A Good Day at Work

Today three classes of 7th graders came to the library. I gave a short PowerPoint lesson explaining how the musical Wicked, which they had gone up to NYC to see last week, was derived from Gregory Maguire's 1995 book Wicked: the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West. And how Maquire's book was a parallel novel to L. Frank Baum's 1902 book The Wizard of Oz, focusing not on Dorothy's story but on the story of the two witches who Dorothy meets.

Did you know that the Maguire created the name of the wicked witch, Elphaba, from Baum's initials? L-F-B. Pretty clever.

The students had enjoyed seeing Wicked and seemed very interested in this little literary history. A few were quite disappointed to learn that Wicked is definitely an adult book (for violence, language, and sex) and that I wasn't planning to add it to the library collections!

After this short lesson we had browsing time, during which the kids found material to take home or browsed through what was out on display. My aide was away, so I carried around a list of students on a clipboard and wrote down the barcode numbers of the items they were checking out next to their names. With this system I can be up and walking around talking with the kids about books while I'm checking them out, instead of tied to the circulation desk. I love talking with them and helping them find the next good book to read. Here's a couple of the questions I got from them today:

Do you know any book that has stories set in Russia?

Do you have a book as good as Do You Know the Monkey Man?

I'd like a mystery that's also really funny.

Is this book too old for me?

As they checked out Not-for-Parents; Paris; Everything you Ever Wanted to Know, one of the new travel guides published by Lonely Planet, a child told me she had heard from a friend that the guides were really good. That made me feel great, since I personally select all the books for purchase, rather than rely on a service. Someone finally checked out a new skateboarding field guide that I had bought; it's been sitting on the new book shelf for two weeks! Go figure.

The last five minutes of library time is spent in silent reading, something I came up with last year as a way to encourage actual reading and also give me (and everyone else) five quiet minutes at the end of each class. It's the best idea I've had, and today I even got to read with the kids during the silent reading time. (I'm reading Mozart's Sister by Nancy Moser.)

I got ready for the 8th grade classes which are coming in tomorrow. The 8th grade LA teacher and I had agreed that I would showcase the library's holding related to Shakespeare, not only by him and about him, but also fictional works that involve him in one way or the other (such as Wednesday's Wars by Gary Schmidt). I had some trouble figuring out an interesting way to present this info, and finally decided to booktalk some of the nonfiction works and show some online book trailers made by other Junior High students for the few fictional works in our collection. I think the kids will like this, since they are making videos and podcasts in their technology classes.

In between doing classes and getting ready for classes, I continued experimenting with using Shelfari and LibraryThing to post book lists on the Library section of the school web site. I decided to buy a school-wide subscription to the Enchanted Learning website and sent out a notice announcing the purchase and reminding teachers about the other online subscriptions we have. I made arrangements to have the camcorder and tripod brought over from our Lower School campus so I can video the debating club's big debate next Tuesday. I added the Newberry Award winner and Honor winner to book order I'm working up to submit the end of the month. I looked up reviews for several books that one of my voracious readers asked me buy and added them to the pending order. Over a quick lunch I chatted with the 7th/8th grade Science teacher about what she was teaching through the end of the year. Our higher level science collection needs boosting, so I was glad to get a better idea of what she's covering. I tracked down a set of speakers I had lent out for a chapel presentation last week. The facilities manager called me about meeting with the school's carpenter, moving another step forward towards having new bookcases installed early this summer. I checked in lots of books, talked to kids who had long-overdue books about finding them or paying for them so their accounts were straight, and cataloged and labeled a new magazine. I advised a colleague about an email she was sending to a parent. I did some troubleshooting related to our online catalog so the librarian at the Lower School could have administrative access again (it had mysteriously disappeared).

All in all, it was a very satisfying day!

What I Love About My Job: Music and Art

Right across the hall from my library is the Art Room and the 5th/6th grade Band Room. I feel so lucky. The teachers are both interesting, fun, talented, nice people who enjoy their students, love their subjects, and are well prepared for their classes. I've learned a lot about teaching from them and I enjoy being around them. But even better, I'm in a great position to casually enjoy two of my favorite subjects.

