Checkout Desk Upgrade

Beginning my third year in the middle school, just about everything is cleaned out and organized just the way we need it, so I've turned my attention to some of the things I don't usually notice.

The school banner strung up with paperclips and a brass rod?  Still hanging, but in a better spot with a much nicer looking set up.  Did that really take me three years to even notice?!

I saw an idea on Pinterest a few months ago and put it into motion last week.  I had a full day of no classes (shhhh!!!!) so this was a great project and it has an immediate "Wow!" factor whenever someone enters the library.

Thanks to my scrapbooking tool the Silhouette Cameo, I was able to cut out the letters for all these words.  I spent a lot of time just playing with fonts, sizes, and colors.  I only wish I had a "before" picture--I always forget to do that! The before was a plain wooden checkout desk that was totally blah.  I used black bulletin board paper for the background and either cardstock or regular copy paper for the letters.

It's mostly been adults who have noticed the change, or at least commented on it.  I'd like to think that the kids notice, too; they just don't say anything (typical middle schoolers!).

National Book Festival 2016

After the book festival moved indoors, I took a couple years off.  I just couldn't believe that it would be as good as when it was held on the National Mall.  What can I say...I was wrong! There is definitely something to be said for air conditioning, indoor bathrooms, tables and chairs, real food, and no weather worries.

Getting to the book festival, I felt like such a grown-up.  I took the train from my town to Union Station, got on the connector bus from there to the Convention Center, and took an Uber (my first!) from the Festival to a friend's house where we were having bookclub that night.

First of all, that convention center is HUGE! Somewhere there is an auditorium that holds 2,500, because that's where Stephen King spoke.  I didn't have a ticket to that event, so I didn't even look for it.  But it's there somewhere, as are lots of other rooms where authors spoke.

As usual, my focus was the author signing area, which was in the basement of the convention center.  Have I said yet how huge that place is?! There were 20+ lines for authors, and there was still plenty of room everywhere.

Here were some of my favorite moments:

My nephew poses with two books with similar titles. I met both authors!

Edwidge Danticat, author of Untwine.

Ali Benjamin, author of The Thing about Jellyfish

My nephew with Kwame Alexander.

My new favorite, Jason Reynolds.

Extreme close-up of Jason Reynolds.

me with Shannon Hale.

Raina Telgemeier, graphic novelist, signed over 1,800 books in 70 minutes!

Pam Munoz Ryan, author of Echo.

Mid-summer check in

I cannot believe how quickly July is flying by.  Here we are with only a week left this month. Things have been going well--the TV has remained off during the day, and I have been taking breakfast on the patio each morning.  Well, except for one day... there was an unwelcome visitor on the back steps:

This snake, which was incredibly long--slithered himself across the back porch, down the side, and back under the stairs.  He (she?) is a black rat snake, which is the "good kind of snake to have," they tell me.  Cosmo (the dog) went outside ahead of me, and when I stepped onto the porch, he was not even a foot away from the snake, very curious about this new-to-him creature. The snake wasn't aggressive, and I lured Cosmo away with a treat.

My niece and nephew stayed with us this past week, and we had a super time.  My nephew went to soccer camp all day for five days (who wants to play soccer for 7 hours a day!?!?!), while my niece and I had a sewing camp.  I taught her how to use her machine and to follow a pattern, She made a few items and we had a fun week.

Summer Routines

Summer for me started two days ago, and I wanted to get off on the right foot.  My dog and I went for a nice walk first thing in the morning, then I sat down to my usual breakfast (yogurt and granola) plus a couple leftover muffins.

I decided that I will take breakfast outside every morning that I can, enjoying the flowers and birds and morning breezes.  This was a great way to begin the day.  Of course, the second day of vacation, it rained, and I had to eat breakfast inside.  But my dog and I got our walk in just before the shower came through.

My second "summer resolution" is that the TV will stay off between 9 am and 5 pm.  I don't need to know what Kelly Ripa is up to every day, and Hoda and Kathie Lee will be fine without me.  Already I am more productive.  Today I transplanted a spider plant, yesterday I made two banana breads... so this is definitely a good thing.  And it will give me more time to read, which is something I need to keep up with in the summer, as our middle school librarians' committee is busy picking books for our upcoming Cafe Book Program.  There is a ton of reading that goes into this program, so having quiet time away from the computer and TV is a must.

