Library Day in the Life

Today I participated in round 4 of Library Day in the Life - started by Bobbi Newman. I created a slide show (below) to document the day and I also wrote a play by play below. It was kind of a strange day in my library today because it was science day at our school and the library was being used for some special science programs all day, but then again, that is what sums up a day in my library, no day is EVER the same, which, I think is what I LOVE about my job!

Day in the life of an elementary school media specialist: January 25, 2010

~ I start out my day checking my Twitter account online at home while I eat breakfast (key lime pie yogurt & juice, if you must know) Twitter is blocked at school, so I get my "fix" in before I go.

~ When I get to school I have to unlock 7 doors in my media center - but I guess I should be so blessed that I have such a LARGE library.

~ E-mail - especially on a Monday my in-box is usually pretty full. I first try and e-mail out my schedule for the day to the teachers at my school as a reminder if their class is scheduled to come in to the media center that day. Today I only had one scheduled class because of science day activities happening in the Media Center.

~ I get my son off to class (he is in 3rd grade) and run around to buy a milk from the cafeteria and a Sprite from the teachers lounge as part of my lesson this morning (more on that later).

~ my 5th grade news crew comes into the media center and we go into our tv studio to prepare for the morning broadcast. The broadcast is only 15 minutes long (at most) and only takes about 15 minutes to prepare, but the 5th graders who are involved love it. I had a new crew today, so the broadcast is a little shaky, but they did a great job for their first day.

~ After the news show, I finish getting set up for story time. I am doing a science story time with a non-fiction book Under The Snow by Melissa Stewart then I am making snow with the kids using instant snow from www.stevespangler.com. We take the science thing a little further by trying to guess which will make better snow, milk, soda or water (the water is the winner). This morning I am dong this with a third grade class. I usually do not do story times with third graders, but the teachers love when I do science and try and sign up with me, the kids love it too.

~ After the story time class leaves, my assistant and I finish setting up the media center for the special science programs planned for today.

~ As the science programs are going on the media center, I go into my office and try and get some things off my desk:

~ finish creating a web page for a 5th grade research project I am starting with two classes tomorrow on famous African Americans

~ I finish revising my evaluation goals that my Assistant Principal (AP) had given back to me last week with notes on what to fix.

~ Worked on my Media Plan goals for the next two years , this is another part of my evaluation that my AP had wanted me to finish.

~ I talked to the t-shirt company about customized t-shirts that we are having made for our Reader's Rally team. We finalized art and made a deadline for having the orders in (the design is SOO cool)

~ Ate lunch at the circulation desk (as usual) but because of the science programs, I actually got to eat in some peace instead of in between checking books in/out for students. (italian wedding soup & a diet coke)

~ unpacked new book order - YEAH, I love new books, but boo to the company because they forgot one of the books in the order. E-mail my rep to find out what happened.

~ Planned story time for next week, was going to do Mo Willems (love him!), but am going to do the new Coleen Salley book instead and since she was from New Orleans, we are going to talk about Mardi Gras and make Mardi Gras masks, found mask template, now just need to find paper. Maybe we can use the masks to cheer on the Saints (but my Principal is a HUGE Colts fan, might have to rethink this...)

~ Bus duty (my least favorite part of my day)

~ After school we had a Readers Rally meeting. Readers Rally is a competition that my county puts on each year. It is similar to a Battle of the Books competition. The county competition is open to fourth and fifth graders, but we just have fifth graders participate at our school. The competition is less than a month away, and the practice didn't go so well today, gotta get the kids motivated to READ READ READ the books these next three weeks!

~ I leave school to go to my other job - the Mom job, where I cart my three kids around to dance and sporting practice, make dinner, finish laundry and get ready to start it all over again.