, but it'll be fun!! School starts tomorrow with the kiddos. I'm very excited, even though I can't listen to the President's speech live (see previous post). Time to get back to the sweat shop.

Very Disturbing News

I am very concerned. Our school board has decided that we will not watch the President's speech on Tuesday. This is the wording that was placed on the county's website:

Because of logistical issues related to the first day of school and other concerns regarding the short planning window available, members of the XXX XXX School Board have elected not to have XXX's schools participate in the live presentation on September 8th. They have instead expressed a preference to make the President's comments to students available via video at a later date. The plan and procedures associated with making this opportunity available for XXX's students will be announced next week. I just don't know what to do. My first ammendment hackles are up. I sent an email of concern to our public information officer, with no response yet. Can a school board really tell us that we are not allowed to watch something? I sure hope that this is not politically motivated. He is our President, and he is making the time to address students. I cannot think of another President who did this. He is making lessons available and the speech can be streamed, listened to on the radio, or on cable TV. I am just shaking my head in disbelief. Is the school board restricting students' first ammendment rights? or mine?

Two More Weeks

of vacation left. Actually, a little less than that. I do need to be at school in two Fridays to meet the new teachers at their orientation. I am not totally depressed about the end of summer, though, and that's definitely a change from years past. We have a new principal. He is quite young and energetic and that is contagious! I am almost, almost, excited to go back to school. He sent a book to each staff member a few weeks ago, but I haven't yet read it. It's short and motivational, I can tell, and I know it won't take me long to read. I am sure that will cement my excitement for a new year to begin. My plans for the rest of the summer: Aug 17-19: visit my parents Aug 20-21: piano lessons and pack for the weekend Aug 22-23 last weekend hurrah in DC Aug 24-27: lock myself in the craft room and make progress on 17 unfinished projects Aug 28: meet our new teachers Aug 29-30: squeeze in the last moments of summer at the pool Aug 31: back to work

All the News that's Fit to Print

I got an email from my principal today. He got a phone call from the local paper; they want to do a story on me. He's going to call them back and find out the details. I am more than a little afraid.

LOC rocks!

I've just returned from a fabulous 3-day Teacher Institute at the Library of Congress. The Institute brought together 20 teachers and librarians from all over the country, and we explored using primary resources. We learned ways to incorporate them in our lessons, which was great, but the best part was meeting staff members from the LOC and going into the different reading rooms. I got a readers' card so I can go back any time and go into the reading rooms.

We used the tunnels underneath the buildings to get from one to the other (I didn't even know that there were three buildings!) and went on a fabulous tour of the Jefferson Building. My favorite place, though, was the Adams Building, which is a beautiful art deco style building. Here's a picture of a lamp on the side of the building.

We met the head of the Science & Business library, and she is a 51-year employee dynamo! What a cool person! Her area of expertise is household technology, and she was so excited to show us a neat collection of irons and other household items from the past.

Thoughtful Thursday

So yesterday was Thoughtful Thursday and I was the first recipient of my principal's thoughtfulness. Soon after my uncle and his wife arrived yesterday from Florida, the phone rang and I saw that it was school calling. (ugh) I picked it up and it was my principal, who said he'd hoped to reaching my answering machine (!). I chuckled and said I'd hang up and he could call back, but then he went on to tell me why he was calling. Every Thursday, he calls a different staff member on the phone to thank them for something specific that they've done. Yesterday was his first call, and it was me! He thanked me for doing Summer Library and let me know that he was impressed with my efforts for the students at Conway and all that I do there. What a thoughtful thing to do! I loved it, and it made my day (my week, my summer, my school year)!

