It's been quite a summer. First, I threw off my few readers with not blogging for a few weeks and then I apologized and did it again. Well, to put it slightly, I am out of the office for yet another three weeks - unbeknownst to me prior to the knee surgery.
It's been interesting - trying to get back in the swing of things between when I arrived back in July knowing that I'd be leaving at least for a week in August. And, trying to cover chat shifts and work online from home in between an intensive home rehab program that literally takes as much time as a full time job. It's frustrating to not be able to work and dig into the projects that are so rapidly approaching as the year begins. It's hard to leave colleagues short-handed when so many transitions are upon us. I'm resigned to think right now that it's a part of life, and a part I'm grateful to experience as a 27-year-old grad student without a family, before the school year begins, and in the hands of very capable medical professionals. I'm resigned to think that "it happens" and that people can hopefully see the effort I'm trying to exert and that I can still be a valuable part of the library when I come back. I can only hope that at times like these people remember the other things that I've done and will still want to include me on teams, knowing I am reliable.
I actually have little doubt about these things - my co-workers and superiors are very understanding, gracious people and I can only say how lucky I am to have them as a part of my life as I resign myself to the couch 8+ hours a day instead of living the full, intensely busy life that usually is.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
Instructional Reflections and Feedback
Last week I wrote about participating in lots of instruction over the coming week. Well, that was this week, and this week is nearly over!
On Monday, I participated in orientation workshops for incoming freshman (I did this Thursday as well), and also completed a Word for Dissertation workshop. On both occasions, I had the chance to collaborate with colleagues, which was a great experience. Co-teaching has allowed me to feel more comfortable with instruction and has also provided me with the confidence that I could probably have done both on my own if I absolutely needed to. Working with my colleagues was great, though. It was wonderful to have someone there who could help answer questions or jump in if I forgot something, however it was also simply nice to work with people whom I respect and admire.
The orientation sessions were a nice "warm up" for my later Dissertation workshop. Talk about different audiences! I went from working with 18-year-old-incoming freshman to mainly doctoral students of all ages. The freshman were tired - it was early morning and they were there because they had to be. The doctoral students were fully interested and engaged as this was something they chose to attend on their own and something they knew would be helpful throughout their long dissertation process.
The freshman orientation provided little to no feedback, other than what we could see. Some students asked great questions while others struggled to keep their eyes open. Most participated in our polls via iClicker but other than that, it was impossible to tell how effective of an instructor I was. I did receive some feedback from my co-instructors, which was helpful because they could do this presentation in their sleep and have a good deal of instructional experience.
The Word for Dissertation workshop, on the other hand, provided more and different feedback. I not only received tips from one of the facility's main instructors, but also from 7 out of the 9 workshop participants. The feedback from my instructor was very helpful - she talked about not saying things were simple or easy (because they may not be for everyone!) and also about leading into topics with analogies and in simpler terms. Extremely useful information that I can carry across my instructional experiences.
We also received feedback from the participants via an anonymous evaluation system. The numbers that we received were good - no negative feedback, a few neutrals, and mostly good. The comments, however, were one of my first lessons of criticism in the way that I could not ask for further information or could not really use the information to be constructive. I received a comment that said it looked like I was nervous and made a lot of mistakes by having to go back and repeat myself. I read this comment, and of course, felt a little bad. The same commenter had said my colleague had a nice presence about him, so he clearly did not see that same confidence in me. I did, to be completely fair, mess up right at the beginning of my transition... which probably through this person off. But it was hard to read the comment and not be able to follow up, ask what I might do better, or simply realize that the beginning of my half of the workshop was confusing for people and that I need to practice more for next time. Which I will, regardless :)
The point of this post is just a reflection on my instruction this past week. It also is a beginning thought on how we could make our assessment of the workshops better in a way that might provide more constructive feedback. I'm pretty sure that there will nearly always be "that person" or people who don't respond at all, but as I am more confident in teaching certain workshops, I would like to evaluate the assessment that goes along with them. The one-shot workshop model might be something I re-visit when this time comes.
