Today I’m grateful for my Tuesday afternoon scanning responsibilities.
11.12.2024
My students go to the school library every Tuesday afternoon. They return their library books, check out new ones, and enjoy a story read aloud to them by our fun-loving and incredibly-animated librarian. They absolutely LOVE going to the library.
But I bet I love it more.
You see, when we go to the library, I immediately assume my position behind the circulation desk. I no longer ask or wait to be invited behind the highly-respected boundary of the circulation counter. I just charge right back there and set up shop. I claim the comfy chair and grab the all-powerful scanner. Then, while the librarian helps my students pick out books, I check all their returned books back in and subsequently, kid by kid, scan my students’ IDs and check out their new books to them. When I say that this is a highlight of my week, I’m not exaggerating.
I’m not quite sure what it is about the beep of the scanner that I love so much. Part of the appeal might be that while I sit calmly at the circulation desk, the librarian is doing the hard run-around task of helping the kids select their books. I don’t hate that. But there’s also a part of me that really enjoys the way I can cruise through a big ol’ stack of returned books and complete a whole class check-in in under 2 minutes. It makes me feel quite accomplished. I also love that when I check out a book for each student, the scanner beeps twice – once when I scan their ID and once when I scan their book. It’s almost like it’s saying “Good job, Wiebel” with each beep. If I do this for 22 kids, that’s 44 beeps of affirmation. I can’t say I hate that either.
I honestly have no idea what the other teachers at my school do when their class goes to the library, but on Tuesday afternoons from 1:30 – 2:00, I make a home for myself at the librarian’s desk with my trusty scanner in hand.
Sometimes I joke with the librarian about how I’m coming for her job. I don’t really mean it though. She’s an amazing librarian and I couldn’t imagine filling those shoes. I also wonder if the beep of the scanner would lose its novelty if I did it day in and day out – kinda like Disneyland might lose some of its magic if you visited every day. I don’t want to run that risk. But as far as Tuesday afternoons go … make way for Ms. Wiebel. I’ll be the one behind the circulation desk with a scanner in my hand and a huge smile on my face
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