Cleaning Day

Monday has me doing little odds and ends. I cleaned off the tables, the computer work stations, and set up RIF books which won't really happen until February 6th through February 15. I'm ahead of myself, and I will probably regret putting those books out on the table. The kids at lunch did a good job of ignoring them, and entertained themselves with the usual activities.

I have tried to access the new google-based website I started creating during Professional Development, and, of course, the system is timing out on me. I want to start a new version and delete what I started on Friday because I think I wasn't quite clear on what I was doing. I hope this doesn't turn into a soley weekend project because I can't access it from work.

I'm running some more spine labels and processing more books in my office, hoping to clear things out a bit. Some of these books have been sitting for probably several years, and before I gather any more materials, I want these made available.

One of the teachers had cleared out a whole bunch of stuff and had it in the hall. She tried to bring it into the textbook room for temporary storage, and I nixed that. ( I had a great uncle who worked for the U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. who said that the most permanent thing in D.C. was a temporary building. Temporary storage scares me likewise. ) I also nixed her students making posters in the library. I think the posters were more likely signs concerning pick-up directions for all these materials, and the students have no problem using a floor if need be.

I put a note into teachers' boxes explaining that RIF involves providing at least 30 titles from which students may choose, and that I have about 60 titles minimum out. I am only using about 4 tables in the library to display RIF because we have after school groups using the library this year in addition to other staff and student programs that pop up. I let them know that I have put out all the copies of the hot titles and all the hardcover title copies, and once they are gone, they are gone. I included a suggestion that the classes who snatched up most of the hot Westerfeld series should think about letting other classes get a chance. The RIF storage room is off-limits, and I am not going through boxes looking for additional copies of hot items, because there will not be any more hot items.

The kids are never as much of a problem as the well-meaning adults who are afraid that something is being held back, and who think every copy of all the books should get hauled out. The kids don't try to turn the library into a storage room. I wish the teachers would think of bringing the students for library visits instead of coming here looking for a depot.

I read a great book over the weekend. I couldn't put it down. "90 Miles from Havana," by Enrique Flores-Galbis, about a young boy who comes to Florida in the Pedro Pan (Peter Pan) airlift in 1961 when 14,000 children were sent out of Cuba by their parents who were not yet prepared to flee from the Communist takeover following the Revolution. The author, who was a 9 year-old Pedro Pan flight refugee, writes of the experiences of these children in a wonderful fictional account without getting heavily into the politics of the Cuban-American community. Lexile 790L, in case some of you care.