Most of the day music of some sort pours, drifts, pounds, or floats (depending on what's being played) out of the music room and over to the library. Even when the kids are just learning their instruments or are starting a new piece and the music is not yet very good, I rarely close my door. Every class begins with the kids listening to the "piece of the week" and I rarely get tired of hearing that either. I guess it's a good thing I'm OK with all this music, since Paul will be playing in the 5th grade band next year and I'm sure to hear even more band music at home. Here he is trying out the flute under the capable direction of the band teacher.

If that wasn't enough, there's always something interesting going on in the art room. This week some impressive copies of artwork are on display in the hallway, including this colorful Gauguin. The painting was gridded and students were assigned specific grid sections to enlarge and reproduce using oil pastels. Then all the sections were put together to form a large replica of the work. Didn't this one turn out well?

How to Survive Achivement Testing

Along with being the school librarian, I am also the testing coordinator for the yearly Stanford 10 Achievement test. The coordinator takes care of all the behind-the scenes work needed to get the test done and the results back. I order, organize, and distribute all the test supplies, make sure all the tests come back completed and with correct student information, send them off for scoring, and make sure all the scores are received back from the testing company. I also schedule coverage for the teachers during test breaks, do some hand-holding as nervous teachers give the test, and solve problems that come up during testing (like a teacher running twenty minutes behind schedule). It may be a necessary job but it is a painful one, what with all the paperwork and scheduling that's required to make everything go smoothly. You sure have to pay attention to details, and while I can do that, I don't find it a lot of fun for something like achievement testing.

Today the Middle School finished its four days of testing. The last day is the hardest since teachers have to read aloud to their students for 45-60 minutes (depending on the grade) for the Listening test, and then have to stop and start the Language test several times to read new instructions along the way.

I gave all the teachers a "Last day of testing survival kit" with water, chocolates, coffee nips, and cough drops. I wanted to give myself a survival kit with a bottle of wine, but I thought better of it!

Peter Rabbit

In Story Time today I read Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Although it is over one hundred years old, the story of how naughty Peter sneaks into Mr. McGregor's garden to face bliss and terror had my little ones quite captivated.

At the end of the story I asked this question: Would you choose to be Peter --who disobeyed his mother but lived a day of adventure --- or would you choose to be Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottentail -- good little bunnies who had a pleasant and and safe day picking blackberries?

Most of the kids said they'd be Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottentail, which rather surprised me. I always thought that Peter's sisters had a boring time compare to Peter's exciting day. Then I realized that they were asked during Story Time where they are expected to sit with their legs crossed, not call out, and listen quietly --all good things but not conducive to feeling adventurous. To be successful in school and in our society in general, they, like us, must develop the obedient and patient traits displayed by Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottentail. But I think if we look a bit deeper we'll find we always have a bit of Peter in us, eager to find our own way and willing to pay the price for taking that more adventurous route. Perhaps this tension is what has made Peter Rabbit a classic of children's literature.

Traveless Training

The school library catalog was replaced this week with a new modern web-based catalog. Staff and students can search the new catalog from any computer in the school as well as from home, and it has lots of nifty new features. With this upgrade the library has entered the 21st century, so it's very exciting.

What has amazed me during the whole process of replacing the catalog has been the way meetings have been handled.

Even though we are a very small school with minimal hierarchy and we're buying an off-the-shelf package from an experienced company, we've had to have a number of planning meetings and training sessions. The first planning meeting gave me an idea of how these modern-day sessions would be conducted. There were six attendees, but only three sat in a room with me. One was in his office down the hall from us, while two others were in Chicago. We all signed onto the Project Manager's web site and watched her computer screen as she outlined the various tasks required and then put them on a calendar. We all talked to her through a telephone conference call on a speaker phone. The call was set up by calling an assigned phone number and punching in our meeting code. Just like in a regular meeting, if you needed a piece of information from a person who wasn't there or from your office, you jumped up and got it and came back into the meeting.

Then the training sessions started. Again we signed onto a web site and into a telephone conference call using a speaker phone, but this time we each were at a computer so we could open our own screen, log into the new catalog, and experience it hands-on as we followed along with what the trainer was doing on their screen. There were three training sessions and each had a different trainer. One was in Texas, one in Illinois, and one somewhere on the east coast. Because we were being trained in our own work spaces, we could easily break to answer an urgent question from a staff member, check with a colleague on an issue, and otherwise multi-task while being trained.

