What's up with Whatsit

Just a day in the life of an elementary librarian

THE test was today, or at least the writing part of it was. Reading is tomorrow and math is Thursday. I am the third grade hall monitor, which is a good job. Teachers who get assigned to a classroom are not allowed to sit down - they have to continually walk around to make sure there is no cheating or any other type of nefarious behavior going on. There was a monitor assigned to our school from downtown, and he spent the entire time walking around the school peeking into the windows of the classroom to make sure everything was going well, so the teachers in the classrooms didn't dare take a chance on sitting for even one minute.

However, being in the hallway, I got to stay seated until somebody needed my assistance. If there was anybody who needed to go to the bathroom or ask a question about the test that's what I was there for. Not that I knew the answer to the question, but I'd go find the person who did know.

The other good thing about being in the third-grade hallway was that I had to stay down there until every child on that hallway got through with the test. There were a few children in one classroom who didn't get through until 1:30 this afternoon. They had to pick the tests up and go eat lunch, then pass the tests back out to the ones who hadn't finished. Why was that good for me? No library classes! Nope - I was sitting right down at the end of my hallway reading a book.

Have you ever had somebody that WOULD not stop talking to you? One of the custodians did this to me today. Ooooohweeeee, he would NOT go away, he just kept on talking. The killing part was how boring he was. He was full of boring, I assure you, and it kept spilling out on me. I even said a prayer that he would just go away from me. Finally he did. This is my major pet peeve: a boring person that insists on inflicting their boring-ness on me.

The entertaining part of the day was the principal, assistant principal, and secretary getting into a shouting match in the hallway. I didn't see it, but I heard it - I figured it was some kids. If I had known it was adults, I would have gotten up and peeked around the corner to be nosy. The monitor from downtown evidently saw the whole thing, not to mention the kindergarten, first, and second-graders who were passing right by that particular spot to go to lunch. Now, what kind of example is this, I ask you?

Such is life in an elementary school - who knew drama would be a part of it? I expected drama at the juvie jail. When I came to a "regular" elementary school, I thought I had lost all of that. I suppose any time you have personalities involved you will have drama, but it seems like professionalism should be in there somewhere.