Geronimo!

A famous literary mouse adventurer, Scholastic's Geronimo Stilton, dropped by our book fair today, to see how his royalties were faring.

School libraries leading learning: Day 1

I set the alarm for 6.00am this morning, fully intending to swing past the school, on my way to the railway station to attend the first day of School Libraries Leading Learning, the NSW State Conference of ASLA and the Department of Education and Training.

To my horror, it was still pitch dark outside. Little Jack looked at me, quite bewildered, and wanted to refuse the only chance he’d have to relieve himself, and I eventually decided to phone in the last-minute instructions to my replacement in the school library. By sheer luck, it wasn’t a heavy teaching load day; much of her day was to be spent policing the preview browsing of the annual Book Fair, which starts in earnest next week.

Follow the link above to find out how the day went.

Murphy's Laws of school book fairs

1. First sale of the day - an 80 cent pencil - will inevitably be countered by a crisp $50 note.

2. If you put a signature on the item's price sticker at a school book fair, in an attempt to prevent shoplifting, the child will inevitably have a single ten cent coin to pay for a $10 item. Or even a $25 item. (These kids have expensive tastes. And a totally unrealistic idea of the value of money. They also believe that if you keep buying items that give you change, you'll never run out of money.)

3. If a student hands you a bunch of 16 shiny $1 coins, and it looks like he raided Mum's money box, he probably did. (And why was he so desperate to purchase a personal burglar alarm, anyway?)

4. If someone sees you sneaking a look at the EFTPOS machine manual, they'll suddenly demand you test it out on their card. Dammit. ("Go use the Ready Teller across the road please, these instructions are too obscure, okay?")

5. Of course, you're supposed to charge up the EFTPOS machine the night before. (Thanks for not telling me, Book Fair company.)

6. Stationery is still way more exciting than books, even on Day 3 of a Book Fair.

7. Tired teachers only make addition errors in front of the parents, not little students, who wouldn't notice anyway.

8. Today's grandparents are younger than most of the teachers. (Welcome to the middle ages.) But they are quite generous (Ka-ching! Ka-ching! - sound of cash register).

9. A major computer system changeover shall occur on the same day as the takings of the annual Book Fair must be finalised. It will also be the last day of term, and only one day before a public holiday.

10. The final tearful request for a $1 scented eraser will be announced precisely ten minutes after the van, full of all the cabinets of product, leaves the school grounds. (A prediction: just you see if I'm right.)

Advance stationery fair?

We are having a book fair at my school this week, so every spare hour of each day sees me patrolling the school library with a three-litre ice cream container in the crook of my arm, selling stationery to students who wander into the library and attempt to "buy" a book for under $1.

It's great that Scholastic have seen to it that there is an amazing range of novelty pencils, pens, erasers, highlighters, bookmarks and sharpeners to satisfy those holes burning in some kids' pockets, but I eagerly await Grandparents' Day (tomorrow) and the hope that (a) today's grandpas and grandmas are ovely-generous when spoiling their grandchildren, and (b) that no child uses all of their grandparents' money to buy even more novelty pencils, pens, erasers, highlighters, bookmarks and sharpeners.

Someone, please buy a book!