Time flies...and then it doesn't. Ready for Spring!

This week has been a crazy one. Monday we had a snow day, Tuesday we got out 2 hours early due to icy roads, and Wednesday we had a 2 hour late start because said roads were still icy. Yesterday the roads finally got some sun and managed to melt the worst of the slick stuff...so for the first time all week we have a full day. It seems endless! Tomorrow will be even worse! But on the other hand, it's already Thursday and there are only two days left of the week! Ah time, how you tease us.

It also seems to be the middle of March...March! Can you believe it? I'm so far behind on so much it's hard to know where to start. I'd say I'm looking forward to catching up with everything over spring break...but we don't have one. We have Good Friday off and Easter Monday. That's not a spring break, that's a long weekend. I'm so burnt out. I just want a break! The only thing that is pulling me through is the thought of April and the IASL (librarians) Conference. It's just one day off school, less time than our Easter weekend. But it's all mine. I can catch up with what is happening with Iowa librarians and maybe get excited for the end of the year. There really isn't THAT much time left in the year. The problem is we don't have many days off between now and then so it's going to DRAG. :)  I'll just have to survive.

Live Healthy Iowa

My current superintendent is interesting. First he had everyone join Twitter, with the usual mixed reviews. Then he dropped a bomb on the whole district students and staff alike. We are participating in the Live Healthy Iowa 10 Week Challenge. It's happening for all students and staff were highly recommended to create/join a team. I'd never even heard of this before, but apparently one of the reasons we are doing this is to get total participation for Sac County up. Last year we were in the bottom 50 somewhere. I think the couple hundred people we're bringing into this will have to help shoot Sac into the top 50 counties.

Early on I decided I should get involved with this, but I didn't know what building to team up with. In the end I went with one of the elementary buildings and got volunteered to the post of Team Captain along the way. My team seems to be a rag tag bunch, which is nice, most of them are building hoppers like me. I've named us The Ladies of (the) Wall Lake, I'm very lucky none or our guy teachers/staff wanted in.  I figure it's an appropriately literature based title for a librarian captained team.

Last Monday started the Challenge. I'm not sure how well my first week actually went, but I'm hoping for good results overall. Really, I'd just like to get out and move more. I'm not in this to lose a bunch of weight, but hopefully that will be a nice side affect from moving more!

Tweeting

Who knew I'd become a Tweeter?! I signed up for an account last year, and then promptly forgot all about it. I had signed up after a great librarian meeting that got me excited all excited about the networking opportunities. I was convinced I'd use it to check on people in my field, but wouldn't have to tweet anything out myself. After all who cares about what I have to say?

That was then and this is now. Starting at a new school and traveling between four buildings I was at my wits end. I figured it was time to get drastic. I needed a better way to engage with the teachers in my district! So I got serious about my school blog and I started to actually TWEET. Frightening I know. I'm not going to lie, there was a certain amount of terror and self-loathing at the beginning. But I got over that. I don't have to create amazing and profound tweets, I just have to be myself (cliched perhaps but true). I've got my setting completely open, because honestly what's the point if you restrict access? It's not like this is my personal Facebook page. I don't post anything I wouldn't want everyone to see and I don't worry about who I follow as long as I enjoy them. That being said, I post both school and personal information. I debated creating two separate accounts, but being a librarian is a big part of who I am and why I'm tweeting. So I just have the one account and so far so good.

It's mid-year and I think I'm completely hooked.. I check Twitter daily and have really enjoyed following librarians (public and school) as well as my favorite current young adult authors. I've been better able to promote my blog posts and the information I'm blogging about through my Twitter feed. So far I've kept the celebrity following to a minimum, unless you count authors.

About a month ago my superintendent sent out an email about the virtues of Twitter as an educational tool. He encouraged all employees to have an account by the end of the year. He also encouraged us to follow each other. Thank GOD I started using my account at the beginning of the year! I'm already familiar with how things work, and hopefully I've learned enough Twitter "etiquette" not to be a complete nuisance to all my co-workers! I'm even helping others get a feel for things as they set-up their own accounts.

Today I spent about an hour watching the live web feed of the ALA Youth Media Awards and tweeting about it all. I did a fair bit of re-tweeting so that I didn't waste precious time/thought/attention typing. It was a blast. I've never had such a great time waiting for the Newbery, Caldecott, and other ALA awards to be announced. If you're on Twitter check me out, I'm @estohlmeyer.

ALA 2012 Conference!

This is the year! I'm headed to the Annual ALA Conference! It's scheduled to be in Chicago this summer, so it's perfect timing and as close as it's ever going to be. I can't wait! I'm completely overwhelmed with it all right now. I'm trying to plan out the best way for me to go without breaking the bank. This conference is going to be more than my allowed professional development budget from the school. But thats okay, I'm still going.

