Borders Books, summer vacation
The end of the school year came. Which means I finished up three jobs. Library Tech, a job that I only get paid 7 hours a week for; lunch duty, pays $10.00 an hour for 40 minutes of intense work dealing with children eating lunch and then playing as hard as they can, packing in four hours of energy in 20 minutes of play; and last, the main job, program supervisor for an afterschool program. I supervise a staff of 7 workers, 6 of whom work through another agency (subcontracted), one who is a school employee, and an average of 110 students a day. Lucky for us, most of those 110 children really want to be in the afterschool program. The behavior, while not always wonderful (they are kids afterall) is pretty good, cooperative and mostly easygoing. This makes a difference when you are dealing with kids who are often at school at 7:30 in the morning, are in class for 6 and a half hours with 10 minute recesses and 20 minutes to eat lunch. A few years ago, the school I worked at had the gamiest set of kids/parents. Some of the kids were wonderful, but there were some that were real behavior problems. Some had violence issues, many were rude to staff, and there were quite a few parents who were in complete denial of their childrens' behavior. They would be in your face about it. There's nothing like dealing with a kid starting fights, and being rude to staff, then having to speak to the parent about the behavior and facing almost the same behavior from the parent. I had one parent who actually said, "I've known T-- for 12 years, and he would never misbehave, he is an ANGEL!" Working at this newer school, with the current set of students and parents is a piece of cake in comparison.
In the morning I work as a library tech at an art charter school, and do lunch duty there. We have kindergarden through eighth grade at this school. The kids there are a trip, most have some sort of talent; drawing, acting, singing, dancing, musical...something. In fact, as part of the eighth grade graduation, they have to perform in some way. They have to sing, put on an act (that they have to write) or play a song. I would never have been able to graduate from a school like this. I was always painfully shy, to the point that I would refuse to do an oral book report, even if it meant getting an F for a grade (regardless of how good I did on tests through out the year). So I really can respect the students' efforts.
The library has been left, by me, with a cart full of books to be shelved, another cart full of donated books to be processed and numerous boxes full of books that I have to go through. They are too old to be put in the library, some of them can be used in the afterschool program and have to be transported there, and some just need to be thrown away. The hard thing is the books that are too old for anything. There is a book that is a health textbook from 1943, still in fairly good condition, but of course, very outdated. We have a few other books that are old readers from 195-, or 194-. I might just leave them on the shelves of the library, not officially part of the system, but there if anyone is interested. I can't stand the thought of those books waiting for me at the beginning of next school year, so I will probably end up "volunteering" some of my time over the summer to put things away.
My second part of the day during the school year, is spent at an entirely different type of school. This is where I run the afterschool program. We have a 99% hispanic population, 0.5 % caucasion and 0.5% other. Oddly enough, I feel more at home there than at the other school (90% caucasion, 10% hispanic). Some other time I'll do a post on what it's like to grow up the only lightskinned kid in a darkskinned family (hispanic). The kids there are way more cooperative (to me anyway), way more polite. Although at times I wonder if they just know how to quietly say they understand, nod their heads, and then do what they want. That's what I learned how to do as a kid. Humor the grown-ups; the only one I couldn't pull that one with was my mom, because we were at each others throats quite often. I pissed her off and she pissed me off. equal opportunity! So I'll miss the kids there over the summer. Mainly the kids, I wasn't too crazy about some of the adults I had to work with, although the crew that came to us through the city Parks and Recreation were a pretty good crew. They were wonderful to work with.
The last few days I've been spending laying around, trying to ease my pinched nerve (lower back) and trying to read. The problem is I keep falling asleep. I feel guilty, like I should be accomplishing something. Like folding the huge amount of clothes that I've washed, but haven't put away, or scrubbing my bathroom, or even putting some of the plants I have into the ground. I used to love gardening! I also used to have an older neighbor who would give me clippings of all her geraniums. She had a great variety of geraniums, scented and regular of all colors. She was so wonderful to a young mom who had no money for plants.
Tonight, to celebrate resting a few days, and stock up on a few books for summer reading, (as if I don't have a TBR pile surpassing 50 books!) I went to Borders. Street Magic by Caitlyn Kittredge is out today, along with Scarlet by Jordan Summers, and Black and White by Caitlyn Kittredge and Jackie Kessler. I had a 25%off coupon from Borders that expired today, and I had hoped to use it on one of these books. I couldn't find any of these books. Not one. I ended up using the coupon on Jes Battis's second book A Flash of Hex (I have the first book, Night Child, though I haven't read it yet) and Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk. Now I already HAD Magic to the Bone. I read it and really like it a lot. Then I gave it away, because I am trying to give books away and not hoard so many books. But the moment the person left with my book, I wanted it back. I tried to tell myself that I was just being weird. When the second book, Magic in the Blood came out, I bought that one and read it. Then really wished I had the first one, so I could re-read it. But no, I had given it away. This is actually the first time in a long time that I have wanted to re-read a book, (except for Terry Pratchett books, those are always re-readable). So tonight I bought Magic to the Bone, AGAIN. I don't usually do this, I usually consider it a waste of money. I don't have money to waste now. But now I have Magic to the Bone again, and now I can re-read it. Maybe I should have waited for the newer books to come in, but my coupon expired tonight, I took a survey that was way too long to earn this coupon, and I wasn't going to NOT use it. stubborn! If I'm lucky, I'll be able to pick up the books I want in July, birthday coming up!
