Happy Hump Day!

(Insert camel here...  Haha)

I spent the day processing even MORE books...  Yet again. These are all older "new books" that have been sitting on shelves in the office and workroom for years (I've seen them dated as far back as 1994!).   However, I did snap some pics before heading home today.

My fiction section is essentially ready to go. I just have to wait for operations to come collect the overheads that line all my walls...

Still haven't rolled out the carpet...

You'll notice that the library is very compartmentalized at the moment.  I need some graph paper and measurements to figure out how to rearrange it. 

The "easy nonfiction" area...

Two cases of purchase orders that were accidentally taken when my predecessor left were returned at the end of the day today.  

Nonfiction....  Ugh...  I see boxes I missed....

 

Under all this mess is my reference section...  Someday I hope to be able to see it, but first operations has to come for all these discards!!

Another computer station (there's another along the back wall).

Nonfiction...  And have no fear -- that pile of boxes are empty, but the custodians haven't taken my trash out since open house. 

The circulation area is a mess from all the processing we've been working on.

My office...  I'm working on clearing these shelves so I can use the space and the kids can read the books!

This is the workroom.  It was floor to ceiling junk.  No one could walk through here, let alone use this space. I've been working on clearing it out. They want to turn this into a mini computer lab.

Another wall of the workroom...  There was sooooooo much junk piled up with brand new books going as far back as 1994!!!  Such a waste!!!

But, with a little luck, we'll be done soon.  I'm still hoping to get it done "enough" this week to be able to start having the kids come in next week for orientation.  I can always do it in little bits here and there if need be.  :)

2 days down... 178 to go!!

Ok...  2 days in and the library still hasn't opened. I'm still getting books and materials processed and everything cleaned up. I REALLY want to consolidate the two nonfiction sections, but I guess it'll have to wait.  That's soooooo disappointing.

So tomorrow will be another day of cleaning and cataloging. And probably Thursday, as well.  I'm hoping that I can spend Friday getting myself ready for classes.

My plans will be mostly just to introduce myself, the library rules and procedures, and get them excited about coming back.  We are switching from NCWise to PowerSchool and they're having issues with the transition. Our kids aren't set up in Destiny with their new classes and grade levels.  New kids aren't added either.

So anyway...  Looking for cute things to integrate and really missing my SmartBoard!!  I want to share this cute video:

Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to.   Or my cute shelf markers video...  Ugh. I haven't even had time to see what books I now have available.

I think I saw Mr. Wiggle's Library...   He'd be good to use with K-1 kids.

I own my copy of The Librarian from the Black Lagoon so I can still do that with 2nd grade.  The Shelf Elf will work for the 3rd Grade kids still...  I can do the "Library Survivor" game with the 4th and 5th graders to get them back into the swing of things. 

 

I'll try to get some pics -- it's starting to look like a library again.  Now I can't wait to start seeing the kids!!!!

Open House

So today was open house. I went to work 4 hours early and got started.  First I made a bulletin board for the hall so at least OUTSIDE the media center would be good.  I haven't made one in YEARS since my last school didn't have walls...  So anyway, this is what I came up with:

Each character's silhouette can be lifted so you can check to see if you were right.  I had printed a pic of each character, cut it out, traced it onto black paper, then cut that out...  I put the printed pic under the black paper and then just stapled the top of the black silhouette so it can be lifted. 

Inside the library, I've made some progress.  These pictures are from this morning, so it looks even better now, but it's still a mess. 

The office is a disaster area.  All the boxes and the books on the books on the shelves are new and need to be processed, but I have no paperwork for them.  The books on the cart all have some issue to fix...  Barcodes to change, no spine labels, etc. 

The circulation desk is a catch-all dumping ground for everyone. 

The reference section is housing discards. We have to wait for Operations to come clear this mess away. 

The tables in the nonfiction section all hold boxes of new books we need to process.  And when I say new I mean books purchased since 2007 and never opened and shelved.  Holy cow!!!

This mess is now actually completely gone.  It was just leftover trash. 

This table in the fiction section is wobbly. The legs need to be tightened. 

We have a couple carts of teacher equipment they haven't come for yet in this area, but then we can till out the carpet and it'll be ready for story time. 

And the easy section...   Again, just some teacher equipment they didn't come for yet and then it's done. 

