BrianGriggs.com

For all of the highly-qualified librarians who still get the “All you do is sit around and read and browse the Internet” comments, here’s what yesterday looked like:

1. Got a 4 hour, 35 minute cooking video ready for the Life Skills class. Chose to put it on VCR quickly so that the groups could see their cooking demos on finals day.
2. Set up a video camera for a teacher to record group presentations
3. Troubleshot when the VCR copyright protection was stopping the teacher from showing her presentations.
4. Co-ordinated by phone and by e-mail with librarians and Hyperion reps as the contact person for an awesome author visit next semester.
5. Set up a display in the office.
6. Updated the video clock and scrolling announcements on the server.
7. Managed an online usergroup roster for one class project.
8. Instructed students on how to upload podcasts on Great Expectations to a virtual classroom for another class.
9. Answered questions on the Walk to D’feet ALS as an impromptu contact person for students, staff, and the community.
10. Selected titles for a World War II booktalk for a Social Studies class next semester.
11. Hooked students up with Shadow of the Hegemon and Titan’s Curse
12. Sold some book fair books.
13. Got the instructional specialists set up to work with inclusion students for testing accomodations.
14. Made sure the PTRO had what they needed for their giftmaking (woo, PTRO!) for the teachers.
15. Ran 5 VCRS and 3 DVD players (with the help of my assistant librarian).
16. Stayed on top of AR quiz installation to help any students who were waiting for “that one test”.
17. Worked with a student aide on labeling books for AR.
18. Re-shelved classroom literature study books.
19. Managed 70+ students at lunch (I love the cold…we had an estimated 110+ students on Tuesday morning.)
20. Ran a club where I taught students Flash and Photoshop.
21. Solved a worksheet after not being able to find an answer key online (because the teacher lost her answer key) without having to pay a subscription. For future reference, if you are handed a jumble of letters (after having to de-code which polygons have which sides and markings) to try and make a word/phrase, I recommend an anagram permutation solver(Sped up my search mucho-fold.).

Calling it a day I stopped at the store to get a gift card for my assistant who informed me yesterday that yesterday was her birthday. And I did some re-shelving and cataloging before I took off.

Because that’s all we do all day.

This morning, starting a new cycle, I stopped to listen to a teacher who has had three violin lessons to play a Christmas song for her mom on her dad’s violin in memory of him.

I love being a librarian!

Phoenix Book Company is having a $3 paperback sale. It is very relaxed and there are actually good titles, instead of other peoples’ sales where it’s their book fair extras.

Or at least he would be if we ever met. Jon Scieszka, author of Stinky Cheese Man (and some other books, I guess) has a site called guysread.com. It’s been out for a while, but I just stumbled upon it.

There he gives a search engine to help guys find guy books (which, sadly, are not usually classroom novels…but it’s getting better!) as well as some printable resources.

The Arizona Library Association has put up my handout on their website (’Set your library on fire!’ is in between the RDA status report and the MARC records update).

Some other funny news today. You can tell my bias towards the digital and online. One of our teachers asked if we had an opaque projector. Have you seen one of these things?

Unleashed from the darkest depths of our AV Abyss (the very back corner of the closet) comes:

The Opaque Projector 

 Click the image thumbnail to see its Dalek glory:

If you don’t want the burden of scanning in documents into some program called “PowerPoint”,  you can put your document under the Watchful Eye and put it up on the screen. Just like ScanTron answer keys, any educational technology that existed before digital boggles. Clerke, you have schooled me.

If you at home want to buy your own, there are still some left on the Internet.

I’m pretty excited about the presentation materials for AZLA.

(Woot, Mac!)

Handout

AZLA 2007 Presentation

I will be speaking at this year’s AZ librarian conference. Attend the session “Set your library on fire!” to hear about next year’s hot new books.

(And for more references to conflagrations.)

I’ve been writing online for quite some time now, but this is the first time since getting my masters degree that I’ve put up some professional stuff.

Here you will find book reviews, lesson ideas, and general teaching philosophy (as well as other things that come at you throughout life).

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