ndlw: a day in the life

In case the graphic didn’t give it away, today marks the beginning of National Distance Learning Week!  If you’ve already read Rebecca’s really awesome official SU post on the same subject, you can probably stop here.  If you’re reading because you’re entertained by my follies, then… hi, mom.

As a distance learning student and someone posing as a blogger, I am intrigued by the concept of devoting a whole week to people like me.  While they don’t all pretend to be bloggers, there are millions of people in the United States who are distance learning students.  Millions.

I took a moment to think about that.  Whoa.

I field a lot of questions about the whole distance learning thing, as though people discover that I’m some bizzare creature that eats tomato soup with a fork (I wrote about those questions a while back).  The truth is, though, that a lot of people we know are earning their degrees online.  There are plenty of new teachers who acquire their requisite Masters online while starting their full-time teaching careers.  One of my sisters is getting her Masters through distance learning, because she wouldn’t otherwise have access to such a great program with a highly specialized degree.  One of my best friends is getting her MBA online so she can take classes at an expedited rate.  Distance learning, especially beyond the four-year degree, is becoming a serious contender for those embarking on journeys of higher education.

Most people already understand that distance learning allows you to fit your education into your life.  It’s great for people who can’t leave their 9-5, or who don’t want to miss dinner with the family so they can take night classes.  Or people who have taken six years to finally warm up to the idea of urban living, but only in one particular city, since traversing the Amazon would surely be easier to navigate than a whole new city.  Not that I can relate to that.

Since you already understand some of the pros and cons of distance learning, I’m going to give you a glimpse into the day-to-day life of a barista/future librarian.  Welcome to a typical day of karen the (soon to be) librarian:

7am(ish): Wake up.  Compare the threat of wasting the morning in bed to that of leaving its euphoric comfort for the harsh world that exists outside of my covers.

7:15am: Get out of bed.  Make coffee and greet the bunny.  Get my Sun Salutation on (harsh world, indeed!)

8am: Fire up the laptop.  Check email, Facebook, and Bloglines.  Find out what day it is.

8:20am: Log onto my class website (we call it a learning management system, or LMS) and make sure I don’t have anything due today.  Check to see if anyone has responded to my posts.  Really ensure that I’m positive what day it is (Wednesday?  It feels like Saturday).

9am: Remember the really important form that’s due for approval tomorrow.  Send an urgent Facebook message and tweet to classmates.  Work on assignments, discussions, blogs, or other nerdy librarian stuff.  Lament that I don’t have someone around all the time to test-drive my content for humor, intellect, or wit.

9:15am: Refresh the page continuously until someone responds to my plea.

10am: Thank my classmate profusely for her wonderful response and magnanimous assistance.  Fill out the form, submit it, and breathe a sigh of relief.  Check Facebook and comment on the librarian gig that a classmate just secured, and find out what I did with that Jeopardy! PowerPoint template that I saw once on my hard drive so I can pass it along to another classmate.

10:15am: Call and/or email one of the many amazing people at the iSchool with fervent queries regarding minutiae that no one but me cares about.  Thank them for not hanging up on me.

10:30am: Begin a simple task, such as sweeping the floor or doing the dishes.  Watch it snowball as I rearrange the entire apartment, organize that cupboard with containers and plastic bags, and/or cook meals for the month.

1pm: Realize that I’m now in danger of being late for work.  Look at my calendar to make sure I know what day it is and what time I’m supposed to be at work.  Check Facebook and get ready for work.

1:30pm:  Kick myself for never actually getting the floor swept or the dishes done.  Sync articles and other homework stuffs onto my phone, which I absolutely do not ever read or look at while I am at work.  Make sure it really is Wednesday.

2:30pm: Punch in to work.  Brew coffee, fill out values walk, make tasty bevs, and other green apronly stuff.  Do not use my amazing little phone to check email, Facebook, or homework.  Absolutely not.

9:58pm: Tell customers that we’re about to close.  Make a joke that no one laughs at.  Retreat to the back room to pull myself together do work-related stuff.

10pm: Close the store.

10:02pm: Punch out.  Go to Wegmans.  Wander around with headphones on, enjoying the experience and dodging anyone who might recognize me as their barista, which inevitably happens at least once per trip.

11pm: Hang out with the bunny.  Check the LMS, Facebook, email, and Hulu.

midnight: Celebrate making it through another day by pulling the covers as far above my head as I can.

Of course, that’s just an ordinary day.  Sometimes I meet up with friends before or after work, and there are many times when that entire schedule is replaced by a Big Gulp of coffee and a hefty assignment that’s due tomorrow. Fieldwork also made an interesting addition to the mix.