Summer Library, part 2

Summer Library was fun today!! It wasn't as busy as even our slowest day last year, but I didn't do as much PR for it, so I half expected it. But it was pretty steady all day, usually two or three families in there at a time, so it was exceptionally manageable. A good start, really. Austin brought all his tools, even though we had nothing to fix, but I oohed and ahhed over them, the reciprocating saw, the trim saw, the pile driver or something, and several other of Craftsman's best. Austin was a big help as usual, and our regulars were happy to see us again. I met with our new principal today for about an hour (!) and we got to talk about a lot of library stuff and school stuff. I told him I was starved for leadership, which is totally true, and I think I'm ready to be behind him 100%. I hope I don't live to regret those words... A good start to summer, indeed.

Summer Library

starts tomorrow! I am excited, mostly. It's the third year for Summer Library, and now people are expecting me to do it. And they're expecting my fabulous hotdogs, so I went to the warehouse club today and bought the food supplies. The PTA is funding summer library (thanks, guys!) and so I spent almost $200 of their money buying drinks, paper products, snacks, hot dogs, and other goodies for the families. I haven't done as much publicizing this year, but I hope we'll have a good turnout anyway. For the past two years, I sent postcards to every family in the school the week before we started, but I decided not to spend the money on postage this year. That added up to a couple hundred dollars, believe it or not! My fabulous former student, Austin, will be back to help me this year again. It will be his third year, too, and I haven't seen him since last summer. I am sure he has grown; he'll be an eighth grader this coming fall. He sent me the funniest email the other day; here's an excerpt. I won't bother to correct his punctuation (who needs periods?!?!) or spelling. It's just priceless the way it is:

• looking forward to this or next Tuesday what ever comes first... lol. im going to be staying at my grandma's (nana's) house Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. they are leaving to go to buffalo on the 10th of July for my grandpa's mom's birthday (80th B-day) so my mom will be dropping me off at her house the week they are gone and I will be riding my bike to [school] as I am told? :) so when I come the first time I will bring the Craftsman tool set I bought so if we need to put something together we can do It fast... the set cost me $250 but I got a drill, saws all (reciprocating saw), 5 1/2 in trim saw, light, and a impact driver (I love that thing 900 lbs driving force) but a little loud but it drive long screws in fast and easy unlike a reg drill... and it is a 19.2 volt die hard battery set (2) but its real nice... and then dell sent me $200 of replacement parts for my laptop. a new screen cover and a new keyboard (old one's "enter" key broke off) but it's all good now.... I had to take the whole screen apart to replace the screen cover... nothing broke and now its like the day it came out the box... (on the outside) lol..... hold on I have to take the battery off the charger. ok so me and my best friend Ricky have been making money cutting ppls lawns for 20-40$ depending on the size. we just got a free riding lawn mower from a person that we do lawns for. they messed that thing up so bad.... the deck was bent and was hitting the back tire... the blades U don't even want to know. she hit something hard that caused the deck to get bent back and tared the deck apart so now when the blade spins it would hit the deck. we still need a belt for it. the front stearing was all messed up and him and his dad have been working on fixing it... the operation station (where the stearing wheel is) was all cracked so we had to but a piece of metal on it and we put 60 rivets in it so its strong now... the engine works and sounds good. could use a little carb cleaner but ya it still runs good. he has put about $120 in it and still needs to get a belt so he may end up putting $150 in to it... but that is all it should need (knock on wood). we'll see. my grandma is still unemployed and her unemployment check has run out so the only income is from my grandpa... I was over at her house I think last weekend or the one before that and U had to be there my nana and papa were getting competitive playing bowling on the Wii... that was funny... my papa almost hit the TV off the stand... but ya well I cant wait to come and help U out and take your whole day telling you what has happened in the last 200 days (give or take) but ya well talk to you Tuesday... and happy 4th of July!!!

Seriously, who wouldn't want help like that?!

Back to reality...

The fabulous trip to Italy, Monte Carlo, Greece, and Turkey is over. I am in those post-vacation doldrums, trying to get back on east coast time and doing laundry and getting the house back to the way we live in it (we had dog-sitters here for 2+ weeks).

I'm also OD-ing on Internet--having been without it since June 18, I had a million and a half emails to weed through, and lots of blogs and other things to catch up on.

