13 Things I Need to Do to Get the Library Ready ...for The First Day of School

1. Create the AR incentive charts
2. Unpack the stuffed animals
3. Catalog all the books I found at the thrift stores & garage sales this summer
4. Update my Calendar
5. Change out all the flags
6. Put together the library schedule
7. Create a fall library display
8. Dust!
9. Plan the teacher’s book preview and food fest
10. Lesson plans for the first 3 weeks
11. Finish my Activ-Board FlipChart
12. Lay in a supply of food to bring for lunch.
13. Find the alarm clock!

Summer is over...Whahhhhhhhhhhhhh

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Unmentionable Thoughts

Thoughts that flitted through my mind last week while spending enforced time with someone who had a bit to much to contribute:

After the first hour - sore throat
After the second hour -laryngitis
After the third hour - transparent tape
After the fourth hour - duct tape
After the fifth hour - strep throat
After the sixth hour - a thought that should not be commited to cyberspace

A Welcoming Environment?

First day back on duty; and as always it was spent in an all day library meeting. Theme for the year is connecting with students and being extra careful to ensure that the libraries feel friendly and welcoming.

Other topics of discussion - Web 2.0, social networks, blogs, wikis, pod casts and all the other new technologies the digital native use to keep in touch. I know that sooner or later the terms "real life connection" or "real world connection" will pepper an in service.

Meeting is held in a high school library. Above every computer is a large sign stating :

"NO E-MAIL"
"NO MUSIC"
"NO VIDEO"


Perhaps the meeting should of been entitled :

13 Goals I Didn't Attain This Summer

1. Lose 20 lbs
2. Exercise 3x a week (hence the failure of #1)
3. Clean out the closet under the stairs
4. List the back log of books in the garage
5. Re-do the front porch window boxes (60 days of rain)
6. Blog at least 3x a week
7. Plan all my lessons for the entire school year
8. Go to school and get the cataloging backlog caught up
9. Write an article for Library Sparks
10. Write an article for BookThink
11. Wax the floors (ugh)
12. Re-organize all 600+ Amazon books (halfway done!)
13. Get my checkbook balanced (I hate numbers!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

13 Reasons Why Today was a Very Good Day

I sold a $650 book. It arrived safely and the buyer is happy. Yeah for hitting a new new high dollar book selling goal

I spent a good bit of the afternoon sitting in Cricket’s Creamery lost in a new book. Yeah for Beth Gutcheon. Must find some more of her books.

I arrived home to find I’d sold a $100 & $150 book. Yeah for making money while reading.

I thought my scanner was broken. The Socket Scan folks sent me a patch and it’s fixed. Yeah for technical support that works.

I had a facial today. My skin feels wonderful and I’m still feeling relaxed. Yeah for being pampered!

It poured late in the afternoon and I was safely home as opposed to being stuck in traffic.
I love a rainy day- providing I’m home! Yeah for summer break.

I found a copy of the Rich Dad/ Poor Dad Cashflow game at the Goodwill for $1.99. I sold it last night on E-bay for $170. Yeah for E-bay.

The house is clean & I didn’t have to do it – yesterday was cleaning people day. Yeah for them!

I put out 3 different things for Freecycle and every one of them was picked up. Yeah for stuff moving on to a new home.

I now own one of my Holy Grails of books -an ex-library copy of Carney’s House Party. It’s just like the copy I read as a child & I got it a steal of a price on E-bay. Yeah for finding a Holy Grail.

I may actually make my elusive and never attained bookselling goal this month. Yeah for Art of Books.

I found a barely used pair of Ann Taylor brown shoes at the thrift. Yeah for my feet not hurting!

I have another book that’s just as engrossing as the one I just finished. Yeah for summer reading and Linda Francis Lee.


Now if I didn’t have to go back to work in 2 weeks life would be absolutely perfect. But then who said life was perfect?

Click Here to read other Thursday 13 Lists

Life As Seen by ESPN

It’s been an all ESPN sort of day at my house (My Beloved is home with a virus).

ESPN operates from a slightly different universe than the rest of us frequent.

A comment on the unfolding NBA Gambling Scandal: “This is an international incident”

Hum, if a corrupt NBA official is an “international incident” what does that make the War in Iraq? An international catastrophe perhaps?

NFL is investigating whether Michael Vick of the Atlantic Falcons has violated the leagues “Personal Conduct Code”. Seems they aren’t sure because the lawyers never thought to include a clause regarding the torture of dogs. Guess they thought nobody would be so stupid, so heartless and so cruel. Hopefully the code will be amended.

Whether Michael Vick returns to play another day is still under discussion. Cynical me thinks he will, because in the mind of the NFL wining touchdowns trumps dead dogs any day.

Let's hope that for once professional sports does the right thing.

Orlando

We’re now in Southern Orlando, some two miles from the Land of the Mouse and the Pond of Shamu. The area is wall to wall hotels, motels and restaurants. It’s an area where everyone is transient and nobody lives, they come only to stay.

We are at a sprawling hotel & event center complex, chosen partly for it’s golf courses and partly for it proximity to the Mickey, Goofy et. al.

The hotel is chock a bock with people. Conventioneers mingle with tourist families. It’s pretty easy tell them apart – the conventioneers wear big badges around their necks and the tourists wear sunburns and mouse ears.

Odd Sights:

Children hang out in cocktail lounges – and treat it like a playground.

People walk through the lobby in swimsuits that really need a cover- up of some sort. Wobbling butt cheeks are not a particularly attractive sight. It really isn’t necessary to be a walking advertisement for the rampant obesity in this country.

Each drink costs about $10, the lounge seats about 100 – just how much money does it rake in between in the hours of 4 pm & 8pm?

