2018

It's been many years since I have taken the time to write on this blog.  It's time I return to reflect on life.   2018....wow!  January 1st of a new year - so much to think about, so much to do.

As I think about returning to writing a blog, I think about what I want to share.  What do I want to spend time writing about each week?  Last year I began a school blog that I write each Friday to share with the outside world all the cool things happening inside the walls of RCE.  I have successfully kept up writing each and every Friday that school is in session - so - I am going to try to write each Monday a little something that is hopefully uplifting - or something I want to remember.

Right now...all of my thoughts are still with Harvey and our flood of 2017.  So my first postings will most likely be something about what we've learned through Harvey.

School had just started - students had been at school for 4 days with the first day of school being the day of the eclipse, which started the year off in a most unusual way!  We should have guessed with the eclipse happening on the very first day that the entire year would be different than any other year.

Thursday night of the first week of school, I was watching the news.  A Hurricane (Harvey), was in the gulf.  At that point it wasn't even a hurricane, but rather a tropical storm.  It was headed towards the Texas Gulf Coast.  The news was guessing on the amount of rain to be expected and all of the normal expectations of a hurricane...but it didn't seem like it was to be too bad...just lots of rain.  Sometime around 8 in the evening, the school district sent out a robocall to cancel school for Friday in anticipation of the storm.  It was unusual for the school district to call it so early.  That should have been a hint.

I had left my computer at school, knowing that Thursday night I hadn't planned to do any work....but with the school closing for Friday, I thought it would be a good idea to have it so I could finish off the training videos I had put off watching.   So off to school I went.

The weather was calm.  No hint of what was to come.  Skies were clear.  I walked into the building, picked up a few things to put them up, and picked up my laptop.  That was the last time I would be in the building for two weeks.

Once home, I picked up some stacks of paper and washed a few dishes.  But over all - I thought why - I'll be home all day on Friday with nothing to do.  I dropped off to sleep with little worries of the next day...

I woke up on Friday with one thing that had to be done.  I had to go to the doctor to get a shot.  It was scheduled at 10...so I picked up a few things and ran off to the doctor.

I got to the doctor only to find out I could not receive the shot, I was running 102 degrees of fever.  The moment they said I had a high fever - I felt bad.  I drove home and went straight to bed  - grateful for a day off from school to be able to sleep off the fever.

I had the TV on as I slept.  The breaking news kept repeating that Harvey was gaining strength and would possible hit the coast near Corpus Christie at a category 3.  I just decided to sleep, hoping that I would feel better in the morning.

Saturday morning the weather was beginning to turn gray.  The news now had the storm coming in closer to Houston and possibly more than a Category 4.  Perry began to put things away.  We had planned to pull honey from our hives, but I was too sick to work with honey.   I went to bed early knowing that the rain was coming.  The news had told us that we were on the dirty side of the storm and there would be a lot of rain.  No worries - we had water, we had food...we were ready for the rains.  We knew the street would  flood...but we were ready to stay put for  a few days.  I went to bed early as I was still suffering from a fever.  The rains had started, but nothing amazing yet.

Evidently, it had rained hard most of Saturday night.  The  storm was coming in near Rockport (closer to Houston) and with more rain and wind than expected.  Sometime around 2:00 Perry woke me up to ask for help to move the bee hives...they were under water.  We suited up and moved the bees.
(To be continued...)

E-books @ RCE

At Rummel Creek, as we are currently on the transition campus, we have purchased many e-books.  When you purchase from Amazon on a Kindle, the process is rather easy, however using some of the e-books through our card catalog can be a daunting task, especially for the primary students.  We are successful in reading in wifi, it's the downloading that snags us.  Thank goodness our other theme for the year is GRIT, and the students definitely illustrate GRIT reading the e-books.

Other pros on some of the e-books...multiple copies of the same book.  Great for book clubs and instruction.  E-books are usually always available.  I've been working on teachers using them for instruction using the activeboards.  Most of the books for curriculum support are multiuser titles.  It's a big change from reading small books in a circle.

The con on e-books - so many different devices and so many different ways to connect.  Luckily, most of RCE is ipad friendly.  We're still working on parental restrictions and how to get books downloaded.

Moving to e-books has not been a highway of speed, but rather a bumpy curvy slow moving road that will hopefully open soon to a highway!

Enjoy some snapshots of students using ipads to read books.

HEB Challenge

It's the last week of January.  The HEB challenge starts on February 1st.  Student Council and KSHAC will be "in charge" of this challenge.  I can't wait to see what the students decide to do.  All of the adults had ideas, but it is really the students who will follow through and make it happen.  Check out the HEB challenge @ http://itstimetexas.org/heb-community-challenge/   .
Rummel Creek has been on a healthy trip for about 5 years.  We have learned about healthy eating and the importance of exercise.  This year we are even looking at the importance of sleep.  If students are healthy and eat well, do exercise and sleep more, then they will be successful on tests and doing school work.  Rummel Creek is up for the challenge!

Oh my, time has passed

It's January and I'm finally posting again.  We've been in our Transition Campus for 5 months with students.  We've started settling in, however with the cold dreary weather of January it hasn't been much fun.  Duty in the morning on the front of the school has been most cold and windy.  I have found coats, gloves, and other coverings that I didn't know I owned.  Today is finally sunny, and it feels so good.

