The Mrs. Moss Zone

This is the Mrs. Moss Zone!  What, you ask, is the Mrs. Moss Zone?  Well, I'm glad you asked!

At my old school I had the Mrs. Moss's Favorites Cart.  A small cart with books that I had read that I thought were good books for kids.  The ones that I think will appeal to a large section of kids.  I try to include a lot of different genres and reading levels.  Those books were very popular.  I liked having a cart of recommendations.  When kids would ask me for book recommendations, I had a cart full of books I liked and thought kids would like. I would walk kids over to the "Mrs. Moss's Favorites Cart" often to look for good books.  It made it easy for me.  Because of this, I wanted to carry on the tradition at my new school.

When I got here, I realized there was no place to park a cart on a permanent basis.  I did, however, have this shelf which used to house the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.  Those books will circulate no matter where I put them so I shelved them back with the fiction books.  I took that shelf and put my Mrs. Moss's Favorites on it.  I had chapter books on display on the top shelf.

Then I had an epiphany!  I often have kids ask for "that book you read to us last week."  That usually means three weeks ago and I can't always remember what book I read to what grade level.  I always wished I had a place to display my past read aloud books.  While moving some other books around, I ended up with a small display shelf with no home.  I looked at it, then looked at the top shelf of this bookcase and thought - Hey!  You should use this to display your read alouds!

The bulletin board above it seemed perfect for sign to acknowledge what this space is.  The Mrs. Moss Zone popped into my head and it has stuck.

Genrefication - why?

I have decided to "genrefy" my library.  And, I hate that spell check does not recognize that word!

First, what does it mean to genrefy? What is genrefication?  Basically, it just means to organize your library by genre.  Some people do this just to their fiction sections.  Some to their whole library.
Some of you might ask, "But isn't that what the Dewey Decimal system does?"  Well, yes it does.  Sort of.  Which leads us to the "why?" of genrefication.

The Dewey Decimal system is a fabulous way of organizing books and it has proven effective for many, many years.  But there are some flaws in the system.  For example, some of the books about the Titanic are found in the 300's, others are in the 900's.  Books about the branches of the military are in the 358's but books about military vehicles are in the 627's and books about wars are in the 900's.   Mammals are in the 599's, unless they are domesticated animals and then they are in the "science and technology" section in the 636's. And in the fiction section, all books are shelved alphabetically by the first three letters of the author's last name regardless of what the book is about.  All of this makes it confusing for kids and not very intuitive for adults.  When you go into a book store,  you look in the section that has the books you like.  A mystery fan? You go look in the mystery section.  A romance lover? You go to the romance section.  Why doesn't it work that way in libraries?

So, some libraries are making the change to genrefication.  It is much more straight forward for kids.  They can find the kind of books that they like.  Most librarians find that their circulation numbers go up after they genrefy because kids can browse in the section of books that they are most likely to read.

There are concerns, of course.  Shouldn't we be teaching the kids Dewey so that they will be able to find their way around other libraries?  Yes, we probably should, which is why I am not going to do my non-fiction section.  Yet.  What about authors that write in many genres, how will kids find their books?  If a student is interested in reading a particular authors work, they can still look them up in the on-line catalog and find what genre sections those books are in.  It may be a little more difficult than before but still doable.  However, finding all the mystery books, regardless of author, will be much easier.  Most of the time my students want a particular kind of book, not a particular author. My fellow library ladies in my district had questions about how it would affect them when they want to borrow a book.  When looking up a book by title or by subject, or even by author, it will work the same way as before.  Just the call number will be different.  Since I will be the one pulling books it only affects me.

I did a lot of research on this topic before I made this decision.  I'm still a little scared but mostly I'm excited.  It is going to be a lot of work.  I'll post updates so you can see how I'm doing it.

Paint!

When I accepted this job, one of the requests I had was to paint the library.  I think what I said was "Can we please, please, please paint the library?"

The dark green and the blue behind my desk just made it feel so dark and seemed to emphasize the smallness.  Thankfully, my principal is awesome and we had some amazing help.  Comcast is a company that encourages its employees to volunteer in their community.  Occasionally Comcast does a big volunteer day and during those days they have flagship locations.  This year, we were chosen as a flagship location on a Comcast Cares day.  Between us and the adjoining school, we had over 200 volunteers!  And painting my library was one of our big projects!

I chose a happy yellow color.  Unfortunately that meant that the dark green and blue needed to be primed first.  On Friday night, a bunch of volunteers showed up to do just that.

It looked so much better even with just the primer on! It was a tinted primer which helped.

And now that it is done?

And the blue behind my desk?  It is gone.

And my reading rug area?  It looks even better!

I am so happy with the paint! It is so much brighter and cheerier!  And it feels much bigger.  And the kids LOVE it.  That is the important part.