If every child who goes to Disney World buys a set of ears, who many ears are sold each day? How much does Disney make on said ears? How much do the sweat shop employees in China earn who make them? I suspect the former is much, much more than the latter!

Tattoos are not for bikers any longer. None the less, they are not an attractive sight on women who are budging out of their skimpy tops. Tattoos aren’t meant to stretch.

Only in Disney World would you see small children eating a $20 hotdog at a 4 Star restaurant at 10pm.

This hotel, like all the other abounds with minions. Where do they live? Do they ever resent having to wait on people who spend the equivalent of one weeks salary on dinner and drinks?

Thrifting

The thrifting in the small towns around The Villages (always spelled with a

capital T) is prime. These tiny towns abound in Thrift Stores – Belleview has 4,000 people and 8 Thrift stores. There aren’t the “for profit” with the corresponding high prices thrift stores like Savers and Family Thrift, these are Little Old Lady thrifts in the best and vanishing sense of the world. In one day I paid a visit to St. Jude, St. Phillip and St. Theresa. They are clean, nicely organized and the prices are from a by gone era. At most of them books were only a quarter and the highest I ever paid was a $1. It’s a far cry from Houston and the $4.94 & 6.96 prices I’m accustomed to seeing at Family Thrift.

Even the Goodwill was reasonable – all the books were $1.99, with of course the exception of what they consider “Better Books”. Luckily, their idea of better books is radically different than mine. Better Books consisted of some dreary copies of old People’s Book Club Books and some hardback classics with nothing to distinguish them from thousands of other hardback classics.

I struck gold in the “ordinary” books – a definitive book on Irish Wolfhounds and another on Worchester Pottery. The first was courtesy of MediaScouter, the latter from my own brain. Naturally, the latter was the most satisfying, though the former will bring in a bit more money.

The Villages does not allow estate or garage sales – that’s another reason I wouldn’t want to live there – so guess the only outlet for excess stuff is a thrift store. So many people come to the Villages with nothing more in mind that playing golf till they go on to the Great Golf Course in the Sky so there stuff has to end up somewhere. The Great Golf Course in the Sky comes with an eternal supply of everything one could ever need!

The Villages - Florida's Friendliest Hometown

My Beloved is playing a golf tournament and I came along to check out the local thrifts.

Our destination is The Villages – an “Active Lifestyle” community. Think Sun City, only with Live Oaks and Spanish Moss as opposed to sand and cactus. The other major difference is that Sun City is now adjacent to the city of Phoenix, The Villages are an entity unto themselves.

It’s a series of master planned, gated communities ten minutes south of the town of Belleview (population 4,000) and 10 north of Lessburg (population 19.,000). The Villages residents number over 50,000 – and over 60 % of those residents are over the age of 65. 98% of them are also Anglo. The residents have an annual income that is more the twice the annual average of the surrounding towns. To say that The Villages have Clout with a captital C is an understatement.

It reminds of Main Street at Disney World. It’s picture perfect world, small town living in a “It’s a Wonderful Life, meets Leave to Beaver, meets Father Knows Best” sort of word. The sort of world that really doesn’t and has never existed but the powers that be have done their very best to replicate it, smack dab in the middle of central Florida.

The main street is named what else - “Main Street”. There is town square surrounded by shops, all with outdoor cafes and lots of little boutiquey like stores.
Within the Villages golf carts are the preferred mode of transportation – there are special golf cart lanes, golf cart parking and golf cart garages. Each golf cart is lovingly detailed and customized. IT gives new meaning to the phrase "Pimp My Ride".

No only are these used on the many, many golf courses, they are also used to get around. Unlike a real small town, where people walked, The Villages are in reality a series of sprawling suburbs, complete with cul de sacs, long winding roads and very few through streets. Even when one tries to walk in The Villages one finds one can’t. The sidewalks are more for show than actual foot power. I tried to walk to the town square from our hotel and found that I kept having to cut through parking lots or walk on the grass as the sidewalks abruptly petered out.

Just outside The Villages, on Hwy27 is the shopping area – also golf cart accessible ,color coded and appearance mandated within an inch of it’s life. The Wendy’s looks like the McDonalds which looks like the Publix. All the restaurants are national chains – no funky little dive on a shoestring budget could ever afford to open up in a place like this. The stores are all part of national chains too – again only a deep pocket national retailer could afford the start up costs necessary to blend in. Eye sores, funky chic, shabby chic, one of a kind and individuality are not allowed.

The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit has migrated to The Villages. He’s traded in his suit for a golf shirt but otherwise his life is hasn’t changed a bit. Life is safe, bland and oh so well planned out. In a way it’s like High School all over again, those who fit in are happy as can be, the lone wolves must be leading lives of quiet desperation.

Me, I’m a lone wolf who would never make it in a place like this.

8 Things About Me

MS Watsit tagged me with a meme that's making the rounds - 8 Things About Me. I like memes, especially when my brain isn't feeling very original. We've had 39 Days and Night of what seems like nonstop rain and I think my brain is growing mold.

1. I haven't read all the Harry Potter books. I started the first one and just couldn't get into it. Fantasy just doesn't ring my chimes. This may get me drummed out of the ranks of librarianship but I am not going to be standing in a bookstore line at midnight eagerly awaiting the latest installment. I do have multiple copies in my school library for all the kids who do adore it. Every now and then a child will admit they didn't like HP and I whisper to them that I don't either and we have a bonding moment

2. I've always wanted to live in London - not just visit but live there for a couple of months. One of my favorite quotes comes from Helen Hanff's 84 Charing Cross Road, "I told him I'd go looking for the England for English literature, and he said: "Then it's there." I know when I go it will be there - The Victoria & Albert, Madame's Ballet School and of course 84 Charing Cross Road.

