The End.

"Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education 

is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine. 

It may make you feel like you're flying high at first, 

but it won't take long before you feel the impact."

-President Barack Obama

I'm wearing black today.  I'm in mourning.

I'm mourning the current state of education.

Had my parents not already planned to come volunteer in our library today--and the library needed it so very much-- I would have stayed home, overdosing on strong black tea, finishing my novel, and hanging out with my two best (non-human) friends.

BFF 1 snoozing on a sock

BFF 2

I'm really depressed.

You see, last night at School Site Council (SSC), Dr. Joyce showed us the budget for next year.  

It wasn't pretty.

We have (barely) enough to cover teachers of core curriculum (math, science, history, English), our two music teachers, and our PE teachers.  

We do not have enough to cover: an assistant principal, a dean, a nurse, a therapist, a librarian.

Are you kidding me??

We are an inclusive school that accepts all learners, including those with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), otherwise known as "Special Education," or SPED.  Twenty percent of our students fall into this category.  Those IEPs are legal documents that state what a child needs and needs to be doing in order to be a successful scholar.  As such, they need a licensed therapist to sign that the child is getting what he or she needs.  There are one to four of these meetings every day.  Additionally, our current therapist runs groups to provide therapy to our scholars who need it.  

One principal (think CEO) cannot run a school (company) of over 100 faculty and staff (employees) and 700 students (clients) without help.  That help takes the form of an assistant principal--who helps with other running the school responsibilities--the scheduling of classes, putting students in said classes, organizing bell schedules, organizing grades, and so much more.  Without that sort of help, it all falls onto the principal, who also has important running the school responsibilities.  Our current assistant principal takes on all these responsibilities--and so much more.  She has an open-door policy and is always willing to take a moment to help anyone who needs administrative help or guidance, student or faculty. 

To say that it's useful to have someone to remind our scholars to behave like scholars is an understatement.  As I stated earlier, we are an inclusive school, and we welcome all scholars.  Only, sometimes they don't know yet that they are scholars, so we have to teach them how to be one.  This came come in the form of a dean.  Our current dean has managed to keep our students in line with a firm yet kind hand.  Moreover, she is organized, and it seems that the faculty trusts her.  This is important; as a teacher, if a student is being unruly and there isn't a strong discipline policy in place, the education is undermined.

We work with middle school students who take physical education.  Scratch that, we work with middle school-aged students.  Additionally, there are over 1,000 humans on our campus on any given day.  To say that we only have scraped knees would be an understatement.  I have seen students carted away on stretchers, drunk as skunks.  I have seen broken bones and elderly teachers fall.  I personally have had boxes fall on my head hard enough to give me a concussion.  I have experienced classes where students  forgot to take their meds.  All of this requires the expertise of a school nurse.      

Do I even need to sing the praises of a school librarian?  Especially in these dark days of literacy, of losing the ability to think for one's self, of not everyone being able to afford a formal education?  If you're reading my blog, I think not.

We have an incredible, cracker jack team right now.  All of these people--I'd like to include myself, too, if that's not too self-serving--are passionate about children and their healthful development into solid community members.  Each does a phenomenal job at supporting the growth and development of our scholars from their job standpoint to make sure that each child get the best experience here at Webster they possibly can.  

The district has, in the past, orchestrated this situation so that when someone complains, "well why don't they have a (nurse, therapist, librarian, dean, assistant principal)," they can respond, "well, we gave them money, and they chose to spend it how they did.  It's their fault they don't have that on their campus."  That's been a complaint for the last few years.  Only, this year, we don't have enough for any of those positions.  

I'm honestly not sure how we're supposed to do this.  I'm not sure how we will be expected to create a solid learning environment in this situation, or how we will be expected to increase test scores when we lack basic school needs.  I don't even understand how putting a high importance on test scores in these economic times is conducive to learning.  We are constantly threatened that if we don't raise our test scores, the state will take over.  But now I'm wondering... if they do, will we get to have these positions funded?  And do they really think they can do better?

 If you have an answer to any of these questions, please let me know.

Happy Reading.

Happy Birthday to You!

The more that you read,

the more things you will know.

The more that you learn,

the more places you'll go.

-Dr. Seuss

Tomorrow would have been Dr. Seuss's 107th birthday.  To celebrate, we joined thousands of other schools across the nation for Read Across America day by inviting members from the community to come read Dr. Seuss books to homerooms.  Dr. Joyce, our principal, generously added 10 minutes to homeroom so that we could accomplish this feat.

Our principal, Dr. Joyce

Our art, leadership, and yearbook classes all chipped in to help create incredible Cat in the Hat hats for our readers to wear.  Many of our readers wore them!!

Panera Bread donated a bunch of sweets and my parents donated 4 dozen bagels, so there was definitely enough food!  Thanks, Panera and Mom and Dad! Also, one of our awesome parents made...are you ready for this???  GREEN EGGS AND HAM!!!!!!!!!!

What a spread, eh?

