Catch Up-Oct. 29

Since school was out this Friday, I decided it would be a good time to update, edit, and review my portfolio as we are only about a month away from turning it in. I went through the required/suggested documents and came across some of these loose fliers in my notebook. There really is no rhyme or reason to them, but I wanted to include them in sort of a miscellaneous blog. The first is a flier I had from last summer when I volunteered in the library. It was helpful to me that they kept the library open so I could both earn hours and complete assignments for my summer classes.

The next document is the Access to Confidential Electronic Information form to be signed by all of the teachers. It highlights what is expected of the teachers and must be signed before any teacher is granted access to this type of personal information.

Next we have the application for e-mail accounts for teachers and staff.

Lastly, I included one of Summer's library surveys to better understand how the library is serving the teachers and students.

Halloween Fun-Oct. 26

The spirit of Halloween is definitely in the air at CPS. The kids were lively and excited, discussing Halloween costumes and where and when they would be trick-or-treating. Friday is also a Teacher Work Day, so they are even more excited to have the three day weekend.

When I arrived this morning, Summer was just finishing up her first class and set me up with a task I have helped her with in the past-alphabetizing the students' Playaway permission slips. It's that time of year again for the students to check out the popular audio books, and it was my responsibility today to make sure every child was accounted for. Here is something that struck me as odd. A few of the parents actually signed the permission slip indicating they DID NOT want their child to be allowed to check out these items! Did they not want to be bothered with it, or did they simply not trust their child to care for the items properly? I'm not sure, but I feel sorry for the kids who will miss out on this neat form of technology. I finished up this task pretty quickly, and once her class was finished, I had a few moments to update Summer on both my portfolio and the in-service presentation scheduled for tomorrow. She helped me find some important documents to add to my portfolio, and together we discussed the plan for tomorrow. I will meet her at 3:00 in the library, and then we will walk down to the 1st grade meeting together. I will present first, and then the teachers will continue on with their meeting. Here is an added bonus: Some of the first grade teachers attended some sort of technology training last week and they received free Flip cameras! This is so perfect considering my presentation for tomorrow involves the Flip camera and how it can be applied to the classroom, media center, etc. Now I know the teachers will definitely be interested!

Summer's next two classes came in after that, and I was able to watch her read Bony Legs to them. She did such an amazing job with this scary story, and the students were completely into it! Also on the agenda for today's classes was to make a "bone" necklace out of yarn and pasta noodles. Unfortunately, each class ran slightly over, and there was not enough time left to make these necklaces. I did make a mental note, however, to buy the supplies for my son's daycare class to make them this week. It's a shame they ran out of time, but maybe one of her other classes this week will have time. I told her to tell me how it turns out. Other than that, I am just preparing for my in-service workshop tomorrow and sweating bullets until it is over. I have never been a big fan of public speaking and presentations, but at least this is a crowd I feel comfortable with. Really, that is half the battle. Wish me luck!

And the award goes to...Oct. 22

I am going to switch gears for this entry and talk about my afternoon in the public library. I have been spending time observing in the children's area at this library, but my blog is specific to my time at Chocowinity Primary School. Having been a slow week at CPS, I decided to blog about my public library time today.

Since I have been in a crazy, hectic, stressed school daze, I decided to make valuable use of my time today and kill two birds with one stone. I have been trying to finish up an assignment for 6135, so I used this opportunity to catch up on some of my reading for that class while observing the activities at Brown Library in Washington. Knowing what books I needed ahead of time, I consulted their OPAC, and then arrived at the library armed and ready with my call numbers. I found the two books, Weedflower and Sophisticated Ladies: The Great Women of Jazz, and took a seat at one of the comfortable reading chairs. Our assignment is to create an annotated list of several award winning elementary and middle school titles, and it is proving to be more challenging than I had expected. Several variables have to match up, and we have to have access to these books. That is where I am having the biggest problem. Brown Library does not exactly have the best selection of titles, and they are not very adamant about people returning books and paying overdue fees. One book I am still trying to find has been overdue since August!

These two books, Weedflower and Sophisticated Ladies, are on the Jane Addams Children's Book Award list and Carter G. Woodson Book Award list, respectively. Since I have some time to kill this afternoon, I plan to read both of these books while observing the library in action. Right now there is not much to report, but I have a feeling things will pick up as the kids get out of school. Stay tuned!

Cataloging-Oct. 15th and 19th

My most recent visits to the library involved cataloging an assortment of books Summer purchased from the book fair. She has been saving this chore for me so I could get some hands on experience with using both Renaissance (for AR reading levels) and Destiny for adding the titles to the library collection. My first step was to add bar codes to the books, and then to add them to the online catalog. I searched each book by title, then clicked on the appropriate search result. After clicking on the title, I was able to enter the bar code number, call number, and purchase price. Once this information was in the system, I clicked on Save Copies, and the titles were stored in the Destiny catalog. The next stop involved capturing the Accelerated Reader information. This time, I searched the titles in AR Bookfinder, then wrote the corresponding information inside of each book (reading level, quiz number, and point values). Some of the books already included the AR information in the catalog MARC record, while others needed to be entered manually. This allowed me the opportunity to practice my MARC skills again! I couldn't believe how much information I actually retained from my cataloging class a few semesters ago! All I needed to add in each case was the 526 tag, or the AR numbers including the grade level, book level, and points.