Some of the paperwork we received called these meetings Webinars or Webex. Whatever they are called, I love them. Another wonder of the modern age.

"Home Run" Books

Yesterday I attended a workshop by Peggy Sharp on "What's New in Children's Literature, 2009." From the thousands of children's books published each year, Peggy selects twenty five of the best and lists them on her web site. At her workshop she discusses and shows these and many others, gives lots of ideas for "selling" the books to kids, links them to school curriculums, and provides a list of her "top ten" books for the year. She is a lively presenter and provides valuable information, so I was happy that my school sent me for the third year in a row.

One of Peggy's ideas that excited me was to ask students to tell the name of a book that really hit home with them. Peggy calls these "home run" books and suggested that the baseball tie-in would be great at the end of the school year, when libraries are promoting their summer reading programs. She also asked each of us which book we remember from our childhood as a "home run" book. I immediately thought of Sal Fisher at Girl Scout Camp by Lillian Gardner. Initially I was a bit embarrassed by this choice; I mean, this is not a great classic. But as I remembered the story, I realized why it hit home with me.



As the story opens, Sal is packing up to spend four weeks at Girl Scout camp. She's excited, but nervous. She's taking a big bag of books and her stuffed monkey, but she's still worried that she'll be homesick. And she is. Her older sister is a return camper and occasionally pops up to offer some help or advice, but she's usually off doing her thing and Sal is on her own for the first time in her life. As the back cover blurb promises, there's fun, problems, and surprises. I identified with Sal, was captivated by the problems she faced, intrigued by the wide variety of girls and women she met at camp, and envious of her adventures.

I still have my old copy of this book. I think it's the last one to survive, the others having been lost in my many moves or to the ravages of time. As I fetched it up to look at it again, I was quite charmed to see my handwritten name on the title page, along with the date, 1963. I was twelve when I read Sal's story. All these years later, I still identify with her and I hope that I've gained some of her courage, good humor, and determination.

Quilting with the Fifth Grade

Today the fifth-graders made quilt blocks, and I got to help. Each year they make blocks as part of a unit on a book called The House of Dies Drear, a mystery that features a secret passageway used by the Underground Railroad. In this unit, the classes learn that quilts may have served to provide messages to runaway slaves, and they get to make a quilt block that is later sewn into a quilt. Last year I put the quilt together, but this year I just helped today as the kids made their blocks.

They cut out shapes and glued them down to a background fabric. Most of the kids sewed down their patches by hand, but a few used the one sewing machine that was on hand. They all sewed their button by hand -- quite a feat for kids who generally hadn't ever held a needle before. I think I threaded about a hundred needles, but it was worth it just to see the kids fearlessly cut into their fabrics ........


......and make wonderful blocks like these.



One child brought in some old family quilt blocks to show, including this one from 1936 which used newspaper as a foundation. Pretty cool.

Make way for the Book Fair

My school library is being taken over for the Scholastic Book Fair which runs all next week. When I left late this afternoon, order was beginning to emerge from the chaos of display racks, sales supplies, and advertisements. It was an exciting transformation.

Parent volunteers work with Scholastic to run the fair as a fund raising activity and also a way to promote reading. Besides giving the space, I have few responsibilities. I have just enough room left in my work area to get to my computer, plan to work on the graduation slide show from home, and will take some vacation time. When I'm at school I'll be in a great position to check out what Scholastic is selling and what the kids are buying. And, as a plus, the parents and Scholastic staff are as nice and hard working as they could be. Still, it will be a challenge to work around the fair and to pull the library back together when it's over.

Fetcher has just come up to nestle in behind the computer screen as if to say "What? Why worry? Just chill." He makes me laugh, with his paws sticking out like that!

Why I Love My Job: Delayed Arrival

We woke up to about two inches of snow yesterday, just enough for the schools to open two hours late. Two blissfully unhurried hours to drink coffee, read the newspaper, and make snowflakes and paper masks with Paul. Heaven!

What I Love about my Job: Christmas Decorations

Come on into my library and see our Christmas decorations!