I've been Googling away since I decided I was going. I've found several blogs from veterans and first-timers. I'm just not sure what applies to me most. For instance, I've read several times that I should have business cards ready to pass out. I'm not sure that I'm going to the conference for networking. I'm a school librarian, not a public librarian...will there be THAT many school librarians to network with? Also, I'm not looking for a job...do I really need business cards? I'm still debating. Because while I think they are somewhat outdated and an expense I don't need to add to my conference list, I have had a LOT of fun playing around with VistaPrint. A lot of people have also talked about all the free books/stuff they go home with and needing to ship it home. I'm planning on driving from Iowa with friends. Between luggage and people I might end up needing to ship things home, but how much stuff can you really expect to have?! I'm hoping for the best but planning for the worst at this point.

I love that the conference is scheduled in the middle of the summer. As a school librarian I've got no professional conflicts. And Chicago is a fun city for a mini vacation! I'm hoping to have some time for site-seeing. I've been to Chicago a million times, but I really do enjoy it. The only thing about summer is the heat. I'm a little concerned about going inside/outside all day long in June/July weather. But I'll just have to hope for some nice breezes off the lake! I'm generally too hot rather than too cold so I'll plan for that and deal with what comes I guess.

It's months away and how knows what might pop up but I hope I actually get to do this!

School with no kids

Today was a Professional Development and Teacher Work day at school. I had the usual running around to do between buildings. It's funny, as I went from building to building, how eerie and quiet everything was. Meetings were done for the day and everyone had quietly retreated to get much needed work done on lesson plans, classrooms, or some equally important thing. Sometimes it's fun to be a school after hours and have it all to yourself, but today just didn't feel like one of those days.

I did get to spend some real time at one building being PRODUCTIVE in the afternoon. As the 3rd quarter starts my Mondays will be spent in one of my elementary buildings. The amount of work I have piled up in this building is amazing. Usually, I'm only here one day a week and then I've got non-stop classes and lessons. Now I'll have an extra day that's completely open to get all the busy work that's piled up done. I've got a stack of books to re-catalog or fix labels. I've got another stack of new books waiting for spine labels to be created, printed, and attached. Some of these things would normally be done by my associate, but in this building she is only part time and doesn't have much in the way of tech skills. Creating a new template for the spine labels is a bit out of her league. So, things like that tend to pile up more easily. I'm excited to be able to get some of this housekeeping done. But I'm also excited to be in the elementary more.

At the elementary level I have two buildings and I see each class for 30 minutes once a week. Sometimes I feel like my library lessons are bare bones, not relevant, or too low tech. I'd like to spend some of this extra time creating more interesting and RELEVANT library lessons for the elementary students. I've got a couple of observation/evaluations coming up in the second semester so this is the time to get on it. I need to see what I can really do with the materials I've got available...wish me luck!

Holiday Season

Well, it's November! Next week is Thanksgiving, but it feels like we just got over Halloween. The kids have been crazy for weeks. It's been busy at school, which is nice but stressful. I'm looking forward to some relaxing holiday gatherings this year.

So last week we had Parent/Teacher Conferences at school. Which means early outs AND a four day week for all. I don't have any conferencing to do but I am required to be there. Luckily the Book Fair usually happens at this time as well. We had the fair going on at both my elementary buildings, but thank GOD the PTO runs the book fair here. I was happy to help during conference time and it was fun. The best part is shopping for the library at the end! Of course now we have a full week to make it through...it's been a LONG one. Next week the kids have 2 days and the teachers have professional development on Wednesday. I'm happy enough with that.

Thanksgiving is getting busy this year! The Stohlmeyer clan is having a get-to-gather! I'm so excited that I don't care how much extra driving it adds to my weekend. This Saturday I'll hopefully be playing games and catching up with the family! We'll be at the school as usual and I think we should have a pretty good turn out. It looks like the weather will be good. Then Thursday is the Buch family gathering as usual. I'm not sure what the plans are for Christmas yet, but I'm expecting less running back and forth. I don't really have any plans for my birthday right now because it's on a Wednesday. Why does 12-12-12 have to be in the middle of the week?! I can't catch a break.  ;)

If only they were OLD SCHOOL!

I think I've become far too obsesed with the Vlogbrothers, Hank and John Green. In case you missed it, I became a Nerdfighter this year!

Making believe it's August.

John Green, I love you.

You. Must. Vote. (According to Hank Green)

I thought this video was very good at stating why it's important to vote...no matter which way you decide to go.

