so much went on in november, i was running around like a turkey with my head cut off! seriously, i don't even know where to start to recap!
if you check out our guestbook, you'll see a new comment from someone named chang nguyen. since those of you at casa don't know who she is, i would like to introduce you. chang was my student 5 years ago at luther burbank high school in sacramento, and she was one of the best students i ever had the pleasure of teaching in my life. besides being beautiful, humble, and smart, she is one of the kindest, gentlest, sincerest human beings alive. she learned that from her parents. they would give you the shirt off their backs if you needed it. i know because they helped me, and extra wasn't something they had a lot of back then. i'll never forget the day they drove me home from work. it was raining, and my car wouldn't start, so i was walking. they saw me, pulled over, and squeezed me into the cab of their pickup truck and drove me all the way home. they gave me meals of homemade viet food because they knew as a first-year teacher i had little time to cook for my newly-wed husband or myself. they even invited me to have thanksgiving with them this year! they cared about me as if i were a member of their family, and i was nobody to them, just some lady who taught their kid english. i learned a lot about love from chang and her parents, and this thanksgiving, i am grateful to still be in touch with her. she saw me online tonight and IMed me a minute ago, filling me in on how her classes at davis are going. she made me smile today like she does: ^_^ becoming a teacher was the best thing that ever happened to me. i am so lucky to be paid to do what i do. and i hope in 5 years i'll be blogging about casa families like i am today about chang's. happy thanksgiving, everyone. have i told you lately that i love you? =)
Tina Kells, a citizen reporter from Port Quoquitlam, Canada, recently requested (via a Flickr direct message) to use some of our Big House Library pics on Flickr in an online news story she wrote about the Great Shake Out 2008 -- an earthquake drill day in Southern California. Click here to read her story. While Casa's earthquake drill was not parto f the Great Shake Out per se, it's cool to see our photos being used in a related context. I've been asked before to contribute photos to NowPublic articles, and I have consented because I love contributing to the collaborative nature of their "Crowd Powered Media." So, thanks, Tina, for including Casa in the Great Shake Out 2008! And remember, in the event of an earthquake, "Drop! Cover! Hold!" =)
a sweet student named preet asked a very good question on our guestbook page. "how do we request books from other high schools?" preet, your ? reminds me that i need to put a f.a.q. page on our site for times just such as these! so thanks for that. but for now, here's how you do it!
1. click the catalog tab at the top of this page
2. then click where is says "click here to search our online catalog"
3. then click the catalog tab at the top of that page
(all these extra steps are annoying, i know, and i'm working on ways to skip them but, for now, you just have to keep clicking, sorry!)
4. where it says "look in" select "petaluma city school district"
5. type in the search box the title of the book you want and see where it's at -- to do this look to the right of the screen. it will say "no local copies" and below that something like "1 of 1 available off-site" click that! it's a link! =) you really don't have to do this, but this will tell you for sure that it is indeed somewhere else in petaluma. if there are no off-site copies, it means none of our schools has that title and you should email us or tell us this title so we can put it on our list of books to buy.
6. last step! =) come back to bighouselibrary.com and click the contact tab at the top of the page and email us the title of the book you want. or just go up to the circ desk in the library and tell miss helen or me! =)
p.s. you can only request to borrow books from other petaluma city schools, i.e. petaluma high school, petaluma junior high school, and kenilworth junior high school.
so, that's how inter-library loan works @ casa, preet! thanks for asking & thanks for reading! =)
RSS Feed