Overprepared? Maybe.

As is the case for many of us, it's instruction season at the college library. For us at Champlain, that means crunch time for the Teaching Librarians. As I have mentioned in the past, Champlain's instruction program is an embedded, incremental program. What does that mean? It means that we are embedded in the Core curriculum. It means that we are seeing students in a coordinated progression every semester for the three years. This allows us to create an equally coordinated, progressive, incremental curriculum. We don't have to worry about covering everything in one shot. Rather, we can spread out what we want students to know and what the skills we want them to learn over their college career.

We're pretty lucky.

But, there are some drawbacks in paradise. One of them is that teaching is extremely coordinated. Every teaching librarian is teaching the same content, at the same time, using the same pedagogy. I am always concerned about balancing this need for consistency in the teaching with academic freedom. The last thing I want is to cramp any teacher's style. Which is why I really have to think carefully about what it means to be a teacher. Hence my post last week at ACRLog. As I said there, there are many ways to prepare yourself to teach. But can we be overprepared? Can we beat a lesson to death before we even walk into the classroom?

Here's where I am coming from. I help all the Teaching Librarians prepare for our sessions. Now, we design, create, and tweak these lessons as a team. So we all have a say every step of the way in what we want to do and how we want to do it. But, we are all very different teachers and very different people who prepare to walk into the classroom in very different ways. Some of us are more nervous than others. Some of us are more comfortable with the possibility of failure or with student apathy than others. And sometimes, I struggle with the needs, concerns, and fears of my fellow librarians, as incredible as they are, and balancing my own way of teaching. I like to keep a level of spontaneity and experimentation in my teaching. More, perhaps, than they do. But in working hard as the head of this group and as the Assistant Director and the one responsible for information literacy at the College....well, I have had to give up what works for me a bit. I have had to overprepare. I have had to anticipate many possible outcomes, problems, difficulties, and responses to our lessons. I have started to question whether the level of creativity and innovation we bring to our design is truly sustainable.

To be honest, that doesn't feel good. It's really hard for me to deal with. To surrender to.

Yet, at the same time, I find an incredible amount of reward in seeing my colleagues level of comfort increase. Today, one of my colleagues said that they feel ready, prepared. And another chimed in as we rehearsed our session that it was "pretty amazing". I beamed.

One thing I am learning is how true it is that we prepare for teaching in different ways. And what is overprepared to one person is just right for another. And not enough still for someone else. The Goldilock's syndrome. The real challenge I face, personally, is not how to maintain my enthusiasm in the classroom. That's what students just do to me. But how to support my team, as a group and as individuals. How to listen to their needs and offer them the right opportunities as well as when to push the responsibility onto them for their own classroom experience.

It's really hard. And I hope that I am doing a good job of it. I wonder how others handle these situations. How you balance these seemingly competing needs. How you grow and sustain. I wonder.

Thanks, ACRLog

As if I needed yet another feather in my cap to start off the new school year but I was asked to post about instruction on the ACRLog. I was thrilled to be invited. So, hop over there (if you don't the ACRLog already, you should!) and check out the post.

And thanks to Maura Smale and Steven Bell for the opportunity!

Bye Bye Feevy (RE-Viewing what once worked)

I've been meaning to do this, to write about doing it, to stop dawdling and do it....

I'm saying goodbye to my Feevy.

Feevy has been a terrific tool for me. I loved adding it to my blog and enjoyed the dynamic roll/role is has played here. However, the way I use my blog and the way I follow blogs has changed. I can't remember the last time I clicked on something from my Feevy. My blog roll lives in my RSS. I follow peeps on the tweets. My way of handling information has changed. And I feel like my blog, my home base, should reflect that.

This gets at something I have been thinking a lot about as the school year begins, as our assessment cycle beings, as our teaching prep wraps up---reviewing. I'd even suggest we reconsider how we look at that word itself: RE-Viewing. Viewing again. To see anew. To see what we offer and if it aligns with where we are trying to go. That's a huge part of creating meaningful assessment but also a huge part of what makes instruction successful.