3. I love to cook and I'm good at it - something which often amazes folks. I think it's because I'm also good with computers. It seems like people who have an aptitude for one aren't supposed to have an aptitude for the other.

4. I can't "just watch TV". I have to be doing something else at the same time. I inherited that from my mother who always knit while watching TV.

5. If I had my way I would not own a car. I hate to drive. I love cities with good mass transit. And I live in one of the most auto dependent cities in the country. Go figure.

6. Between pushing books on kids and selling books to others I rarely have time to read myself.
The cobbler's children go barefoot.

7. I get great satisfaction from throwing stuff out. During the summer I always clean out closets. Voluntarily.

8. I haven't been to a movie in a movie theater in over a year. But I love my Netflix subscription.

Here are the tagging rules. Have fun.
1. Let others know who tagged you.
2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged

Now do I know 8 other people who haven't been tagged - this one has been around for a bit?
Let's see.....

CLM, because she has a brand new blog
ApronThriftGirl - a new friend from the Booksellers Group
VWB - just to see what her caustic pen will do with a meme
The Library Lady....because she loves to rant... and does it with style
The Librarian Philosopher.....I do love to rattle his cage - and he always takes it with smile.
The Library Girl ...whose posts are as random as mine
The Bookworm ...who skins a mean blog when she's not reading
Elsewhere - I'd like to hear 8 random things about her new life

There's One for the Rich...and Another for the Rest of Us

The Shrub commuted Scooter Libby 's prison sentence today. It was "to harsh". Bush's popularity ratings are so low that I guess he figured they couldn't go any lower so why wait till after the elections.

One thing we can say about Georgie Boy, he's loyal to his friends - or perhaps I should say Cheney is loyal to his friends. If Cheney wants it, Bush obliges him.

Halliburton's quarterlies not looking so good?
"Don't worry, Dick old Buddy , I'll make sure they get a sweetheart deal in Iraq"

Libby doesn't look good in stripes?
"Don't worry, Dick old Buddy, I'm the President, I'll take care of it"

Just think, if Paris had played nice with Dickie boy she wouldn't of had to go to prison either.

And in the meantime, it's very apparent that there is one set of rules for the rich and well connected and for the rest of us peons

13 Things about Thrift Shops

Thirteen Things about Thrift Stores 1. Child having a tantrum 2. Several small children making a mess of the toy area with no parent in sight 3. A woman chatting so loudly on her cell phone that the rest of us know way more about her love life than we want to! 4. Multiple copies of "What to Expect When You're Expecting" 5. Several woman who are already expecting 6. A Singing Billy Bass (may or may not work) - not that anyone cares 7. Someone plaintively asking if there is a bathroom (there never is) 8. A pervasive smell of sweat and mothballs 9. Last years fad holiday gift - Blooming Onion makers are no longer all the rage 10. A Clear Channel Communication radio station - and during the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas it's Christmas Carols 24/7 11. Zillions of Beanie Babies - the bubble burst on those long ago 12. Numerous customers in need of a wardrobe makeover - and a good dentist 13. Treasure! Such as the 13 Leather Bound Franklin Signed First Edition books I found today Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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What Kind of Reader are You?

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Non-Reader
Fad Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

Do these results surprise anyone?

Brain on Over Load and Over Drive

Spent aay to much time hunched over one computer or another this past week. Among my summer plans was to down load and start using Art of Books. Thanks my scanner and some good garage sales and thrift store runs book inventory is up by 1/3 and my sales are too. That’s a very good thing, but getting the books packed up and shipped out is taking more and more time. Enter Art of Books, a combined listing, packing and when paired with Endicia shipping program. Excellent solfware but a killer learning curve. The Endicia / AOB shipping pairing spits out professional looking labels in the blink of an eye but somehow I can’t seem to get all the steps down in the correct order. This morning’s snafu resulted in triple printed labels. Good thing Endicia gives postage refunds!

Education, in an attempt to capture the attention of the video game generation is becoming more interactive. A chalk board and an over head projector just don’t cut it any more. Enter Promethean , the educational version of a the Smartboard. Very interesting – a Promethean board is akin to an interactive PowerPoint presentation on Speed but overwhelming to say the least.

After 15+ years of new technology becoming old technology and being replaced my newer technology (even though the original new technology has never been taken out of the box.) the district has finally realized that folks need to be held accountable. The district is investing some very serious dollars in the technology and if you want to play, you have to go to training.
So, this time nobody gets the laptop necessary to run their gizmo till they attend training and nobody gets credit (necessary for continuing education) till they complete a “homework” project and bring it the advanced training.

Never being one to turn my nose up at a new piece of technology I dutifully took myself off to an all day training session. Great fun, but so much to comprehend in such a short time. I lucked into a small class – only 3 of us, and a class where all of us were already computer literate and it was still to much to absorb. New terms, new techniques and new methods all coming at me at warp speed.

Note to Self: Don’t ever try to master 3 new software programs in the course of one week. Especially after the age of 50. There just aren’t enough brain cells left to cope.

Learning While Playing.

Just as in most professions, teachers must garner continuing education credits. However, unlike Doctors who get to go to Hawaii and sip all expense paid by the pharmaceutical companies mojitas by the pool, we gather in a converted high school and drink coffee out of paper cups.

We used to have no choice as to what we were going to be educated in. That made for some worthless experiences. In my 16 years, I've had to suffer through everything from "how to make a bulb work using a battery and wires' to watching a talking head with a bad toupee give a canned motivation speech. A couple of years ago someone in administration finally figured out that if we were allowed to select what we wanted to learn we might not only actually learn something but also be a better audience. Teachers are notorious for inattentive and rude behavior when they are the student rather than the teacher.

