Progress Being Made!

So, to answer the questions many have texted, emailed, and messaged me:

Are you in the library yet?

• YES! YES! YES! We started moving books onto shelves on Thursday. So far the picture books, confident readers (fiction), and over half of the junior nonfiction are shelved. I know this doesn't sound like much, but it is. Since we don't have enough shelves for the cases at the moment - they are coming - we are unable to finish the JNF, start the YNF (think easy nonfiction), or do the Junior Foreign Language (students are required to take a foreign language class: Thai, German, Spanish, Chinese, French...I think I have those correct.), series, and graphic novels. Keep in mind, this is just for the lower floor of the library. The Senior Library has no books on shelves at this time. That will change soon! (I must admit a feeling of immense satisfaction when I cancelled the library team's reservations of the board room where we were temporarily working!)

When will the students see the library?

• Junior School will see their library first. Our goal is to get that library finished so at least one part is open to students. However, we must have books on the shelves first! So...that depends on when the shelving arrives and books are unpacked. (There are only 34,000 of them. Piece of cake to put them out and in order! Thankfully they were packed very nicely so it is easier to unpack.) There is no date known other than "SOON."

What do you think of it?

•  WOW! (Seriously, that's what I think!) There are a few things that I might have chosen to do differently simply because of what I am used to doing/having. However, the design is phenomenal, the furniture will be a big hit with students, and it looks amazing.

How big is your office?

•  Anyone asking this has seen the office I had before in NC. It was extremely spacious with a standing workspace in the center and more cabinets than all the kitchens in houses I have owned put together. I do not have an actual office here, but we have workspace behind the counter in the Senior Library, a wall of cabinets by the circulation desk in the Junior Library, and use of the conference room for team meetings, etc. The conference room also has storage.

What technology do you have?

•  To be honest, I do not know. We are not in the ready position to have computers, etc. put in place so I have not seen them. I do know that I will be asking about the possibility of a smart panel for library lessons, especially on research skills and student activities. Students in the Junior School do have iPads so some activities (Pear Deck, Goose Chase, etc.) will probably be done using their devices.

What do you like the most?

• There a few things...the tree being one of them! It's such a fun feature in the center of the library on both levels. There is also a spot where I would like a small desk tucked away...gorgeous view of the river! Then the story/lesson area is a giant circle with seating and shelves...

Now on to Bangkok:

How do you like Bangkok?

• We are loving it. It is probably the friendliest BIG city in the world. We are taking our time visiting different places and trying new foods (mostly Thai, but also other restaurants). Not being a tourist is great because we don't have to rush about to see a lot in a tiny amount of time.

Do you speak Thai yet?

• Um....First you need to understand Thai is a tonal language. Some words have no difference in tone, others go up in tone, some go down in tone, some start high and go down then up, others start low and go up and then down...the word Baa has 6 different pronunciations and each pronunciation is a different word. Therefore, the answer is not really. I can count to 100, give directions to a taxi or tuk tuk driver (go straight, turn left, turn right, stop), and greet people. But I am working on it!

What do you miss most?

• Our children, my mom, and our dog...and then I miss my great big comfy couch and Jeff misses driving his car. I also miss our favorite Mexican restaurants...we have yet to find a good substitute here!

When will you be back in the US?

• I will be back in November...but not at home. Along with a great friend, I will be in Kentucky to present at the American Association of School Librarians conference. Unless you are in Louisville at that time, I will not be visiting with you. 😊 Basically I will fly 26 hours, go to the conference, and fly home. My body clock will not know "when" it is for awhile. Otherwise, it will be next summer in the latter half of July and beginning of August. 

 COMING SOON: Next post should be pictures of the finished Junior School Library!

The Things We Learn

The top three things I have learned so far this year:

1. Patience.
2. Patience.
3. Patience.

Why so much need for patience? Because I have been visiting the Pre-Prep and Prep school classes this past week, introducing myself and discussing some of the exciting new features of the yet-to-be-opened library. Each time I discuss it, I wish I could take them into the library and show them everything. But...everything is not quite finished.

I have also learned that children everywhere are fascinated by things they have heard or read about, but never experienced for themselves as well as making connections to what they know. As I introduce myself and explain I am from North Carolina, they start to ask questions.

