Into the woods

[ceitfianna]

I'm loving my new job but I have these moments of realizing how little this community knows about how a library works. I think some of the teachers and kids get it but then something will happen and I feel like blinking at the world.

One of the big things that I've been doing is working in the library itself and turning the office/storage space into mainly storage as its tucked far too away from what's happening. Now at the moment I don't have a proper desk in the library, I sit at a big wooden table with my laptop. Sometimes students sit with me, sometimes the students at the computers bump my chair or the outlet and I lose power. Its awkward but the students are getting used to me and I'm easy to find for any sort of help. Also I'm being very proactive and asking can I help all the time. But I would like to have a desk and do some rearranging, well I was explaining this and how my phone is currently attached to a wall in the back room. One of my bosses went well, how could you talk in the library? She was thinking it would be too quiet, I mean she shushed some kids when we were talking at one point in the library. The library noise level is actually pretty good, sometimes its social time and sometimes its study time. If its too much, I point it out but what I'm doing is adding library to the space where kids gather. To do that I'll create zones and get more books, make it easier to take out books, everything like that. I'd love to tell the guys who play Magic, Pokemon and Minecraft, let's be a little more organized and have some more time for you guys outside of your free periods. I think that could be useful as I see how into this they are and there are some great board games and tabletop games and I think these kids would be really good at them. I don't want them to feel they have to change themselves for my sake.

Now I do like my bosses but this one has given me another moment of seriously, you just asked me that. She asked me how I was doing at prioritizing, this made me go, yes, I think so, eek. I mean I have lists and a lot of various things require other things to have happen but I'm doing what I can. The order makes sense to me; get the course books sorted, periodicals are on the way to organized, sorting the back room will take a few steps, be visible, listen and I have so many ideas. I think she meant well by it but the phrasing completely caught me off guard.

One other thing that happened which I think would only really occur at this school was I have a free poster from World Fact Book that I got from the Lower School librarian because I wanted to post posters and I didn't like the options in the library. While I was at a meeting a student typed up a note explaining that the urban myths shown on the poster were around before the internet and clearly weren't true, that wasn't too bad. It showed they paid attention but then they added "your bias is showing". I had a moment of oh no you didn't, because that poster is about being thoughtful about the internet, the tagline is "Fact or Fiction". While it is from the World Fact Book, they want you to use their online service and it made me grumble. Those of you on Twitter, this was the passive-aggressive note I mentioned. Well, it didn't have a name on it and I was about to write a response when another teacher was there and said to just ignore it. Having someone else made me realize, yes, they didn't give me a name to respond to so I just recycled it. It did worry me for a while of okay, kid, you're smart but also rude. I'd been warned that these kids push back, but if they post something they're meant to take responsibility for it. When some kids today were discussing the poster, I gave them context even though none of them probably wrote the note. I also changed where the posters were so there's no space under that one.

Over all everything is good, but I feel like there are lots of steps and moving parts, but I think I'm doing the right things. I hope so.

In terms of finding a place, I'm meeting with the realtor on Saturday morning and my hostess is going to Ohio this weekend, so I get to have some space to myself. I'm really looking forward to it since every day I stop off for food or at a cafe right after work to destress. Because when I'm working, I'm on all the time as students and faculty come and go. I hope it won't be too long once I find a place before I can move as I miss having my own space. This in-between one works fairly well but want my space. Also I'm starting to get enough of a routine that I feel like I can start doing other stuff that's been waiting, I apologize for how long its taken me to get anything in the mail.

Life is good and busy. I do have moments of am I up for this job? I do feel like I am. Now another meme, this time last seen at in_the_blue:

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