The Saturday 7

1. I officially finished my first year as a school librarian/paraprofessional. Because I only work Mondays, and next Monday is Memorial Day, I finished this week. Of course, it was not without difficulty, since I came down with another cough that ravaged my voice. The kids are already squirrely during the last few weeks of school. It was rough keeping their attention. At one point, I literally stood on a chair and waved my arms in the air because I couldn't shout loud enough to get them to quiet down. Haha. Despite that, I truly enjoyed this year. The library stuff was a delight. My classroom management skills could use improvement (as the standing on a chair technique reveals). I'm hoping to do some research to that end this summer.

2. The good news is that I've been asked to return again next year! I signed my contract this week and am excited about potentially adding another day to my schedule. Look at me, working two days a week like a professional. 😂 However, next year is going to look very different than this year did. Because of the explosive growth our school has experienced since Covid, our current classrooms are bursting at the seams. A plan is in place to build an addition during this coming school year, to be finished by the 2023-2024 school year. Until that happens, though, the current library is being transformed into a classroom. Which means that we're going to be putting our library on wheels. In the next few weeks, Mrs. Miller and I will box up all 10,000 of our books, putting some in storage and some in rolling shelves in the hall. Next year, we'll push a cart into each classroom, do our read-aloud and library activities there, and let kids checkout from the books we've supplied. It's not ideal, but it's temporary, and we won't be out our jobs! So I'll also be researching tips on how to do library from a cart this summer. Step one: learn to dance and push the cart simultaneously . . .

3. Speaking of research, I only have a few weeks left of my college career! I'm wrapping up my Library Archives class, and Child Development class. I don't mind the reading material of the Child Development class, but I am not a fan of the professor's teaching style. Today, as I was wracking my brain for another sentence to add to my succinct and thorough reply to a discussion question in order to meet the minimum word count, all I could think of was this:

I know that based on this blog, and the run-on sentence that preceded that meme you have a hard time believing that I can be succinct, but I can! And I hate adding superfluous words just to reach an arbitrary word count!

4. In my archives class this week, I was tasked with finding a digital collection of archived materials. I came across a collection of newspapers from Grand Rapids in 1908 called Woman. It considered itself the first weekly newspaper that was written by women for women about women, and it is fascinating. I've pored over the first few editions this week, and have to share some of the gems I found. (Sorry about the bad photo quality.)

"Any woman in Grand Rapids who desires to administer a boost or a knock to men in general or things in particular is cordially invited to use these columns." There are some definite feminist leanings in these works. 😂

Guys, even if I die from choking on a cheeto while laying on my couch watching The Bachelor please don't let a newspaper columnist describe me as "alone and friendless amid surroundings of squalor and distress."

Not just champions of women!

Some things never change.

Ah, the good ole days when parents were responsible for their kids' behavior, and the court supported teachers. I'm not sure what court-plaster is, but I'm pretty sure I shouldn't consider it for my "classroom management" needs. 😂 (Also, this is in no way an indictment of the children, parents, or administration at my school. It's just a picture of how things have changed in 100 years!)

5. I have been staring at this number 5 on my screen for fifteen minutes and can't for the life of me think of anything else to add. We've been busy with the last few weeks of school, plus I'm in planning mode for our church's summer soccer camp. I read a few books. The only one worth mentioning is The Heart of the Mountains by Pepper Basham. I've also gotten into a new Netflix series: The Lincoln Lawyer. It's rated MA, but only for language. There's a fair amount of the F word sprinkled into conversations, but not enough to make me too uncomfortable. That about sums up things on the ol' homestead these days. Hopefully I'll have more wit and wisdom next time. 🤷

6. Some pictures - mostly of Levi for some reason.