National Library Week

Happy National Library Week from the Mahomet-Seymour Junior High Library!  We haven't been able to celebrate, though, because the school is going through its first week of standardized state testing.  Next week will be week two of that and then one week of make-up tests.  So, during this most important week, I haven't seen lots of library traffic, but I have been able to do a lot of cataloging and processing of new books, which is always fun.  Let's awkwardly transition now to how much I love my job.

On Monday evening, a friend of mine posted a question on Facebook: "If you could do any other work...what would it be?  We are talking DREAM JOB."  I thought about this for several minutes, going over and over in my head what else I could possibly be doing that would give me as much satisfaction, joy, pep in my step in the morning, and contentment.

The answer was...NOTHING.

This is it.  Being a school librarian/media specialist IS my Dream Job, and I thank my friend, Erin, for helping me realize this.  This job might not be a lofty or exciting goal for many, but for me, this.  is.  it.

Sure.  This job isn't perfect.  There are times when I'm stressed out, when I worry about how I'll be able to complete my yearly evaluations when being outside of a traditional classroom, and there are always students who try to challenge me and defy my authority as a teacher/adult.  The things I love about this job, however, heavily outweigh the bads.

For example, I get to...

• collaborate with teachers in all different subject areas.  And, when I'm really lucky, they let me come into their classroom to teach.
• talk to students about books they would like to have in the library and then see their faces light up when they find that book they requested on the new book shelves.  "What!?!  You ACTUALLY bought this??  I didn't think you would.  THANK YOU!"
• research new topics I don't know a lot about when helping finding print and web resources for teachers' major projects.
• provide a safe space for students when they just need to get out of the classroom and catch their breath for a minute or two.
• host monthly trivia tournaments during lunchtime.
• be an advocate for students' voices and needs, especially the kids in the super awesome special education classroom that is housed within the library.  
• spend money that isn't my own!  ;)
• come to work everyday with a smile on my face, ready to help serve, collaborate with, and laugh with colleagues, administration, and students.

So, if you're ever on my Facebook or Instagram feeds and you see that super corny, and sometimes used in jest hashtag, "living the dream," know that I REALLY AM.  I am living my dream*.

This is me SUPER HAPPY after the first Lunchtime Trivia the library hosted back in December.  It was epic and one of my favorite days...so far.

*Which is only possible because my awesome husband supported me while I quit a full-time job to get the Master's Degree in Library & Information Science that I needed.

Staff Shelfies

At the beginning of 2nd quarter, I created a super fun display case of Staff Shelfies.  For those of you not in the know, a SHELFie is a selfie in front of a book case.  I sent an email out to the entire staff to participate.  I was hoping to get at least half the staff.  So, I didn't get quite that...I think I got about a quarter to participate.  Even though I didn't get as many as I wanted to, I thought the display case looked really good.  It looked so good, in fact, that I wished I had even more staff participate.  I'll try not to dwell on that and just focus on the fact that 25% of the fact did indeed take time to pareticipate.

For the end of the school year, I am asking the staff, once again, to participate in a photo display about the one book they'd pick to read for eternity.  I am also going to ask students to participate in this! I'll have more on this after I complete the display. 

Successful Programming

Middle school and high school libraries are entirely different beasts than elementary school libraries.  Usually in elementary schools, students get library instruction at least once/week.  This allows teachers to have plan time and breaks.  In middle school teachers might sign up to visit the library every couple of weeks for their students to check out books.  Some teachers decide not to bring their students to check out books.  There is so much curriculum that needs to be completed in the classroom that often teachers don't have the time to bring their students to the library for an extended period of instruction.  In high school, class attendance to the library falls even further to the wayside, with the library usually utilized for class research projects in which a teacher might bring an entire class once or twice a year.

Because of this, I believe that programming can play just as important a role in a middle school library as it does in a public library.  Some students might not have frequent chances to visit the library with their teachers, so I have been trying to offer a variety of opportunities for students to come in during lunch period or study halls for special events and activities.

Our first special event of the year was Halloween Storytime, which was offered waaaaaaay back in October.  (Hey!  I'm getting caught up!  Did you miss my previous post??)  Students could come to the library during their designated lunch period to listen to stories.  I thought I might have a couple dozen students per lunch period.  Man.  Was I wrong!

As students came in, I had Michael Jackson's Thriller playing.  It set the tone perfectly, and students could eat a bit as they watched before they started reading stories.

6th grade was the largest group by far.  Kids on the floors, sharing seats, and being completely awesome and respectful the entire time.

Our last group was 7th grade.  The "smallest" group still had over 30 attendees.  This is when our principal stopped by to listen to some stories, too!

I have to admit, I didn't expect this type of turn out, but it was great!  I also didn't expect so many students who wanted to participate.  I had printed out several stories to read, but I only read one very short story at the beginning of each lunch period.  The rest of each period was spent with students volunteering and sharing their own stories (like in the 6th grade photo) or reading stories they had selected and brought themselves (the 7th grader above).  This was a great kickoff to what has been a year of successful programming so far.  I'll describe more events we've held over the next few days.  I know you're excited to read about more!

Juggling Act

Being a middle school librarian with no true library aid/secretary/assistant is a juggling act.  I try not to let any of the balls in the air fall, but one most certainly has over these past few months.  This dear blog/journal for my Library Land Adventures.  If you permit me to do so, I'd like to catch you up on several activities I've been doing in the library since late October.  It's been oh so busy but very, very fun and exciting. 