Staying Busy

I'm trying to balance being lazy and being productive during my weekends. I usually need to work on a couple lesson plans for school. I always have dishes or some other cleaning project to get done. But I like to watch movies, shop, and sometimes just be lazy as well. So I try to get my lazy out on Saturday so I can be super productive on Sundays. This works...most weekends. But I've got a lot that I should have done this weekend. I should have started raking leaves. I should have cleaned if not both, then at least one of my bathrooms (although to be fair I DID work on the shower heads in both).

So next weekend I'll HAVE to rake at least the front yard, I'll need to clean both bathrooms, and I need to buy and install a window insulation kit to help keep the box elder bugs out of the house! This is all on top of the regular dishes and laundry that happens on the weekend. So the goal is going to have to be to START working on Saturday. It's just not going to get done in one day, no matter how early it starts.  Wish me luck getting half this done, let alone all of it!

October?! Wasn't it just June?

Wow, I can't believe I'm almost one quarter into the new school year. I'm getting settled into the new house here in Lake View. It's so much bigger than my house in Manning. I've moved further North, which is different. I'm now closer to Sioux City than I am Des Moines.

School is crazy. There was a lightning strike incident over the summer creating a bit of havoc for me. All my records were about a year and a half behind. But not very consistently. CRAZY! I finally feel like I'm getting caught up. I've got some great help in each building, which means no shelving for me. I'm so excited and feel crazy guilty all at the same time. I always feel guilty when I'm not shelving, even though I know it's not my most important job. Sigh. Okay, I'm really tired and I'm falling asleep at my computer. Time for a nap or dinner, we'll see which one actually happens.

If You Love to Read (video)

LOVED THIS SONG AND VIDEO! This might just be my theme song.

Home

So I had a great week at home! We got in a trip to Wisconsin on Sunday. Grandma had everybody over for grilling and birthday celebrations. We really have a lot of Summer birthdays on that side of the family. On Tuesday we ate out at Lunardi's Restaurant for a combination birthday/Father's Day meal. Tuesday was mom's actual birthday, but I was headed back to Manning before Sunday so we combined celebrations while everyone was all together. And I was able to see a bit of Claire on her days off! One minor set-back happened as I left Manning. The morning I left my back felt not so great. By the time I got to the QC it was fully "out." I spent a good bit of my time just taking it easy around the house, but it was nice to have the company! Today I get to help set-up the summer book fair during KinderFest. And tomorrow I'll take my turn at helping out during the actual fair. It's a one day only deal so hopefully they will do well.

Maleficent

Awesome news! They are making a new Sleeping Beauty movie! It's called Maleficent and it's from HER perspective. According to IMDB Angelina Jolie is going to play Maleficent. I am tentatively thrilled! I'm not sure if it's my upcoming trip to Disney or just my love of Sleeping Beauty but I love this whole concept.

Door County, Wisconsin

I really love Wisconsin. And Door County is a perfect example. I love being far enough North that it's consistently cool/cold on Memorial Day Weekend. :-) My parents have been going to Door County a couple times a year for ages now, but last year was the first time I went. This year I decided to go again. We stay in a fantastic place right on the beach. The Beachfront Inn of Bailey's Harbor is on the Lake Michigan side of the peninsula. It's a slower pace, and that's why we love it. They also happen to have a great fire pit on the beach. It's cozy and the s'mores are yummy.

Right down the road is Jacksonport, which has Mai Fest every Memorial Day Weekend. There's a parade, a craft fair, and some awesome food! I usually make sure to get a brat and a funnel cake. Mom is usually good for some Kettle Corn as well. The crafts are fun and so is the entertainment.

Dad enjoys a day or two of golfing as well. Mom and I go at a slower pace. We checked out Sister Bay and drove through Fish Creek on the busy side of the peninsula. There is a great little bookstore right in Baileys Harbor that we like to check out as well. Nothing special but it's nice to browse a smaller collection every now and then. Last year I found an interesting book called Literary Tattoos, inspired by a popular website.

Mom and I had an excellent lunch experience at The Cookie Lady in Sister Bay. It's just across the street from Sister Bay Bowl, which is the bowling ally/supper club that mom and dad enjoy. At the Cookie Lady mom and I each got a turkey sandwich and a MONSTER cookie. They make a great monster cookie.

The 6-7 hour drive from the Quad-Cities can be daunting. Especially when you pair that with another 4.5 hour drive back to Manning for me! But I broke up the driving and it wasn't too bad. I just wish I had gotten my AC fixed in the car BEFORE the trip! The ride up wasn't too bad, but it was well over 80 degrees on the drive home. Ick.