Beginnings are cool

The transition here was hard but now that I'm over the shock I'm settling in.  I'm learning the kids' names (I figure I'm at about 60% or so), I'm making friends with the staff.  And I'm making changes.

Whenever you takeover an already existing job, you make changes to make it work for you, to make it feel like "your" job.  I have done this in spades!

I started by moving the beginning chapter books out of the fiction section.  I wanted the transitional chapter books (Junie B. Jones, Magic Tree House, A to Z Mysteries) to easily found by my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders.

I pulled them out and put them together on a book shelf in between the easy reader picture books and the rest of the chapter books.  Then, I moved some other cool but less popular series out into baskets and bins.

The biggest change I made was I added my reading rug!  The previous library lady had only read to Kinders and 1st graders.  Because of this, she had her rocking chair in a very small space and didn't have a reading rug.  I read a book to every grade level (K-6), every week.  Those 6th graders were not going to fit in that spo!  I moved it to the other side of the library, moved some bookshelves out of the way and ordered myself a big, colorful reading rug. 

It is MUCH better this way.

I've also been cleaning things out and figuring out what exactly I have.  Going through cupboards and finding out I have lots of craft supplies is kinda cool.  Going through drawers and finding out that I don't have all the mending supplies I need is not as cool.  But now I have an idea of what I have and what I need.

I'm feeling kind of moved in, but the biggest change is coming up - paint!

Transitions are Tough

Transitions are hard.  This one was especially tough.  Because of how the transition took place (and because of some snow days which made the schedule really weird), I worked a full day at my old school on Tuesday (9 classes) and then worked a full day at my new school on Wednesday (6 classes).  Talk about emotional whiplash!

On Tuesday I held it together fairly well.  I got teary a few times but managed not to completely lose it.  Until I walked out of the building with my arms full of boxes of my stuff.  Two people offered to help me and I really needed the extra arms so I accepted.  As I left the library - MY library - for the last time I started to cry.  When I left the building - MY building - for the last time I started to sob.  And. I. Could. Not. Stop.  I felt sorry for the two people helping me because it must have been uncomfortable for them.  It sure was for me.  They helped me put my boxes in my car, gave me hugs, then left. Quickly.  I got in my car and just sat and cried for 10 minutes before I could even drive.

On Wednesday I woke up excited and nervous and sad.  I got to work early and started setting up and pulling books for the classes that day.  My first class thought I was crazy.  Several of them actually laughed at me (not in a good way).  Their old library lady didn't read books to the upper grades, only to Kinders and 1st graders.  I read to all ages, every week.  I had picked a funny, silly book "The Wizard, The Fairy, and The Magic Chicken" by Helen Lester (on of my favorites).  I wanted a short book because I had rules and expectations (and introductions) to go over.  With that book I make silly voices and faces.  The kids at my "old" school had loved that book.  These kids? Not so much.  I think it was partly because I was SO different from their old teacher.  The first class was a class of 5th graders.  They were "much too mature" to be read a picture book!  I was a shock to them. I was pretty convinced they hated me. 

I had an hour wait until my next class.  Thankfully, they were much more receptive. They laughed along with me and really enjoyed the book.  Then the three afternoon classes happened.  I have 1st grade, Kinder, then 2nd, all back to back.  It was CRAZY!  The old librarian had them doing color sheets or showed them movies.  I was expecting them to listen and sit still!  Oh my.  By the end of the day I was crying again and asking myself, "What have I done?"

The next day was the real shock.  On Thursdays I don't have any classes.  I just get to do library work.  But is was SO quiet!  My old library was the center of the school - literally!  No walls, no doors, just bookshelves in the middle of the school. I talked to every single person, every single day.  If there was a sub in 3rd grade, I knew about it.  If there was a kid taking too many bathroom breaks, I knew about it.  When Mrs. Who's It was having a bad day with her students, she would come to me to vent.  My new library is behind a door in a hallway that doesn't even have classrooms in it.  So I don't see people very often. And no one eats lunch together so I ended up eating lunch alone, too!  The staff at the new school was very welcoming and friendly - I just never saw them!  I felt very alone and very, very lonely.

I ended up crying every day for two weeks.  I lost 12 lbs because I couldn't eat.  I didn't sleep and thought long and hard about just quitting.  But I finally turned the corner.  In part, because I gave myself permission to leave at the end of the year if I still hated it. 

I am now about two months in and I'm loving it.  I have had to adjust but I really like it.  I really miss my friends and all the kids at my old school but all the reasons that I wanted to change have come true.  I am having to force myself to really think about why I do things the way I do.  Is that the best way?  Is there a different way?  What is best for the kids?  I really feel like I am making a difference with these kids.  Not just in the book department (although my circulation is way up over the same time period last year so more kids are getting more books) but also in the relationship department.  These kids are awesome and they need a lot of people in their lives who tell them that - often!  I'm glad I get to be one of those people.

So, transitions are tough.  But if you tough it out, they can also be awesome!