This festive door display was made by my aide, Rhonda, and she also did this pretty display on the white board right next to the door.

Here's what the kids see when they come up to my desk. Rhonda made this cool tree from a phone book. The kids are fascinated by it. They also like the Santa Claus and the little North Pole scene that I put together.

Here's a close up of the North Pole scene, showing the skating rink for Santa's Elves; they go round and round which is fun to watch and the kids think they are very clever when they figure out how it works (magnetic dots under the rink hold the elves in place).

These guys are detectives from the Naughty and Nice Detective Agency, looking for signs that good boys and girls are around. The little piece of paper on the ground is a report card of a child's behavior. Even the more sophisticated eighth graders like to look at all the little details on the North Pole scene.

The whole school is all decked out for Christmas, with each teacher's room reflecting their own style. It's fun to see.

Field Trip

Today I was one of the chaperons for the school's sixth grade field trip to the National Cathedral to represent the school at the annual Episcopal Schools Service. After the service a docent toured our group of sixty kids and five adults around the cathedral. We ate lunch on the buses and then went to the National Gallery of Art where I teamed up with another teacher to take twenty-four students around small portions of the East and West buildings. We enjoyed the glass pyramids that top the below-ground atrium and the light show that enlivens the moving walkway between the two buildings. Later we went into the Spanish armor show and were wowed by the amazing helmets and suits of armor there.

I generally don't like going anywhere with large numbers of people, and traveling with large numbers of kids is especially noisy and chaotic. But given all that, it was a pretty good day.

Story Time Monday ( a bit late!)

The very fact that I could read "Dewey; There's a Cat in the Library" eight times on Monday and still like the book at the end of the day is a real testament to its charm. Dewey was a stray kitten found on the steps of the Spencer Public Library in Iowa and taken in by its librarian, Vicki Myron. As the library's cat he had a lengthy job description which started with "Reducing stress for all humans who pay attention to him" and included "Generating free national and world-wide publicity for Spencer Public Library." This publicity resulted in a book, "Dewey, the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World." It was so popular that a children's version was created. In this version of the story, Dewey at first isn't so sure that he likes being pulled and poked and petted (the wrong way!) by the children who come to the library and tells how he came to realize that he isn't just a "cat in a library" but a "Library Cat" and that part of his job is to "help people." The story is greatly aided by the large and realistic illustrations by Bret Witter which practically leap off the page, especially when viewed on a large screen via the document camera. Some of the pictures made the children laugh out loud and everyone was quite taken by Dewey's ability to make kids in the library --and us-- smile.

Storytime Monday

We've gotten off to a great start with Storytime Mondays this year. The library aide and I have our routine down pat and can now just have fun, so that's what we did. Our storytimes are short --only 15 minutes-- and focus just on reading a good book. There's no time for crafts, etc. though we do open and close with "Hello" and "Goodby" songs and occasionally have a fingerplay or other quick activity. I do the picking and reading of the books, meaning I have a great deal of flexibility in the final presentation. I can change my selections right up to the last minute, allowing me the freedom to always read something I love. I think that passion is picked up by the children.

This week I needed to cheer myself up, so I choose some silly stories to read. Most of the children heard "The Great Pig Search," an amusing story written and illustrated by Eileen Christelow. Do you see the pigs included on the front cover? Well, the farmer who lost these pigs didn't see them and neither did his wife. The two of them go to Florida on vacation where they are surrounded by their escapee pigs, but they don't see them. My four-six year-olds could see them and had a great time hunting for them. As usual, I used the document camera to project the book's images on the big screen, and each child got a chance to come up and point out a "pig in hiding," which they really enjoyed.



The three-year-olds were treated to "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," a funny tale written and illustrated by Mo Willems. They quickly got into the spirit of the book, telling the pigeon "no"rather emphatically each time he came up with a new reason why he should be allowed to drive the bus. I had looked at this book several times in the past two years and decided it was too simplistic to read well. But then I went to a workshop by Judy Freeman where I heard her read a similiar book and realized how effective a "read-aloud" of this kind of book can be.