You see with library instruction, ordering books, processing books, wrapping books, attending librarian meetings, and all of the other wonderful activities that go along with being a lone librarian in a wonderful middle school, something was bound to go by the wayside.  I want to try to keep this blog updated more for my aging mind than anything else...an online journal of sorts.  This way, when I'm old and gray, I can look back at all of the things I did and think, "Huh!  I really did do some great things!"  Hopefully these entries and photos will jog my memory in the future. 

And now...ONWARD!  Let's do some library reporting, sharing, and celebrating!  No more self-inflicted disappointment because I'm behind: only celebration that I'm back!  HUZZAH!!!  Now, lets all do a Good Will happy dance in front of shelves of books.  

Displays Work!

I had some very encouraging comments from a 6th grade Language Arts/Reading teacher today.  I was doing a mini-lesson on conflict and previewing the 6th graders' upcoming thematic unit (unlikely friendships).  I did this, as I often do, with the help of a picture book.  Knuffle Bunny Too, by Mo Willems, to be exact.  After going through the lesson, I introduced the students to the three displays that are currently up in the library: Egypt (requested by the 6th grade SS studies to coincide with their current unit), Spooky Chills and Thrills (cause it's October), and 30 Years of Back to the Future (see previous post). 

While the students were looking for books and checking out the displays, their teacher came up to me.  She said, "These displays are a wonderful idea!  I didn't even know we had some of these books, and you forget about some of these great books if you don't see them."  All day the students have been pulling off books from the displays faster than I can replace them (always a happy librarian problem).  The teachers coming in have also been looking through them and seem quite happy with the variety of texts I've put out there. 

So far I've been trying to change up the displays once or twice a month.  It keeps students interested, it keeps me busy and creative, and, as the ELA teacher commented, it keeps books out there that students might not know (or have forgotten) about.  I continue to try to include many different types of books with each display: fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, and picture books if possible. 

Here's a quick look at the Spooky Chills & Thrills display before we come to a close for today:

"You Mean We're IN the Future??"

It's almost here, folks: the future.  October 21, 2015, is a day I've waited for since I was 9 years old and saw Back to the Future, Part II for the first time.  Tomorrow is the day.  The future of BTTF, the greatest film franchise of all time.  I wouldn't be a good librarian--or BTTF fan--if I didn't make a display to commemorate this momentous date in pop culture history. 

The Display

I've created a display with historical and popular fiction books from the 1950s and 1980s.  The middle section of the display are all books that have to do with time travel.  Let me just tell you all this: it was awesome fun going through our collection to find books for this display.  I only wish I could bring some of my own time traveling adventure books from home, like Audrey Niffeneger's The Time Traveler's Wife, Jack Finney's Time Again, or Richard Matheson's  Somewhere in Time. 

I also created some sings for the display, and I brought in my awesome Marty McFly art print that my even awesomer brother gave me for my birthday last year.  Like the Dude's rug does for his room, I feel that it really brings the display together.

The Trivia
I've created more Bulldog Buck Trivia (one question/day), and for the last two weeks of October all of the questions have to do with the Back to the Future trilogy--three questions for each film.  (We have no school this coming Friday, so I needed nine questions instead of ten for two weeks.)  By now the students should know that the trivia questions coincide with the big display in the library, but some were a bit confused why I was asking questions about Back to the Future.  I have been pleasantly surprised with the amounts of "I LOVE THAT MOVIE!" or "Man, I just watched that.  It's awesome!" and other variants of enthusiasm I've received.  

The Outfit???

Why haven't I been working on completing this outfit since I was 9?  I have NO idea.  :(

Well, I'm still bummed I don't have a size-adjusting fit jacket or power lace Nikes, but I do have a Marty McFly cap.  I'm going to ask my principal if I can wear it tomorrow.  She's pretty cool: I'm hopeful she'll say yes. 

10/21/2015
Tomorrow, I'll be way too excited.  I'll be playing the music in the library, gushing about the film to anyone who asks, and hopefully I'll get to go to a screening tomorrow night.  I love this movie so much, and I feel like if students see what I'm excited about and see me grinning and geeking out, they'll know that even though I'm a teacher they don't see that often, I'm still approachable and can have fun, too...even if I do spend most of my time in a big room filled with books. 

When Cameron Was In Egypt's Land

Hey, everybody!  I got to put together a sweet little mini-display for my 6th grade homies last Friday.  The 6th grade Social Studies teachers have already been my biggest collaborators.  They sought out my help shortly after the school year started to put together some web resources for their Hominid Project.  They were pretty stoked when I actually made them a spot on the library's website with links to reliable online resources.  (I mean, really.  What else should I have done?  Handed them copies of sheet with loooooong, drawn out websites that the students would all type incorrectly?  I don't think so.)

When they briefly mentioned last week that Egypt was coming up and they thought it would be cool if I could pull some books for their students I did just that.  We have a small display directly in front of you when you walk into one of the library's two entrances, so I thought this would be a great place to put the display.  We don't have loads of Egypt books, but we had enough to make a nice, small display.

The teachers thought the display was a great idea: When they saw it they told me they thought I would just put the books on a cart with a sign.  Um, no.  I don't roll that way.  I also brought up the idea of maybe having an Egypt movie theater day and have a showing of The Prince of Egypt at the end of the unit.  They loved this idea, too, but because keeping the students in focused, instructional time is such a big push, we don't know if we'll be able to swing this.  Maybe I'll have to think outside the box and have a showing after school.  We'll just have to see what happens after even more awesome collaboration with the SS teachers.

I could always just show the super short clip of Cameron being in Egypt's land.  That would definitely be within time perimeters.