This past week groups of librarians and teachers gathered together with the folks from library media services at the annual Summer Integration Academy. The goal is to create "technology rich lessons" and foster teacher / librarian collaboration . We started with a crash course in various programs and web tools - blogs, Inspiration, Kidspiration, databases on the Library Research page, streaming video, film editing and more – the brain is on overload.

It's been great fun. The levels of knowledge range from “ how do I turn it on” to semi expert, however everyone learns something new. It's also joyfully informal yet most professional, no assigned seats no "turn to your neighbor" and no cutesy, wootsey, bonding activities. We even get to go out to lunch like worker bees in the real world. It doesn't take much to make a teacher happy.

The created lessons; actually they are full blown units range from Nutrition to Greek Mythology to American Historical Figures to classroom rules to job interviews to the water cycle for bi-lingual second graders. All the lessons are posted on a website so that everyone in the district has access.

The class has many objectives - increasing librarian & teacher cooperation, replacing pencil and paper activities with computer related activities and replacing the traditional paper or report with a PowerPoint, a pod cast - anything other than a paper purchased from an online term paper company. After 3 days of intense work we all present our lessons. It's amazing to watch the transformation- what was a nebulous idea on Monday crystallizes are a full blown unit, complete with lesson plans, film clips, PowerPoints, rubrics for grading, blogs, student activities and follow up activities. TEKS and TAKS objectives are integrated and we even have differentiated activities for the students at the Special Ed and the Gifted/Talented end of the spectrum.

The teachers range from second grade to high school so we have a wide range of abilities. Technology a great leveler - it's amazing how I can adapt a high school lesson on nutrition and share it with our school nurse for her Housman Health Club or a 10th grade speech lesson for our own annual career day.

After each presentation, there are informal comments and suggestions. We all learn from each other and make mental notes of how we're going to adapt each lesson to our own schools and situations.

This is what teacher ed should be, unfortunately, it rarely is.

How Not to Have a Garage Sale

Standard garage sale ad: Moving, books, clothes, furniture, household items and so on and so forth.

Location: Very up scale part of town where the cute bungalows are losing the battle to the brick MacMansions. Large corner lot, where it is apparent brick had triumphed over wood shingles.
A favorite haunt of serious garage sale shoppers who are not to be trifled with

We pull up at 7:45. The doors to the triple (told you brick was triumphant) garage door are shut tight. A crowd has already gathered and we recognize several folks we’d seen at earlier garage sales. At 7:55 a car pulls into the driveway, almost mowing down a few of the early birds, and a woman gets out.

“It doesn’t start till 9, I made a mistake in the ad”.

Incredulous looks from the masses – garage sale rules are such that 8 means 7 and if the ad lists the wrong time you go with the flow. Etiquette also says that you don’t park in your own driveway if you are hosting the sale. Nor run over your customers.

“Let me get things organized and I”ll start the sale”

The throng is stunned into silence.

She opens the garage door and the horde, not believing her streams on in. She closes it, almost decapitating a few of them in the process.

After about 10 minutes the doors open up again. The teaming masses; who are by now whipped into a frenzy once again rushthe doors and start to grab at everthing they see. Again, garage sale rules are that if it’s in the front of the garage it must be for sale. Rejects litter the driveway and people start to squirrel little heaps here and there.

“Get out”
“Put that down”
“That’s not for sale”
“I’m not ready to start the sale”
“I need to close the doors and get ready”
“I need to ask you to get out of the garage”

Everyone ignores her. Finally, she once again lowers the doors and people scramble for safety.
.
We; by the way are standing to the side, not quite believing what we’re seeing.
It’s like watching a very bad Fellini film.

The doors open again. It’s apparent she has nothing sorted nor are things priced. For sale items are right next to not for sale items and there isn’t any way to tell them apart. Stuff is strewn all about the driveway, which is also sprinkled with broken grass from toppled vases.
.
We shake our heads and depart, leaving the women to her customers – or perhaps her vultures.

I suspect Marie Antoinette felt much the same way when the Paris mob stormed the palace.

Random Musings on the First Day of Summer Vacation

Well, it’s Saturday which would be a day off anyway; however yesterday was THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL, which makes today the first day of summer vacation. It is every teacher’s goal to make it through the year to this particular nirvana.

Garage Sales were pathetic today. Last week The Goddess of Garage Sales and the Diva of Thrift Stores rewarded my sacrifice of the Library Lock In and sent wonderful finds my way. This weekend they took them all back. I came home 3 books and some books for school. Hopefully the Goddess and the Diva noted that I spent $10 on 12 books for the library and will reward me next weekend. Garage sale shoppers are perpetual optimists.

It rained all over the state of Texas today, including here and in Dallas which was hosting a major golf tournament. The commentators on the Golf Channel can blather on for 30 minutes on the arcane topic of water in the bunkers. Who knew it was a topic of such fascination? Yawn

I dusted off my blog & cleaned up my Blog Roll. Deleted inert blogs. Wrote some posts. Caught up and commented on some of my favorites. Need to find some more favorites. Productive

Cooked a real dinner! Oven roasted potatoes, carrots and onions with fresh rosemary, sausage and blueberry muffins. Yum.

Sold some books. In fact; I sold a record number of books this week. That’s a good thing – there is a wedding in daughter #2’s future. $$$$$

Of course that means I get to spend tomorrow packing up said books. Boring.

Best of all, for the next 60 days I don’t have to pack a lunch! Celebration!

Everything was Stirring.....Even the Mouse

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.

AR T-Shirt Day

AR is one of the major cogs of our reading program. While it is controversial in the library world, it’s a great motivator, especially with low income students who need lots of instant gratification. The culmination of our year is always AR T Shirt Day which comes round toward the middle of May.

