Maybe I should have been a librarian 50 years ago

Let me just start by saying that I really do like a lot of things about my job as a school library media coordinator.  I particularly like working with kids and teachers, collection development, and of course reading the new books and helping students find books they love.  However, lately, each day seems like a battle with our equipment and technology.

Technology is great -- when it works.  I'm certainly a lot more comfortable working with all the various computers and projectors and camcorders and video/DVD players than I was a year or two ago.  I am, however, a digital immigrant, and I am not a gadget person by nature.  But it drives me absolutely crazy when equipment works fine one day and totally messes up the next.  

This week my school has been showing movies as a reward for good behavior.  We've done the set up many times before, the test run when we got the equipment set up went well, and then today (of course) the sound system went haywire right as we seated 150 wild seventh graders and we started the movie.  It did not help my frustration level when one of the APs at the school was really ugly to me (yelling) about the fact that the stupid microphone and speaker were suddenly on the fritz and no one could hear the movie.  Which was "The Game Plan" starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, so I'm not sure this was much of a loss. 

 (Keep in mind that there are home karaoke machines that are higher quality equipment than our microphone/speaker system.  We have one 2-ft. speaker to project the sound to the entire school auditorium.  We are not talking a Dolby digital surround sound system here, people). 

To make a long, annoying story shorter, we (me and my assistant) finally determined that the battery was dead in the cordless microphone.  No one in the office bothered to order extra 9-volt batteries as we requested a month ago, so we had to make do with what we had.  Which is -- one dying microphone and one that barely works because it appears to have been used as a soccer ball in PE.  This is what teachers are used to anyway, right?  I did feel slightly vindicated when our instructional technology specialist, who was there to tutor, checked out the problem and agreed that it was the battery and not anything we failed to do in the set up.  

This is the latest in about 2 weeks of nonstop equipment "issues".  Frankly, I'm tired of it.  Give me a book any day -- it's cheap, portable, will not suddenly get a virus, need an extra cord or batteries, or just not work.  (I'm also wondering if maybe this is a sign from God that my school administrators need to cough up the bucks for a movie license so that we quit violating copyright every time we show a reward movie.)

I'm ready to go old-school librarian for a while.  Give me a bunch of books, an old-fashioned card catalog, and a filmstrip reel and I will weep with delight.  But I draw the line at wearing my hair in a bun.   

Optimism?

I just found this article-- it's an essay, really-- and thought I'd link it here (although I haven't actually figured out how to do this yet and so if it doesn't work, just copy and paste the link into your browser.  My bloggy tech skillz are coming along rather slowly.)  I can identify with much of the emotion and thoughts this author shares about the roller coaster ride that is the China adoption process in 2008...and beyond.  Our agency got some WC referrals this week but I am very sure we will not be getting a call.  Sigh.  

Go here to read the article:

http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22095/28692

Today was the "Battle of the Books" competition for all of the middle schools in the county.  It's kinda like a quiz bowl all about books.  Specifically, 26 books are on the reading list each year, from a variety of genres.  The kids read them and practice answering picky questions about the plot, characters, setting, etc.  

As the official media coordinator, I am the coach.  I have a great team-- 11 sixth graders-- and (most of them) read their little hearts out, stayed after school and gave up activity periods to practice, and gave it their all.  And, we totally lost the competition.  As in, we came in last in the county (9 schools).  The competitive side of me is, frankly, a little bummed. 

 But, the part of me that knows how hard they worked, how they didn't give up today when the questions were obscure, or the opposing teams seemed to get all the ones they knew, how they were great sports and pulled together, knows that we really gained a whole lot more than we may have lost.  ( cheese alert!!)  We were up against teams made up of all seventh and eighth graders who have competed before, teams where kids do not have to struggle as hard to succeed in school, and schools with experienced coaches.  I thought my team did a great job considering our collective inexperience.  They were ready to start on next year's reading list after the competition wrapped up today!   I think I need to borrow a little of their optimism and drive for some other parts of my life (grad school work, adoption wait, wanting to shed some winter weight gain) and kick my own butt into gear.