Friday 3rd Feb - Primary Librarian, St Mary Magdalene Academy Library, Islington, London
So it's a Friday and my earliest start to the week, as it is every week. This is because I head over to the primary side of the school (210 kids) and run sessions for each class (30-45mins each), every other week, all morning.
9am - arrive at school, drop off 6th form newspapers, load off in the Secondary Library, pick up the picture books I've chosen for storytime this week (Where The Wild Things Are and one about Dreams (can't remember the title!) and head down to the primary library, checking that all is straight and in order in the library (it's often not because it is not staffed all week, and used for clubs, children's gym changing #-(). Unfortuately the design of the library was again an afterthought in the creation of the primary school building and so it is in a corridor by the front entrance. It is also positioned next to the school gym hall so there is generally constant noise throughout library sessions, making it very hard to read books well.
9.10am - year 3 class arrive in the primary library. I start the story and it goes down wellish - I think it's important even the older years are read picture books as the pictures are so evocative and beautiful, helping the students imagine the story, all important in their reading development and enjoyment. Year 3 change their books, each allowed to take 1 book on their library record
10am - year 1 class arrive - they love Where the Wild Things Are and so do I - such a great story to read and the pictures are wild and interesting! It just shows that if a story is well written and drawn they are ageless. I often ask questions as they come up during the stories to draw attention to issue or get them to interpret the stories themselves.
10.30am - Reception class - this is often the most demanding session of the day as the children are so young and often don't have much of a clue what is going on! They can't remember if they've taken a book/brought it back etc etc, but there wide eyed response to the stories is just a joy!
11.20am - Year 2 and then it's over for another week. Must admit all though it is draining and constantly noisy it's lovely to come down to this side of the school and hlep these children being so cute, willing and generally interested in the library books!
12.00 - My lunch break. And library assistant Vicki is back - excellent news!
12.30pm - Secondary library opens for lunch for the first time in a couple of days. We have a very long lunchbreak at SMMA, 1 hour for yrs 9/10/11 and 1 hr yrs 7/8 - so the library has an extended 2 hr period it is open at lunch. Vicki and I split ourselves across the 2 floors, ensuring we can manage student behaviour (6th form downstairs and yrs 9-11 upstairs) and also limist student numbers entering the secondary library to 30 as it is impossible to manage anymore when on own. We use walkietalkies to call each other if any problems with students, need backup etc - this works well as long as they are charged!
1.30pm - I am keeping an eye on student behviour, whilst carrying out my other key job, that of 'IB Extended Essay Coordinator' - today is an important date becuase all completed EEs are supposed to be in from year 13s and their supervisors should have marked them, carried out their viva voce and filled out the official IB form, dropping them off to me in the library. Well I've had a couple in!
2.00pm - I go down to the 1st floor and take over from Vicki, she goes upstairs to watch over the now yr7/8s who are in the library. Sitting on the 1st floor ensures we can watch over the 6th formers, who often are just as badly behaved as the younger other years and frequently rude and arrogant with it. We have a no eating rule, which is abused daily!
2.30pm - end of Lunch and Vicki heads home. I give the library a general tidy up, and return books to their correct places and find out which pages of the Guiness World Records has been ripped today!
3.00pm - I am trying to sort out all the Extended Essays - lots of incorrectly filled forms, missing essays etc etc, no candidate no.s...this could take awhile
3.30pm - Phoned the 'Owl Bookshop' in Kentish Town to order some of Joe Craig's books, our World Book Day author paying us a visit on 7th March this year! A very helpful gentleman assists me with the decision of how many copies we should have to sell to the students on the day and what discount he can provide. Just had a thought - whats happened to the free £1 book tokens for WBD ? We don't seem to have received them yet? Will have to chase that on Monday.
4.45pm - Go downstairs and ask the 6th formers to vacate the library for the last time this week. Textbooks covering the tables, bottles and empty sandwich cases dotted around. It usually takes them at least 10minutes to leave. We had locks put on the doors for the first time in the 4 years I have worked at SMMA, so I can FINALLY lock the 6th formers out of the library at the end of the day, rather than ask them to leave only for them to enter I've left. Hopefully the locks will help in the fight against books being stolen!
5.00pm - Exit the building for home - it's been a long, cold, hard week but I do generally love being a school librarian!
To see what I did on Thurs 2nd Feb 2012, check out School Librarian