Week 6

 This was a very busy week!  First, I worked on Title 1 inventory for our school.  The Parent Center staff, Media Center staff, and Technology Support Technician handles Title 1 inventory.  In the Media Center, we are responsible for keeping track of leveled book room sets and any media center books that were purchased with Title 1 funds.  The county officially "begins" the inventory in July at the beginning of every school year, but it is not due until April.  Typically, we try to complete it in February to give us time to search for items that are still missing.

Most of the items in the Media Center that are Title 1 are located in our Leveled Book Room which is in a small room right off of the Media Center.  For Title 1 inventory, I scan the barcode of all items that are labeled as "Title 1 materials".

Above:  A panoramic photo of our level book room

Above: Scanning the barcodes of Title 1 materials

Above: A screenshot of the Destiny Title 1 Inventory screen

Our Title 1 inventory is 99.78% complete with 28 items currently "unaccounted for".  Of those 28 items, 18 are from the Leveled Book Room and the other 10 are from the Parent Center.  We started our with 32 "unaccounted for" items, but 4 were turned in from teachers after we did inventory.  Teachers self-checkout their own leveled book room sets and sometimes forget to scan all the barcodes.  We are hopeful that more items will be turned in before the inventory deadline.

This week our Book Fair carts arrived from Scholastic.  We spent 1.5 days setting everything up, and then the remainder of the week we had classes come and browse to make their wish lists.  Even with Covid, we are still having an in-person fair.  We are just very strict in scheduling appointments for each class so that each class stays in their own "bubble" and doesn't overlap with other classes.

For each book fair, we put removable price labels under every book that includes the tax so students will bring the correct amount of money.  We also group all books that are $5 and under on tables in the middle of each section.  We have two main sections.  One with picture books and beginning chapter books aimed at K-2, and then the chapter book section aimed at 3-5.  

Even though Book Fair browsing was going on, we still allowed students to check out too.  It got a little crazy, but we made it work and were able to keep classes separated.   Students checked out books this week to last them until after the book fair ends on 3/9.  

Above: Students quietly reading the books they checked out in a socially-distant line

During Book Fair selling days, students can't checkout.  On a non-covid year, they could come down in small groups to checkout throughout the day.  However, there isn't a way to make this happen safely with covid.  Unfortunately without volunteers being allowed in the schools right now, we can't accommodate entire class checkout during Book Fair selling.

My Media Specialist was sent home late Thursday afternoon due to Covid exposure so I will be running the Book Fair alone next week. During our last Book Fair in December, I was actually out sick myself due to Covid and my Media Specialist had to run it herself.  Payback time for me--haha!  I'm a little worried, but I am sure it will be okay in the end.  Here's to a successful Book Fair week!