Atypical

Today was a bit of an atypical day at my internship. First thing this morning, I got all my supplies together for my program. I killed a little bit of time looking for articles and then I headed out. Today at Little Tykes we discussed cooking. I think today went much more smoothly than last week. The kids were late coming back from a bathroom break so we didn't start on time. This was a bit frustrating, but also a bit of a relief. After last week, I felt a little less excited about coming back so I was okay not starting on time. At the same time, though, it's frustrating to have everything prepared, physically and mentally, and not have that reciprocated. Especially when I ran out of time (again) to finish everything I have planned. Perhaps I am over-preparing and trying to cram too much into the program. But I would rather be over-prepared than not. Anyway, we started out with Open Shut Them and sharing the bell again. Then we got right into the story. I read a book about pigs cooking and had the kids talking about recipes and ingredients and what those words mean. I also had the opportunity to teach them what a squid was. Then I did a small activity where I showed them unique kitchen and cooking supplies and had them guess what they were. The kids were great at this, especially one little boy - it seemed like he knew what everything was! However, this was a great activity for teaching them new vocabulary and practical information. I also had a chance to explain to them what knuckles were (we were talking about cheese graters). Lots of unexpected lessons in today's program. After this, I read another story and I had the kids trying to guess what happens next. After I finished that story, we were almost out of time so I gave the kids a choice - did they want to sing a song or read another story? I was surprised when they chose the story. The last one wasn't really a story - it was more a kid's book about vegetables. They were really great at this, too - they knew most of the vegetables, though they were surprised to see that potatoes come in many different colors. Finally, we said goodbye, I packed up, and headed back to the library.





I had a little time to kill so I prepared a little for my afternoon program by watching some YouTube videos. I helped a few patrons with questions. After lunch, I worked a bit more on Youth Bio, then it was off to another program. This was a teen program at the library and I was mostly just watching. The program was a class on making book trailers. I was a bit apprehensive because I didn't know too much about it. However, once we got started, I realized that I had used this software in a computer class in high school. It sort of all came back to me as Bill, the librarian running the program, explained everything to the teens. Plus, they were very self-sufficient.





In terms of evaluating this program, I think it went okay. Bill has a tendency to ramble a bit, so he may have talked a bit more than necessary for getting the kids ready to branch out on their own. Additionally, since this was only a one-time, hour-long program, the kids didn't really have time to actually create a book trailer. It can be time-consuming - to find royalty-free images and music to use, to think of what to say, even to come up with a book you want to promote. So, I think some of the kids were a bit dissatisfied with not actually creating a project, just experimenting with the software. Other kids seemed totally fine with this and I think might actually be motivated enough to go out on their own and work with this program (we used Windows Movie Maker). So it was kind of a draw.



We actually ran this program twice, back to back, because we were working in a very small computer lab and the space was limited. We had more kids interested than space available for one program, so we did it twice. The second time around went a little better in terms of Bill's tangents, but the majority of these kids seemed less interested in practicing with the software. Overall, I think it was a bit of a draw. I also had some time to talk to Bill and get information for future reference, in terms of finding public domain music to use in book trailers or programs I might make in the future.

After we finished up, I worked a bit more on Youth Bio. We're almost done already! I don't know what I'll do with my spare time around the library once we're finished; maybe the shelf labels that Suzanne has mentioned. I'm sure she'll find something for me to do! I made some reminder phone calls for Jaymi's baby programs tomorrow and then my day was done. Overall, it was a decent day, better in terms of programming, I think. Every day is a learning experience!