There were so many highlights to the trip. Rome is my absolute favorite city now, and I would move there tomorrow if I could.

Here's a little library-related part of the trip: a visit to Ephesus and the Library of Celsus. It was build around 110 AD and housed thousands of scrolls and books. I bought a resin statue of the library to have on my desk, along with some columns to show the kids when we study Ancient Rome and Greece.

Arrivederci!

I am heading to a Mediterranean cruise of Italy, Greece, Monte Carlo, and Turkey tomorrow. I am skipping out on my last teacher work day to travel to Rome for the start of our vacation. I have been a bad librarian, though, doing virtually no preparation for this trip. I have been so busy closing out the school year that I haven't had time to even think about the trip! Ciao! Blogging will resume after July 3.

Hello? Hello? Anyone home?

That's how I felt today. I made phone calls for the better part of the afternoon, trying to get in touch with parents about their children's overdue books. I think I talked to four parents in person, and they each had no idea that their child still had books checked out. I left a bunch of messages, but the worst thing was the sheer amount of phone numbers that are disconnected or changed.

I am interested to see how many books come back tomorrow. I hope it is more than several, but those are high hopes, I know. Some parents just don't care. Their kids don't care, and I know where they got it from.

Some kids are just so glib when I ask them about their books, and it makes me want to scream. Just bring the damn book back, kid!!

We have no recourse at the elementary level in getting books back. At the middle school level, kids can't go to school dances, or field trips, or all kinds of good things. Here, I got nothin'. I have even asked teachers to send me their kids during recess so they can write a letter home, and I think I've had about 7 different kids this week. That's it.

Please, please, God, let some more books come back tomorrow.

Lightning Strikes Twice

In our usual mid-Atlantic way, we've been hit by a few intense thunderstorms lately. On Tuesday night, our school was hit by lightning. It knocked out the phone lines, our media retrieval system, the fire alarm, and several of the air conditioners. When I got to school, the fire alarm was going off, and I found out that it had gone off 47 times that night. Yikes. We didn't even realize that the media system was affected until we tried to play a video around 10:00. The technician spent most of the day Friday trying to fix it, but pretty much all he got done was the diagnosing of the problem. Hopefully, they'll be out again next week to fix it. We only have 7 days of school left, so I am not terribly concerned. Wednesday evening, our house was hit by lightning! I was giving a piano lesson in the front room, and a thunderstorm was just getting revved up outside, but it was hardly worth worrying about. When the lightning hit, it was the brightest light, the loudest sound, and a pretty strong vibration. As far as we can tell, it hit a vent on the roof and jumped to the roof itself then through the electrical systems in the house. The electrician came out Wednesday night just to check everything (1/2 the electrical was shot) and then again on Friday to repair the rest. Today, a roofer repaired the outside damage; then the AC guy came to fix the transformer that got fried. The insurance adjuster was here most of the morning. We're still waiting on the phone and internet and alarm system, but our awesome neighbors gave us their WEP key so we could use their wireless. We are making progress!

Testing

It continues. How long has it been? A week, two? A month? Ten years?!?! It feels like forever, but it is almost over. Today, I took my library show on the road. That was fun. not. I had to move a fishtank with my actual frog life cycle creatures on the cart down the hall to second grade. All the critters made it: the tadpoles, the froglet, two goldfish, and a frog. Later this afternoon, the frog was deceased. I hope it wasn't the trauma of the move. Or the realization that he couldn't jump out to freedom. Poor thing. He was very cool, too, sitting on the rock staring at the big world his little siblings couldn't see yet. Alas, a big thunderstorm is brewing here and I am signing off for tonight. Tomorrow, I'm going on a field trip to the White House. I'll be reporting back, be assured.

I'm a Shusher

I really try to buck the librarian stereotypes we all know and hate. No bun. Not a cat lover. Rarely a cardigan. No glasses hanging from a chain. But today I was a shusher of the worst kind. Our state testing is happening all around the library (but thankfully not IN the library), and I was just so nervous about my kids disrupting the students testing. All day long I was shushing kids.

