Last Friday was my 6th annual Library Lock-In. Every year I dread it & every year I end up thoroughly enjoying it. Of course I feel like a walking zombie the next day but such are the wages for indulging in educational insanity.
The Library Lock In is the culmination of our Accelerated Reader Program. Earning a ticket in takes 300 AR points, which is the equivalent of reading all 6 Harry Potter books, plus Little Woman and the entire Little House series. That’s some serious reading. This year 4 kids made it - a 5th grade boy & girl, a 4th grade girl and a 3rd grade girl. In the interests of a good time being had by all I told each child they could invite a friend, providing the friend had at least earned an AR T-shirt.
There really was a method to my madness in doubling the number of children – the 4 kids weren’t particularly good friends with each other and I knew they would have a much better time if they had a companion. Most importantly, my fellow teacher chaperone and I would also have a much better time.
A Hail Mary reading push landed 2 other kids a ticket and we were 10. Plus 2 teachers and 1 mouse.
Yes, we had a mouse. That morning; looking out of the corner of my eye, I saw something scamper across the library. Something small and scurrying.
I ask my assistant “Did you see what I just saw”?
“No, what did you see? “
“I think I saw a mouse”
“Yeewwww”
“Good thing the nurse said we could borrow her cots, I don’t think I want to sleep on the floor tonight”.
“Yeap”
The first class trooped in and we forgot all about in the general rush of the morning, especially since it was also AR T-Shirt Day.
Fast forward to the evening. We’ve eaten pizza, run the kids ragged on the playground, done a flashlight tour of the school, decorated and eaten a sugar cookie pizza, hauled out all my puppets and given each kid a laptop. It’s past midnight, the lights are dim and the place is pretty quiet other than the one corner of the computer area where a couple of kids are busy listening to music and playing SpongeBob and M&Ms.
The other teacher & I are sitting at the ciruculation desk with our own laptops and chatting and surfing. Suddenly she looks down.
“I just saw something move”
“You saw what?”
“Something move. It’s under my chair”
“Oh, that’s the mouse”.
“The….”
“Shuuuushhh…do you want complete pandemonium ? “
“What should we do?”
“Roll your chair around a bit and let’s make some noise so we scare it away”.
We do and we see a small shape scuttle off toward the work room.
There really isn’t much one can do about a mouse at 1am in the morning.
Update: The mouse makes numerous appearances during the last week of school. It feasts happily on leftovers from assorted last week of school food fests. Mr. Mouse is seen scurrying from the lounge to the cabinets across the hall. The Assistant Principal chases him with a broom, the teachers start scaring each other by claiming to have seen him and kids take it all in stride. Our building is old with lots of cracks and crannies and we aren’t allowed to use rat poison. Glue traps are considered to traumatic for both children and mice.
If Mr. Mouse can score 90% or better on the TAKS test we’ll keep him.
The Library Lock In is the culmination of our Accelerated Reader Program. Earning a ticket in takes 300 AR points, which is the equivalent of reading all 6 Harry Potter books, plus Little Woman and the entire Little House series. That’s some serious reading. This year 4 kids made it - a 5th grade boy & girl, a 4th grade girl and a 3rd grade girl. In the interests of a good time being had by all I told each child they could invite a friend, providing the friend had at least earned an AR T-shirt.
There really was a method to my madness in doubling the number of children – the 4 kids weren’t particularly good friends with each other and I knew they would have a much better time if they had a companion. Most importantly, my fellow teacher chaperone and I would also have a much better time.
A Hail Mary reading push landed 2 other kids a ticket and we were 10. Plus 2 teachers and 1 mouse.
Yes, we had a mouse. That morning; looking out of the corner of my eye, I saw something scamper across the library. Something small and scurrying.
I ask my assistant “Did you see what I just saw”?
“No, what did you see? “
“I think I saw a mouse”
“Yeewwww”
“Good thing the nurse said we could borrow her cots, I don’t think I want to sleep on the floor tonight”.
“Yeap”
The first class trooped in and we forgot all about in the general rush of the morning, especially since it was also AR T-Shirt Day.
Fast forward to the evening. We’ve eaten pizza, run the kids ragged on the playground, done a flashlight tour of the school, decorated and eaten a sugar cookie pizza, hauled out all my puppets and given each kid a laptop. It’s past midnight, the lights are dim and the place is pretty quiet other than the one corner of the computer area where a couple of kids are busy listening to music and playing SpongeBob and M&Ms.
The other teacher & I are sitting at the ciruculation desk with our own laptops and chatting and surfing. Suddenly she looks down.
“I just saw something move”
“You saw what?”
“Something move. It’s under my chair”
“Oh, that’s the mouse”.
“The….”
“Shuuuushhh…do you want complete pandemonium ? “
“What should we do?”
“Roll your chair around a bit and let’s make some noise so we scare it away”.
We do and we see a small shape scuttle off toward the work room.
There really isn’t much one can do about a mouse at 1am in the morning.
Update: The mouse makes numerous appearances during the last week of school. It feasts happily on leftovers from assorted last week of school food fests. Mr. Mouse is seen scurrying from the lounge to the cabinets across the hall. The Assistant Principal chases him with a broom, the teachers start scaring each other by claiming to have seen him and kids take it all in stride. Our building is old with lots of cracks and crannies and we aren’t allowed to use rat poison. Glue traps are considered to traumatic for both children and mice.
If Mr. Mouse can score 90% or better on the TAKS test we’ll keep him.
3 comments:
Bet the mouse could do it since he's been hanging out in your library!!!
Hip, hip, hooray, another school year is finsihed. :)
I think it's ironic that our last day of school was Thursday and down came the rain on Friday!
Enjoy your well-earned vacation!
Adios,
butterfly angel
Hooray for the mouse!
More importantly.........HooRAY for YOU!
The only thing better than the first day of school...is the last.
Have a great summer. At least everything's been watered!
What a mouse!!! Only from your library girl, only from yours!!!
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