My Wordle

 

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Obviously, my being a MOM is bigger part of my life than I've put here, but is as it relates to my new job at Manson Northwest Webster Schools in Manson, Iowa, as the K-12 teacher-librarian/technology integrationist!

Library without books?

Well, not without books, but without printed books.  That's what Cushing Academy, a private boarding school in Massachusetts, has.  It seems to be working for them.  It's a high school with a 1:1 laptop initiative and e-readers with those.  I remember scoffing when I first heard about this school, but students do learn differently now, or should, if we're doing it right.  But reading is reading is reading, is it not?  Does it matter the form it takes?  (In fact, the Wall Street Journal quotes a study saying that people read more with e-readers.)

I wish the Kindle would work with the Overdrive books that are free from the public library already - then I'd buy one and see for myself!

My favorite things

One of the best part of librarianship for me is how varied it is.  Every day is something new! Seriously, at the public library, you just never know what will happen.  I asked my mentor once what a typical day for her was like and she said there was no typical day, and then described what the previous day had been like, which involved all sorts of things you just don't learn in library school.  

My favorite thing about my job, though, is when a child comes up and wants help finding a book to read.  The other day, a girl came up and she totally soaked up every book idea I put in front of her.  (Of course, there's been some who don't like any book I suggest!)

But by far my favorite part of librarianship in general is the idea of information literacy.  I imagine that for those who have been librarians for awhile, it's been amazing to see the transformation from a bricks and mortar institution to one where there are no limits to information.  Seriously, people don't need librarians to find information.  There is no dearth of information out there.  But then that goes into the idea of information literacy - finding, assessing, and using information.  Finding is finding good information which of course is done through assessing.  But assessing is also figuring out if information is good for your purposes - it might be a solid, trustworthy resource but not have anything to do with what you are doing.  Then using information is not only writing a report or making a Power Point - it's using alternative methods like Glogster and Jing and Prezi (or, like I've done here, creating a presentation using HTML - isn't so much more interesting than a Power Point?), and even more, creating content.  My oldest daughter is great at doing things like this.  She made a video for her sister's birthday using iMovie and posted it on You Tube (not listing it, so you have to have the link to see it).  That video totally makes me cry!

I graduate in 168 days! 

Practicum!

I try to be a ducks-in-a-row sort of person.  You might not believe that if you saw my kitchen right now, cluttered with dishes, or you knew that there's two library books I can't find in this house (one an ILL!).  But I do.  So I emailed my advisor in early January about doing my practicum in the fall.  She misunderstood me, and wrote back saying oh sure, there was enough time to get my practicum together yet this spring.  I wrote back and said, "Wha- wha- what?"  I try to be completely on top of things as far as my classes go and I thought I had to have cataloging done before I do the practicum (taking that this semester), but apparently it's 4 out of 5 mandatory classes and I have the others done.  Well this changes things!  This means I can GRADUATE in July!  (I won't walk until December, though.)  This changes career path sort of things too because I can say I'll have my endorsement by the new school year instead of needing a temporary endorsement.  Woo hoo!!!

Here's a great little video that we've been singing all day this lazy Sunday ("Don't you ever interrupt me when I'm reading a book!"):