I made a To-Do list of things I want to accomplish this summer, and since we're not really traveling much, it's the perfect summer to accomplish stuff that I don't have time for during the school year.  I have fabric to make curtains for the basement, and an idea to make an over-the-door flag holder for our outside flags, and several other projects.  I am a list person, and I love crossing things off!

And there's also time for this in the summer--flowers! My patio containers are doing great, and the marigolds I planted rescued just in time are finally looking healthy.  On the side of the house I don't really visit a lot is this beautiful hydrangea, and I make sure I take a look at it every day in the summer--so gorgeous!!

GAFE--I'm all in

Image source: http://www.gafeinaction.com.au/

When I first heard the acronym GAFE (Google Apps for Education), I felt a little turned off.  After all, a GAFFE is a mistake or blunder.  Why would we want something named that?!?! But now that I'm more familiar with all the wonderful educational uses of Google tools, I'm not so bothered by it. What else could we call it?

• Teachers Discovering Google Apps (TeDiGoAp)
• Google Simplifies Teachers' Lives (GSTL)
• Students Love Google (SLG)
• Google Dynasty (GoD)
• Google Tools Take Over Education (GoToTOE) -- this one's my favorite!

None of these are any good! I guess we'll stick with GAFE.  I have to admit it--I usually have feelings of disdain when thinking of big companies taking over our lives.  Think Disney and Times Square... Monsanto and farming...  Pearson and testing... and initially I may have felt this way about Google.  But the truth is, the things that Google is designing for teachers and students have changed my life! And in a good way.  I am in, Google Dynasty (GoD), I am all in.

Anyway, none of this really answers the question posed to us for class this week.  Since this is an established blog of 13 years (!), I have a pretty good idea that I use it as an online journal.  When funny things happen (which is what most of the posts are about) or when terrible things happen (like when I left my old job for my new one), I want to remember them.  I'm pretty amazed when I look back posts from long ago and remember all the details because they've been written down.

So many times as teachers, we tell funny stories about our students and say to each other, "We should write this stuff down!" or "We should write a book!" That's what my blog is--a remembrance of those important events that have made us laugh or cry.

My next post will be about seventh graders laughing at me today because I called a MacBook a MacIntosh.  Literally--they giggled to each other and looked at me and laughed! I had to inform them that the first computer I used was a MacIntosh, and that's what they used to be called! Boy, do I sound old.  :(

Emo?

This is a new word to me.  It's a Middle School thing, I suppose.

Here's the definition from Urban Dictionary:

Genre of softcore punk music that integrates unenthusiastic melodramatic 17 year olds who don't smile, high pitched overwrought lyrics and inaudible guitar riffs with tight wool sweaters, tighter jeans, itchy scarfs (even in the summer), ripped chucks with favorite bands signature, black square rimmed glasses, and ebony greasy unwashed hair that is required to cover at least 3/5 ths of the face at an angle.

Here's a student who actually let me take her picture next to a not-so-random magazine in our library...
I tried to protect her identity by blurring out her facial features.  But really, how great are Middle Schoolers?!?!

Spring is here!

There is a lovely Memorial Garden outside the library.  Every afternoon when I leave school, I take a short walk around and look at all the pretty perennials that others worked so hard to cultivate.  All I do is trim the weeds and cut back dead stuff after it blooms.  The garden is just lovely, and one of the paras walked me through it last year to tell me about some of the flowers that were planted in memory of staff members who had died, and some plants in honor of other staff members.  I told her that we needed to make a map of all the plants and what their significance was--we should do that before those memories fade.

I love the mixture of colors!

Clematis

Iris

Iris close-up

We have a whole row of these, but I don't know what they are called.

My heart is still breaking

Every time there is an update, the wound in my heart opens up and I grieve all over again.  The student I wrote about back in February of 2015, who did some pretty terrible things, was sentenced today to 10 years in prison.  He actually was sentenced to 165 years in prison, with 155 suspended.  Still, 10 years to a 19-year old boy?!?!

He is still facing charges in neighboring counties, so his sentence will probably increase.  We'll hear about that in the upcoming months.  I have talked to his mom several times since everything happened, and she continues to urge me to write to him, that he would love to hear from me.  I am ashamed that I haven't done it yet, even though I've written a dozen letters in my head.  I don't even know what to say to him, other than how sorry I am that he ended up in a place where he didn't know right from wrong.  His mother and grandparents certainly didn't raise him that way.  That person who was arrested and charged and convicted is NOT the same student I taught all those years ago--I know that, and maybe that's what I should write to him.