In the morning I work as a library tech at an art charter school, and do lunch duty there. We have kindergarden through eighth grade at this school. The kids there are a trip, most have some sort of talent; drawing, acting, singing, dancing, musical...something. In fact, as part of the eighth grade graduation, they have to perform in some way. They have to sing, put on an act (that they have to write) or play a song. I would never have been able to graduate from a school like this. I was always painfully shy, to the point that I would refuse to do an oral book report, even if it meant getting an F for a grade (regardless of how good I did on tests through out the year). So I really can respect the students' efforts.
The library has been left, by me, with a cart full of books to be shelved, another cart full of donated books to be processed and numerous boxes full of books that I have to go through. They are too old to be put in the library, some of them can be used in the afterschool program and have to be transported there, and some just need to be thrown away. The hard thing is the books that are too old for anything. There is a book that is a health textbook from 1943, still in fairly good condition, but of course, very outdated. We have a few other books that are old readers from 195-, or 194-. I might just leave them on the shelves of the library, not officially part of the system, but there if anyone is interested. I can't stand the thought of those books waiting for me at the beginning of next school year, so I will probably end up "volunteering" some of my time over the summer to put things away.
My second part of the day during the school year, is spent at an entirely different type of school. This is where I run the afterschool program. We have a 99% hispanic population, 0.5 % caucasion and 0.5% other. Oddly enough, I feel more at home there than at the other school (90% caucasion, 10% hispanic). Some other time I'll do a post on what it's like to grow up the only lightskinned kid in a darkskinned family (hispanic). The kids there are way more cooperative (to me anyway), way more polite. Although at times I wonder if they just know how to quietly say they understand, nod their heads, and then do what they want. That's what I learned how to do as a kid. Humor the grown-ups; the only one I couldn't pull that one with was my mom, because we were at each others throats quite often. I pissed her off and she pissed me off. equal opportunity! So I'll miss the kids there over the summer. Mainly the kids, I wasn't too crazy about some of the adults I had to work with, although the crew that came to us through the city Parks and Recreation were a pretty good crew. They were wonderful to work with.
The last few days I've been spending laying around, trying to ease my pinched nerve (lower back) and trying to read. The problem is I keep falling asleep. I feel guilty, like I should be accomplishing something. Like folding the huge amount of clothes that I've washed, but haven't put away, or scrubbing my bathroom, or even putting some of the plants I have into the ground. I used to love gardening! I also used to have an older neighbor who would give me clippings of all her geraniums. She had a great variety of geraniums, scented and regular of all colors. She was so wonderful to a young mom who had no money for plants.
Tonight, to celebrate resting a few days, and stock up on a few books for summer reading, (as if I don't have a TBR pile surpassing 50 books!) I went to Borders. Street Magic by Caitlyn Kittredge is out today, along with Scarlet by Jordan Summers, and Black and White by Caitlyn Kittredge and Jackie Kessler. I had a 25%off coupon from Borders that expired today, and I had hoped to use it on one of these books. I couldn't find any of these books. Not one. I ended up using the coupon on Jes Battis's second book A Flash of Hex (I have the first book, Night Child, though I haven't read it yet) and Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk. Now I already HAD Magic to the Bone. I read it and really like it a lot. Then I gave it away, because I am trying to give books away and not hoard so many books. But the moment the person left with my book, I wanted it back. I tried to tell myself that I was just being weird. When the second book, Magic in the Blood came out, I bought that one and read it. Then really wished I had the first one, so I could re-read it. But no, I had given it away. This is actually the first time in a long time that I have wanted to re-read a book, (except for Terry Pratchett books, those are always re-readable). So tonight I bought Magic to the Bone, AGAIN. I don't usually do this, I usually consider it a waste of money. I don't have money to waste now. But now I have Magic to the Bone again, and now I can re-read it. Maybe I should have waited for the newer books to come in, but my coupon expired tonight, I took a survey that was way too long to earn this coupon, and I wasn't going to NOT use it. stubborn! If I'm lucky, I'll be able to pick up the books I want in July, birthday coming up!