Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday.  

I have so much to be thankful for but some times (ok... a lot of times) I let the negative overshadow the positive.  So on Thursdays I'm going to blog about what I'm thankful for. This also works for one of my Bingo squares for my #HappyLibChallenge. Yay!

So here goes:

Although I wasn't ready to give up my PT Cruiser I am very thankful we had the means to buy a new truck for me.

I know I've blogged and talked a lot about my Cruiser and my new Terrain but I'm really not over that garbage truck backing into my Cruiser. I knew I was going to have to sell it this summer. There were so many things wrong with it. But I wanted to give it up on MY terms not someone else rolling into it and me having to get rid of it. 

And really. IT'S JUST A CAR! But it was the first car I ever truly enjoyed driving. It made me feel like a hot mama. Ha!

Oops! I'm suppose to be being positive here and somehow I drifted a bit into the negative.  Back to the positive... this takes a lot of work! :)

My Terrain does have some awesome features. I have six pages of channels for the radio I can save stations on. That's 36 stations total!  I have a rear view camera when I'm backing up. The Bluetooth is pretty stinkin' awesome. I can make phone calls and play my music from my iPhone through it.

There's more leg room in the back seat and the truck space is bigger too.  I can move the drivers seat, up, down, forward, backward and adjust the lumbar.  So many options! So many positives!

District Showcase

My school admins did a showcase for district admins in our library last Friday. This time the district admins did not ask to see any highlights from the library. So I "just" helped make the library look presentable and inviting. I had a virtual fire place going and Mozart playing while everyone arrived. The school secretary provided coffee, water, mini muffins and mini cinnamon rolls.

Then we got down to business. I won't bore you with all the data but I will say that we are making great improvements according to our data which is super exciting seeing as we are on an improvement plan. 

I made some notes on areas we still need to improve on like Fig 19 E and expository text so that I can help with lessons in the library. Gotta do my part to help our students and teachers (and show my worth).

After the meeting a cool thing happened! The assistant superintendent over the principals told me she'd like to get to know me better and write a small grant with me for up to $20,000 for books for our library. I'm super excited to get to know her and to write this grant!  I think this can be the begins of a great relationship.

New Car

We got my new car this past weekend (if you didn't read about my PT Cruiser being backed over by a garbage truck you can read about it here). I don't know about you but I don't like the buying a new car process. It's long. It's boring. It's a lot of waiting. And I'm never quite sure if I'm being taken advantage of or not.

But buying the GMC Terrain was a bit different. We test drove a couple of vehicles earlier last week after doing some research for crossover vehicles. After we got back to town we decided on the Terrain. We called the salesman back and told him the price we were able to pay. He told us he could work with our number. We gave him some personal info to get the ball rolling. 

A cool thing about Buick GMC I didn't know about before we decided on the Terrain is that they give an educators discount. How cool is that?!? That was a really nice surprise!

We went back this past weekend to sign the paperwork. It still took about two hours from the time we walked in the door to the time our salesman showed us how to work everything and we pulled out of the lot. But compared to our other vehicle purchases that was down right speedy!

Reagan helped me get the radio stations set and my phone connected to Bluetooth. It certainly has more technology than my Cruiser (but I still miss it). 

Also the new car smell is giving me a headache. Yea, I know, #FirstWorldProblems. Ha!

This picture is of me and my Cruiser a couple of hours before we said our final goodbyes. (I have no lipstick on. My mom is going to be furious! Ha!)

Library Lessons

Last week I read CDB! By William Steig.  I read this to everyone, PK-5th.  It's a book filled with pictures with captions written in code.  You could almost call it texting language these days.  Each letter stand for a word.  So the title CDB! means See The Bee!  The accompanying pictures help the reader decode the caption.  Luckily there's an answer key in the back to help you if you get stuck or want to check your answers... we used it... a lot.  Ha!

I started the lesson with the title and pointing to each letter as I said it. Then I'd point to the bee on the cover and ask them "CDB?"  I usually had to repeat the question before it starting to dawn on them that I was asking See the bee?

I then explained I was going to read a book in code and they had to help me read it.  Most classes read each page themselves and I just helped when they got stuck.

We had so much fun!  I found that even the struggling reads could read this book.   They weren't looking for words.  They could just look at the letters and say them. Some of the more logical students struggled with the book.  They were looking for the words and couldn't see them.

There's a page with a man lifting weights wearing very little clothes.  I hid the page when I got to it and made a big deal about them not being able to handle the next page and I was just going to skip it. As you can image I got a choris of NO!!!!!  We can handle it!  I asked them if people who lifted big, heavy weights wore a LOT of clothes or a little clothes.  Most said little clothes.  I explained that the pictures of the man on the next page had on little clothes and it is a little funny but I didn't want crazy laughing... to which I demonstrated crazy laughing.  They thought that was pretty funny.  Then I demonstrated the kind of laughing that was acceptable.  We all agreed that they could "acceptable" laugh and I showed the page.  We all giggled like little school girls... it is kind of funny.