It’s the day when every child who has earned a T-Shirt shows up wearing it and the day passes in a round of celebrations and general silliness & chaos. It takes either 50 or 100 points to earn a shirt, which means reading at least 50 books. I gave out 90 shirts this year – not to shabby a statistic for a school with 600 kids (K-5) that’s Title 1 and all that accompanies that Federal Moniker.

Among the many objectives of AR T-shirt day is that, the children who didn’t earn a shirt this year will be inspired to set that as their goal (goal setting is another objective) next year.

Luckily, the district always schedules a half day for teacher conferences. Nothing much ever gets done on a half day when there are only 5 days left in the school year so it’s a perfect time to schedule something that is totally disruptive.

We start the day by sticking stickers on every shirt we see. The goal quickly becomes ‘How many different stickers can I collect?”. Since only kids with T-shirts can have stickers, there is also an element of exclusivity. Human nature being what it is, there is something special about having something that someone else can’t have!

Every 30 minutes or so I get on the intercom and call the kids down to the library for a treat. This year I supplied Flaming Hot Cheetos, PowerAide, erasers, pencils, Snow cones and popcorn.

I had great fun with the popcorn. I spent the week prior to telling the kids that we were going to have something at AR T-Shirt day that everyone would want but only kids with T-Shirts could have. Told them that they would use one of their 5 senses to figure out what it was and that it wouldn’t be sight or hearing. It worked too, by the time the morning was over the irresistible scent of hot popcorn had wafted all the way to the back of the building.

Texas is the state where football is king. Schools halt classes to celebrate a championship team. Academics and the kids who shine at bookish endeavors almost always come in a poor second when compared to the mighty pigskin.

Not so, at my school –on one Friday in May the children who have done their reading homework all year are the center of attention, praised, and feted.

Oh, were that it was that way at every school.

Throw Away Children

No Child Left Behind seems to be based on the premise that all children are created equal. While that is what the Decoration of Independence says, it’s not really grounded in the reality that we see and deal with on a daily basis.

Case in point – a family of 3 children, A, B & C. A is 9, severely emotionally disturbed, academically very low and also possess a most unpleasant personality. His teacher, who has taught for 30 years proclaims him as one of the most dysfunctional students she’s ever encountered. B who is 6 & C who is 5 have the same mother as A but a different father. That fact is readily apparent since A is Caucasian while his half siblings are of mixed race. Both B & C are also very low academically and emotionally disturbed. They aren’t quite in as bad shape as A but then they are younger.

They arrive at mid year, and we are their 3rd school. They quickly become legends in their time and after a couple of months their mother withdraws them. Two months later, much to the dismay of all they return. By now they are on their 5th school in the space of one school year

Little by little, the story unfolds. Mother has a new man who has a criminal record and uses drugs. Mother and Man have left the city, leaving the children with the paternal grandparents of A. Paternal grandparents have no blood ties to B & C.

Grandparents try to cope and can’t so they insist their son take A. Son of course wants nothing to do with B & C since they aren’t his children. A is withdrawn and goes on to school # 6. B & C enter the wasteland known as the Texas Foster Care System. They too will go on to school #6 and possibly #7.

The chances of B & C being adopted or finding a permanent foster family are slim. They aren’t particularly attractive children (that does make a difference) nor are they particularly pleasant or enjoyable to be around. They just don’t have that “spark” that makes one mongrel puppy stand out from the rest of the litter. There are so many holes in their souls that they drain everyone around them dry trying to fill them up.

And some how the Shrub that is our President holds these children, the teachers who teach them and the schools they attend to the very same standard as schools where the children come from a stable family and with every advantage money can buy.

You’d think that his wife, who is a former teacher would have explained this to him. But perhaps she only taught at schools whose children were just like hers so she has no more clue that he has about the “other world” that is out there.

Wonder What He'll Say..

Jerry Falwell died today. While I am sorry for his family who I assume loved him and will miss him I must admit I'm not sorry and I won't miss him. Well, I'll miss his absurd statements and his insistence that he had a private phone line to God but I think the world can do without his bigotry and small minded opinions.

I am quite sure he was convinced that not only did he have a private line to God, he also had a one way ticket to heaven.

What do you think his reaction will be when he finds that heaven is populated with Gays, Feminists, People who died of AIDs, People of Color, Democrats, Divorced Women, Jews, and many other represenatives of the groups that he blamed for all of America's ills.

Do you think he'll request a transfer?

P.S. My favorite quote on his death "Praise the Lard".

The Best Mother's Day Present Ever

I received two of the best possible Mother’s Day presents ever this weekend.

Daughter #1 has a new job complete with a large increase in salary. In fact, Daughter #1, at the age of almost 25 will be earning as much as her mother. That’s both exciting and depressing considering that I have 30 years of experience in my chosen but underpaid profession of teaching. She wasn’t even looking, a friend who went to work for the new employer recommended her.

Those are the best sort of job changes. She a web site graphics designer – not exactly, what she studied in college but she’s obviously very good at it.

Daughter #2 is engaged to the young man she brought home at Christmas. We found him delightful and we’re all very, very happy with the news. It was a romantic proposal - on the beach and he got down on one knee. He really is a keeper. No wedding date or place yet but I wonder if Disneyworld won’t be factored into the equation sometime in the near future.

Feed Them & They Will Wear Their Glasses..

....for a little while.

I had glasses as a child (still do) as do my own children. We were obsessed with those glasses, I made sure they wore them every day and I had a spare pair for each child. Wearing glasses meant they could see the board and that meant good grades. It was simple. They would have no more not worn their glasses to school than they would have attended school barefoot.

