What a crazy, crazy, crazy week! I was back at practicum for one day this week. I met with my collaborating teacher to plan out our lesson, which is pretty much settled and scheduled. It's a fairly simple project, but it'll give me some face time with a class.
Thursday was work, and Thursday night I helped Mike prep his kitchen floor for laying linoleum. Thursday we mainly just pulled up the old tiles and ripped out the moulding.
Friday I actually had a day off, but ended up being super busy. Since I didn't know when or if I would have another non-holiday weekday off before Christmas, I focused on getting Mike's big present together. While waiting for confirmation for one step of the process, I did work emails, paid bills and typed texts (in short I archive our important conversations and my phone doesn't export :p I think it's part of being a librarian; I can't stand to lose those "writings"). I went to a lovely dinner party and saw one of my favorite librarians.
Saturday was the really intense day. I got out to Auburn around 1 (after coffee with another of my favorite librarians). We got right down to work on the floor. We patched the holes in the subfloor, pulled out the washer and dryer (which involved cleaning and removing the tiles that had been underneath them, and moved the fridge and stove. We went and got food while waiting for the subfloor compound to harden, then came home and sanded. I swept and swept and swept, then went over the entire floor on my hands and knees feeling for any rough spots or bumps.
The next step was creating a template of the floor. We cut craft paper and laid it out along the edges of the room. Good thing, because it turned out that the room was slightly off square - basically parallelogram shaped. We carted the linoleum into the kitchen, taped down the template at the edge of the roll, and started cutting. With such a big roll, there was no place that we could lay out the whole thing, so we had to do a little, roll up the end we had just cut, then do some more.
Unrolling the cut linoleum over the entire floor was the most frustrating part of the process, because we had to work it around cabinets, and it did not want to go. Amazingly though, once it was down, the fit was practically perfect. We glued one side at a time (that was all Mike, as we only bought one trowel) then used a roller to smooth out air bubbles.
Sounds easy, right? Did I mention that the whole process took about 14 hours of work time? 19 hours total (excluding time spent running out for food and supplies). We went to bed at 7am.
On Sunday, we had a family party to go to, but afterward our goal was to put the appliances back in. Mike has a newer washer that had been in the garage, so we brought that upstairs on a dolly. Not as easy as it sounds. We had to disassemble his banister to squeeze it around the top of the stairs. Then we had to bring the old, heavy, gross one down. Once that was done, it was homework time for me!
The Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge started on Saturday (a holiday-themed fitness competition) and I was unable to do an actual "workout" due to all of this. But I think I'm justified in my decision to track 4 hours worth of strength training - I spent at least an hour on the stairs supporting a washer over my head, to say nothing of several hours of rolling the floor or lugging the other appliances.
I had hoped to make it to yoga tonight, since I thought it would be nice to stretch out all my aches and pains, but I got home from work and slept for about 4 hours. I can't complain too much though. Mike has a pretty new floor, and I have major brownie points and a sparkly new bucket. It's fun watching the apartment improving all the time, and it's nice to have a part in it.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Today I got to attend my very first conference, the Fall meeting of the OCM BOCES School Library System. It was a really great day, and gave my overall motivation a bit of a boost. It also gave me some perspective on where I stand in my education.
Going into the day, I wished that I had my e-portfolio prepared. If I had it ready, I would have felt more confident about networking. My goal for the day was to talk to librarians and to make contact with an elementary librarian who might take me on as an intern. To that end, I created a few business cards with my basic information, just to give people something to remember me by.
I attended four sessions: Doug Johnson's keynote, a presentation on creating an e-portfolio lead by the Syracuse City School District's Ed Tech team, Anthony Rotolo's social media session, and Project Enable.
I was excited to hear (and meet!) Doug Johnson, as I discovered his writing while doing my first rapid response for 511 last year, and have followed his blog ever since. He had a lot of great points, but here's what I took away:
The session on e-portfolios was not what I expected, but very helpful. I was thinking it would be more nuts and bolts on how to actually put one together, but what we got was a list of essential components and tools for developing them. I had vaguely thought that I should have a mission statement in my portfolio, but now I know that I need my professional philosophy in there, with measurable goals, evidence of learning, and reflection.
This session made me think hard about this blog. I've long felt that I do want a blog to be a part of my e-portfolio, but would not have given out this one because so many of the entries over the past year have been written to express frustration, disillusionment, and exhaustion. I have far more success than this blog conveys. However, having read Alyssa Vincent's honest account of burnout and having felt immensely comforted by it, I think I would like to maintain this blog, weaknesses and all. I will just strive to make more of an effort to reflect when I'm feeling positive as well.
