Book Fair From a New POV

This past week was a tiring one, with our superintendent visit on Monday, Curriculum Night on Thursday, and a PA Day on Friday. In addition to all of this, we ran the Scholastic Book Fair. I'm quite vocal on my blog about how "book fair time" is not my favourite time of year. (You can see my rants from 2013, 2018, 2022, and 2023 by following the links.)

My mother used to be my primary book fair volunteer, before dementia ended her abilities to assist. This year, a different member of the family took the lead - my son. I thought I'd offer a different, fresh perspective on the process, instead of my usual jaded commentary. The next few paragraphs (in purple) are written by Peter. The views of Peter do not necessarily reflect those of his mother or the school board or the book fair company.

Book fair is certainly a time of great stress for my mother, especially now that they've introduced a machine that we can use to scan items and record every single purchase made at the book fair. But before we get to that point, let me talk a little bit more about the book fair itself before I get into some of the more... behind the scenes stuff.

We usually set up book fair on Friday night, which also so happened to be a Terry Fox Run event that I was not present for. We have to roll these gigantic cases filled to the brim with books and school supplies (more on that in a bit) and then we have to play a little game where we need to figure out what goes where, and what looks best. It's a very weird experience as a young adult, because you have this slight feeling of "oh yeah, I could see why a kid could like this book" or "what? no, who would buy this?" when looking at the variety of novels.

Now, about that device and those school supplies... I suppose I should start by explaining how book fair actually goes, in short - it's a bunch of short bursts of kids clamoring for overpriced pens and erasers. Despite it being a "book" fair, the majority of purchases are pencils, bookmarks, pens with goofy toppers and erasers in the shape of whatever the heck they want.

The things that sold the quickest? These pop cup pens that have axolotls or capybaras inside, the fridge with scented milk carton erasers - and these "hoodie critter pens" which came in familiar animal forms, such as cats, axolotls, pandas and capybaras. Those very quickly sold out despite most of these selling for like 10 bucks a pop! Although, the much more understandable "kawaii animal toast erasers" which were roughly 2.50 each also quickly sold out.

Now, time for the dreaded device, the thing that probably drove my mother closer to retirement and (almost) certainly put the nail in the coffin for her running book fair ever again. Despite her initial frustrations, the scanner was actually quite helpful, especially when the hordes of school kids come clamoring for those darn toast erasers. After the setup process (which I wasn't there for), all you have to do is press this "Scan" button at the top right - you can then start scanning barcodes to tally up the price. Once you do all that, you can then either choose credit/debit or cash.

The device can be a little slow at times, but overall? Very helpful, and gave me a nice structure to my cashier role - especially during the recess times where my mother was kidnapped for meetings or discussions with other teachers. Scholastic even gave us this huge list of items with barcodes on them for easy access! ...Which would be great except the part where either, A. The item doesn't have a barcode, B. The barcode doesn't work (curse you Dog Man eraser and pencil!) or, the most common one: C. They didn't even give us the item!

Now, what I forgot to mention until now was that there are ways you can re-order items in stock, which we did do. But I didn't think that having large groups of kids huddling over the desk where I was scanning objects going "ooh what's that?" "Do you have that?" "How much is this?" was very efficient business. So, we kept it to mostly items we actually received for the book fair.

The few times I wasn't on cashier duty, my mother was having me look over some of the kids while she hurriedly tried to get her regular book exchange (and library lessons) in order. It's not too much of a hassle, but really hammered home the detail that book fair was incredibly disruptive to my teacher-librarian mother's work.

Overall? Book fair is not as terrible as it may seem. Especially with the device, and multiple people helping out, you can make short work of a line of kids grabbing Lilo and Stitch bendy pens like it's going out of style. I was even lucky enough to receive a $25 gift certificate for attending the book fair webinar, which I used to buy a couple of these "school supplies." Did I need them? No, not really, but the alternative was to buy a children's book that would use all 25 dollars of this certificate. And with that, I think I've shared most of my thoughts on book fair - now back to your regularly scheduled Molly Musings.

Big thanks to Peter for sharing his view of the book fair shenanigans, and for offering his time to run the cashier desk. I also need to thank:

• Kim Davidson for coming over to my school to teach me how to use the scanner
• David Hoang for being a sympathetic ear (as his book fair was held the week before mine)
• Connie Chan for assisting after school and devising a system for us to locate tchotchkes and their matching barcodes
• Matthew Malisani for helping us pack up the book fair early Friday morning
• Deliah Williams for checking my money count and preparing the book fair cheque
• Serena Fung, Shanu Thiya, and Deo Gopaul for helping with the shoppers during Curriculum Night

I must admit that I am tempted to end the book fair tradition, but teachers and students really enjoy shopping and we actually earn a small (albeit shrinking) profit. We earned about $1000 in book fair product and credit this time around. I didn't include this as part of my book fair feedback form, but I really wish Peter's webinar training was more focused on how to use the Point of Sale machine and less on how to market the fair to increase sales. I am thankful book fair is over for the year so I can devote more time to the jobs I should spend more time on - planning, teaching and assessing.

New Things In My SLLC

There are two new items in my school library learning commons. One was based on my request while the other was not. Both have been noticed by the student body. Here's the overview and how it might change the way things get done in the library.

1) Chomp Saw

My wonderful friend, Jennifer Brown, owns several of these machines in her library in the Peel District School Board. She recommended them highly. I tried to purchase one last year, but it only had an American distributor and it takes a lot of paperwork to arrange to purchase items from the USA nowadays. While at a TDSB TL meeting, I discussed my dilemma with Darcy, another TL facilitator. His incredible research skills (and connections) unearthed a Canadian vendor and I was able to order a Chomp Saw for my school.

What's a Chomp Saw? This is a machine that cuts cardboard, with a similar aesthetic to a table saw but much, much safer. The Chomp Saw allows for curved lines and smooth edges.

My schedule now includes STEM periods for all the primary division classes from Grades 1-3/4. I conducted a lesson that led to the use of the Chomp Saw this past week. I did a lot of photo documentation, to show how students were using the Chomp Saw safely and responsibly. I have a cool STEM idea that will incorporate both my library/guidance themes of personal identity as well as learning how to use tools like the Chomp Saw.

I am really excited about the teaching and building possibilities for this machine.  For students who struggle with using scissors, it's a game-changer. It was expensive, but if I use it often enough (and show others how to use it), then it will hopefully be worth the expense.

2) White Board

I had a blackboard in my library. I used it. It was fine. It's been replaced with a white board. 

When I typed "whiteboard vs blackboard", this is what Google Gemini reported:

Chalkboards offer a timeless, affordable writing surface suitable for creative use and provide a distinct tactile experience, though they produce dust and require more effort to clean. Whiteboards provide a cleaner, more modern experience with smoother writing and vibrant colors for diagrams, but they rely on markers that can dry out, leave stains, and have higher recurring costs. The best choice depends on your priorities, such as budget, allergy concerns, and desired aesthetic.  

The white board has been installed. I purchased some markers and magnetic marker holders to use with the board. My white board markers aren't chunky or thick enough to be seen from far away. Differentiating colours did help with a particular library/guidance activity, but I'm not as enthusiastic about this new addition to the library as I am about the Chomp Saw.

 I can see why, for reasons, related to allergies, why a white board might be better. I guess I might be an old-fashioned teacher at heart, because I didn't see anything wrong with the chalkboard. Could my reluctance be related to the fact that I wasn't the one that initiated this change? Possibly.