Mmmmmmmmm.

Yes, I tried some.
Although I'm not quite sure why I'm orange.
Dr. Seuss theme, I guess...

Some volunteers showed up early to practice their presentation.

I <3 how he's cuddling with Yertle

We were so lucky to have Liz, Stephen, and Sara from the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators come to read to our kids!

Some random shots of the day:

Diana, one of my friends

Ms. Machado

Mr. Jacobs, of Communities in Schools fame

Alex, dressed for the occasion, as always!
(Can I just say how awesome my friends are for showing up and reading today???)

Ms. Orendorff let us borrow her Seussian friends for decor.

And of course we had to get a group picture!

I think there were still a few missing, but holy cow!  Look at our awesome volunteers!

I had completely forgotten that I'd asked Mr. Lisker and his drama class to perform The Lorax during lunch time, and when I saw the crowd they were gathering, I just smiled.  Unfortunately, because I keep the library open during lunch so scholars can do their homework or read, I couldn't watch the show, but I sure could hear it.  I was as impressed with them as I was the last time they performed this, which was at our Barnes & Noble night.

What an awesome, celebratory day we had here at Webster!  I have had nothing but positive feedback.  I  am very appreciative of the generosity of all our readers, the food that was donated, and the extra help I got from Miriam, Paola, and Brianne, who not only helped me organize the whole day, but got to work early (before 7:00am!) to help set up.  Without them, I'd never have been able to pull off this awesome event.  And another thank you to Ms. Strong and Ms. Orendorff, both of whom called my cell phone before 7:00 to remind me that the day was going to be awesome.  You both were totally correct!

I'm delighted that today's event went so well.  I can't wait to do it again next year.

Happy Reading!



Please check out our friends:
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
Communities in Schools
Panera Bread

Welcoming the Stranger

"And to any new fans we made along the way, I say welcome to our party!  

It's just starting to get going."

-Richard Marx

In the midst of running around today--I have gained a sixth grade English class this semester and have been given a classroom that needs to be set up before the kids enter--I popped back into the library to get a camera so I could then go take photos of Ms. Haderle's posters so that I can recreate them.  In teaching, we share, what can I say?  When I began my work as a librarian I gave all my awesome posters and stuff away to teachers who would use them.  So anyway,  there I am running around, and I pop into the library and a beautiful woman was waiting for me.

"Hi," she said.  "I'm Vanessa Adams.  I'm your new library aide."

Holy cow!  They district did it!  They actually (finally...) hired a library aide for us!  This is really exciting for a number of reasons, the first being that if I'm now going to be teaching for two periods a day, the library would be completely closed during that time without a library aide.   This conversation was heartbreaking for me--every time a teacher asked to bring in a class during periods 3 or 4 I had to turn them away!  This meant books were not getting into the hands of the students who had that teacher.

By the way, getting books into student hands is my number one priority.

This also means that I can divide my work up.  Instead of me doing all the library programming, creating workshops on technology, research, or literacy for teachers to bring their students,  the website, teaching two classes, helping anyone who needs to get into the book room, and all the other stuff--and checking in and out books and making sure the books are shelved, I don't have to worry about the book part any more.  She also said she can help with fixing broken books and starting to import the ones that have been patiently waiting to be put in the library.  These are things that I have let slide due to the overwhelming amount of other activities I do.

So, let me introduce you to Ms. Vanessa:

Ms. Vanessa comes to us from Broad Acres Elementary School and is very excited to be here and work with a new staff.  She loves kids and enjoys reading--and is really looking forward to reading middle school books rather than elementary books.  Her favorite book genre is fiction and family stories.  Her favorite book is Let the Circle Be Unbroken by Mildred Taylor.

Please come by and introduce yourself to Ms. Vanessa!  She is a much needed and very valuable resource to our school.

Happy Reading!

Love and the Time of Cholera

"All you need is love!"

-The Beatles

I am wearing my green Wild About Reading t-shirt today.  It says "Daniel Webster Middle School, Los Angeles, California" on the back.  I got it because I read a million words a few years back.

Everyone else is wearing red today, it seems.  Grinning students are carrying around stuffed bears and bunnies, more chocolate than they can eat, balloons, and roses of every color imaginable.  I saw a black-leather jacket clad dark haired boy give his equally dramatically dressed, heavily eye-linered friend three black roses.

The main office is filled with contraband items: cupcakes, cookies, balloons, etc. captured from loving celebrants who might get them back at the end of the day.  Ms. Meekins did not need to decorate this year!  Valentine's Day is in full swing.

I'm not even present to that.

What I am present to is the fact that thirty-seven students, faculty, and staff have managed to read one million words in the space of just one semester.  This is more than we have had at the end of first semester ever.  This is thrilling to me, especially in light that there were times when Accelerated Reader, the program that we use to track student reading, was down.

