Work, work, work

I used to have a copy of a cartoon posted in my classroom when I was a teacher.  It said "God put me on this earth to accomplish so many things.  I'm so far behind, I will never die."  I'm feeling like that at the moment.  I don't think I'll ever catch up but at least as a librarian, it's not a tragedy when I don't get something finished for the most part.  Last week I focused on getting ready for the escape room at the comic-con, which was a bit of a bust.  The crowd was very small this year.  We only made about $48.  I should have just made a donation to the club and not do all the work I did.  This week's focus is getting another 200 students to complete a technology survey by the end of the week.  I thought that I was behind, but it turns out our school has the highest percentage of completion so far.  I'm going to shoot for 95% and will be satisfied if I get there.  Hopefully, it will be closer to 100%. 

My Apologies

Sorry for the delay in posting.  Too many things going on and too many nights that I've done other things and have come home exhausted.  On the good news front, the air conditioning in my library has been fixed so it's much more comfortable now and I've been getting more stuff done. I was going to go back to Amarillo part of this week because my friend's mother just passed away and her memorial service was today.  I made plans to come, emailed my principal, checked to see if I could stay with my brother and then on Monday morning I realized that there was an event that I'm involved in at my high school this weekend and I wouldn't be able to get it all done.  A local public digital library is hosting a Comic-Con on our campus.   My Harry Potter club will be having an Escape Room as a fundraiser.  Tomorrow will probably be a fairly late night in getting everything set up.  Luckily, I've already created this escape room.  We had it for a spring fundraiser so it is just a matter of getting everything set up again and set. 

I may try to go back to the Panhandle sometime in September but it just wasn't feasible this week.  Next week doesn't look like it's going to slow down.  I have to make sure all 1227 students have completed a survey about their Internet service.  Sprint is going to provide either cell phones or hotspots to any students that do not have reliable internet.  I'm the lucky one that will deal with the distribution and upkeep of all of this.  I also have to get a book order placed.  A former teacher from our school passed away in May this past year and his obituary noted that in lieu of flowers, he requested that books be donated to the school library.  Since then I've received several books and about $1000 in donations. 

Well, it's 1/2 hour past my bedtime so I better get to sleep.  TGIF

No Air Conditioning

Our district has made the local news because many of our campuses have air conditioning problems.  At my school, several classes had to be moved to the gym or other locations because of the heat.  They finally fixed part of the school yesterday, but my library still has no air.  It hasn't been too unbearable because the upstairs area does have air and I guess some of it trickles down, but I have to sit with two fans blowing on me to make it somewhat bearable.  My area was a different problem that wasn't a priority.  I guess it will eventually get fixed but it's hard to stay busy when it's hot.  I did make some progress today but then found out that we must have all 1250 of our students complete a brief online survey by the end of next week.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to see my principal tomorrow to get the plan worked out.  I can only usually see him by appointment so the secretary tried to squeeze me in. 

On the plus side, I had several teachers come after school for a training I presented on creating seating charts using Google Drawings.  Next week I'll be doing a session on setting up their web pages. 

No daily three today - I'm just too tired and my brain isn't functioning very well.  Thankfully I do have air conditioning at home. 

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school and it was a little rougher than some.  I still wasn't feeling 100% today.  Didn't sleep well and then discovered that the air wasn't working in my library.  I pulled two fans and put them around my desk.  I did not feel the least bit guilty about doing that in spite of the many parents and kids who were in the library waiting to register them for school.  Most of them should have done that in April or at the very least over the summer.  I spent most of the day at my desk working on my Library Newsletter and Library Resources page.  When I felt a little better, I did start some work on some computer carts that I have to deal with.  My to-do list seems never-ending but at least there's always something to get done.  I did cut some vinyl on the Cricut machine last night to use on some surfaces in the library.  I have a slender stand with three shelves that you can stand up books in for a display.  I moved it right in front of my desk and labeled it with three categories.  Today's daily three are my categories:

1.  Fabulous Fiction
2.  Best Sellers
3.  Compelling Nonfiction

Maybe some of the titles will be tempting enough to check out.  I wasn't able to open the library at lunch because there was still quite a few parents in here for registration.  I wasn't too upset since I was quite up to par today anyway.  I may have to keep it closed tomorrow, but hopefully, by Wednesday, the library will be open for the school year.

