Checkout Begins!

I just had to drop in and tell the world how happy this week is for me! School is in session and the kiddos and teachers and even our first parents have been streaming through the doors empty handed and leaving filled with books, magazines, audiobooks and lots and lots of smiles. There is such joy in a library and a school when filled with busy students, helping parents and tremendous teachers. Getting paid for doing what you love? Priceless.

We just finished celebrating our summer readers and this week we are gearing up for a schoolwide reading competition, then next week we host a local author in residence. Our fall book fair will follow in September along with a writing workshop for our third graders hosted by another local author. We are in the midst of planning a story time partnership for our PreK and kindergarten classes with our local library, supplemented by some of our retired faculty. Planning times have been marked on the calendar and soon collaborative lessons will begin. We're marching on with our International Baccalaureate application and things are really heating up with planning and teaching at our school.

DoDEA grant training begins soon and new SMART boards are being delivered along with an iPod Touch lab.  Every workstation in the school has been upgraded to Windows 7 working on Exchange servers and we're just waiting for the software to be reinstalled to finalize that stage of the migration. Unfortunately, all my working project files for our broadcasting team aren't compatible with the new systems, though the finished videos will work. Next tech project for me will be to develop new project files in the new software.

As you can see, we have started the new school year with a bang. In school a week? It feels like much longer, but in a really, really good way. Instructional time is too precious to squander. I am so thankful to be part of this vibrant profession!