I used to think all parents thought the same way. Wrong. Not all parents do.
We struggle daily to ensure our kids have glasses and once they get them, wear them. Sometimes we get parental cooperation and oftentimes we don’t.

So we resort to nagging, asking, clinic referrals and bribery. Yes, I admit it, we bribe kids to wear their glasses- brownies are the current bribe of choice.

We sprung a surprise 20/20 Day on the kids. I dreamed up 20/20 day last year – children who wore their glasses to school were invited to bring their lunch to the library. We papered the school with signs and talked it up big time. God Bless Barbara Parks for giving Junie B. Jones glasses too. It was such a success we did it again last fall.

Last week we did it for a 3rd time – with a sneaky twist. No advance notice. I got on the intercom and announced that today was 20/20 Day. Glasses were whipped from the backpacks and flew onto noses. Of course, once lunch was over they went right back into the backpacks.

So next year we are going to take sneaky to another level. No prior notice, no morning announcement. We’re going to stand in the cafeteria and catch the kids coming out of the lunch lines.

Are we masters at covert operations or what?

Yes, We Have Some Bananas

To: Food Services
From: Overworked Cafeteria Monitors

Subject: Bananas

Please don't put bananas on the school lunch menu any more. Do you know what hormone fueled, overly informed 5th grade boys who have less than 20 days of school do when given a banana? Let us just say that turning the fruit into a gun was the least offensive of the activities done at lunch time today. As for what else they did, well have you ever seen a demonstration of safe sex? Enough said.

Net Nannie No Habla Espanol

My district, like so many other public school systems has internet filters in place. They are supposed to protect the youth from seeing sights unfit for innocent eyes and prevent the employees from shopping on E-bay or indulging in on betting when they should be working.

Our IT department switched to what was supposed to be a new and better filtering system than the one we used the prior school year. Our IT department is always switching to something that is supposed to be new and better. A year later, they decide it isn’t really new and better and switch to something else. It’s their version of The Search for the Holy Grail.

For some reason this years new and better version blocks access to author’s websites and any number of other sites I want to use to illustrate a lesson, yet lets the most prurient of e-mails sail right on in. We’re bombarded daily with offers to increase the size of a specific male organ. Considering that, the majority of elementary school teachers are women these aren’t of any particular interest to anyone.

Today, one of our students, a second grader who is one of the Assistant Principal’s frequent flyers managed to pull up a very graphic porn site in the lab. He did it deliberately, he knew exactly what he was doing and it was obvious he knew the URL and was familiar with the contents of the site.

Of course the first thing that came to mind was “how did he get through the filters?”. It turned out that while the child is bi-lingual Net Nannie isn’t. Child typed in the URL for a Spanish Porn Site. Wanting to prove it, I made sure the library was empty and while my assistant guarded the door I typed in the the only inappropriate Spanish term I knew. Up popped some sites that had no educational or moral value at all. It was apparent that they were frequented by people who had great interest in a certain male organ.

Once we figured that out, the next thought that came to mind is, who is showing the child this site and just what is going on at home? Scary, isnt’ it? The counselor is investigating.

The last month of school is always a trial but this year appears to be starting out at a new low.

Happy Dance

More of the Taks scores (The Test) arrived today. The 5th grade math . 93% passing! Third grade reading - 98% passing! 3rd grade math was equally impressive. Our last big hurdle is 5th grade science - D-Day or Test Day is this Thursday.

With a little luck - and a great deal of bone crushing work we'll be Exemplary again. Given our population and their mobility that is nothing short of miraculous.

The More You Feed Them, The More They Read

Fourth grade is one of those make or break grades. It becomes sadly apparent who has college potential and whose career will peak with the phrase “and do you want fries with that?”

It’s sad to think that one’s life path is already determined when a child reaches the ripe old age of 9. It’s not set in stone and we all do what we can to make sure the kids have options that don’t involve hamburgers or mops.

One thing we notice is that the enthusiasm for school, learning and reading often plummets. Fourth grade is when the curriculum moves from learning to read to reading for content and many low SES students really struggle with the switch.

After a round of appalling benchmark test scores a couple of 4th grade teachers and myself came up with the “Library Club” and the “Cafeteria Club”. Students who have been doing their reading homework may bring their trays to the library and enjoy lunch in semi civilized surroundings. They may decide where they will sit and who they will sit with. They don’t have to sit with their class – they can sit with friends in other 4th grade classes.

Students who haven’t kept up with their reading homework eat in the cafeteria and read once they have finished eating. We’ve had to assign books to some of them. They are very creative when it comes to offering excuses as to why they haven’t done their homework.

We use “AR Points” as our barometer and raise the bar by 5 points every 2 weeks. Good life lesson – you can’t rest on your laurels just because you have reached a goal. You have to strive for another one. Goal setting is another life skill low SES students need to practice.

It’s been interesting to watch the kids. Some keep on reading regardless (those are the kids on college track), others still offer myriad excuses and some are determined to avoid the cafeteria at all costs. The latter group has started reading – they may slip back into the cafeteria but they quickly read their way back to the library. These are the “bubble kids” – the ones that can go either way and these are the kids we try extra hard to keep on the right track.

The students are amazingly civilized. They enjoy the privilege of picking up their trays and walking out of the cafeteria and they really do behave themselves. I’ve taken to sitting with various groups and it’s fun to talk to them. We talk about food, books and occasionally I interject a lesson in table manners or polite conversation.

The Principal is happy – it’s good for the children & doesn’t cost a penny. The teachers are happy – homework is getting done. The cafeteria monitors are thrilled –the cafeteria isn’t nearly the Animal House it used to be. The kids love it- they feel important and special. I’m happy – I’m collaborating with the 4th grade team and the library is being an integral part of this collaboration. Best of all, the Benchmark scores are up!.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

The library is hosting two second grade Junior Achievement classes. The volunteer teacher was attempting to explain taxes to a group of mostly bi-lingual students, many of whose parents don't pay taxes.

