I’m going to start with the Ugly and work my way to the Good as I’d like to end on a positive note!

The Ugly

Due to the overwhelming budget shortfall in our State educational system, my district has initiated a furlough of five days for teachers & instructional staff and 10 days for everybody else.  But at least we all still have jobs – there wasn’t another reduction in force initiative passed.

The Bad

I’ve had a horrible headache for the past three days.  I love the changing of the seasons, but Spring and late Summer/Fall are extremely painful for me.  Add inconsistent air-conditioning in the library, and I’d really like to hibernate at home until the temperatures become constant.  I’m going to have to insist that the district folks come out and check the thermostat register/gauge.  I swear it isn’t accurately measuring the temperature.

The Good

1. I’ve got an LMS intern this fall who started yesterday.  It’s a good thing she and I have already met and have had some interaction before she came here for her first day.  I was so doped up and caffeinated to try and dull my migraine that I’m sure I came across as a hyper schizophrenic woman.  As it was, I know I overloaded her with details on her first day. Sigh.  But on the bright side, I have a nice new Banned Book Week bulletin board – she did an awesome job on it.  Will have to remember to snap a picture before we take it down.

2. Sony has FINALLY made eReader library software available for download on Macs.  Of course, ideally, I’d rather they provide an ONLINE library/store verses having to download it to our computers, but at least they are no longer discriminating against us Mac users.  I was able to search, download, and transfer books to my eReader from my Mac last night.  That was way cool!

3. Apple’s Snow Leopard releases Friday and if you pre-ordered it up through yesterday, you were promised to have it delivered to you on Friday.  We’ll see.  I’ve been reading up on it, and while it doesn’t seem to have too many new “Wow” perks, you can’t beat the price – under $30.

4. We finally received instructions for setting up PowerTeacher Gradebooks.  I’ve been bombarded by teachers asking when it will be ready – they’ve got grades piling up!  Now I just have to put together a training packet – I’m not pleased with the one the district posted – it leaves too much out and some things aren’t explained very well.  Guess what I’ll be doing this weekend? Hmm, maybe this should go under the bad!

5. Speaking of this weekend, I’ll most likely be stopping by to see one of my cousins (more like a sister as we practically grew up in the same house) who just had twin boys this morning!  Can’t wait for the pictures.  I have GOT to get a new digital camera.  I keep missing out on photo opportunities.

Well, at least for now the Good outweighs the Bad & the Ugly.  Do any of you have some news to share?

Of course the year won’t really begin until next week when all the smiling and excited students join us, but today was the first day back for teachers in my district.  We spent the morning meeting new hires, catching up with summer adventures, and going over policies and procedures. The rest of this week will be full of more faculty meetings/training and teachers prepping their rooms.  Ahhhh, I love the smell of the laminator in the morning!  Uhm, yeah, that was a joke.  That thing is older than I am and it stinks!  Someone will invariably ask whats burning.  But that’s not what I wanted to write about.  Although, I have a guilty little secret to admit – the laminator is my friend and best collaboration tool.  I deliberately turn it off between use.  Did I mention it’s ancient?  It takes 15 minutes to heat back up, even if you’ve just turned it off!  Can we say captive audience!

The point of this post isn’t the laminiator, what I wanted was to take a moment to jot down some of the things I’m looking forward to for this upcoming year:

1. My first school library intern – Yikes!  Pressure, Pressure!  I SOOOO don’t do things like we’re taught in library school.  However, I’m really looking forward to having a fresh face and new idea sharing with her.
2. Collaborating with teachers.  I already have some new and exciting plans with our Freshman Academy English teachers and some ideas bouncing around with our wonderful new art teacher.  Did I mention that we now have a FULL TIME ART TEACHER.  Whoohoo!  And our literacy initiatives, part of High Schools That Work, more than likely mean I’ll be interacting with more than just the English teachers for supplemental reading materials.
3. Speaking of reading initiatives, I’m really looking forward to planning some Teen Read Week activities.  This year’s theme is “Read Beyond Reality” and I want to offer events during all of October based around Reality TV:  American Idol; So You Think You Can Dance; America’s Got Talent; Jeopardy (or other game show); etc.  Our students love to perform, and since karaoke is always such a big hit, I’m hoping the other themes will draw more of them to the library.  A couple of teachers have already agreed to help out.  Of course I’ll be creating displays, bulletin boards, and book lists for science fiction and fantasy titles, but I immediately thought of the reality tv rage when I heard of this year’s theme.
4. Being asked by the middle school principal to work with (vertical team) with their new library media specialist.  This was a “duh” moment for me.  I got to thinking if I went over there a few times a month, we (the middle school and elementary school librarians and I) could work together!  The middle and elementary school libraries are beside each other and share a workroom.
5. Re-starting the book club.  I’ve already purchased multiple copies of My Sister’s Keeper by Picoult for one of our meetings.  I’ve been wanting to use it since it originally came out, but couldn’t afford the hardcover or trade paperback prices.  I was jumping for joy when it came out in mass market paperback in May and then the movie came out this summer!
6. Giving 10 Minute Tech training during our faculty meetings.  Some topics I’m thinking of introducing are: Twitter, RSS, Creative Commons, Flickr, VoiceThread, Animoto, DISCUS, Inspiration, PhotoStory, Windows Movie Maker, and many more.  I’ll give out handouts with basic instructions and an invitation for teachers to sign up with me for more in-depth training on their own time.

These are just a few of the things I’m planning for this year both for my library program, teachers, students, and professionally.  What are some things you’re looking forward to this year?

For the past three or more weeks I have been working with our school leadership team, and specifically one phenomenal English teacher, to write our schools External Review report.  This involved scanning hundreds of documents, writing narratives, and inserting the scanned documentation into the report.  This process has so totally consumed my life that I’ve even begun having nightmares about the report – scanning errors, loss of data, arguing with my coworkers over it, etc.  Because of the amount of work involved, my library has been closed more in the past three weeks than it has been open.  Add collaborating with the English II teacher whose student began their research papers last week into the mix and you can understand that I’ve been stressed to the point of wanting to quit, hole up in my room, and shut out the world.

But as of 6pm last night, the process is FINALLY finished.  I gave my principal the magic thumb drive for him to personally mail to the powers that be.  The drive contains 387 files in 127 folders and includes our 158 page report with a 15 page master list of our documentation. Whew!!

It was so nice going into work today and not having to worry over our ERT documentation.  To top it off, it was a Teacher Workday and I got to spend part of that with other media specialists at an Aiken County Media Educators (ACME) meeting.

Now I can get back to doing things I love – reading, blogging, corresponding with family/friends, and devote more focus & time with our drama club to direct our submission for the Garcia Theatre Project One-Act Play Festival in May.  We’re producing “A Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe.  We’ve (myself and that phenomenal English teacher I mentioned above) had to adapt the story ourselves and we’ve got some awesome ideas on the script/direction and an amazing group of teens committed to giving us their best.  Wish us luck!  Oh, and keep your fingers crossed for us that our ERT documentation is accepted.  Thanks!

Photo Credit: “more energy mas happy” by gezelle on Flickr

Okay, what do teachers mean when they add the statement “students may only use three Internet sources” in their research assignments?  How do you define “Internet” resources?  This question was posed on our SCASL Ning as to whether or not subscription databases (such as the ones found on our state’s DISCUS Virtual Library and others such as EBSCOhost, FactsOnFile, etc.) are “Internet” resources.  It was further explored in a post by my friend Cathy Nelson over at her blog.  (Please read her post then come back here)

Here was my response on the SCASL forum:

“In my opinion, electronic databases should NOT count as Internet resources. Yes, you access them through the Internet (the delivery method), but someone has to pay to access them – hence the name subscription database. In addition, these resources have already been “evaluated” in some form. When teachers refer to the Internet, they are mostly referring to the WWW and/or free web = sites that any john doe can create. Like you said above, electronic databases collect materials that were originally in print – magazines, journals, pamphlets, brochures, reference books, etc. as well as web resources that have been evaluated and approved to be of some authority. My teachers will allow students to use as many references from DISCUS/subscription databases as they can find, but limit the number of free websites/sources.”