California state educational standards expect that by eighth grade, students ought to be reading one million words per year.  If you think about it, that's about the entire Harry Potter Series, with a Twilight or two thrown in.  Those are huge books!  And, if you continue to think about it, reading them all in one semester is quite an accomplishment.

On February 24 during lunch, we will have a reading celebration for all the thirty-seven.  Each person who met their goal will dine on pizza and bottled water as they are called up in front of the group one by one to much applause and given a certificate and a t-shirt.  We will take a group photograph that will go on our website and be displayed proudly in the library.  This is a big deal.

The following faculty members joined in the fun: Mr. Higgins, Ms. Orendorff, Mr. Brener, Ms. Strong, and, of course, yours truly (I WILL have a Wizard of Oz t-shirt).

I also want to give a shout out to one of our paraprofessionals who joined us in this endeavor.  Ms. Smith--who also sang and played the guitar for the show we put on for our students last semester--particularly stands out to me because she participates in school activities.  Paras don't usually get so involved, and this is Ms. Smith's third year joining us for pizza and a shirt.  Way to go, Ms. Smith!

So today I celebrate not by wearing red and eating chocolate (ok, tonight my husband is making me a special lamb dinner and I'm surprising him with cupcakes--but that's after school...) but by doing the prep work to reward our readers so that reading stays special and precious to them.  This work makes my heart feel good.  And that's really the point of today, right?

Happy Reading!

We Got It Covered!

"Ask, and it will be given to you."

The Christian Bible

In November I wrote a Donors Choose project for a Document Reader.   With the help of many gift certificates, in January I got it.  Well, it has arrived.

I am totally excited to have new media in the library.  For those of you who have not experienced the awesomeness that is a document reader, I ask you to think of the overhead projectors that teachers have used in their classrooms for the last 20 - 25 years.  An overhead projector is a light bulb that shines through dark writing on a piece of plastic, and then projects that onto a screen.  You need a bunch of sheets of plastics to use them, although I know teachers who just wrote on the glass.  What this means is that if you want to read something to a class that they can see, you need to create transparencies first, which wastes both time and plastic.

A document reader, however, is simply a camera that you attach to an LCD projector, that then projects whatever you put under it onto a screen.  Like homework that you're correcting.  Or a book that you're reading to the class--so that they can see the words.  Or an old copy of the Declaration of Independence that you don't want to pass around, because student hands are often sticky.  Or anything to make teaching more accessible to students.  It does not require you to create transparencies.  It requires you turn it on and then place something underneath a camera.

At this point, I've used it while teaching my two classes, during workshops and meetings, and with my after-school class.  I have literally used it every day I have had it.

I am thrilled that the Webster community--and anyone who contributed falls into that category--thought that this was important enough to place in our library.  Thank you.

Happy Reading!

Catching Up or Leading the Way

"If you start soon enough, you won't have to catch up."

-Anonymous

Did I really just go two months without writing anything in this blog?  How embarrassing.  But at the same time, I would just like to note for the record, that this very moment was the first time--apparently in two months--that I have seated myself at my computer with a self-satisfying grin and thought, "holy cow, I finished everything on my to-do list!  Maybe I should catch up on the library blog!"  So, it's been busy in here!  Which is kind of awesome.

So, I guess this is going to be a catch-up blog.

Our FFB in December and January were great!  It was nice to have time and space to wish everyone well over the holiday, and then greet people when we came back.

 Mr. Brener showing off the holiday decor.

(Wow, that freshly-painted Reference sign looks great!)

 The Feast

January's Feast

Our Donors Choose games came in!  We had a fun day opening ALL the boxes and playing the chess, checkers, Chinese checkers, Sorry, and Life.  The kids were incredibly excited and I learned quickly that maybe it wasn't a great idea to open all the games, all at the same time, before I got Ziplock bags to keep pieces in.  Ah well, ya live, ya learn.

Euuch, those kids look creepy with their faces blurred out!  

Next year I must work on getting the forms signed so that I don't have to do that!

Also, we started a chess club on Thursdays during lunch.  Today we had about 30 kids!  It was pretty awesome.  My dad has been running it and teaching the kids the finer points of the game.  He totally rocks.

I've been doing Book Talks, of course.  Two weeks ago I did Matched by Ally Conde.  I discovered that if I shut down the library--which means making ALL students present stop what they are doing and come hear the presentation, there is a bigger turn out.   Tomorrow I'll be doing Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.   It's a freaking GREAT book.  And older than Hunger Games.

I truly love it when I finish a presentation and the kids vie for who gets to check the book out first.  That  tells me whether or not it was a successful book talk.

Finally, Donors Choose, a pretty terrific website, got a GINORMOUS grant from the Wasserman Foundation, specifically for LAUSD schools.  Apparently, a postcard was mailed out to the homes of each scholar in LAUSD with a gift code for $15.  This could be used to fund a teacher's project!  This is nothing short of awesome.  If you haven't checked it out yet, and feel charitable, I highly recommend them.  Even $5 can make a big difference!

I think that's about it.

Until next time...

Happy Reading!