• "How many planes did you take to get here?"  (3)
• "How long did it take?" (Usually 27-30 hours, but our trip was 46.)
• "Do you have typhoons?" (No, we have hurricanes.)
• This naturally leads to questions about tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and snow. (Yes, but I've never seen one; not really; no; and yes!)
• I explain about our beaches and mountains, climate, and even the size of our cities in response to questions. 

Although I am not in the library yet, I have started teaching research to some classes. Students are the same everywhere when it comes to learning research skills: "Why can't we just Google it?"

Week One Is Done!

Of course, it's not really done...Monday and Tuesday will be workdays with the entire staff, and students start on Wednesday. That will be the real "first day!"

So what have we covered this week? How is it different from workdays in the states?

1. The PD sessions were relevant and meaningful to our teaching situation. Not to say there hasn't been meaningful, relevant PD in the states, but often it seems we attend meetings for the sake of the district saying we had meetings. Here, everything is designed to make the transition to an international school in Bangkok easier and to benefit teachers and students alike. Topics have included lessons on Thai language, Thai culture, teaching ELL students, and more. We were guided through the online resources for taking "registration" (attendance), student records, etc. This gave all of us the hands-on knowledge using our school laptops needed instead of being told to do it without those actual visuals.

2. Lunch. We have eaten in the cafeteria (excuse me, "canteen"...I must practice my British terms 😊) for lunch, discovering the wonderful food that will be available to us all year. Unlike the past 24 years of education, I will be eating school food....salad bar, soup station (Asian soups that have all been incredible), hot food with a variety of Thai and western options...and all seem to be healthier than what you think of when you hear "school food." Even better? Friday is ice cream day... LOL. Lunch is provided for teachers throughout the school year.

3. Everyone is incredibly helpful. Okay, this isn't really a difference with the states because I have always had great staff members at my schools who helped me a lot. But it has to be mentioned because from the security, canteen, housekeeping (not sure if that's the correct term), returning staff, new staff, and my library team, I feel part of the community from the start instead of feeling "new." It's an incredibly welcoming, friendly camaraderie.

The past two days have given me the opportunity to work with part of my team. I am looking forward to the entire team being together on Monday. GiGi, Toon, Roon, and Bank are so knowledgeable and nice! They are the library assistants, another difference from my last district: assistants are no longer in libraries there. On Monday I will meet Marivic, my Assistant Librarian. To round out our team this year is Sienna, my intern from the UK, whom I met on Skype this past spring, and a yet-to-be-hired assistant. Although we are displaced still, we will be able to move into the staff room conference area until the library is finished. We have a possible date of September 3 to begin moving the books to the Junior School with a hopeful opening of September 9. Although this will only be the first floor of the library, it contains the most books, and we want to get students in and reading! Fortunately for this process, the librarian last year did the most phenomenal job of boxing and tagging the 30,000 books in such a way that it will be easy to get books to the correct area/shelf in the library. (I am forever thankful for her hard work!) The grand opening will be just that...GRAND! Once the Junior School opens, we can work on getting the Senior School library open.


New terms for those of you unfamiliar with the British School terms with their American equivalent in parentheses:

Junior School: EY-Prep (covers Preschool through Grade 5)
EY1 and EY2: Early Years (or preschool ages 3 and 4)
Pre-Prep: Year 1 and Year 2 (a.k.a. Kindergarten and 1st grade, early elementary or primary)
Prep: Year 3-6 (grades 2-5 so upper elementary)
Senior School: Year 7 and up (Think middle and high school!)
Sixth Form: Years 12 and 13 preparing for A level exams (grades 11 and 12)
Registration: who is in class (in the states we "take attendance")

New Beginning!

This week marks the start of a new school year...in Bangkok!

Workdays have started for the new staff members, "induction week." I think this is a fabulous idea since returning teachers already know so much about how a school operates. While they are still on summer break, we are learning about the House System (six houses across all grade levels with a school spirit, connection, and competitive component - think "Harry Potter!"), extracurricular activities, health care, and even an introduction to Thai language and culture. Definitely a better use of time than the professional days I have gone through recently.