But some would argue that you have to pay an Internet Service Provider in order to have access to the Internet.  True, but your ISP isn’t saying that everything you can access through them has been authorized or evaluated as authoritative sources.  I can tell you that I’m pretty sure Gale’s InfoTrac isn’t going to have an article taken from Mrs. Smith’s 5th grade science class webpage and have it indexed in it’s database.  But it will have an article from Scientific American, which was originally posted as a print magazine, which in turn meant that it had to go through some authentication process before it was ever printed.**

Which also brings up the fact that subscription databases contain information that if found on your physical library shelves would be considered PRINT sources.  You wouldn’t tell a student you can’t use that reference book article because you’ve already got three print sources.  Why would you tell the student he/she can’t use the reference article from DISCUS just because he accessed it via the Internet and he already has three WWW/free web sources?  Remember, most subscription databases contain information that was originally published in print (magazines, journals, newspapers, reference books, pamphlets, brochures, etc.)

Bottom line, the Internet is a delivery method.  The Internet IS NOT A SOURCE! Sally student wouldn’t list AT&T as a source, but instead she would cite the telephone interview she conducted with Oncologist Dr. Smith for her cancer research project.  Johnny student wouldn’t list Time Warner Cable as a source, but instead A&E Biography (the specific show) for information he used in his biographical essay on Albert Einstein.

I believe that the real reason teachers put a limit on “Internet” resources is that they want students to use a variety of sources and not just “Google It.”  However, teachers need to be more specific when they write their assignment guidelines.  Instead of saying only three Internet sources, they need to specify only three free web sources.  As Cathy pointed out in her blog, and what I do for my teachers and students, is explain the differences between the free web and subscription databases.   I remind them that they can use as many subscription database/DISCUS articles as they want.

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** Note: I do remind students that articles in subscription databases must still be evaulated, less for “authority” and more for bias, relevance, and timeliness.

I’d been warned over an over, as well as heard horror stories from co-workers and family, about the hazards of living and working in a rural setting, and had a few close calls, but tonight it happened.  After five years of living out in the boonies, my luck ran out -  I hit a deer, or more accurately, a deer hit me.

Today has been overcast and misty – leading to a really thick fog this evening and making it very difficult to see to drive.  I was coming home from a shopping trip in Columbia (a 45 minute drive) and was only about a half a mile from home.  I’m doing about 50 mph in a 55 mph zone with a truck with 6 front lights (why do trucks and cars have to have more than the standard two headlights?) riding my bumper and casting a glare in my mirrors.  I can barely see in front of me and knew better than to let this guy force me to go faster.

I should have just slowed down and said to heck with the idiot behind me, but you know the saying about hind-sight.  I “saw” something up ahead – just large shadows on the road – and had slowed down to about 40 when I came up on two deer standing in the road.  One was in the middle of the road and the other was on my side of the road, close to the edge of the road and he/she jumped to safety.  The other one started to run to the opposite side, but suddenly turned and JUMPED at my car, I guess to go with it’s mate.  It hit me at the front driver side nose/wheel/door and I don’t think I’ll ever forget the crunching sound.  I slowed down even more, looking in my rear view mirror, but all I can see is the lights of idiot behind me.  I’ve slowed down to about 30, but the truck is still riding my rear.  I’m screaming and crying – I can’t stand to see an animal in pain/hurt, and thinking that I just hurt and possibly killed a deer is still eating me up.

As I said, I was only about a half a mile from home, so I keep driving, tears streaming down my face.  When I get home, I beg my stepfather to go back and make sure it’s not in the road and/or ensure it’s dead and not suffering.  We go out and inspect my car first, and there was no damage, leading him to believe it may not have been so bad.  He drives off down the road and comes back and tells me he didn’t see it in or off the side of the road – I’m not sure I believe him as I think he’s just trying to spare my feelings.  He says it must have just been stunned and was able to run off back into the woods.  I pray that is true.

Thanks for putting up with my story.  I had to get it out so I can let the incident go.  I know things could have been a lot worse – I could have been hurt and/or run off the road if I’d let the jerk behind me goad me into going as fast as I normally drive – despite the fog.  And/or I could have stopped suddenly and caused the truck behind me to hit me or my Honda Element to flip.  But thankfully, those things didn’t happen.  And I have to hold onto the hope that since the deer wasn’t in the road and my car wasn’t dented or scratched up that the deer wasn’t seriously hurt, too!