The point of all this is that distance learning is losing its stigma and becoming a big part of many people’s daily lives.  I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to complete this program from a revered institution without having to uproot my entire life.  Sure, there are a lot of sacrifices involved in distance learning, but I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way.

 

elementary fieldwork: roundup

My elementary fieldwork endeavor ended a little over a week ago, which has given me some time to internalize my experience, synthesize everything I’ve learned, and metaphysically analyze how my time in that particular school media center fits into the existential development of my professional chakra.

Or maybe I slept in, ate many meals with many friends I’ve been missing, and caught up on my Hulu queue.

Definitely one of those two.

Anyway, it occurred to me at some point that I had been approaching my fieldwork with the wrong attitude.  Based upon my limited experience at the elementary level, I started my experience having virtually ruled out this type of librarianship altogether.  I armed myself with the motivation to do good work, enjoy myself, and keep the most open mind I thought I could muster.

It’s not that I don’t like kids.  I’ve got some nieces that are a lot of fun to hang out with.  But I don’t need to say that there’s a big difference between being the world’s coolest aunt (which I most certainly am, by the way) and managing a classroom of twenty or so kids, especially when you’re also responsible for teaching them something beyond sitting still.

On top of the panic-inducing dynamic of an elementary library, the high school and above demographic just sounds so much more appealing to me.  I daydream about how I could decorate my library, demonstrate way cool resources, and coordinate fun events.

Regardless of my frequent reverie, I had the task in front of me.  As it turns out, I also had a lot of the tools I’d need to complete the task, and my elementary fieldwork ended up being a really positive experience.  The kind of experience that is best summed up with a bulleted list and a catchy title:

Things that made elementary fieldwork way more awesome than I ever thought it would be

• My site supervisor:  In all seriousness, I can’t emphasize how fantastically wonderful she was.  I’ve known her for a few years, which helped me relate to her- since we were once at the same level, it was easy to see myself in her position in just a couple of years.  It also meant that she knew where I was coming from.  She offered me a lot of invaluable words of wisdom about being an up-and-coming school media specialist.  We made a pretty good team, I think.
• The faculty:  I’m always pleasantly surprised at how welcoming the fellow teachers and librarians are to me, and this was no exception.  I didn’t spend very long at this school, but a lot of the teachers immediately made me feel like a part of the group.  It might be the team mentality of forming a united front to control 300 children, but I am very appreciative of it nonetheless.  I learned a whole lot from informal communications with other faculty members.
• The projects:  This is what gets me fantasizing about my own library.  Getting a little bit artsy makes me happy, and my elementary fieldwork was such a great setting for getting artsy.  I got to use big letters and bright colors, all the while keeping in mind that it has to be quickly understood by fourth graders.  My librarian seemed appreciative, and I loved contributing to the space in this way.
• The kids:  I admit it.  The kids… they are righteously cool.  On my first day, after my first full class, several youngsters blindsided me with hugs.  It was a moment of terror, followed by a moment of nervous laughter, followed by a moment of clarity.  I realized that I could enjoy hanging out with the students and use the opportunity to learn how to interact with them without the pressures of being accountable for their intellectual progress.  Of course, their little brains were in the back of my mind the whole time, but I tried to focus on the foundation before worrying myself with the feng shui of the living room.
• Story time: The last day of my fieldwork was right before Halloween.  Over the course of the week, the librarian had read some festive books, including Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. I got all nostalgic for my days as a third grader, when my teacher would read these stories to us.  Before I knew it, I was reading to the kids.  Out loud.  On the carpet.  Like a real librarian.  It was pretty rad.
• The kids: Worth saying again, because they were lots of fun.  And they drew me pictures from the art books they checked out:

I’m not sure that this fieldwork has changed my mind about working in an elementary library, but I’m definitely more open to the possibility.  Since I don’t have to decide that just yet, I’ll accept the experience as a good time and a whole bunch of great learning opportunities.  And I’m much more prepared for my big elementary practicum… even a little excited for it.

 

halloween.

Like everyone else in America, I saw a lot of costumes this weekend.  I don’t like to go all out with Halloween, but I dig seeing how creative and resourceful some people get.  One friend dressed as a character from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, complete with a bunch of birds that she sewed all on her own.  Then there was the co-worker who made a very impressive Dwight Schrute (I think it was the short-sleeved button-down shirt that really knocked it out of the park).  Two customers came in on Saturday night dressed as Quailman and Patty Mayonnaise.