Today I met a few of my library staff. All three are very knowledgeable and eager to move back into the library from their temporary work space, and I am looking forward to meeting the remaining staff soon. (The renovations are moving along quickly. However, we probably will not move in for a few more weeks.) I don't think any of us are eager to have to move and organize 500+ boxes of books! Thirty-thousand books or so is a LOT of moving! I know we will have help.

So what's on the agenda next? After talking to the staff, I learned a lot of how things work at Shrewsbury. They have had great programming and activities in the past, and we are eager to continue the best practices (if it ain't broke, don't fix it!) as well as implement a few changes. While it won't happen right away, there's a strong possibility of some house competitions with Battle of the Books. We also might have some changes to the Junior Book Challenge to make record keeping less time consuming.

Overall, stay tuned for life as an international school librarian...it's going to be a lot of fun!

Moving Forward and Moving On

I took the month of June off from the blog, in case you hadn't noticed. It wasn't for a great vacation or conference, though; instead it was to organize, pack, donate, shred, toss, paint, clean, and other tasks - more than I care to remember.

This was at my house, not at the library.

In just over one month, my husband and I will embark on a new adventure that entails selling our current house (which we feel is too big anyway now that all the children have moved forward in their lives and come home only a few times each year) and packing our lives into a moving pod, a room in my mother's basement, and eight seemingly large (but actually tiny) suitcases.

Here's why:

January 23 ( a Wednesday if you don't remember 😉): I woke up at my normal 4:45am, got ready for school, fed the dog, and opened Facebook while the dog was eating. The first thing on my news feed was from an international librarian who was posting a job opportunity overseas. I looked at it, texted my sister (the international teacher) to see if she had heard of the school, and received the response, "That is one of the best schools in the world. Apply!" I was hesitant because we had discussed moving forward in 3 years, not seven months. However, when I arrived at school, I looked at the website, watched videos, and started to really, really like what I was seeing. I texted my husband the link. His response? "Apply."

After school, before my second job, I worked on the application. The next day, I finished the application, read over it several dozen times, and hit submit. WHEW! 

January 29: Now, I didn't know how long the process might take, or if I was even the type of candidate for which they were looking, but I received a response on this Tuesday. My interview was set for the evening of the 31st through Skype. Oh, my! One week after the application was sent! I did my best to prepare for the interview, tested my laptop's Skype application multiple times, ensured my desktop had the webcam working (just in case), and then took a few deep breaths.

January 31: The interview lasted just over an hour, and I felt fairly good about it. My biggest worries? I felt I was too bubbly, too excited in my answers. To my surprise, I received an email from the Head of School a few hours after the interview, letting me know there would be a second interview invitation. WOW! I didn't sleep soundly that night due to the excitement.

February 1: By the next morning, I had a time and date for the interview. It meant taking a half-day from school with my personal leave, and I needed to prepare a presentation on the value of research in education. Well, the interview was on Tuesday and it was a Friday...but research is something I have done at every level so I got to work on a Prezi. My fabulous office partner, and the incredible Tech Facilitator (a.k.a. Captain Chromebook) at my school, helped me learn how to share a presentation in Skype. By Sunday, the Prezi was finished, and I was practicing with Skype sessions to my sister in Turkey. 

February 5: What a great interview! Even if the school chose a different candidate, I knew I had done my absolute best (except for forgetting to switch from the presentation back to camera...). The school was everything I had hoped it would be! However, I knew that I had no international teaching experience so...

February 7: I had been told this was the earliest I might hear about the final decision. As I started my car, I was telling myself not to worry if I didn't get the job, it was a great experience. Suddenly the radio came on with the words, "Never give up hope, don't give in to fear." (To be honest, I changed the channels. That was just too close to what I was thinking. A side note: I have never heard a song with those lines before or since that day.) I kept my email open at the circulation desk, taught research skills to two classes, helped a class with their Junior Papers, and then went to my office thinking about the time difference. I decided I would not hear about it that day. I went back to the circulation desk and saw a new email...from the school...and I debated if I should be disappointed then or wait until after school. Curiosity immediately won that argument. After reading the letter twice, I called my tech facilitator from his desk to read it to confirm I wasn't seeing things! Three classes in the library wondered about the happy dance we both did a moment later!