Once this process was complete for about 20-30 books, it was time to print the AR labels for the front covers. This time I used Renaissance to create the labels. Each title was searched by quiz number, then added to a cumulative list to be printed once all of the titles were added. I printed out the finalized list, then adhered each label to its corresponding book. This was all I had time for today, so I will finish the AR labeling next time (colored tags, AR blue and white labels, and tape). Also, for my next visit I will be shadowing Summer's assistant, Jeannie, as she discusses the Playaways with some of the first and second grade classes. It's never a dull moment in the library!

Closing Up-Oct. 12

Today concluded what has been a very successful fall book fair this year. Upon entering the library this morning, just a few stray buyers were making their final rounds of the book fair, hoping to purchase one last item before the next fair in the spring. Once all students and teachers were done shopping, we began the tedious process of packing everything up to be picked up in the morning. We didn't waste any time, and each of us began tackling an area of the library. This part of the process was much easier than the set-up, and I think we had everything back in boxes in about an hour. Once the boxes were packed up, we disassembled the cashier stations, as well as the pencil/eraser/bookmark stations. In the meantime, Jeannie and Summer began closing the Scholastic shelves back up and locking those together, while I cleared all of the tables of any stray items yet to be packed away. Finally, we moved all tables and chairs back to their original locations, setting all the book fair materials near the back exit of the library. Working together as a team, we had the library back open for business in about two hours. I think it will be nice to be back on the original library schedule, and I can guarantee Summer and Jeannie feel exactly the same way! It has definitely been a long week!

Book Signing-Oct. 7

http://www.wdnweb.com/articles/2010/10/08/news/doc4cad1524af873771161466.txt

Check out the article link above. This was just an added bonus to Family Night at the book fair. I will be sure to mark my calendar for the 16th, so I can get a copy of this book signed by La Tanya!

Family Night-Oct. 7

Family Night at the CPS book fair was a huge hit! The book fair itself was open from 3-6, following a school wide read-in that lasted from about 1:30 to 2:30. I was lucky to get to the school early enough before all of the parking spaces filled up, and judging by the amount of people in the school that afternoon, I think I got there just in the nick of time. It was a mad house! Family members were invited to join their children at school for the read-in and then to visit the library for the book fair. Well, at 2:45 a line was forming outside of the library doors indicating the read-in was over, and everyone was anxious to start shopping. At 2:50, we opened the doors and the people just kept coming in. Luckily we each had our assigned "stations," which helped prevent any confusion among those working the fair. I was helping at the "drawing table," where students would fill out a ticket to win $5.00 towards the book fair. Five names were to be drawn the following morning, and the kids were excited to sign up for a chance to win. During slow periods I would help with bagging, shelving and restocking, or simply straightening up the books on the shelves. I couldn't believe how fast three hours went by! Before I knew it, it was time to close down and head to the gym for Bingo and hotdogs.

Since it was Family Night, I brought along my family, Gary and Gabe. We walked down to the gym, and then purchased our Bingo cards for $3.00 each. After that we headed outside for some hotdogs, chips, and drinks, then took a seat at one of the cafeteria tables. Cards ready to win and stomachs full of hotdogs, we settled in to enjoy a few games of Bingo before heading home for the night. Unfortunately, none of our cards were winning cards, but I know we all had a fun time playing along. Here are just a few pictures from this fun evening:

Master Schedule for the Book Fair

The Book Fair is Here! Oct. 5

The Scholastic Book Fair is officially up and running at Chocowinity Primary this week. I came ready to work Tuesday, as boxes upon boxes were waiting to be unpacked, sorted, and displayed. While this is my third book fair at CPS, this is the first time I was able to come early and help with the set-up. It was fun to witness the behind the scenes action typical of the first book fair day. I remembered to bring my camera, so here are a few before pictures as we were setting out the books/posters/games, etc.



Once we figured out what needed to go where, the process picked up and things began to move more smoothly. I would say all in all it took us about 3 hours to get the book fair ready to open for business. Of course I would have to stop along the way to check out a book or two (or three, or four...), and I was constantly making a mental list of some of the books I wanted to check out for Gabe. There were some wonderful picture books, as well as a few of the superhero books I know would be a big hit with him. I remember doing some Christmas shopping at the book fair last year, and I feel sure I will be doing that again. I am anxious to see the kids' faces when they come in to preview, and even more anxious to see what books are the top sellers this year. Unfortunately, I will miss the first preview day today, but I will be back Thursday and Friday to help with everything. I will bring the camera again to document all of the chaos and confusion that I'm sure will be the case in this media center come Thursday. Here are some final pictures of the book fair, or as I like to call it-the calm before the storm!

No School- Oct. 1

Well, thanks to the torrential rains from the tropical storm this week, Beaufort County Schools are once again closed. That makes two days this week I am missing out on valuable internship hours. At least I know I will have plenty to do at next week's Book Fair, Family Night, and Hotdog Bingo! Stay tuned for pictures documenting all of the festivities next week!