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!

Oh my! What a lot of books to pack!

This week the students at RCE spent their library time selecting the books they want to go to the transition campus.  Each child was given dots to mark the books that they would like to see on the shelves for the 18 months we will be at the transition campus.  I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing what the students marked.  I have been impressed with the authors they selected and the titles they put the dots on to "mark" them to be taken.  The lists are made, and we will continue to add to the list during the school year.  My focus on purchasing this year will be e-books.  I have 9 months to get everyone thinking - e-books.  Now to get more e-readers in the classroom and information out to parents.  This is when the frazzled is coming out...so much to do and so little time to do it in!

First Week of School - 2013

It's been a long first week of school.  Happy...yes!  Excited...yes!  Busy...yes!  Frazzled...yes!  The week flew by at first, but as forms returned, books came back and classes started coming in one after the other - the week became long and I became behind!  Thank goodness for Labor Day Weekend!

Although last week was the first week of school, it really seemed like we were only back from a long break.  Already the students have checked out books, visited with passes and our morning broadcast has the regularity of a mid year segment.  One of the biggest changes this year is thinking about packing in April and May.  Every student has been given yellow dots to put on books that they want to see taken to the transition library next year.  At first, I figured the kids would just go stick yellow dots on all kinds of strange titles, but when I actually walked the shelves, I found that they have done an excellent job in selecting titles.  The boys especially went to sport and military titles that they adore.  I was most impressed by how seriously the students have accomplished this task.  Now to make the list of titles so we can actually get them packed up in April!

This year as I reflect on 34 years of teaching and look forward to the rebuilding of Rummel Creek, I can't help but look at the major changes over the years.  I am really reflecting on the 24 years at Rummel Creek - When I first arrived at RCE there were only 12 Macintosh computers.  And these were just the old green screen all in one piece computers.  They were all connected to one as the server.  Students sat and worked through "worksheets on-line" and that was about it.  2 Apple IIe's were on carts that enabled the teachers to show LOGO and to use Print Shop.  And we thought we were "high tech!"  Now you look into a Rummel Creek classroom and you see iPads, iTouches, MiniDells, and more.  Every teacher has an "ActiveBoard" that enables their lessons to be interactive.  Document cameras, sound boxes and rockstars enable teaching to move forward integrating technology.  But no matter how many gadgets you have, you still know deep in your heart - it is the teachers standing in front of the room that is the most important asset.  But my how the teachers have changed over the past 24 years as well.  The classrooms are full of stations and small group learning.  Teachers meet with students one on one or small groups to help them meet personal goals.  Teaching and learning has evolved over the past 24 years.  How I wish I was a student today ....

Time to get back to marking those books and getting the Lunch Bunch groups ready to go!

August 2013

Well, it's been a long long while since the last posting, perhaps this year I should get back to posting a few things that go on in the Rummel Creek Library.  This year marks my 24th year at RCE and it marks the last year we will be in this building.  As much as I look forward to the new building, the current building has so many memories or people and events.  Hopefully this year - I can remember some of the fun memories from the early days.
Pardon me, as I skip back 24 years to the first time I walked on to the Rummel Creek campus.  A friend of mine taught at the school and kept telling me I needed to get a job there.  We had purchased a house in the neighborhood as we had read such good things about the school and my friend was always so positive about the school.  So here I was ....a brand new kindergarten mom...ready to register my child for school the following year.  I walked into the school library for the kindergarten orientation, met the teachers and the principal and felt very good about my child attending RCE.  The library had the smell of books with tall shelves going around the perimeter of the room.  A few big windows let in light.  I thought it was a nice place, but it was not "my home" yet.  At that time I still worked for another district and was looking to getting into Spring Branch to have the same calendar as my daughter.  As fate would have it, Rummel Creek opened just in time for me to take the library as my daughter entered kindergarten.  I'm not so sure she was happy I was there....but I was!
I walked into the library in August of 1990, and found stacks of books everywhere.  It took me a few weeks to get things organized and ready for the students.  Both of my daughters spent nearly a week playing dolls in the library as I tried to get things ready to go for the first day of school.  I had left a school of 1500 students and come to RCE with a students population of 430.  It was wonderful.   I walked into a collection that took me back to my childhood, the books that I had loved so dearly (I still need to weed out a few of those 1962 books!).  I also walked into a school that didn't have a computerized circ system - I was back to cards and pockets!  Cards and pockets don't sound too bad...until you have a stack of "snags" sitting under the desk because you can't match cards to books.
With in the first two years of coming to RCE we began conversion for a computerized circ system.  Thank goodness!   (thank goodness for great volunteers who helped speed up the process!)  And the library has never looked back!

School opens in a few short weeks, with out my girls' help...I guess it's time to get back into the library and straighten up for the students this year. Happy Reading!

Loss of a dear friend and mentor

This weekend, Spring Branch and Texas Libraries lost a very special person.  Barry Bishop finally lost his battle with cancer.  He was my friend, my advisor, my guide, my teacher and more.  As librarians shared, we all commented on the legacy he has left behind.  He dragged many of us kicking and screaming into the 21^st century with 23 things, technology integration, 21^st learning skills and problem based learning.  What a legacy – look where SBISD is now.  Barry taught and encouraged me to have passion and zeal for everything I want to do…he also taught me about priorities – his faith was paramount; his family precious to him.  So then I thought about Rummel Creek’s 50^th – the legacy of the school and what we want to leave for the generations to come.  Sunday morning came and the sermon and my Bible Study talked about the fruit you bear – Barry left a lot of fruit – they are in libraries all across the district and Texas.  And I continued to ponder – what is the fruit that I will leave behind, what is the legacy for Rummel Creek… the books I read over the summer came to my mind…sometimes we get so keyed up with little inconsequential things that we forget to focus on the significant things that are crucial to our value of life – our faith, our relationships, our students, our families and then when something happens we have nothing to fall back on to keep us going.   So I am asking – what is the legacy you will leave, what fruit will your life bear?  Life is short; you don’t know what tomorrow may bring….make everyday count and make a difference  with your life.  And do it with a smile! 

This video kind of adds to this thought:  Simple Truths - Life is a Game
Thanks for letting me share!

December 2011

As I sit to write this post, I am exhausted with the reading from this week....so much out there about Screen Time, App Gap, the need for physical fitness and of course student testing.  It is hard to get the balance in your child's life - time for sports, time for music lessons, and time to just relax...BALANCE is the key.  No matter what article I read about screen time - the common denominator is  - all screen time needs to be counted.  I am watching the students in fifth grade make wonderful book trailers.  They are spending time looking for the perfect music and effects.  They are also infront of the screen a lot...but the conversations between the students are most interesting and insightful and the evaluation of the work is intense.  How can you not encourage students take time to produce amazing film and video that communicate their knowledge?  But we also know that any elementary students should also be on the playground running and developing motor skills (without the motor skills, how can they manipulate a mouse?)  It almost seems like what came first or what needs to be most important.  The next article talked about app gap....the idea that children with technology are far ahead of the children without.  Schools are doing their best for app gap by having technology available at school and in flexible time and arrangements.  (Rummel Creek library is open before school and during lunch/recess every day.) As if all of the technology is not enough...you also need to make sure your children eat well, get enough sleep and have some type of physical exercise as well as try to get Boy/Girl scouts and religious training all outside of the hours of school.  Bless you parents for trying to get it all done!  No wonder our students are over scheduled and over tired.  Read some of the linked articles above and hopefully you will gleam some information to help your children succeed in life...and possibly not be overwhelmed!