Teacher "What does the Tax Man Collect? "

Student "The TAKS test".

Actually in their little world the TAKS Test Agency brings up as much fear and trepidation as the IRS does to ours!

Feed Them & They Will Come - Or Read

According to some of the "experts" educators aren't supposed to "bribe" children to learn by using external rewards, we're supposed to foster & build their "intrinsic" needs instead. This theory may work with upper middle class children who come to school with strong parental support and realization for what school is for. Not so for many low SES children. Some of them are in school because it's the law or because their parents need free childcare. Others have parents who may have some idea that school and education are the key to their children's future but can't pass that on to their kids. Deep down they really might not quite believe it so the message doesn't always take with the kids.

We try just about every motivational technique we can muster. Pep Rallies, signs, posters, fun field trips, parties, stickers, t-shirts or school wide celebrations - you name it we've tried it.

One of my many hats is reading cheerleader. After 16 years in the biz I've come to the conclusion that some kids are born with an inner drive to read and some aren't. Some, no matter what you do just don't like reading. Hey, I don't like number crunching. I don't think there is anything that anyone could do to make my heart go pitter patter at the sight of an excel spreadsheet.

No matter what a child's opinion of reading is or isn't, it's a survival skill in our information driven world. Our job is to teach them and turn out proficient readers (who can of course pass the TAKS test!).

When it comes to reading I've yet to find a program as successful as Accelerated Reading. No librarian is neutral when it comes to AR. The mere mention of it on LM_NET results in a flood of pro and con postings. There is something in the instant gratification nature of AR that appeals to our kids. They love knowing if they "passed" and they count their points with as much fervor as a miser counts their gold.

I tie AR into goal setting (another life skill low SES kids need lots of practice to acquire) and most of the goals involve food. Ruby Payne, in her books about generational povery says food is very, very important and given how it motivates our kids I believe her.

This week's been a major food fest. Monday I took 13 kids out for pizza - the result of each of them earning 200 AR points. We went Ci-Cis, which is an all you can eat pizza buffet (quantity is very important) and they ate and ate and ate. One skinny little flint of a first grader out ate everyone - we have yet to figure out where she put her 6 slices of pizza. In between bites they giggled, talked and had a grand old time.

Wednesday was my annual Dr. Seuss Lunch. 15 kids joined me for green eggs n' ham, one fish, two fish, red fish blue fish, oobleck, pink yink ink drink and pink snow. Plus veggies - couldn't find a Dr. Seuss match so I opted for carrots and celery with ranch dressing. The lucky 15 were the winners of my annual Dr. Seuss essay contest and managed to inhale 70 fish sticks and 2 pounds of baby carrots.

In between those events I also host the 4th grade library club - children who can bring their lunch to the library and eat it there, rather than in our noisy zoo of a cafeteria. Admission is tied to AR points and the kids have to keep reading to keep their membership. It costs us nothing but a little time - and some carpet cleaner!

Lucky for me I've got an easy going principal who doesn't mind that the library smells of fish sticks and that there are chili stains on the carpet. Feed them and they will read! And with a little luck they will be learn to love it!

Term Paper Syndrome

I've been suffering from term paper syndrome. Remember it? That term paper is due and you just don't want to settle down and work on it. So you come up with all these other things you must do - the house gets clean, the car washed, the laundry folded and the flower beds weeded. But that paper is hanging over your head like the Sword of Damocles. It nags, pinches and nudges you to the degree that you can't give 100% to anything you are doing because of that TERM PAPER.

This Spring Break my term paper was my taxes. My two deductions graduated - which is a very good thing but that means I lost my Head of Household Status. I have no major deductions - My Beloved gets the house since she makes so much more than I do. I had nightmares of having to fork over thousands of dollars. Putting it off didn't make any sense from a practical standpoint because if I did owe thousands of dollars I would need some time to figure out how to find the money.

Finally this afternoon, with school starting in the morning, all the books packed, the dishes clean and the flowers dead headed I had not choice but to Just. Do. It.

And then the Internet went wonky. Being a Virgo with her mind made up I decided that a little thing like that would not stop me. Our came the phone cord and I said "hello" to dial up.

After spending an hour with turbotax.com I found that I don't owe any money after all. No more mega refunds that I enjoyed while the girls were in school but at least I broke even.

I am not happy at having to fund the war machine. If I felt the money was going to domestic issues I wouldn't mind so much. However most of it is going overseas to make sure Cheney and his cronies will continue to make obscene amounts of money. Very frustrating.

4th and 10

....do we go for a first down or do we punt the student? If it's the week before the TAKS test (The Texas high stakes test, which the Shrub has now unleashed on the rest of the country) you punt. Actually we didn't punt, two other schools did. Parts of the district I'm in have very high mobility. An apartment complex offers a $99 move-in and there is a mass migration from one school to another. Three months later another counters with a $100 move in and there is another migration.

The day before the TAKS test two new families enrolled. Both came from within our district. The TAKS rules are such that if a student is not enrolled at your school on the day the test is given then his / her scores don't factor into your schools overall scores. They also don't factor into the school he/ she enrolls, these scores go into a general district "pot". There are many, many parts and sub parts to this rule and other rules if the student changes districts - the IRS are a brief novella when it comes to the TAKS test rules.