I should also mention my car karma...or lack there of. On the way up as we started to drive into Madison my breaks started to make some grinding noises. After a short bout of panic we found a Midas that was open. It was 4:30 on a Friday evening of a Holiday Weekend...we were definitely panicked. But the Midas was open until 8pm. Turns out one of the pads on my front break fell off...of course they were all worn enough to need replacing. So we stopped and replaced the front breaks with the understanding that the rear breaks will need to be replaced within the next 3-6 months. Perfect. At least it was fixable. It was EXPENSIVE, but the guys were really nice and FAST. We were in and out in just under an hour! It's just my luck!

"Ch-ch-changes"

As most of my friends and family know, I've been let go from IKM-Manning. There were some severe budget cuts this year, and that means no money for two librarians in one district. As soon as I heard that there would be staff cuts, I pretty much knew I was going to be one of them. I was and still am very grateful for the support and concern the staff here has shown for me and my library program. I am going to miss Mrs. LP so much! She's been such a great mentor for me this year...always willing to let me work with her freshmen class. Sigh. I think I'm doing an okay job of not dwelling.

Speaking of not dwelling, I've already got a new job. There was a school district an hour North of Manning looking for a k-12 librarian. I'll be the East Sac County Librarian staring in August. There are four buildings: two elementary, one middle, and one high school. I will have a full time para in 3 of the buildings with a part time para in the last elementary. It will be a challenge, but I think I'll be happy. I'm very excited by the programs already started at the middle school building. They are working on creating a student space, funded by a healthy snack machine right in the library! It's really amazing. The teachers that I've talked to seem very interested and excited in the library program which is amazing.

Of course as soon as I accepted the position at East Sac County the Davenport District posted their job openings. There are three library positions open: two middle schools and Blue Grass/Buffalo. Apparently, I can't catch a break. But when you are let go, you don't exactly want to wait around for every position to open up. I was more focused on making sure I had a job. I don't know what the situation would have been like applying with Davenport this year, but I did know that East Sac County was VERY interested. You just can't pass on that kind of offer. It's going to be a crazy year.


BTW: did anyone get the awesome Roswell reference in the title of this post?  :-)

Small Town Life

Over the Hunger Games weekend Emily and Claire got a taste of "small town life." Or maybe not. There was a small disturbance in the house at the end of my block on Friday night. We were trying to have an easy day Friday after the crazy that was the party and the midnight premier and I think we did an excellent job of taking it easy most of the day. But at 10:30pm a police officer came to the door and told us we needed to leave. Um...what?! There was a situation down the street and the house was not a safe distance away, so we were being asked to evacuate. Claire and I were already in our PJs so it was a mad dash to find some clothes! We decided to get some gas in Em's car and go hang out at the Wal-Mart in Carroll. My neighbor lady, Janet, said she'd keep me up to date and let us know when it was safe to come back. Well, after walking around Wal-Mart for what felt like eternity we ended up finding a room at the Super 8 so we could get some sleep. Two sleepless nights in a row tend to make us cranky! Janet did text us around 7:30am, but we were too sleepy to really get it. The next morning we slept as long as we could, ate lunch, and decided to see Hunger Games again. The movies are cheap here, and we wanted to make sure we were good before heading back to Manning.

Turns out there was a man having some mental trouble while carrying a shot gun and/or a pistol around the house. The police tried to quietly get things back to normal but the man wasn't cooperating. Around 7:30am Saturday morning the police finally threw some tear gas into the man's house and he came out and gave up. Nobody was hurt, THANK GOD. The man was sent to the hospital for observation/treatment and was eventually charged with something. I can't remember what. But nobody really had any intention of hurting anyone else, it was just a bad situation so they had to evacuate people.

It was funny, driving back into town people were mowing their lawns. Kids were riding their bikes. It looked like every other normal day. On Monday when we went back to school only half the staff/students seemed to know anything had happened over the weekend. It was a weird weekend.

Hunger Games: The Movie!

Wow, first of all I loved it. The movie didn't feel rushed, if anything it pushed the limits on running time. I felt like the important events from the book were all present. I think Gale is too much of a hottie and giving Peeta a real fight for the title of "favorite boy."


I loved the actors. Considering there are a lot of children in this movie they did a great job of finding talented actors. I didn't feel like anyone was picked just for the look of the character, they also had to be able to act. I mean the girl playing Katniss has been nominated for an Academy Award! And let's face it...I LOVE Stanley Tucci!!!! I think Rue and Thresh were awesome as well. I could totally see that boy being upset about Rue.

