Ending and Beginning

Finished the school year, but I still have some clean up chores to do.  Then in June I will work a month with summer school.  I will supervise the online students.  Eight MS and HS students with a variety of classes.  Spend the past week teaching Bible School.  Had the youngest ones and we had a great time.
This weekend is party time.  The oldest grandson turned 14 - BBQ celebration with family and friends. Looks like it will be a good day for being outside.  Spring is so unpredictable.  We already had a baseball game rained out in the first inning and a softball game postponed.  I will also go to a bridal shower for my youngest who is getting married in August.  Sunday the second grandson is confirmed and we will again celebrate with BBQ and family and friends.
After all this celebration it will be time to start the summer projects.  I want to get a garden in this year.  Fresh vegetables and some cutting flowers.  Big enough for our needs but not so big I get overwhelmed with weed pulling (not a task I enjoy).
I am continuing my Masters program.  There are a number of posts about the resources I looked at and worked with over the past month. The big project is setting up a webpage.  I have a couple ideas for this project, will have to see which is most workable.

Harry and Rosemary Wong Come to Chadron

When I found out Harry and Rosemary Wong were coming to Chadron I didn't think twice about signing up to attend. It didn't matter that it was outside the regular calendar days. I have his book The First Days of School : How to be an effective teacher. They also write a monthly column for Teachers.Net. There were over 700 filling Memorial Hall for the 3 1/2 hour presentation. They came from Valentine, Scottsbluff, Hot Springs, SD and places in between.

The first part was the importance of creating procedures for all the routines of the class. The importance of going over them the first day and practicing them. It reminded me that often the simple things are the most important. The second part of focused on lesson mastery and positive expectation both for the students and yourself

They are enjoyable to listen to, down to earth, and have ideas from other classroom teachers that are OK to "steal." If you every get the chance to hear them -- GO!

READ letters

The READ letters are 15 in. tall and 3 dimensional. They are made of cardboard or papermache product. I painted them black and added literature genre in neon stick-on letters. They are hollow and very light weight. I added some sticky tack to the bottom to keep them in place. (The picture is not the best since I cropped it out of one of the larger ones.)

Almost There

I am almost ready for business. Clean up some shelves. Put up bulletin boards and other decor. Add my library signage (black on yellow cloth banners). Finish my filing-the biggest job. I reused my card catalogs. Yes, I JUST tossed the cards. For those that don't know I am a sole librarian and have been retro-cataloging the collection for about 5 year. The staff at Panhandle Library System gave me help one summer, so it wasn't a total solo job.

This is the view from my desk. Secondary fiction on the left (non fiction out of range), the computer lab, J fiction, E books, and J/E non fiction peeking in on the right. The pole at left of center will be an OPAC station. There should be seating for close to 40 - 20 big people and 20 little.

Here is the reverse view. My desk area, check out computer on the left and return book bins on the right. Behind the door (hiding all my stuff) is a workroom, storage area. Far right is the Secondary Nonfiction.
This is the view as you enter Secondary books on the left, Book Return Bins on the right OPAC straight ahead and the lab beyond that. J and E books to the right. (Fourth and fifth grades are behind the wall of Secondary books.)
The lab now has computers. We have two 20 computer labs and one 12 computer labs in our small school. The four elementary classrooms and the title classroom on this floor have new Smartboards. There are also four in the secondary building. We will all be taking some training next week.
J/E Nonfiction and reference books with the small tables and chairs. (Title and 2/3 grade are behind this wall.)
J fiction and E books (on the shorter shelves) with my READ letters (Thanks Pat Gross for the challenge to make these a few years back.) (First grade in behind this wall.)

Computer Lab Almost Ready

Thought it was time to update my progress. Won't show the library half -- stuff all over the tables waiting for cabinets to get moved around. Been working yesterday and today sorting stuff, sending this here and that there, even some to the circular file. The computer lab is taking shape. We will have 20 machines in the lab. Thanks to maintenance I have 20 matching yellow chairs.

Larel, the tech coordinator, started to set up the machines at the end of the day -- really looks like a lab. I will have a laptop this year and will attach it to an LCD projector. Since I write on the whiteboard to mark things I am projecting that I want the students to remember or look for on their screens; Larel refers to it as my "analog smartboard."

Shelving in, Ready for the books

The shelving from the Mirage Flats school that closed was moved in and painted. It looks like different colors but that is just the light. Very nice shelving - all adjustable. My aide warned me that the shelves don't fit just anywhere so all 10 sections and 60 shelves were marked before they were moved. The Secondary collection will go on these shelves. They are on the east side of the room. The doorway (dark area on the left of the shelving) on this side will be the main entrance for most people.

The rest of the shelving from the Flats and one section from the original elementary shelving is on the south side and will hold the J Fiction. Beyond them are two eight-foot sections of low shelves for the E Fiction. (currently one is hidden behind the folding tables.)

The J/E Non Fiction will be on the west wall in low shelving with rails for displaying student work, posters, etc above.

The middle and the computer lab are still "under construction" and will be until the carpet cleaners come in two weeks. Also need to bring in lab tables and a few things from the Flats. Then move my desk and other stuff from the upstairs library.

Chore Two - Becoming an Opportunity

The new walls have been completed. (Behind the right wall is a classroom like the one on the left which currently is our elementary computer lab. ALL the books are on tables, most covered with plastic to protect them during construction. All the walls are newly painted off white.

Thought at first we could get by with leaving a couple bookcases alone until construction was done. But, ended up emptying ALL the shelves. The last two got a bit jumbled because my aide and I didn't do them. Oh, well.

Chore One complete

Today we finished weeding. It went much faster than anticipated. We have over sixty boxes of books to be transported into town AFTER the shelves are brought in AFTER the new walls are built. With a few exceptions the books will be processed into the system over the next school year.

It is a relief seeing everything ready to go to town or to new homes elsewhere. I did save a few "oldies but goodies" as examples of why a collection needs to be weeded. Hawaii waiting to be the forty-ninth state, etc.

Opportunity or Chore

This summer I will have a great opportunity or a dreadful chore. We have closed our K-8 rural school and made the decision to put all library service in one physical location. The K-12 school currently houses the collection in two locations, one in the HS/MS and one in the elementary. Consequently I am always in the wrong location whenever someone is looking for me.
School is out and I have finished weeded the in town collection. Monday we start on the rural school collection. I have volunteered grandchildren to help.

summer begins

Just had to try Spell with flickr again. Finally got it to work!!
School is out, but inventory is not complete. My garden plot is tilled, but not planted. I have a new computer; upgraded from Windows 2000 to Vista. I have A LOT of relearning to do and I still haven't transferred everything from the old to the new, or downloaded what was on the old. Guess, I better start setting up a new To Do list.