They should make a reality show about a librarian...more fieldwork experiences.

May 19, 2010
Fremont High School
6 hours
CCTC Standards: 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

• Wow. This was a long and tiring day. Testing again, only today, in addition to the one displaced English class taking up residence in the library, there was also a displaced Special Ed. class filled with students with emotional issues. It was wild. One student kept making weird and very loud noises. Ms. Hoover was patient. Teachers were in and out with testing materials. Students were there with not much guidance from their teachers.
• I processed a huge pile of DVDs from beginning to shelving. Ms. Hoover was very patient and explained each step. It is very detailed work and I am constantly reminded that being a TL is an art as well as a science. There are choices to be made and not always one "right" answer. Ms. Hoover has her own system for DVDs, not Dewey and they are only available to teachers in the professional library. So it involved cataloguing, making/applying labels and barcodes, and protective plastic over the labels and barcodes. It took a long time. ACCENT was going very slowly.
• More shelving and reading shelves...I can see this is a never ending task.
• I cleaned some tables today, minor tagging, luckily in pencil so it came off.
• While I was working on the films with Ms. Hoover, a couple of boys came in and stood sheepishly and awkwardly near her office door. "Are you here for condoms?" Ms. Hoover asked. It turns out she is one of several designated condom distributors on campus. She has an informational handout and little speech for the students who ask for condoms. I thought, "Wow. I had no idea this was part of the job description." She volunteered for the job, but I guess it makes sense that the person in charge of information should help students access this particular information. She says a few kids come in on most days.
• I really like observing what goes on in the library. Teachers are always popping into Ms. Hoover's office to say hi, and to ask for some information or help. Today someone wanted her to make a flier for the Ideas club, the club made up of AB540 students. She also helped the union with something. A new teacher went in her office, closed the door and cried for a few minutes then left. Ms. Hoover gave her kleenex, and a giant box of post-its. (I guess she was crying because she couldn't get post-its from the office. I am so glad I am not a new teacher anymore.)
• Started preparing list of YA books for classroom libraries at the request of the English department.
• Started preparing a list of YA Historical Fiction books at the request of the Social Studies department.