On Monday, I participated in orientation workshops for incoming freshman (I did this Thursday as well), and also completed a Word for Dissertation workshop. On both occasions, I had the chance to collaborate with colleagues, which was a great experience. Co-teaching has allowed me to feel more comfortable with instruction and has also provided me with the confidence that I could probably have done both on my own if I absolutely needed to. Working with my colleagues was great, though. It was wonderful to have someone there who could help answer questions or jump in if I forgot something, however it was also simply nice to work with people whom I respect and admire.
The orientation sessions were a nice "warm up" for my later Dissertation workshop. Talk about different audiences! I went from working with 18-year-old-incoming freshman to mainly doctoral students of all ages. The freshman were tired - it was early morning and they were there because they had to be. The doctoral students were fully interested and engaged as this was something they chose to attend on their own and something they knew would be helpful throughout their long dissertation process.
The freshman orientation provided little to no feedback, other than what we could see. Some students asked great questions while others struggled to keep their eyes open. Most participated in our polls via iClicker but other than that, it was impossible to tell how effective of an instructor I was. I did receive some feedback from my co-instructors, which was helpful because they could do this presentation in their sleep and have a good deal of instructional experience.
The Word for Dissertation workshop, on the other hand, provided more and different feedback. I not only received tips from one of the facility's main instructors, but also from 7 out of the 9 workshop participants. The feedback from my instructor was very helpful - she talked about not saying things were simple or easy (because they may not be for everyone!) and also about leading into topics with analogies and in simpler terms. Extremely useful information that I can carry across my instructional experiences.
We also received feedback from the participants via an anonymous evaluation system. The numbers that we received were good - no negative feedback, a few neutrals, and mostly good. The comments, however, were one of my first lessons of criticism in the way that I could not ask for further information or could not really use the information to be constructive. I received a comment that said it looked like I was nervous and made a lot of mistakes by having to go back and repeat myself. I read this comment, and of course, felt a little bad. The same commenter had said my colleague had a nice presence about him, so he clearly did not see that same confidence in me. I did, to be completely fair, mess up right at the beginning of my transition... which probably through this person off. But it was hard to read the comment and not be able to follow up, ask what I might do better, or simply realize that the beginning of my half of the workshop was confusing for people and that I need to practice more for next time. Which I will, regardless :)
The point of this post is just a reflection on my instruction this past week. It also is a beginning thought on how we could make our assessment of the workshops better in a way that might provide more constructive feedback. I'm pretty sure that there will nearly always be "that person" or people who don't respond at all, but as I am more confident in teaching certain workshops, I would like to evaluate the assessment that goes along with them. The one-shot workshop model might be something I re-visit when this time comes.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Instruction, Instruction, Instruction (and..... we're back!)
I did the bad blogging thing, I dropped off for several weeks and am now diving back in with the hopes that my few gentle readers will forgive me and again read my posts.
Interestingly enough, my last post talked about how I was thinking about starting my next instruction project with a colleague and between then and now, we not only taught one workshop but are gearing up for our second on Monday!
The first workshop we taught was on RefWorks, a bibliographic management tool. We ended up following through on simultaneously editing a Google doc, each creating our own specific outline, and then practicing once before the workshop together. Of course we each prepared on our own, but knowing that we worked well together, the one practice together was enough. And the workshop went well! It was a program we were both fairly familiar with so we were able to get smoothly through the tech parts and trade off well. Another great part of practicing, at least, was working with my colleagues. We were able to provide ample and productive feed back to one another both during the practice session and after the workshop which was helpful. It was also helpful that we are both very able to take constructive criticism so that we could help each other improve.