When I read about what he did, and the things he said, and now, what others are saying in the newspaper's comments, I am just sick.  And I'm only his librarian.  I can't imagine what his mom is going through.

Author Visit -- April Henry!

Mystery/suspense author April Henry visited our library on Monday, and it was a wonderful day! Many of the students read her books, and teachers read some excerpts from her books, and she had some really interesting stories to tell.

Here she is during her presentation (that's an ASL interpreter next to her):

A bunch of schools in my area got together to host her visit, so we shared the expenses of hotel/food/airfare, and then we each paid her speaking fee.  At my school, she gave a writing workshop to a group of seventh graders, and then spoke to each grade level (6, 7, 8) in the gym during their electives time.  She also had lunch with a small group of students.

Here she is during the writing workshop.  The kids loved it, and some even brought her more writing to read later in the day (which she did read AND comment on) on the way home in the car.  Amazing!

Before her visit, we did a few things to make our school look welcoming, and one of our favorite things was re-creating her books' covers using our own students' faces.  I will post them here side by side (maybe... if I can figure that out), so you can see how much the kids got into it.  After we took the pictures, I did a little Photoshopping magic (without using Photoshop OR magic), and we gave her copies of these:

Original cover

Our cover

Another cover we made

Original

Our version--she held her own hand over her mouth, so it's not as scary as it looks!

Our version #1

#2

#3

    

The real cove

I think I joined a cult.

The Erin Condren cult!!! I ordered a teacher planner for this coming year.  So excited and nervous.  Of course, the fact that it is a million dollars is what makes me nervous, but it just looks so beautiful.  It is much happier than the one I made for myself this past year.

In case you want to order something, go through this link.  Everything is just so pretty.  And happy.  I know I've used that word HAPPY a lot.

I really don't know much about the whole EC phenomenon, but from what I researched, it is all speaking to me--as a person of style and as a fashion-forward thinker.  And in fact, I wasn't sure where to blog about this--on my teacher blog or my crafter blog.  The lines are fuzzy.  Perhaps I'll post it in both places.

This is what I ordered--the ready-to-ship option, which has a generic cover (still super-cute, though!).  It comes with a coupon for a free personalized cover, so I'll get the one I really want once this one comes.

I also ordered some markers (I'm a pen connoisseur) that I hope I'll love, and a case for the planner, which of course, I'll need since the notebook will accompany me everywhere.  This is the case I ordered, and the cover I plan to get will match AND be one of my school colors.  (Squeeeee!!!)

It's that time of year when I start thinking about school and start to get that squiggly feeling in my stomach.  Only 5 1/2 weeks to go!!!

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!!

I Love My Job / I am Heartbroken

I really do.  I love what I do and I love where I go.  I have not had this feeling for a few years, and I am really enjoying it.
The middle schoolers completely and totally crack me up.  They are quick-witted and determined to find their place in the world, even though they are afraid to stand out while doing so.  I am working so hard on building relationships with them.  One girl was in my office the other day and closed the door behind her.  I then was privileged to find out the name of her crush.  :)  I was sworn to secrecy.
I got this valentine on Thursday, with a tootsie-roll pop and starburst attached:

So lovely.  And appreciated.

In other news... sad news.
A former elementary student, now 20 years old, was arrested and charged with some pretty terrifying charges last weekend.  He and a cousin drove around for a couple of weeks, firing a shotgun at occupied homes (miraculously not injuring anyone).  It was just last Saturday that I saw the breaking news of his arrest, and I gasped and immediately felt my heart sink.
After leaving elementary school, this young man came back for several years and helped with my summer library program.  He built things for me and taught me how to weld.  I was just heartbroken about the news and still am.  He is in jail without bond until his preliminary hearing in mid-April.  I wrote to his mom through FB last weekend, and she responded that she, too, is heartbroken and in shock.  She recalled those summers that he helped me and said, "happier times."  Indeed.  If you've bee following this blog, then you might remember this sign. He made it in sixth grade for me, and I still have it:

Christmas in the library

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

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

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

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

Why I Am Loving Middle Schoolers

Two things from yesterday:

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

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

There you go.

Weeding, weeding

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One Pang of Regret

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

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

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

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

I'm Not Afraid of Them!!!

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

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

I am really excited to get started!!

Settling In

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

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

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

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

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

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

Handing Over the Reins

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

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

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

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

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

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

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