A sad thing happened on Storytime Day this week. On the way into work I followed a father who was escorting his children into school. They were children I especially liked and I admired how handsome and at ease with each other they all looked together. The dad was in a military uniform and I wondered if he worked at the Pentagon. An hour or so later the library aide told me that she had seen him taking the youngest child into the preschool wing and had heard him tell the child's teacher that he was leaving for Afghanistan that day. As he left the school, the little one burst into tears and clutched his leg. It was so sad and we were both heartbroken for the little one and for the whole family. Later, the solemn little boy came in for Storytime and smiled as he found the hidden pigs. For a moment, anyway, he was diverted from his worries, just as I was, by a good book.

Why I Love My Job: LOL!

Because my creative colleagues made me laugh today when they decorated their mouse and pencil sharpener as part of their "back to school" preparation.

What I love about my job: Thank You Notes

I loved getting this colorful and cute thank you note from the 5th graders for making their quilt.



It opens up to a two page spread of handwritten "thank you" messages, including my favorite, which reads "Thanxs, Mrs. Ison, I'll always be your librarian," written by one of my biggest readers.




I also loved getting this note from the four-year olds, telling me what they liked about "library" (i.e, Story time) this year.



Mrs. Beard's treats are indeed yummy, being tiny little pretzels topped with melted chocolate and a bit of M&M candy or a graham cracker Teddy Bear, depending on the occasion and what Mrs. Beard had on hand. A salty, chocolaty taste that you popped in your mouth and sucked on until it dissolved...hm mm, good!

Story Time Monday

The school year is drawing to a close. Today was the next-to-the-last story time day for most of the preschoolers, and the last for the four-year-olds since they will be on a field trip next week. Working with my new aide this year has made Story Time Mondays especially fun. We make a dynamite team. I do the fun work of picking and reading the books and she does the hard work of keeping both the books and kids in order. What could be better?



This late in the year it gets really hard to pick what to read from the many excellent books available. For the Kindergarten students, I choose Bonny Becker's newly published A Visitor for Bear, a story how Bear and Mouse become friends, despite the "No Visitors Allowed" sign on Bear's door. Judy Freeman (http://www.judyreadsbooks.com/) had featured this book in a her workshop which I attended a few months ago, using two fabulous "voices" for Bear and Mouse. I faithfully copied these voices as I read the book today and the kids are enthralled. Of course I thought it was my acting that had them so captivated but when we talked I realized it was the story itself that had them silently listening and thinking.




The smaller children heard Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion. I love reading this story, in part because it reminds me of Peggy Coughlan, a Specialist in the Children's Literature Center at the Library of Congress where I used to work. Despite having several ailments at the time I knew her, she was a vibrant and friendly woman, always willing to share her vast knowledge of children's stories. When I was looking for first books for Paul I ran into her one day and asked her for some recommendations. She thought for a moment and then said "Don't forget Harry the Dirty Dog; it's been around a while but it's still a great story." She was right and I love remembering her whenever I read this book. It was first published in 1956 but is aging well. The story of how Harry changes from a "white dog with black spots" to a "black dog with white spots" still holds little children's attention. I brought it into the modern age by stopping three quarters the way through to ask questions that got the children to summarize the problem Harry faced and to predict how he would solve it.

And because we had time and I felt like it, I read Bruce Degen's Jamberry, the wildly imaginative celebration of blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries (in that order!)

Working hard at Camp Letts

Ah, what a life! Just to take a minute to sit and watch the water. This didn't last long, though. Most of the past two days I was chaperoning kids while the camp staff taught them neat things like archery, or I was leading an activity myself (such as a crafts or campfire singing), or just generally being the adult around a whole lot of excited ten-year olds. It was fun, interesting, and tiring. I'm back home now, all showered and clean again, and looking forward to a good night's sleep. The girls in my cabin finally got to sleep about 1:00 a.m. last night, only to wake up again at 3:00 for another round of chatting (which we quickly stopped!)

Story time Monday

Another rainy, gloomy Monday for story time. Seemed appropriate for David Shannon's The Rain Came Down, the entertaining tale of how the rain seemed to spread bickering and dissension through the town streets. Until finally, "And then..... the rain stopped..." and a rainbow appears and everyone's good humor comes back. The story opens with the line "The rain came down, which caused the chickens to squawk..." and ends with the chickens picnicking happily in the bright sunshine. In two different classes I got the question, "Which is the chicken?" Clearly we need to read more books about chickens! And we have a wonderful new one to try-- Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken by Kate Dicamillo-- for next time.