Monday is our next teaching session, this time on instructing Microsoft Word for Dissertation. This program is quite a bit more complicated and there are always things that can go wrong with not a lot of explanation. Because the first session went so well, we decided to use the same planning method as last time. EXCEPT, we practiced more. We have had different levels of feedback during each session - all of which have been very helpful in thinking about our session on Monday. It's been very useful to have the different levels of feedback; by levels I mean our levels of preparation paired with different levels of novice/experts.
During our first practice session, an expert in instruction and Word for Diss helped us through and showed us how she generally teaches the workshop (effectively). It was so useful to have this during our first run through because we inevitably forgot content or needed refreshers on the "why" we do this or that. During our final practice session, we had observers who were less knowledgeable about the program (though still experts compared to the workshop constituents) and who were not experienced in instruction. Their feedback on the content specifically was very helpful.
This planning workshops thing is getting easier, but no matter how experienced I get, I'll always remember the planning process, and even more importantly as I move forward, the evaluations.
Getting evaluations from the first workshop (which only had a few people) was very exciting because no matter how we thought we did, if our participants didn't learn something, our workshop was less successful. In the future, after I have more of the workshop content and know-how down, I think it would be interesting to re-look at the evaluations and see if there are questions I'd like to incorporate or take out. All comes in time, but this instruction thing is pretty interesting.
Oh, and happy summer!
Interestingly enough, my last post talked about how I was thinking about starting my next instruction project with a colleague and between then and now, we not only taught one workshop but are gearing up for our second on Monday!
The first workshop we taught was on RefWorks, a bibliographic management tool. We ended up following through on simultaneously editing a Google doc, each creating our own specific outline, and then practicing once before the workshop together. Of course we each prepared on our own, but knowing that we worked well together, the one practice together was enough. And the workshop went well! It was a program we were both fairly familiar with so we were able to get smoothly through the tech parts and trade off well. Another great part of practicing, at least, was working with my colleagues. We were able to provide ample and productive feed back to one another both during the practice session and after the workshop which was helpful. It was also helpful that we are both very able to take constructive criticism so that we could help each other improve.
Monday is our next teaching session, this time on instructing Microsoft Word for Dissertation. This program is quite a bit more complicated and there are always things that can go wrong with not a lot of explanation. Because the first session went so well, we decided to use the same planning method as last time. EXCEPT, we practiced more. We have had different levels of feedback during each session - all of which have been very helpful in thinking about our session on Monday. It's been very useful to have the different levels of feedback; by levels I mean our levels of preparation paired with different levels of novice/experts.
During our first practice session, an expert in instruction and Word for Diss helped us through and showed us how she generally teaches the workshop (effectively). It was so useful to have this during our first run through because we inevitably forgot content or needed refreshers on the "why" we do this or that. During our final practice session, we had observers who were less knowledgeable about the program (though still experts compared to the workshop constituents) and who were not experienced in instruction. Their feedback on the content specifically was very helpful.
This planning workshops thing is getting easier, but no matter how experienced I get, I'll always remember the planning process, and even more importantly as I move forward, the evaluations.
Getting evaluations from the first workshop (which only had a few people) was very exciting because no matter how we thought we did, if our participants didn't learn something, our workshop was less successful. In the future, after I have more of the workshop content and know-how down, I think it would be interesting to re-look at the evaluations and see if there are questions I'd like to incorporate or take out. All comes in time, but this instruction thing is pretty interesting.
Oh, and happy summer!
Friday, June 3, 2011
Working Together
So, I finally have a workshop scheduled to teach! All on my own! Well, wait... not all on my own. In fact, I'm team teaching... with a colleague... who is teaching his first workshop too...
We're really excited to get started on instruction, but I really did not know where to begin when I was asked to do this. I've learned some on this topic, and feel confident that we'll be able to produced a productive session, but it was kind of a deer-in-the-headlights moment when I knew I would actually have to conduct a workshop. My supervisor offered to send me their latest outline of the session that I'll teach, but I didn't just want to do what someone else did because that was the way it was done. I searched our old instructional outlines and found four more. Now, where to start with that?