Busy Week

Sorry I haven't posted in several days.  It's been a very busy week in getting ready for starting the new school year.  Students come back tomorrow.  My library is mostly ready though there's still much to do.  It's at least presentable.  Last night I starting feeling achy and miserable and wasn't sure why.  I didn't have any other symptoms like a sore throat, coughing, or sneezing.  Maybe my body was just telling me I've been doing too much and it's time to settle down.  I took 2 Aleve PM and went straight to bed after getting home from dinner.  Wasn't 100% today but feeling a little better but still pretty tired.  I'm just now getting to my computer to get some work done before tomorrow.  Here are three things I've got to get done tonight:

1.  Create a Google Classroom for Student Assistants
2.  Create my first Library monthly newsletter for this year
3.  Create a library policy and procedure guide for new teachers.

I'm going to get started on the most important one first and see how it goes.  It won't be terrible if I don't get everything done, but I'd certainly like to get at least the first one done.

Daily 3 - Library Changes

I finally got to be somewhat productive in my library today - in spite of the huge waste of time this morning that was convocation.  It's a giant pep rally for the district that doesn't really inspire me.  If they had decent speakers that might be something, but hearing a student, teacher, and the superintendent speak is the same old thing.  Todays 3 are the changes I'm making to my library this year:

1.  Table arrangments - I moved the group of tables that fits a class to another area where there is a blank wall that I can use to project on.  Where the tables were before, I had to pull out a portable screen which was a pain.  If I left the screen up, it blocked some of the shelves in the fiction section.

2.  New side tables for comfy chairs.  I bought either side tables or baskets to place books on/in near the comfy chairs in my library - hopefully to encourage students to pick up and read. 

3.  Office/Craft Room organization - I turned my office into a craft room of sorts last year, but the table I put in there was too big.  I swapped it out for a smaller desk and table and then today I reorganized the shelves with the crafting materials.  It's a work in progress but should be done by the end of the week.

Last year the big change in my library consisted of the addition of comfortable seating and reorganizing the nonfiction section to be more bookstore-like. 

Daily 3 - Food & Drink

Today's daily 3 are food and drinks that I didn't consume until I was an adult:

1.  Shrimp - I tried it as a kid and didn't like the texture of it.  I found later that I liked shrimp flavored ramen so I tried it as an adult and found it was actually quite tasty - especially in fettuccine alfredo.

2.  Margaritas - I tried a virgin strawberry margarita around the age of 20 and I didn't like it at all.  It wasn't until Richard introduced me to a well-made margarita with good tequila that I discovered they were quite yummy (and potent).

3.  Bratwurst - I seemed to equate this with liverwurst for a long time and I knew that I didn't like it.  It wasn't until Matt cooked them on the grill that I discovered how yummy they are.

A Sad State

So I went to church today by myself because Matt is out of town at the convention.  I found myself choosing to sit in a pew that was relatively close to an exit door - you know just in case some crackpot decided to come in with guns blaring.  After church, I had to go to Walmart because I was out of cat food and there would have been a feline uprising if I came home empty-handed.  Before I went into the store, I sat in my car and made a list on my phone so I could get in and out without the usual aisle wandering, lest I find myself under attack in a public place.  It's a sad state to be in when your thinking isn't about your grocery list or the to-do items for the day, but rather, what would I do if I found myself in a situation with an active shooter.  At school, we have twice-yearly lockdown drills - just in case.  My mind will be on high alert for the next few days and then when things calm down I probably won't be looking for the closest exits every time a go out.  And in a few weeks or what now seems like hours another event will happen.  I used to be proud of this country but now I'm ashamed that we've allowed these things to happen.  I don't know what the solution is, but I think it is going to have to start at the polls.  Thoughts and prayers are not the solution.  It's not to say that I don't have the victims in my thoughts and prayers, but it's going to take something more.

Daily 3 - Activities

Today was my first official day back to work.  I made it by 8:10 this morning.  Here are three things that I accomplished today:

1. Got more than a dozen laptop computers ready for the new teachers to our campus.

2.  Taught my principal how to create a newsletter on Smore.

3.  Informed my friend Mariah who is a new librarian in our district that her bookshelves were moveable.  This was very exciting news for her.