It’s been a really long time since I’ve written about school. Actually, it’s been a really long time since I’ve written period. About two months to be exact.
It’s been a really hard few months for me, and I’m just now starting to feel like I’m getting back to normal… kind of.
My anxiety is at an all time high and that’s largely due to some personal and professional circumstances that I’d rather not go into. The main reason for mentioning it is because it’s also affecting my drive to be in school. I just… kind of… don’t care about school anymore. I even considered dropping out. (Spoiler alert: I’m not going to because I still love it; it’s just been hard!)
So, let’s talk about my second term first.
In my second term of library school, I took two classes: Principles of Management for Information Professionals and Literacy Through School Libraries.
When the term started, I was most nervous about the Management class. I thought I was going to hate it because it sounded like an add on to a lot of material I learned over the course of my time in the Navy. As it turns out, I actually really loved this class!
First of all, my instructor was awesome. His feedback on my assignments actually gave a lot of insight about what I could do to improve on the following assignment which I totally appreciated. He was also really understanding and let me miss a night of class without penalizing me when my 5 year old came home from a two week vacation at my dad’s house.
The class offered a lot of creative outlet through assignments which really helped me retain the information and the textbook is actually one I looked forward to reading each week!
I hit one small snag in submitting an assignment, but my teacher reached out to me and didn’t take points off for lateness because it was a technical issue. I ended up walking away from the class with an A+, which helped boost my GPA!
Literacy Though School Libraries was my elective. I selected it because Youth Services was full! I wasn’t excited about this class, but I looked forward to it more than Management because I want to work in a Youth department when I graduate. Here’s the truth: I really disliked this class.
With a focus on School Libraries, this course is obviously geared more toward School Media Specialists. I made it work and enjoyed working on my assignments – which all pooled together to create a really nice portfolio at the end. The assignments included writing lesson plans, individualized lessons, and a program. Obviously my favorite part was working on the program!
The reason I disliked this class so much is it always ran late. I understand the occasional late night, but when it became an every week thing, it really started to wear me down. It was especially difficult because my children were still awake during the class period and I wanted it to end so I could spend some time with them before bedtime.
I ended up with an A+ in this class too! Which was a surprise because I really didn’t feel like I gave it my all (I missed class more than once and waited til the last minute to work on projects).
When the term ended, I was happy with my outcomes and not feeling discouraged. I was so ready for my third term.
Which brings us to my middle of term three update.
This term, I’m taking the Youth Services class (YAY) and a core requirement – Information Resources: Organization and Access.
So far, my Youth Class is rocking! I’ve written two papers – a Genre Study on Dystopian Fiction (that I got 100 on) and I just submitted a Book Talk assignment.
My dystopian paper focused on the history and included an annotated bibliography of titles I consider exemplary. All of my titles were YA. I’m thinking about turning this assignment into a series on this blog because I honestly had so much fun working on it!
The second assignment was a Book Talk assignment – I chose to go with little kids for this and write my paper and learning segments on Women Making History. So my talks were on five books that feature women in history. It was really fun and I am looking forward to giving my book talk to my class.
This class rocks because there are only seven students. I love small classes because it allows for more natural discussion in our live session each week. We’ve also been assigned Book Talk Buddy’s and mine is also a Lady Veteran!
Organization and Access is an actual nightmare for me!
I like the class, don’t get me wrong. It’s just so. damn. hard. I don’t get it!!
Metadata, MARC, RDA, OCLC!! It’s all gibberish to me. The good news is, my instructor is a really fair grader and she gives you credit for trying. She also doesn’t take away full points (my biggest fear in a class that’s only worth 100 points) for mistakes. It’s more like tenths of a point.
I feel like I’m learning a lot, but it’s still really hard for me at this point in the course. I’m hoping that the switch flips soon and I get the hang of everything.
So what’s next?
When this term ends, I’m planning on taking my last two core requirements in term four and then term five will be two electives. My final term, I plan to dedicate to my last elective and my internship.
The biggest appeal to Syracuse’s LIS program is that I have to obtain an internship to graduate. It gives me hope that I’ll be able to find a job more efficiently if I have the internship under my belt.
Oh! One last tidbit about what’s coming up for me!
It’s now time to consider when to go to Immersion Weekend (another graduation requirement). Immersion is not offered in Winter, I can’t go in Summer (because of work), and Fall will be too late for me… which means I have to go to Spring Immersion. This year, Spring Immersion isn’t on Campus. It’s in New York City which means I get to make a trip to New York for school. This is thrilling to me because I’ve never been to NYC before!
In the meantime, I’ll be over here chugging through my coursework and reading.
Here’s to finishing Term Three strong!
(and hopefully posting more on here).
Bee the Booknerd 