In the planning meeting with my colleague, he had a great suggestion. Why don't we just start a google doc, go through these outlines, and pick out the things we like? So that's what we decided to do. Hopefully after we come up with our own outline, we can add some interaction and our own personal touch. However, as the first workshop, it might be good to do it, get comfortable and then start playing around. Any thoughts or suggestions on this?
We're really excited to get started on instruction, but I really did not know where to begin when I was asked to do this. I've learned some on this topic, and feel confident that we'll be able to produced a productive session, but it was kind of a deer-in-the-headlights moment when I knew I would actually have to conduct a workshop. My supervisor offered to send me their latest outline of the session that I'll teach, but I didn't just want to do what someone else did because that was the way it was done. I searched our old instructional outlines and found four more. Now, where to start with that?
In the planning meeting with my colleague, he had a great suggestion. Why don't we just start a google doc, go through these outlines, and pick out the things we like? So that's what we decided to do. Hopefully after we come up with our own outline, we can add some interaction and our own personal touch. However, as the first workshop, it might be good to do it, get comfortable and then start playing around. Any thoughts or suggestions on this?
Friday, May 27, 2011
Stepping out of the box...How-to
If you thought this would be a how-to guide, my blog title worked and I fooled you just a bit. I'm actually hoping for some discussion, thoughts and advice. Here's the context...
This week I was given some more concrete projects on which to work such as finding or creating content for training modules, creating Lib Guides for updated software, and re-thinking how we present hand-outs and guides to supplement our workshops which requires me to research, gather, and decide on effective materials to use - or produce them myself. It's been interesting to start to see what others are doing with videos, websites and Lib Guides; the difficult part is thinking outside the box and stepping into a new realm of learning using online tools. In my early research, I've seen some good stuff (on which I'll report in a post later this summer) but haven't yet come across something that really said, wow, this is new and exciting and something I've never seen before and, and, and. So the question is, motivation? How to step out of the box? I'd love to hear suggestions for thinking of new, innovative, and creative ways to make learning fun.
Not that thinking about this and learning as I go isn't fun, because it is. This is the first "job" I've had where I have the autonomy to think in this way and consider creating new content that has not yet been produced. It's really exciting, and, what I think being a librarian of the future is all about.
Now, back to brainstorming... :)
This week I was given some more concrete projects on which to work such as finding or creating content for training modules, creating Lib Guides for updated software, and re-thinking how we present hand-outs and guides to supplement our workshops which requires me to research, gather, and decide on effective materials to use - or produce them myself. It's been interesting to start to see what others are doing with videos, websites and Lib Guides; the difficult part is thinking outside the box and stepping into a new realm of learning using online tools. In my early research, I've seen some good stuff (on which I'll report in a post later this summer) but haven't yet come across something that really said, wow, this is new and exciting and something I've never seen before and, and, and. So the question is, motivation? How to step out of the box? I'd love to hear suggestions for thinking of new, innovative, and creative ways to make learning fun.
Not that thinking about this and learning as I go isn't fun, because it is. This is the first "job" I've had where I have the autonomy to think in this way and consider creating new content that has not yet been produced. It's really exciting, and, what I think being a librarian of the future is all about.
Now, back to brainstorming... :)
Friday, May 20, 2011
Not even going to go there... and here's why.
So, if you are knowledgeable about the "information world," or follow any librarians on Twitter or in the blogosphere, you've most likely seen something about Seth Godin's Monday blog post on "The Future of the Library." I happened to read this on Monday, and on Tuesday my Twitter feed was full of remarks, comments, posts, responses, criticisms, and so on.
When I originally read the post, I bookmarked it to comment on in my blog this week. However, after seeing the uproar on Tuesday, I think I learned a valuable lesson... the easy way? I'd wanted to analyze this blog post, remark on my agreements and disagreements, provide my thoughts on the future of the library. But then I thought about my credibility. Just starting to put myself out there, it could be a huge mistake, I realized, to comment on this article without reading responses of my colleagues and those in my networks. If I want to be viewed in the information and education world as a reliable and innovative source, I absolutely cannot repeat what those who are very visible have already said without adding something new.