I also realized, when we talked about goals, that the reason my personal frustrations have crept into my professional blog is that my personal and professional goals are deeply intertwined. Being braver, working harder and being better informed all come into play personally and professionally, and all are affected by my overall energy level and attitude. I think that having measurable professional goals will help me to keep career stresses from feeling like my whole life is struggling.
After this session, we had a break for lunch. I had asked Blythe Bennett for suggestions of good elementary librarians to approach, and found myself sitting next to one of them. When we had both finished eating, I steeled myself and struck up a conversation, which ended up lasting about 20 minutes. She was extremely cool - forward thinking and passionate, and it sounds like she has a great program. I am hopeful that I will be able to do my second practicum with her.
I don't have a lot to say about Rotolo's session - it was a lot of fun, and gave me some context for the way technology and social media are changing the world and should be changing education. Project Enable was eye-opening. The presenters had us work through several simulations to force us to understand what students with disabilities are working with. It emphasized the need for patience, and especially for librarians to be thoroughly informed about the students they are working with. It was a valuable session, particularly given that I know very little about students with disabilities and am now much more aware of the areas in which I need to educate myself.
So, time to move forward. I would like to retool this blog a bit to make it more attractive, and develop my e-portfolio. I'm also debating whether to separate my personal and professional twitter presence. Not so much because I say anything inappropriate as because I wouldn't want to follow a colleague who tweeted as much non-library stuff as I do.
Going into the day, I wished that I had my e-portfolio prepared. If I had it ready, I would have felt more confident about networking. My goal for the day was to talk to librarians and to make contact with an elementary librarian who might take me on as an intern. To that end, I created a few business cards with my basic information, just to give people something to remember me by.
I attended four sessions: Doug Johnson's keynote, a presentation on creating an e-portfolio lead by the Syracuse City School District's Ed Tech team, Anthony Rotolo's social media session, and Project Enable.
I was excited to hear (and meet!) Doug Johnson, as I discovered his writing while doing my first rapid response for 511 last year, and have followed his blog ever since. He had a lot of great points, but here's what I took away:
- The speed of change is our real challenge
- We must distinguish the act of reading from the medium of books
- Technology is moving more and more to a single device that does everything; we have to be concerned about what this means for choice, competition and freedom of information
- Young people trust their peers more than packaged marketing materials; user reviews are a kind of peer review; applies to all sorts of information
- The political leanings of parents might affect how their kids approach information
- "Doomed libraries are all alike; every successful library is successful in its own way."
- Be visible outside of the library
- Advocate for users
- DIVERSIFY; make your physical space compelling enough to draw in users
- No whining!
The session on e-portfolios was not what I expected, but very helpful. I was thinking it would be more nuts and bolts on how to actually put one together, but what we got was a list of essential components and tools for developing them. I had vaguely thought that I should have a mission statement in my portfolio, but now I know that I need my professional philosophy in there, with measurable goals, evidence of learning, and reflection.
This session made me think hard about this blog. I've long felt that I do want a blog to be a part of my e-portfolio, but would not have given out this one because so many of the entries over the past year have been written to express frustration, disillusionment, and exhaustion. I have far more success than this blog conveys. However, having read Alyssa Vincent's honest account of burnout and having felt immensely comforted by it, I think I would like to maintain this blog, weaknesses and all. I will just strive to make more of an effort to reflect when I'm feeling positive as well.
I also realized, when we talked about goals, that the reason my personal frustrations have crept into my professional blog is that my personal and professional goals are deeply intertwined. Being braver, working harder and being better informed all come into play personally and professionally, and all are affected by my overall energy level and attitude. I think that having measurable professional goals will help me to keep career stresses from feeling like my whole life is struggling.
After this session, we had a break for lunch. I had asked Blythe Bennett for suggestions of good elementary librarians to approach, and found myself sitting next to one of them. When we had both finished eating, I steeled myself and struck up a conversation, which ended up lasting about 20 minutes. She was extremely cool - forward thinking and passionate, and it sounds like she has a great program. I am hopeful that I will be able to do my second practicum with her.
I don't have a lot to say about Rotolo's session - it was a lot of fun, and gave me some context for the way technology and social media are changing the world and should be changing education. Project Enable was eye-opening. The presenters had us work through several simulations to force us to understand what students with disabilities are working with. It emphasized the need for patience, and especially for librarians to be thoroughly informed about the students they are working with. It was a valuable session, particularly given that I know very little about students with disabilities and am now much more aware of the areas in which I need to educate myself.
So, time to move forward. I would like to retool this blog a bit to make it more attractive, and develop my e-portfolio. I'm also debating whether to separate my personal and professional twitter presence. Not so much because I say anything inappropriate as because I wouldn't want to follow a colleague who tweeted as much non-library stuff as I do.
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