Now that you know the rather short time frame (two weeks from the submission of the application), you might be wondering: What school? Where? What is the job?

Starting in August, I will be living and working in Bangkok, Thailand as the Director of Librarian Services at Shrewsbury International School - Riverside Campus!

The library is undergoing a renovation this summer, but I have been able to see the plans and give feedback. I also was able to interview some fabulous candidates for the position of my student intern. (The final decision, naturally, was done by the head of school.) Setting up interviews across the world with multiple time zones is, I have to say, a unique and challenging experience!

Now to pack the final things at the house, give it a thorough cleaning before the sale is final, and condense my belongings into 4 suitcases (although my husband says he might have 1/2 a suitcase available to me). That last bit is more challenging than going through 17 years of accumulated "stuff!" 

Next post will be from Thailand! Stay tuned!

Gearing UP and Winding DOWN

May is one of those unusual months with (usually) AP exams, finalizing projects, the start of inventory and shelf order of books, and eventually the start of final exams.

Until this year.

This year everything student related ends in May, including graduation! Instead of having graduation happen 8-10 days into June, seniors will receive diplomas on May 31. (The timing of graduation will be in the morning, rather than evening so hopefully it will be cooler and less likely to have pop-up thunderstorms ruining the ceremony!)

That means we have just returned from spring break (and the assembly of the desk cycles). We gearing up to do a full-implementation all week next week (the only week possible before the library closes for AP exams). I am excited to see how the centers we have planned go!

Each year, the theater arts program uses the library for a modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet; they perform it for the freshmen English classes who are currently reading the play. It's a great deal of fun with a lot of laughs. Rehearsals have been in full swing whenever possible all week. AP exams don't usually interrupt those rehearsals, but in education we have learned to adapt to the requirements of testing...

And I do not think I have ever had shelf-order completed with 99.14% of inventory finished by May 3. EVER. With the fiction section genrefied, and inventory "unaccounted for" results not showing sublocations, finding the remaining books has been an exercise moment.

Seriously.

You take a page of the list of books, go to the action/adventure section and look for them. Check off any found. Then move to Dystopian. Then Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror...and so on until either all books are checked off or you have been to all eleven sections. Then you get another page and start again. This is one way to get more "steps" in for the day! We only have a few days left to finish, then I have to complete the report for the state, clean out the file cabinet and desk drawers, oh! and give my final exams May 21-22...

It's hard to believe this year is coming so quickly to a close! I'm a little sad and a lot excited, but more on that in the next post.

We Got It!

The final week of January was a busy one, but I am only going to mention one item on the agenda back then: finalizing and submitting the Johnston County Education Foundation Grant.

Mrs. Pinkowski ("Mrs. Pink") and I had been working for over a year on trying to find a way to have a set of desk cycles in the media center for a great project we had collaborated on creating. Our first attempt at a grant last school year did not come to fruition We did receive great feedback from the TLC about our grant. Unfortunately, only a few recipients get the grants, and we weren't in the fortunate group.

Fast forward to this year.

After much thought, we decided to scale back on parts of the project and change the needs of the project. We switched the bikes to a lower model without bells and whistles (hope we don't miss those!).  Then, the Tour de World Literature project was submitted! (It was due by Februrary 1.)

The project is based on the studies completed by Clemson University, among others, showing that studying and reading while performing light exercise improves retention and comprehension. Our goal is to connect the use of the bikes to the required book units in the English II - World Literature - course.  The desk cycles will also be available for other students to use during lunch so long as they are reading or studying.

Today we discovered we had been awarded full funding for the grant! This is thrilling, although so close to spring break and then exams, we began brainstorming how to implement since aspects like the community involvement bike-a-thon fundraiser connected to one book just can't happen with so little time left. So we're creating stations involving Julius Caesar, which will be read when students return from spring break.

Once the initial euphoria had passed, I began preparing for the purchase of the desk cycles. That's when tragedy seemed to befall us...the price had increased by $35 per cycle in the past two months. Naturally, this late in the school year, all library funds from the state are spent. What to do when in need of an extra $147.12?

Through the wonderful help of our bookkeeper, funds were located, cycles will be purchased next week, they should arrive and be assemble before spring break, and let the Tour de World Literature begin!