This Friday is the last day for student checkout, so I think that after Friday, I'll just go to the classrooms to teach. It would certainly be less stressful for me to not have to keep 25 little ones quiet all day long.

The Friendliest Flower

Today we had our last elementary librarians' meeting of the year. It was fine...inventory, state testing, etc. No big deal. Our supervisor is retiring effective July 1, and we weren't sure if her position would be posted, but we found out today that it will be, so that is good. She told me to dust off my resume, but quite frankly, I'm not really interested. I do not want to be in charge of people. I do not want to continually fight an uphill battle to get people to understand that we are teachers, too. I do not want to have to play the political games that I am sure go on at the district level. No thanks. I'll stay in my school in my happy little library. The last lesson plan sharing meeting was tonight, too, and it was just so much fun. We had a blast, as usual. Laughing and getting off-track and being a little unprofessional. Such fun. Another librarian told us that she watched You've Got Mail over the weekend, and I shared with everyone that it was that movie that made me want to become a librarian. When Meg Ryan's character is in the Foxx bookstore helping a customer because the clerk had no idea what she was asking for, I just knew I wanted to be like that--so knowledgeable about children's literature. That was a watershed movie for me. A watershed scene. I could watch it all over again. Don't you just love daisies?

Why I Love Children

A kindergarten student made this book for me today. It is modeled after The Library Lion. I think it's even better. Check out my bling at the end.

The student even included a title page...written and illustrated by Jessica. Just too cute.

Gravy

A got an email today from a fellow elementary librarian who said he was burned out. I am feeling kind of bummed out now because he is obviously not loving what he's doing at his school. His exact words are, hold on--I'll copy and paste them from his email--"I'm getting tired of trying to convince teachers that I am capable of doing something meaningful with their kids." Hmmm...I have been thinking about this comment all evening. On one hand, I understand what he means. The year we opened our school, I was doing an explorers unit with third grade, and one of the teachers said, upon looking at the research packets her students completed, "Wow! These are the same explorers we study!". No lie. That comment made me realize that teachers don't automatically know what librarians do. I thought I'd explained my job to them, thought that my asking for curriculum maps indicated that I'd be teaching along with them, thought that they'd know my time with their classes was meaningful. Apparently, I overestimated something--what, though?--myself, teachers? I am not quite sure. On the other hand, there are some teachers who treat me as an integral part of their curriculum. They ask to collaborate on lessons or ask me to focus on certain things with their students. They understand what I do; they know that library class is a meaningful part of their students' day. Recently, one teacher who had spent many, many hours on alternative (to standardized testing) assessments made it a point to tell me that my lessons had been used in many areas of the students' portfolios to show understanding of different topics. These were lessons that I'd done on my own, lessons I created to correlate with the grade level's curriculum, without any input from teachers. As a librarian on a (mostly) fixed schedule, I don't have time to collaborate with the teachers (since I am teaching their classes during their planning time). I have to come up with my own meaningful lessons and just do them to my satisfaction. If the teachers like them and realize I can help lighten their load a little, that's gravy.

Inspiration

I love my fellow librarians (well, almost all of them). This afternoon, I was still trying to come up with a lesson for kindergarten (which was due to arrive at 3 pm sharp) and just not having much luck. I looked through their curriculum map to see what had been going on recently and what was coming up, and nothing struck my fancy.

I thought I should do something on natural resources with them, especially reusing materials, since that's one of their curriculum standards and I hadn't touched on that at all. I IM'd my good friend at a middle school (she used to be an elementary librarian) and just like THAT, she had a book idea for me. Of course, then she had to teach a class and didn't give me anything else but a title, but that was enough! I put together a pretty darn good lesson plan, I think.

This is one of the things I miss about not being on a grade level. Being the only one in my building who does what I do gets a little lonely sometimes. Thanks for the idea, Jenny!