I thought David Shannon's book might be over the heads of the three-year-olds, so I read them Mo Willems' new Elephant and Piggie book, I Love My New Toy. It was such fun that I slipped it in to a couple of the older classes as well. Everyone loved this funny and insightful story of how Elephant "breaks" Piggie's new toy, which turns out to be a toy that is meant to break and then snap together again. It was impressive how clearly Piggie identified his (her?) emotions ("I am Mad and Sad!") and how clearly Elephant knew what really mattered ("I want to play with you; friends are more important than toys.") I admit to not knowing Willems' other works (such as the Knuffle Bunny series and the Pigeon series), but I'm going to make a point of exploring them now.

You can see from the covers how different the artwork is in these two books. It's so amazing to me how the styles can vary so greatly and yet be so effective in each book.

Why I love my job, #6: A great space

Ms. Yingling Reads at www.msyinglingreads.blogspot.com is hosting a "Library Design Challenge" through which school librarians can share ideas about how to best use our physical spaces. This topic is really interesting to me. I love my library, but, like most schools, the space is limited and used for many purposes. I'm always looking for better ways to store collections, display books, arrange my work space, and make the whole library more inviting to students and staff.

I work in an independent school that has two campuses. I'm on the middle school/preschool campus, in a building constructed in 1999. The middle school library serves 240 students in grades 5-8 and houses about 8,000 titles. The preschool wing, serving 100 students, was added on as a kind of after-thought, and for a while their books were kept in rolling book bins in the middle school library and rolled down to their classrooms on Story Time days. But now the preschoolers come to the library for story time and their books are always here, still on the movable bins. There are about 1,000 titles for them and another 1,000 for the preschool teachers. (Grades 1-4 are housed about a mile from my campus, in the original school building.)

Here's a general view of one side of the library.




The other side is very similar, with another big window and half wall of shelving. One of the best features is the amount of light the room receives. Above the window you see here is an arched window and a tall peaked ceiling, so the room is light and airy and spacious, even though it is smaller than most school libraries. Another great feature are the desks, which can and are moved around daily in different configurations depending on what's happening. They can be put in clusters for a class, in rows for a test, in a big U-shape for a board meeting, pushed to the sides so the preschoolers can sit in a circle for story time, or even all taken out when we need to sit 60 kids on the floor to watch a video.

On the opposite side of the room there is more shelving and this nice reading area which backs up to the glass wall between the library and the computer lab. The glass door to the lab is often opened and I think of it as part of the library, even though it is manned by a Technology Instructor. The library itself has two computers for students and the lab has twenty-one.

I love the little reading area. It's new and the kids and staff love it, too. When I first saw this little nook it was filled with book trucks. I knew right off that it was perfect for a reading nook. I brought in two chairs and a little table from home and as soon as they were in, kids sat right down and started reading there! I took pictures and emailed them to the finance guy, and he found enough money in the furniture budget to buy these new pieces. The shelves behind the reading nook hold comic books, world record books, magazines, and other popular items, so this area is pretty busy.



One of the challenges is how to display books. There are almost no flat surfaces or wall space. To maximize the few flat surfaces I have, I bought the useful wire display racks you can see in this photo. I also use two shelves for book displays, which you also can see here.



I also have a book display at the circulation desk, which you see here.



One of the challenges of this space is that there was no separation between the staff work space and the rest of the library. Since I wanted that separation and since I had to store some of the collection on book carts, I used the carts as a "wall" between the two spaces. It's not pretty, but it works.



One dream I have is to some day replace these carts with low bookcases that open on both the public and the staff side and which match the rest of the gray shelving.

One last photo to share....the cherry red, highly versatile little book carts I bought last year. In this photo they are being used as a wall, but I frequently use them as "traveling libraries." They go into classrooms when teachers ask to borrow a range of books on a given subject, serve as "book mobiles" when I load them up with a variety of tempting material to roll into the halls and classrooms during the student's morning breaks, and come in handy for all kinds of other temporary and portable purposes. They are the "library on wheels" and I love having them.