The Games. Between the game makers and the action, I was pretty happy with how the actual game went. There were a couple changes but nothing I didn't understand. Meaning, I don't think some of the kids expected to watch this movie would have done too well after...if the Mutts at the end were as gruesome as they appear in the book. I am a bit disappointed about the missing scene from Katniss and Peeta as they are brought to the hover craft at the end of the games. But as I mentioned before, the movie was LONG I can see how that would be an easy transition to cut.

Really, my biggest problem was the relationships. The movie really didn't develop any of the complicated relationships between the characters very well. One minute Katniss doesn't want anything to do with Peeta as a teammate, and the next she's upset because he doesn't want anything to do with her as a teammate. You don't get anything from Gale. He's there, he's not there, and he's there again. Nothing. I also had trouble with Cinna and Kaniss. She seemed to trust him very quickly, but you don't see why or how that came about. A short conversation does not a true friend make. I understand this is a complicated movie to make, but considering how long they let the movie go on...I feel like we should have been able to get more out of these connections. I will say that Seneca Crane and President Snow talking about the Games in his garden was amazing. I feel like I got a better understanding of how President Snow ticks than I did of how Gale did. I hope to see some of these relationships develop more fully in the next movie.

Success!

Wow, this is late in getting posted. But I didn't have the energy to write it after the party and then I forgot about it during Spring Break... so here I am almost a month later talking about my very successful Hunger Games Premiere Party!

The party was amazing. We had around 40 kids with 5 official adult workers! Most of the staff dropped by at some point during the event just to check out the action and meet Emily. We decided to go "TWIN" for the party. :-)

Emy brought me a shirt so we could be twins with same, shirt different color, with our hair pulled back and similar pants. Oh boy did the kids AND the staff go crazy when they saw us! So, we had a lot of people around. By the end of the night the library was HOT, but it was totally worth it.

I started the evening with food. Students got to eat some Hunger Games Themed treats made by the Food II class, as well as pizza or walking tacos.

Once everyone was settled in eating and chatting we watched the movie trailer and the Taylor Swift video.

Then we watched a parody video that was pretty great. It was a nice way to start the action and it allowed people to trickle in and not miss anything.

Once we started the Training Stations thing really got into high gear.

The Archery Station, of course, was a big hit. Emy watched out to make sure our bow didn't break and that the line moved smoothly. I had Claire taking pictures, because she's great at it, but didn't have my camera batter properly charged. But Claire is awesome and was able to get a lot of great pictures before the "lights went out." I moved between the Camouflage Station and the Knot Tying Station for most of the event.

There were some HIGHLY motivated camouflage kids.

Not a lot of faces were painted, but most people left with water, tree, grass, or even fire inspired arms. A couple of students braved the Plant Life Station but only two forms were turned in. One was not complete, but the other was (it wasn't correct, but it was complete). The game playing stations went pretty well. We only had one student who beat the Scholastic Computer Game the whole night! We took a picture as proof, because EVERYONE tried it but nobody seemed to win. I was sure it was rigged.

I was surprised at how fast time could fly and still seem to take forever. In the end the party broke up around 7:15 pm instead of 8pm, but I everyone seemed happy. We had two rounds of prizes, because I wanted to make sure that a couple of late arrivals got a chance at a prize. I was feeling guilty that the party was breaking up so early. But I think the prizes went well. I gave a poster out to the only person to win the computer game. I gave another poster to the only person to completely fill out the wildlife challenge. Then I drew names from a punch bowl for all everything else. I'd say it was a good mix of high school vs. middle school winners. There were way more high school students at the party so they got most of the prizes. Not everyone could claim a prize but most people were happy enough.

Joyce and Brenda, the workers I recruited from school were amazing help! They took care of all the food and were helping clean up before I could even worry about the mess we were making. We were all cleaned up and out of there by 8pm. In fact I think I beat most of the teachers out of their rooms! Which was good because Emy, Claire, and I needed a little rest before the movie. The movie...I'll have to start a new post for that!

Weather

I can't help but be grateful for the mildness of my first Northwestern Iowa winter. We never had a snow day. I was able to keep up with shoveling without killing myself. And the heating bill was reasonable. The week before last I took the plunge and turned off the heat. I'd had it so low it wasn't even turning on but felt the more definite move to "off" was called for.

Now that it is spring I'm trying to enjoy the temps when they stay cool. It is still too early for the AC at the house. My windows are pretty old and I'm not looking forward to opening them. So it's a bit stuffy. I cleaned off my ceiling fan, but it doesn't help much. At school it is also too early for the AC but I do have some good ceiling fans in the library and they seem to help a lot. My hair, on the other hand, has been impossible. Pulled back or let down it's frizzy and annoying. The delights of changing seasons! Bring on the "April Showers!"