Library Day in the Life - Calm

Day 3 of Library Day in the Life went by fast. My daughter magically got better around 3:00 PM yesterday, so she went back to school today. At work I organized, collaborated, and caught up on a bunch of smaller things.Today was a very calm and productive day.

• I started my day at the reference desk, astounding one girl with the amount of resources we have on Kurds, helping a student with Diigo, loaning a DVD of  The Crucible to a teacher, and having typically random conversations with students.
  
  
• After grabbing some Cheerios, I cleaned my desk, putting together working files and filing away old paperwork. Then I made a to do list. I am rarely without my little blue or purple pad of paper with my ongoing lists. I have tried many electronic list-making tools, but nothing satisfies me more than crossing items off my list with a pen. My address book is digital, my photos are digital, my lists are on little blue pads of paper from Office Depot.
  
  
• Next I collaborated with the Lower Division Librarian about  our approach to co-chairing the library chapter of the WASC accreditation report, which we have to start next month.
  
  
• I met with my Advisory group. Every week for about 25 minutes I meet with the same dozen teenagers. I have been with this group for almost three years now, and today we talked about our school community and if it upholds its stated value of caring. It was a good conversation, and we commented how different it would have been if they were in 9th grade (they are now in 11th).
  
  
• Next I hopped into the Educational Technology Specialist's office in the library and we met about how to better reach reluctant teachers and encourage their professional growth in the realm of technology. We also decided to formally meet on a weekly basis with the other Ed Tech guy as well. Very productive meeting.
  
  
• Today for lunch I made a nice salad at the salad bar and ate outside in the sunshine with my friends/coworkers. 
  
  
• Next I caught up on my email and Twitter (professional development at its finest), followed the tweets about the new  iPad for a bit (nice price!), and I discovered that my new UCLA mentor is just 1 degree of separation from me already - we were bound to meet even if I weren't her mentor.
  
  
• Then I took an Atomic Learning assessment about 21st century skills. Luckily I passed (I got a  B), but the test was mediocre. I took it as a favor to the Ed Tech guy, who was wondering if all the teachers should take it. My response was, "Only if you want people to talk about you behind your back." We agreed that test is boring and unimaginative, and really not a clear indicator of knowledge. If the school wants to assess our teachers in this way, we could probably design a better assessment for our community.
  
  
• Next I had to work on some non-library related committee work for about an hour.Fun, but nothing to blog about.
  
  
• Off to pick up the kids from school!