Christmas Card From a Student

"Dear Mrs. Nelson,
Happy Holidays!
I hope you get a lot of presents! Thank you for being so nice to me and reading my class fun stories. Thank you also for letting us get a good and fun egecation and letting us do glogs. Let angles soround you were ever you go."

I Hear You

As a librarian, I often have a swarm of children following me around saying "Mrs. Nelson! Mrs. Nelson!" even when they can see that I am helping another student. Helping each of my students is important to me but I generally have to do so one at a time. I've tried telling the students yelling out my name that I am helping someone else, I'll be with them in a minute. I've tried saying "I'll be right there" or "Head in that direction and I'll catch up." But often they just go back to following me around, calling my name, and demanding immediate, undivided attention.

I have found the magic phrase: "I hear you." Not uttered in an exasperated or sarcastic way like "Of course I hear you, you have said my name ten times at the top of your voice." But just a calm, "I hear you." You do have my attention and you will get the help you need.

It is simple and beautiful and it helps me remember that these children aren't really impatient. They just want to be heard.


Copyright Science Photo Library

Future

This comic reminded me of something that happened in one of my classes last week before the snow shut down the entire state of Georgia.

I teach 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes when they come to the library. The 5th graders have been the most challenging to keep engaged and on task. The 4th graders are practically always angels, or at least good natured about whatever little mischief they get into. And the 3rd graders vacillate between the two.

Most days I see one to three classes that all belong to the same grade, but there is one day of the rotation that I see two 5th grade classes, followed by a 4th grade class. I really, really love this 4th grade class. At first I thought they just seemed extra great by comparison, but, no, really, they are sweet hearts.

Last week, when I had this class, however, they were being uncharacteristically difficult to teach. Silly, not bad, but it was still hard to get through the lesson. I finally told them, "Look, you are my moment of zen after those 5th grade classes!"

One of the students looked at me and said, "But we're just future 5th graders."

Say it ain't so.

Are You My Trough Helper?

In the lunchroom the majority of teachers and students get their food items plate by plate, possibly in multiple trips. This is because our school no longer uses trays in an effort to be more "green." (I guess the idea is that if you don't use the trays you don't have to wash them.)

However, the balancing act is too much for the Kindergarteners so they do use trays. The Kindergarteners also need help separating their trays, paper trash, silverware, and plates at the "trough." There is always a teacher on trough duty when the Kindergarten is getting done with lunch.

I am assigned trough duty on one day of the seven day rotation beginning in January, so I have not had the pleasure of this experience yet.

I say all this to explain what happened earlier this week when I went to eat lunch at a slightly earlier time than I normally do.

I finished eating at the same time as the Kindergarten students. As I put my dirty plate on the conveyor belt I was surrounded by zombie children wielding trays. "Where do I put my tray? I don't know what to do with my tray? What should I do with my tray?"

Somehow I was the only adult around and something was amiss with the set-up for the trays. Telling them, "I don't know, I'm new at this" wasn't really cutting it.

I looked one child in the eye, partially shaking him out of his zombification, "What do you normally do with the trays?" He pointed to a low wheelie cart (I think they are normally used to transport things like milk in food service) that was just inside the door to the dish washing room.

"You put them on this cart?" I asked. He nodded. The children crowded closer.

I stepped into the room and started wheeling the cart out. The zombies descended on me, setting their trays down.

"Let me out!" I cried, trying to wheel the cart out into the cafeteria. Inch by inch I got out the door, all the while collecting the trays of tiny zombies.

"Where does it go?" I asked, hoping someone, anyone, would answer.

One zombi looked up, shaken from his mission of depositing his tray on my cart for one moment. He pointed beside the conveyor belt and continued moving toward me. I slid the cart over to its place and darted from the cafeteria.

Found It!

A student came to me today with one of those requests that seemed impossible. He wanted a specific book. It has that thing in it from A Wrinkle in Time. Yeah, a tesseract. There are houses on the cover. No, it's not another Madeleine L'Engle book.

How many books can there be that have tesseracts in them? I looked on NoveList, which I've been encouraging the kids to do when they are wondering what to read next. If this student thought his book was like A Wrinkle in Time, maybe NoveList did, too.

And it worked. I typed in A Wrinkle in Time, looked at the "NoveList Also Recommends" section of the page. Before I could even say anything, he pointed at the screen and said, "That's it!" (When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead - I haven't read it so please don't hold me accountable if it is not actually like A Wrinkle in Time at all.)

Then we found it in the catalog and he had the desired book in hand.

I love it when a good librarian plus good technology results in a good library experience!

Andre the Canadian?

As part of the first-day-of-library activities I have been having all my classes make name cards. That way I can learn their names and if I ever need to assign them seats I can do it easily. Since I saw the last of my classes today (we start the second rotation tomorrow) my speech about the name cards had gotten pretty long. I've been learning along the way.

Their names have to be big enough and dark enough for me to read them.

They have to write the name they go by in class.

They can draw pictures, but the pictures need to be school-appropriate.

The pictures should not obscure their name.

Anyway, one of my students asked me today if he could go by "Andre" (shortened from "Andrew"). I have no problem with shortened versions of their names. I was just telling them to write down what their teacher calls them to avoid things like "Scooby-Doo" and "Bat Man." I wasn't going to object, but he apparently felt he needed to explain further because he said, "It's okay for me to go by Andre because I'm half Canadian."

I love working with kids.

Education

I am about halfway done with my current educational endeavor. If all goes as planned I should graduate next spring with a Specialist degree in Education for School Library Media. (Translation: I will be certified to be a media specialist in Georgia and will have slightly more education than is strictly required.)

As I have continued my education it has gotten progressively more practical. I studied Latin and English as an undergraduate -- fun! but not so much subjects that prepare you for the working world. Then I got a Masters in Library Information Studies. I did this with the aim of learning a profession and getting a job. Similarly, this Specialist degree is about the jobs I can get with it.

However, I have learned that practical degrees can still be fun. I enjoyed library school immensely and still think fondly of my Print Culture class especially. (I am fascinated by the differences between orality, literacy, print culture, 2.0 culture, etc.) And now I have started the Applied Project I have to complete for my Specialist degree. This was described by one of my professors as more than a Master's thesis but less than a Doctoral dissertation.

I am thinking about collecting jokes from my students in order to learn more about them. The first assignment I have had to complete on my Applied Project journey was an annotated bibliography. I did let it get a little down to the wire and had to put some serious last minute hours into my bibliography but -- it was fun! Have you ever read scholarly articles on jokes? Maybe not everyone's idea of a good time, but I think they are great.

I am really enjoying being in school right now and I am enjoying this project especially. It is still in the early stages, but hopefully it will continue to be a pleasant learning experience.

Thinking about jokes, I remembered that I had written up a joke experience from when I was working in Athens. I dug it out, dusted it off, and posted it here.