So...  A lot of progress made, but it still wasn't ready for open house.  Instead, we shut out the lights and closed it up.  Then geographically-challenged me got maps and tried to help people find their classrooms.  I have a lot of people bad directions.  It's hard to describe how to get someplace you've never seen and didn't even know existed...   Lol

It was fun though.  I think I'm going to really enjoy my new school.  :)

A week later...

It's been a week since I started at my new school and I'm nowhere near finished.  I've been cataloging and processing books galore, along with new equipment like printers and Apple TVs.  Mostly I've been cleaning and throwing things away as I search for purchase orders to figure out where these books came from and what she paid for them.

Tomorrow is Open House and I am dreading it.  Not that the parents and kids will be there -- just because my library is absolutely nowhere near being ready.  I have what seems like 100 ancient overhead projectors to get rid of.  These are lining my bookcases all the way around the library (as you can see in my pics from last week).  When you first walk in, there are tables piled full of junk to discard on the right, and then this mess is surrounded by boxes upon boxes of more discards.  The problem is I can't just throw this stuff away. I have to fill out a request form and then wait for people from central office to come get this stuff.  There's no telling how long that may take.  

I'd also like to rearrange the library.  I don't care for the way it is currently set up.  I'm really not sure of a better way, though, so I guess I won't be in too big a hurry for that...  My biggest issue really is just that there are two nonfiction sections,  Why???  I mean, I get that you want to keep the big kids who are in browsing the shelves all day long away from the little kids who are in for a story and checkout or whatever, but ugh!!!!

I need to just focus on cleaning and getting things situated...   I guess I'll worry about the rest later.  

Tomorrow I don't need to be in till 12, but I think I'll go in early and work all day.  I need to catalog some books so I can use Destiny to print spine labels for me.  And I need to make a bulletin board.  A loooong day lies ahead of me tomorrow, I suppose...  I think I'll try to get in there by 9 and then we work till 7:30.  I can't stand that it will look like a disaster area when they come out tomorrow.

On the plus side, I now have a handy dandy iPad to use.  I'd rather have a SmartBoard, but beggars can't be choosers, right?  

The bulletin board I'm working on will be something along the lines of this:

Then, hopefully if I take next week to finish up, I can get started with library lessons the 2nd week of school.  That is what I'm hoping for at least!!  

My First Day

I survived my first day at my new school. I'm used to the workdays being 7:30-3:00, with a lunch break from 11-12.  There was no skipping lunch and leaving early, or going from 12-1 instead.  It was set in stone because it's what central office puts out and they were right next door.  So, I pull up to my new school at 7:20.  There was literally no one there.  At  7:30 another teacher showed up and she showed me where to sign in.  It's not in the front office, so I never would've found it!!  

Thank goodness the library was unlocked. I went in and began the search for the light switches, then got to work.  Let me show you what I got myself into here...

That's the nonfiction section....

This is the "easy" nonfiction section.  Yes, this library is oddly arranged...

The everybody section.....

Group reading/periodicals....

That's the back where the computers are, behind the nonfiction. 

My office which I couldn't get into at the time...  I don't have keys yet. 

As you can see, it's a wreck. And all those boxes everywhere are unopened, unprocessed brand new books which have been accumulating for the last 5 years.  And there is just soooooooo much junk to throw away!!   

I definitely have my work cut out for me!!

The end.

It's hard to believe, but the end has come. Summer vacation is over.  My poor "Poof Daddy" is all worn out and ready for me to leave him home for his 8 month long nap. 

My high-strung lab is just as exhausted. 

Tomorrow I embark on a new adventure at my new school.  Yes, I got the job!  I'm so excited, but a little sad, too.  I love the staff and students at NDE and I will miss them very much. Especially my ANAZING assistant and friend, Terry. 

Tomorrow I will dive right in. My goal is to get the library in order and ready for students ASAP. I also found out that there is a 12-case scholastic book fair scheduled to arrive October 7th.  How do they fit 12 cases in there???  On the plus side, I'll ask my MTAC about using the profits for a SmartBoard. They only cost about $2000 in scholastic dollars. 

I'll try to snap some pics tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

Waiting

I had my interview yesterday and it went really well. She has 2 more today, but they're both with brand new people.  This is the largest elementary school in the county, so she says she would rather have me. I know how to do my job, I collaborate like she wants, I create fun and meaningful lessons, and I can get that library in shape without being as overwhelmed as someone who has to figure it all out from scratch.  