However, if a student is one that will pass the test and pass it well the school will move heaven and earth to keep that student in their seat come TAKS test day. The students are pre-tested and benchmark tested till they bubble in circles in their sleep so the school has a good idea of who will pass and who won't. It's to the benefit of the child too - imagine being 8 years old and having to cope with a major test and a new school all on the same day. A conscientious parent will work with the school to ensure their child has a good test taking experience (if there is such a thing) and won't move their children till after TAKS test day.

So, when the two families arrived we knew it wasn't going to be pretty. There was no need to look in the PR folder, talk to the parents or glance at the report cards. The students were not going to be a credit to their former school. In fact, their former school , once the withdrawal papers were drawn up most likely found it difficult to contain their Happy Dance till the doors closed behind them.

And we were right. One is reading 2 years below grade level, the other has yet to make it through the day without ear screeching tantrums and angry outbursts.

At least their scores won't count against us either!

So long, Farewell, Auf wiedersehen, Goodbye

My sister is saying Good bye to the Navy after 24 years of service and the entire family converged on Virginia Beach for the occasion.


The Navy does do these things up right. Despite it being very, very , very cold (and where those hot flashes when I needed them) and despite the ceremony being held on board The USS Theodore Roosevelt in an area with no heat it was very moving and enjoyable


During one part of the ceremony an officer recited from memory a piece of prose entitled "Old Glory" while the sailors passed a folded flag from hand to hand and saluted each other in slow motion. My sister said this Passing of the Flag Ceremony is traditional and it brought tears to every one's eyes (even mine!).



I've never had much to do with the military - since I'm not one to keep my mouth shut about anything

I 'd be a total failure at "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". All of a sudden I found myself in the middle of a Naval Shipyard surrounded by Sailors and other members of the Armed Forces. They were all so very, very young and were overwhelmingly people of color. Our all volunteer military is one place where the minorities are the majority. They all looked so serious and purposeful and were uniformly polite (I felt very old by the time the affair was over).



But they still looked much to young to be toting a lethal looking firearm that in some cases was almost bigger than they were. I hope for their sakes and the sakes of their Mothers, wives and families that they never have to use them. Given our present administrations policies I fear this is a wish that won't be granted.

Hey Paris!

I'm in Virginia Beach for my sister's Naval Retirement & staying at a Hilton. Normally Hilton's are good hotels, in a dependable though slightly frumpy sort of way.

This hotel has a an excellent location and it's clean enough and the staff is uniformly pleasant. But all sorts of little things keep going wrong. Nothing major, just little pin pricks of annoyance that scream "management isn't on top of things".

The breakfast buffet (which is not complimentary and on the pricey side) features pasteurized eggs out a carton and sweet breads that are not fresh baked, or even frozen baked. They all taste slightly stale and slightly Sam's Club. The coffee is downright nasty. The fresh fruit is heavy on the melon, which is cheap and given the uniform sizes of each cube is pre-cut and comes from a bag and not a fresh from the market melon.

Rooms aren't cleaned till after 4pm. Bathroom doors lock unexpectedly (and stay locked) and heater doesn't always work. The hot wate is in short supply. The key card keeps de-progaming itself. We've had to troop downstairs so often that we now check at the desk to be sure it's working before getting on the elevator.

Please Paris, stop partying long enough to chat with your Dad and the other powers that be. If you don't folks will stop staying in your family's hotels.
And if that happens there won't be as much
money in your trust fund as there once was and your new best friend Brittany will drop you like a hot potato.

13 Thoughts

Why do the weather people start frothing at the mouth when it just might rain/ freeze/ or comes a hurricane? It might freeze in Dallas (300 miles to the north) and the local weather folks are giving the impression that a blizzard with 2 feet of snow is imminent.

What earthly purpose does a Hummer serve in a large urban area where it never (despite the actions of the weather people) snows? It eats gas and dollars and screams “Conspicuous Consumption”.

Why do the “Ban the Harry Potter” folks not only want to keep their children from reading Harry Potter, they also want to prevent everyone else’s children from doing so too? Who appointed them as parents for the world at large?

How can people take Pat Robertson seriously? God speaks only to him? From Moses to Pat Robertson is quite a comedown. I would assume God has better taste in friends and spokespeople.

Laura Bush is an educator and a librarian by education. In fact, she actually taught for a couple of years. You would think she try to talk some sense into her husband about No Child Left Behind.

I am so out of touch. I picked up a copy of People while waiting in the grocery line and I had no clue who the People that People is talking about are. The only thing I know about Brittney Spears is that she does not care to wear underwear.

Speaking of – no amount of money appears to keep some women from sinking to their trailer trash roots. Take away her cash and she’d be your standard “married young, no college, barely finished high school, 2 kids in 2 years, twice divorced, future alcoholic floozy. With a mullet.

The latest trend in home décor appears to be “Home Theaters”. From the ads I gather you have one with 6 flat screen TVs on the wall and recliners with cup holders and pull out / fold out trays. If the furniture came with an optional catheter there would be no reason for a couch potato to ever arise again.

Why, when the line at the post office is out the door do some people decide to dither over what kind of stamp to buy. I can understand wanting “Love” stamps for wedding invitations but other than that who cares. Do they really think the envelope opening machines are going to notice?

ED – based on the number of ads one would think every male in America suffered from this problem. The fact that the birth rate isn’t falling leads to think it isn’t true but someone sure is buying a lot of this stuff.

And why do men get ED ads and women ads for Depends? Why isn’t it the other way around?

You need a license to operate a car but not to parent a child. Both, if you used or raised incorrectly can reek all sorts of heart rending havoc. So why do you need one for a car but none for a child?

Scouting for books is so much fun. Packing them isn’t. Life is not fair.

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Rain + Football

It's raining in Miami.
Superbowl tickets are selling for $2,000.00.













Only in America would normally sane people pay $2,000.00 to sit in the rain.