Treading Water

It's been too long since I've posted about my middle school adventure. I need to get caught up, but really, I've just been treading water. It's that time of year (the hump right in the middle) when you work toward Christmas Vacation and Spring Break just to make it through. The classroom teachers are plodding through, and I feel the same way.

Since we opened November 1st, it's been crazy-town...in a GOOD way...but crazy none-the-less!

The first week we opened I saw all students TWICE. Once for a walk-through/orientation of the library and the second time for a MOCK Presidential Election. It was quite a week! The following week we opened before school and I had anywhere from 50 - 80 those first few days. We finally came up with a pass system to keep me sane...all students at my school are required to go to the cafeteria or band hall before the first bell. We have 20 passes available from the band hall and 40 available from the cafeteria to limit the number of students moving down to the library. I also had a teacher volunteer to come hang out with me in the mornings for crowd control. It works great! Some days we have all 60, but most days we only average around 30. I've also limited the number of students who come down during lunches to make it more manageable with classes and individual walk-ins -- we have 10 passes for each lunch period. So far it's working well.

I've done some special lessons/read-alouds with picture books (which I'll mention in a later post) surrounding holidays and special occasions.

The Twelve Days of Christmas was a good first run. We chose one of our CREW classes (like homeroom) each day to participate. Going with one class a day allowed me to know exactly how many of each craft/activity I needed. It also exposed the library to some of the students who don't usually come down to hang out.

 (Most of the pictures were taken directly from Pinterest boards).

Back from Christmas Break I've just been working on the day-to-day issues of librarianship: ordering books, weeding from the old collection, processing new books, etc. 

For the near future, I'm getting ready to leave for TCEA and can't wait to bring back some new ideas for my faculty and staff! AND Valentine's Day will bring our first Scholastic Book Fair! 

I've got a busy month ahead, but promise to be back soon!