That library is a mess.  There are CASES of brand new books, videos, etc that have never been opened!!!   She opened one and found it had been there since 2003!! Holy cow!! 

The only issue, of course, is that I didn't fill out an intent to leave form last year, as I didn't intend to leave.  I love my current school, the staff, and the students. And I was told by this MC that she was staying on another year. She retired a couple weeks ago out of the blue, however.  So, after her interviews today she is going to meet with my boss at central office and the Superintendent of HR to find out if they will allow me to switch schools. A new person would be better off at a school like my current one. I put a lot of tech in place already. And it's a small school of about 525 students. Plus the media assistant has 20 years of experience to train them up right. So...  Fingers crossed!!  

Yay!  Just had a Duplin Wine delivery!!  Maybe I'll have a reason to crack a bottle open and celebrate later!

Of course, if I do get this position I'll be starting at square 1. Kindergarten classes come weekly for a story time, not lessons.  That simplifies my life a bit...  This school has 5th grade, and mine only goes to 4th. And she doesn't have a SmartBoard or anything in the library...  Yet.  If I get the position, I'll get one the same way I got mine at my current school -- Scholastic Book Fair money!!

With twice as many students, I'll see a lot more classes. I'll have to figure out times. I may just create a list of classrooms and lessons and give myself more time. Some classes may not come every week, so I may need to do a lesson every other week, then a story or review. Centers would be great, too, but it'll take some prep to get them in place. 

Guess there isn't much point in fretting about it yet. I may find out they won't let me leave my current school. Mental note:  if I have to stay because of the form, I'll need to fill one out every year just to be on the safe side. 

Evaluation Rubric

North Carolina's new Media Coordinator Evaluation should be in place this year.  The rest of the teachers have been using their new appraisal instrument for a few years now, and we've just been using the old IGPs from years past (which are sooooooo much easier).  Now we have to appraise ourselves, looking for our own shortcomings and areas we want to improve, as well as proclaiming our strengths.  We then have to come up with evidence to prove that this is how we function.  You end up, essentially, with a portfolio which you will then be continuously updating.

How important is this new appraisal instrument?  Not very -- at least as far as the politicians are concerned.  NC teachers, including media coordinators and other special area instructors, are all going to be "graded" based upon the school's EOG test results.  If the school does well, we're all good teachers.  If the school doesn't do well, it's because we're all bad teachers.  It has nothing to do with the fact that 98% of the students come from poverty, don't have books at home, don't have food to eat other than what they get at school as free breakfast and lunch, or spent the night before testing laying on the floor trying to sleep because people were shooting in their windows.  Of course not!  Especially not when you're comparing a school like North Drive to a school with the upper-class politician's kids...

Waaaay back in 1999 when I did my student teaching, I was in a public school in Wilmington, NC.  My first day, the teacher says, "Watch this," and had the kids stand up and introduce themselves and tell me what their father did.  So I got the whole, "My name is Bianca and my daddy is a heart surgeon," followed by, "My name is Peyton and my daddy is the District Attorney..."  So on and so forth.  Back then (because now we just don't get new text books), teachers had a say as to which text books they wanted the county to adopt.  The county didn't pick the one this teacher preferred, so a parent bought a class set of the ones that weren't chosen so this teacher could give the kids what they "needed."  It was so nice, but it wasn't at all like my reality.  My first teaching job was as a first grade teacher in an ancient school with a high migrant worker population.  I loved it there, but there wasn't money flowing like there was at my intern-school.  My last year there (we were military), I had 26 first graders, 14 of whom didn't speak English.  I had an assistant who didn't like little kids (she'd been moved down from a higher grade) and wasn't comfortable working with them, especially the ones who didn't speak English.  It was very trying, but I loved those kids.  Especially my ESL kids.  They were so sweet....  But anyway, I'm babbling.  My point is, you can't just make a blanket statement about schools and teachers.  It's comparing apples to oranges, and I don't understand how the powers that be can't see this.

The way this state is sooooo quickly circling the drain just infuriates me...  Sorry for the rant.

But anyway...  The link above is to our new appraisal instrument.  Keep this in mind while planning your common core standards based lessons, and keep proof of all you do.  :)