As far as being at the Transition Campus, it's not too bad.  The students are doing well with the collection of books that we have selected to bring over.  So far we haven't had too many requests that we haven't been able to fill.  When you are in a small space, you learn what you really need to exist and what is "fluff."  In the library, we've always had a lot of fluff and filling.  After being here for these five months, I think my collection will stay just about this size when we move into the new building.   I'll just have to keep adding new updated titles, but keep the old stuff moving out.   I know I need to monitor what kids are actually reading and what just sits on the shelf.  The hard part about that is that my favorite books are just sitting on the shelf.  (No one reads Ramona any more...I love the Ramona books!)  Perhaps it's time to do some book talks to get the Ramona books moving again...

I'm posting some photos of the new building.  It's amazing...it will be SOOOOO big...hard to believe that Rummel Creek will be this big!  The gym used to dwarf the rest of the school, and now the gym is the little building in the back...Amazing!

The end is in sight...

I had totally meant to write monthly this year, to be able to share the activity in the library - the weeding, packing and selecting....but...here it is many months later than the last post and nothing has been shared in between....I guess I've been too busy and exhausted to stop and post my thoughts.

We have two weeks left in the "old RCE"...it's hard to believe that the time has come for the building to come down.  In September it seemed so far away and now it's just days away and yet we have so much left to do.

It's been a melancholy year as I have opened drawers and sorted through collections of papers, photos, and other memorabilia.  What to keep, and what to toss...almost a daily drill.  But the boxes are packed, the shelves are empty and we move to the transition campus on June 6th.  I've spent the last 25 years here at the current RCE....moving the library the first time in 2000 when the current library was built.  I packed and moved the library again with the flood, and then again with renovations...and so it is that we pack the library again to move on to the transition campus where we'll be for 18 months before packing it up for the new school building.  The memories will always we packed in my brain and my heart...so many good times...authors...field days...faculty gatherings...parties and celebrations..special students and teachers....they are packed....the heart of RCE will move with us as we go to the transition campus and to our final destination...the "NEW RCE."  Two more weeks....I hope we get it done!

Carts are packed, crates loaded...

Empty shelves, gondolas loaded...

Boxes stacked for long term storage...

Books wrapped waiting pick up ....

Pallets loaded for transport...

Loading the truck..thankful for the guys!

Book carts, empty shelves....

Stuff by the door to be loaded...

Breaking down the lab....

piles of gondolas....

The end of the KRCE studio....

Reference computers down..empty shelves!

It's been an exciting busy spring......the count down is here....

For more pictures and stories check out: The Rummel Creek 50th Anniversary Blog

Learning, Weeding, Moving On...

Oh my, the last month has been amazing!  The library has been busy...we've weeded over 3500 books with still more to go!  And surprise surprise...the shelves don't look that empty...except in the 300's where all of the fairy tales were very old and now the shelf sits basically empty!

Learning:  Time to learn Google Chrome and the apps that are available.  Here's a sampling of my first try to use this program...I tried the app Loupes.  Somehow I need to share this with staff members and parents...lots of apps out there for students to explore.
Learning II: E-books...just about to get them "mastered."  Learning how to get them out to the community is the next hurdle!

Weeding:  It's so hard to move out the books that I love and read as a child.  These carts are full of books that I love....but they are now old and worn and not interesting to students.  So box them up and send them off....space for new books!

Moving On:  Yes...it's time to say good bye to this building as it is now.  Rummel Creek will not "go away" because Rummel Creek is the people in the community...but the structure is on it's way down.  The architects brought some renderings to share.  The students have loved looking at the photos.  Now that the renderings are posted...the reality hits...we are coming down in June!

The name of this blog is Ms. Frazzled...and boy am I Frazzled this year...I just go from one activity to the next...I just hope it is all complete by June!

Busy Busy Busy

October has proven to be a very busy month.  E-books have taken over the library lessons as we try to get any student, parent or staff member that wants to be connected accounts set up.  I have tried all types of devices and tall types of wifi connections.  Who knew there were so many options out there!  As we get the E-books going, we pull the old, worn out books off the shelf.   So far  we've weeded about 1000 titles - only 4000 more to go.  I'm so glad we started early in the school year!  It seems that Books and Literacy have taken over my life...even on Saturday, I volunteered at a Literacy Carnival in North Houston (Aldine) with Buckner.  I took a group of Middle School Girls and we worked for several hours ...watching the students get so excited at taking a book makes me happy. (Watching my middle school girls help out make me happier!)  Enjoy the photos below...pictures definitely tell the story better than words.

My assignment for Saturday Morning: Signing up people for a Library Card - Excited to see how many already had them and used the library regularly!  At the Literacy Carnival with Buckner and the Middle School Girls Ministry.  Even on a mission activity I find a "library" connection!

Students selecting books at the Literacy Carnival.  The kids loved picking out books - they ran to pick out the three books they were allotted. 

Rummel Creek Students learning how to use e-books!

Totally into reading the e-books on the new iPads @ RCE

Library Friends put the final touches on Book Fair Decorations.  Just in time...we set up for Book Fair Friday!

Fifth Grade Lunch Bunch grab a bite before they finish their video on our book club novel "Laughing at the Moon!"

Weeded Titles - 4 carts loaded!

And MORE weeded books!

The shelves before WEEDING...

The Shelves AFTER weeding!

Although today is only mid-way though October - it has been a most productive month.  And when my spiritual life and my professional life merge, it is wonderful.  I loved taking the Middle School Girls Ministry out to work the Literacy Carnival for Buckner.  They learned to serve and share.  As I weed my library, I know that the books removed from my library will end up in Uganda with a missions group as they establish libraries for the children in Uganda.  How blessed I am.  As I left the Literacy Carnival the church had the following statement on it's sign  "Too Blessed to be STRESSED"  and I AM too blessed to be stressed!