The best costume, though, was a chance encounter at a party I almost didn’t go to.

I don’t know the guy who thought up this insanely cool idea, but my favorite costume of 2009 was Bob Ross:

(sorry about the picture.  it was dark.  and all i had was my phone.)

When I told him how fantastically awesome his getup was, he was ecstatic- apparently I was the first to identify his greatness all evening.  We had a nice chat about happy little trees, and he said, “Sweet… my costume is officially a success!”  And it was.

 

elementary fieldwork: my white whale.

My big project for elementary fieldwork seemed simple enough: my fabulous host librarian asked me to come up with a way for students to navigate the stacks more easily.  The existing system was alright, but it really didn’t do much to help elementary students identify different sections of classification without some serious work and/or eyestrain.

The shelves were punctuated with labels that used really small fonts and neutral colors:

I could understand why she wanted me to focus on this.

So I devised a wonderful, elaborate plan that was so intricately rad to the power of sick that I had to supplement my words with complex illustrations:

The problem with wonderful, elaborate plans that are rad to the power of sick is that there are often a whole lot of logistical issues that arise.  At least, that’s what usually happens to my wonderful, elaborate plans.

First, I set out to create some big letters.  Then I realized how much typeface plays a role in seemingly simple tasks.  And how awkward it is to batch edit twenty-six text-based images. So I did what a true librarian would do: I asked someone who knows lots of stuff about lots of stuff, and he helped me (thank you).

The letters were created, and I struggled with both the printing and the cutting of these little guys.

Then I began to wonder if the problem with my wonderful, elaborate plans is that I’m the one executing them.

Once I reinforced the labels with poster board and had them looking good and sharp, I tried to laminate them.  It was such a debacle that several fantastic faculty members took time out of their very short lunch to help me (thank you).

At this point, I realized that it must be my execution.

Never mind that, though… I had a job to do and I was going to make it work!

And I did, with the amazing help of my librarian.  After a few more kinks, we finally found our groove.  Luckily, she has high standards in tissues, so she had a whole slew of uniform boxes with unacceptable tissues that would finally get put to good use:

Then, on that magical day (Wednesday, to be specific), the project was finished.  The library now has big, bright shelf labels to help students with the fiction section.

And I even found something that reminded me of the show Arrested Development, which always makes me smile:

I didn’t get to the nonfiction section of the library, but I think I gave the librarian a few ideas.  And now that I’ve figured out all the possible combinations that don’t work, she’ll be free to tackle the nonfiction with ease.

At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

This project taught me a whole lot, but I hope that it’s useful to my marvelous host librarian and all those little ones who come into the library.  I may have struggled with this project (probably largely unnecessarily), but my goal was to help the librarian out.  If she’s happy with it, then I can’t ask for more.

 

elementary fieldwork.

I was completely terrified by the thought of my fieldwork in an elementary school library.  Still am, in fact.  I have absolute respect and admiration for those brave souls who can wrangle twenty youngsters and still manage to teach them something.  Those who do so and love it are saints.

I am no saint.

But the truth of the matter is, I have to get it done.  Then I have to complete another one that’s thrice as long and more involved and is called a practicum.

The elementary experience hasn’t been all nightmares and panic attacks, though, because I’m usually able to take it one day at a time.  Just two classes until lunch… then only two more classes until the end of the day… then only five hours of work… and that’s all that stands between me and my pajamas.

Thus far, my strategy has worked.  My site supervisor is a fellow alum of my undergrad at Fisher, and she went through the very same program that I’m going through at SU.  She even cherishes the same great memories of working at Lavery Library over summer break.  She’s currently the School Media Specialist at a small suburban elementary school.  There are about 300 students, in grades 3-5.  Admittedly, a pretty adorable demographic.

My host librarian is very cool, and she asked me to update the library display case.  Since impending Halloween festivities are already on everyone’s mind, I took a different route.  I exercised my extremely nerdy tendencies and made a display of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, to highlight the movie (which I have not yet seen… and I don’t want to talk about it).

So I made some silhouettes of the characters…

…which looked much more impressive in my mind.  And even on my table.

I had much higher expectations for the display, but fulfilling them would have eaten up my fifty hours of fieldwork, and there’s just more to be done than that.  My librarian had to talk me down out of the case, because I would have gladly spent fifty hours on that thing.

Even though it’s not everything I always dreamed it would be, I’m still pretty stoked with the final product…

…especially considering my poor photography skills.

So, until I can get around to visiting a movie theater, I will have to settle for gazing fondly at my display.

Hardly a rumpus, but the students are wild enough, right?