I highly recommend this book!  We had so much fun with it!

Sharing Library Ideas & Practices

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A cool thing happened this week! The three tech/librarians in this picture with me came to visit my library. They're from Tyler ISD.  My former principal is now a principal in Tyler. He told them about my library and about the great things happening there and suggested they pay me a visit. 

Here's a little background. Tyler ISD does not have certified librarians anymore. Their instructional technologists run their libraries with a paraprofessional to run circulation. They would like their ITs to have a librarian certification (and some do and others are working on the certification) but don't require it. Nacogdoches ISD has 6 elementary schools, 4 have certified librarians. All the secondary schools have certified librarians. 

They were able to see a lesson with 3rd grade (I'll blog about that lesson on Monday). Then we were able to sit down for about 45 minutes and talk. 

They really liked my lesson and how interactive it was. Sneak peak, I read CDB! By William Stieg. 

We discussed the following topics:

*circulation numbers

*how many books students check out

*reading incentives

*programs (like book and LEGO club, Read It Forward)

*stations/centers

*self check out

*budget

*librarian meetings

*professional developments for librarians

*what I do about lost books

If was good to share ideas and practices with another district. It leaves me wondering if this is something that could be done on a larger scale with more districts. How much could we learn from each other? Could we convince more or even all districts that they NEED certified librarians?  That we are more than book shelvers. We help with reading scores on so many ways!  We help mold a love of reading. We don't just scan books in and out. 

Moving on... I had to take a selfie before they left. I put the picture on our school's Facebook page and on Twitter. Then our district shared it so more people will see it. So cool!

Thankful Thursdays

I've been thinking about what to blog about each day.  I do really good Monday through Wednesday because I know my prompt/topic but I struggle Thursdays through Sundays.  So I did a little searching and with the help of my friend and fellow librarian Sonja over at the Sassy Bibliophile I found the following topics/prompts.

Mondays I do my library lesson from the week before which fits into the "It's Monday! What are you reading?" prompt.  If I've read anything for myself I include it in this post too.  I like going back and reviewing my story time lesson.  Seeing what worked and what didn't and if I plan to do this lesson again what I might change or add.



Tuesday is my Slice of Life.   Here I write about what's happening in my daily life.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.  It could be school related or about my personal life.  I visit Two Writing Teachers website and see what other bloggers Slice of Life are all about.  I enjoy the comments I get from other bloggers.


Wednesday is Wordless Wednesday (sometimes it's Nearly Wordless Wednesday).  I scroll through the pictures on my phone and select one to post.  I LOVE taking pictures on my phone.  I have a bazillion pictures on my phone so I'm never desperate for a picture.

I'm thinking Thankful Thursday.  On the Happy Librarian Challenge Bingo Board there is a square for keeping a gratitude journal.  I don't like writing, like physical writing, like pen and paper writing so I thought I could do my own version and keep my "journal" here on my blog.  Thursdays seem like a good day for that.  I have so many things to be thankful for but sometimes the negative sticks out more than the positive.  I think taking the time on Thursday to really think about all the things I have to be thankful for will help my outlook.  It will also go along with my OLW, positive.

I'm still thinking about Friday and Saturday.  I've cruised the Internet and seen some ideas but nothing is jumping out at me screaming "Pick me!  Pick me!"  Do you have any ideas for Fridays and Saturday???  What do you do for those days?


I found this meme for "Shout Out Sunday." I'm thinking about doing that.  The... directions... for lack of a better word say "Shout out Sunday is a simple meme in which we talk about new (and old) blogs that we love, posts that stuck with us that particular week, books that we just have to mention, and songs and/or TV shows/movies/videos. It is a fun way to get to know us (and you) better, as well as finding new blogs!"  I might include people who made an impression on me during the week too.

I'm excited about finding topics to write about each day.  I think this will help me blog everyday.  I know I can do it since I participated in the Slice of Life last March and will be doing it again this March.  I want to take what I learned doing the Slice and apply it to all the other months of the year.

Wordless Wednesday

Brandi, Emily and me

I need to change the title of my Wednesday posts to Nearly Wordless Wednesdays. Ha!                                                                                                       For the last 3 years my BFFs and I have gone to a Ladies Bible Retreat called Women of Worthiness (WOW).  There are usually over 300 women in attendance with four guest speakers.  It's an awesome way to rejuvenate the soul.  Not only with the Bible lesson (which are a huge part of that rejuvenating) but being with your best friends for the weekend and also seeing so many christian women in one place and knowing you're not alone in a world that can some times make you feel like you are the only christian around.                                                                                                             If you've never been to something like this I highly recommend it.  It will do your heart and soul good.