Yes, I have thoughts on Seth Godin's blog post. Yes, they are thought out. And yes, they've probably already been hashed out somewhere in this vast digital space. I just cannot, therefore, justify creating a passionate post that ignores what others in the field are saying.
To me, part of being a strong, successful professional is considering what my colleagues are saying - whether I agree or disagree. To ignore these people would be to ignore the fact that we all need to work together - on some level - for the success of our field. To ignore my colleagues would be to ignore what they have learned in their institutions, from their patrons, and from their experience.
So, before I go running my mouth (or fingers, in this case) about what I think, I need to consider what others think. And, I'm realizing that that takes time, energy, thought, and more time. To all you who do this consistently - kudos. And to myself, lesson learned.
When I originally read the post, I bookmarked it to comment on in my blog this week. However, after seeing the uproar on Tuesday, I think I learned a valuable lesson... the easy way? I'd wanted to analyze this blog post, remark on my agreements and disagreements, provide my thoughts on the future of the library. But then I thought about my credibility. Just starting to put myself out there, it could be a huge mistake, I realized, to comment on this article without reading responses of my colleagues and those in my networks. If I want to be viewed in the information and education world as a reliable and innovative source, I absolutely cannot repeat what those who are very visible have already said without adding something new.
Yes, I have thoughts on Seth Godin's blog post. Yes, they are thought out. And yes, they've probably already been hashed out somewhere in this vast digital space. I just cannot, therefore, justify creating a passionate post that ignores what others in the field are saying.
To me, part of being a strong, successful professional is considering what my colleagues are saying - whether I agree or disagree. To ignore these people would be to ignore the fact that we all need to work together - on some level - for the success of our field. To ignore my colleagues would be to ignore what they have learned in their institutions, from their patrons, and from their experience.
So, before I go running my mouth (or fingers, in this case) about what I think, I need to consider what others think. And, I'm realizing that that takes time, energy, thought, and more time. To all you who do this consistently - kudos. And to myself, lesson learned.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Another reason I love my field and the people in it
Librarianship is part of a professional field - the field of information - and while we have the ALA code of ethics it is often up to librarians themselves to to determine their level of professionalism. In any field this is a balance, but working at a large, liberal, academic library, there is a certain level of freedom in this area. However, professionalism comes with balance. In an attempt for a somewhat comical post today, I'll tell my story of how I balanced professionalism. But the story goes beyond that; it speaks to the good of librarians, the people who use libraries, and the amazing atmosphere of U of M and Ann Arbor in general.
-------------------------------
On this past beautiful Wednesday evening, I was participating in my recreational women's soccer league as I do every Monday and Wednesday in the spring, summer and fall. Three quarters of the way through the game, the unexpected happened. With my toe planted in hopes of scoring our team's first goal, a completely legal side check sent my quad to the left and my shin to the right, with my body immediately withering to the ground in black-out pain. Having played soccer for 12 years as a teenager, then taking a several year break before picking it up last spring, I was finally feeling strong and good on the field. So ironically this knee injury would happen now.
However, the irony continued. I not only live near one of the best research hospitals in the nation, but my primary care physician works in that hospital. And not only would I try to get an appointment with her that next morning, but I was already scheduled to be in the hospital that next morning at 9:00 sharp - for a website consultation for my job. Now, while my job is partially instructional technology, we don't often make office calls. It just so happened that I needed to be at the hospital that following morning, so I decided I would still do the website consult as long as it didn't overlap with an open doctors appointment. All of my friends thought I was crazy. "Why are you going to a work meeting - your knee is the size of a grapefruit?" "Everyone will understand if you cancel..." I agreed with them, but seriously, if I didn't already have to be at the hospital, I wouldn't have gone to the consult!
