Library Goddess

This was (finally) the last week of school. I love my job, I really do, but it is SO NICE to know that I do not need to worry about lesson planning or event planning or meetings for a little bit. Of course, I still have some meetings to go to this summer and lots of planning and getting ready for next school year to do, but it is so very different when I can do that on MY time. In my jammies, at home, with my dogs.

Talking about having the summer off makes me need to vent for a second about the “but you get summers off” comment that I hear all the time and I know my teacher friends hear all the time…if you are not a teacher and you have said to a teacher “you are lucky, you get summers off,” look at it this way – summers are our “comp” time. What do I mean by that? Check out my typical week (and I think it is a pretty normal schedule in teacher-land) -

Up at 5am each day (sometimes earlier).

On and ready for students by 7:20am.

Work all day with the littles until the bell rings at 2:15pm.

Most days there is some sort of meeting until 3:45pm.

I then stick around to lesson plan, update web stuff, or make phone calls or meet some more.

I normally do not leave until 5pm.

Then, I do it all over again. That’s an almost 10 hour day, every day. That’s a lot of time working each day, yo! But, I LOVE IT. All that is to say that summer is comp time for teachers. So, please remember that next time you say to a teacher that they are lucky they have summers off. Please and thank you Now, on to week 38…

On Monday, I helped with K – 2 Field Day, an event for our Green Team, and then hosted a celebration for our South Carolina Children’s Book Award Nominee Readers. The celebration was very low key and was pretty much “do want you want in the library for 20 minutes.” What’s crazy is that they really seemed to have a good time. I often stress out trying to plan lots and lots of activities for celebrations like this and I try to have food and entertainment and on and on, but this time I took it easy and I think they had just as good of a time…they could choose between xBox, board games, computer games, iPad, drawing on our dry erase tables…whatever they wanted. Plus, they each got a book and a certificate to take with them. The only thing I’ll change next year is I WILL have a little something for them to eat. It just didn’t feel like a party with some sort of festive food. The entertain yourself plan though? That will stay!

Tuesday was the last day for Related Arts, so my Kindergarten class and my Media Technology class both went into the Computer Lab. Kindergarten explored Starfall and Media Technology could choose what they wanted from what we have learned about this year. They all chose to play Cool Math Games. Is this a thing at your school? Our kids love that site.

On Wednesday, I helped with Field Day for 3rd – 5th grade.

On Thursday, we had our last LEAD Time (which is a “club” of sorts where kids can pick their LEAD Time). I do a Scratch LEAD Time with one of our 5th grade teachers and the kids created their own version of Harlem Shake using Scratch.

Friday was the LAST DAY of school and I went to 5th grade Graduation and helped a 4th grade class Facetime with a dad who is in the army and stationed out of the country. Very cool.

And, finally, we had to work today (Saturday) and I just tied up loose ends, finished inventory, and put together our annual report.

Speaking of inventory, I did that all week too. I have started doing inventory every other year. I like to do it the very last week of school. Our books from students are mostly in by that point. I do a section each day (or a few smaller sections in a day). It is pretty manageable that way. This year, I only inventoried the sections that are on the library “floor” (Fiction, Non-Fiction, Biography…the books the kids check out). I will do an inventory of our Literacy Center and Equipment next year.

So, this year’s a wrap! Overall, I would say this was a pretty great year. The library (now Learning Commons) was more flexible than in the past. Therefore, I was able to collaborate more and hope to continue to do so next year. Of course there are things I plan to do differently and hope that those changes will bring about even MORE collaboration with my classroom teachers. I’m excited about next school and am looking forward to a chance to regroup and reevaluate some things for next year.

As for my blog this summer, I plan to keep up with the once a week (maybe more!) blogging. I am still working on #nerdcott and I AM participating in #bookaday and #summerreading, after all. Doesn’t that make you happy? I hope so…

VBF

Week 37 was a short week – Memorial Day was on Monday and was a sneak peek into summer vacation (SO.READY.)…the rest of the week was BOOK FAIR! The May Book Fair is always more low key than the November Book Fair. We don’t make as much, but it is a good way to promote summer reading and I do pay for BookFlix with the money we make from our May fair. I must say that I don’t put forth the same amount of effort in promotion, but we do meet our goal and that’s what matters to me!

Besides Book Fair last week, I had my fixed Kindergarten classes…I talked about summer reading with them and then we browsed Book Fair and made wish lists. 5th grade Media Technology students started learning about Scratch.

The Technology Integration Specialist and I wrapped up a South Carolina ABC Book with one 3rd grade class. Students researched a South Carolina-related topic and then illustrated what they learned. They typed it all up, inserted their illustration and we compiled them into a book that they can read online (or print out as a PDF). 

Saturday was StoryFestSC, the kick off party for state wide summer reading AND NPES Night with the Columbia Blowfish. Our students participated in their reading rewards program in April and they had a voucher for tickets to this game…as did many, many, many other schools – that place was packed!

This week is the LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL. I think I can, I think I can…

VBF