So I went. On the way to the meeting, I called for a doctors appointment. They had an opening at 9:30 am. Perfect; it was 8:35. I got to the hospital, where apparently you can just grab a wheelchair if needed, hopped into a seat, asked the volunteer where I could find the location of my consult, as he cheerfully wheeled me up. The appointment went just as planned and the woman I was working with even offered me coffee and a ride to my doctors appointment right down the hall. She really stood out as a person who was willing to help someone else out and helped me balance that work and life stuff that inevitably happens.
There was no good reason not for me to go to my consult; it was at the hospital where I needed a doctors appointment. But I wouldn't have been able to do both the work consult and the doctors appointment without good people. I know librarians are good people - wanting and willing to work with others when they need something - but this story is really telling of the people who use our services. This woman went out of her way to make me comfortable and help ME out, when - while it may have looked like I needed it - I could have been OK on my own. The people at the hospital were all so kind and helpful - making lighthearted jokes and offering to help. OK, so helping is their job, but the joking and caring tones are not in their job description.
---------------------------------------------
This all goes to saying that we learn things every day - I am learning what it's like to be less able. But the moral of my story is that it is wonderful to be a part of a city and University setting where people use their resources and their privilege for good. UM is such a large - yet small - community where what goes around comes around. Over the last two days, I've experienced that first hand, and couldn't be more grateful.
-------------------------------
On this past beautiful Wednesday evening, I was participating in my recreational women's soccer league as I do every Monday and Wednesday in the spring, summer and fall. Three quarters of the way through the game, the unexpected happened. With my toe planted in hopes of scoring our team's first goal, a completely legal side check sent my quad to the left and my shin to the right, with my body immediately withering to the ground in black-out pain. Having played soccer for 12 years as a teenager, then taking a several year break before picking it up last spring, I was finally feeling strong and good on the field. So ironically this knee injury would happen now.
However, the irony continued. I not only live near one of the best research hospitals in the nation, but my primary care physician works in that hospital. And not only would I try to get an appointment with her that next morning, but I was already scheduled to be in the hospital that next morning at 9:00 sharp - for a website consultation for my job. Now, while my job is partially instructional technology, we don't often make office calls. It just so happened that I needed to be at the hospital that following morning, so I decided I would still do the website consult as long as it didn't overlap with an open doctors appointment. All of my friends thought I was crazy. "Why are you going to a work meeting - your knee is the size of a grapefruit?" "Everyone will understand if you cancel..." I agreed with them, but seriously, if I didn't already have to be at the hospital, I wouldn't have gone to the consult!
So I went. On the way to the meeting, I called for a doctors appointment. They had an opening at 9:30 am. Perfect; it was 8:35. I got to the hospital, where apparently you can just grab a wheelchair if needed, hopped into a seat, asked the volunteer where I could find the location of my consult, as he cheerfully wheeled me up. The appointment went just as planned and the woman I was working with even offered me coffee and a ride to my doctors appointment right down the hall. She really stood out as a person who was willing to help someone else out and helped me balance that work and life stuff that inevitably happens.
There was no good reason not for me to go to my consult; it was at the hospital where I needed a doctors appointment. But I wouldn't have been able to do both the work consult and the doctors appointment without good people. I know librarians are good people - wanting and willing to work with others when they need something - but this story is really telling of the people who use our services. This woman went out of her way to make me comfortable and help ME out, when - while it may have looked like I needed it - I could have been OK on my own. The people at the hospital were all so kind and helpful - making lighthearted jokes and offering to help. OK, so helping is their job, but the joking and caring tones are not in their job description.
---------------------------------------------
This all goes to saying that we learn things every day - I am learning what it's like to be less able. But the moral of my story is that it is wonderful to be a part of a city and University setting where people use their resources and their privilege for good. UM is such a large - yet small - community where what goes around comes around. Over the last two days, I've experienced that first hand, and couldn't be more grateful.
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