And also how technology is useful. Is it fulfilling a role or is just taking up space? Or time? How often do you RE-View your technology choices? On your blog? On your iPhone? How often do you RE-View your teaching? Your lessons? Your activities? Your assessment?

Funny how strands come together, isn't it.

Or rather, not funny at all. Fitting, really.

Going Manager, or, Big News-Part 2

It's been a month since I last posted and part of me wants to apologize. But I think something I have to learn and practice for the next few months (or maybe the rest of my life) is that I can't do it all. Some things have to slide over to make room for the bigger, more pressing things.

An aside: it's funny to me to use words like "bigger" and "pressing" now that I am having a baby. Ha!

This is all a lead up to part two of my big news: my promotion. In July, I was promoted to Assistant Director of our library. When it rains, it pours!

The last two months have been a bit of a whirlwind. But I didn't want to jump into the school year without really sharing, and thereby processing, what this change has been like and means for me.

What does it mean to Go Manager?

Well, one thing I've learned is that you work past five, you bring work home with you, and you work on the weekend. I say that in jest but it is also true. I have more work to do. I have less time to chat, less time to read articles or blogs, less time to do things I feel like doing versus things that need doing. My to-do list has changed. My way of looking at my to-do list has changed. My way of prioritizing is changing. My willingness to say "yes" is changing. And with these changes come some concerns, some of which I anticipated and some of which I am starting to look at and question.

One of my biggest hesitations to taking on this increased responsibility was that I loved my job. As Information Literacy Librarian, I was responsible for the IL program at the college. It was my responsibility to keep up on the literature in the field, to brainstorm, to generate ideas, to collaborate, to make things happen in the program. Sure, there were parts that were less than wonderful (scheduling), but by and large, I loved the commitment I was able to make to IL. And as a manager, I have to put that part of my job in a silo. I have to look at it sometimes and say, "Not right now". It doesn't mean I love IL any less or am any less committed to the program. But I am having to broaden my gaze. And that frightened me. Which is why it was so important for me to do it. Being afraid of it means it is going to be challenging and as a young librarian, I want challenges. Building a program from scratch was a challenge and one that I have looked in the face and smiled at. That hasn't gone away. But a new challenge adds a layer of complexity to my daily work and to my thinking over time.

A concern I am also thinking about is how to "Go-Manager" and still be accommodating. As I said, my willingness to say "yes" is changing. There are some requests, some preferences, some suggestions, that I just can't accommodate. And that hurts. I hate to disappoint people and I have to have to say no. But I am learning a bit more about how pieces of the puzzle fit together rather than looking at individual pieces. It's hard.

And I guess that's what I am finding and thinking about: making the shift to manager is hard. I feel incredibly supported in doing it and I feel like there are a plethora of resources available to me to do it well. But that doesn't change the fact that there are things to think about, to reconcile. And while I might post even less (is that possible?!), I intend to make this blog a space where I do that. Where I talk about this transition and reflect on the kind of manager I want to be. And what it means to Go Manager.

The Really Big News First

The Really Big News: The Sheck is having a baby. 17 weeks today and excited! Very excited!

I wish my husband blogged so he could post this. But when I saw it in my RSS this morning, and after crying while watching it, I realized how much Google has been amazing as we prepare for this crazy thing called parenthood. That, and the amazing friends we have who temper what I learn in Google with the real deal experience. If that's not the outline for a post on the information literacy of pregnancy and parenting, I don't know what is.

A Funny Thing Happened on my Way through the Internet...

We all say it.
We all feel it.

Dude....I'm busy.

I have a lot of things going on right now, both personally and professionally (more on these changes in a later post). And lately, I've been feeling like I have not been putting my extra-curricular, professional activities on the list of things to do. As a matter of fact, I took a few minutes today to check in on my RSS and thought to myself, "Where do they find the time"?

And then I saw this post by Bobbi Newman. It’s a great post. But I found myself nodding my head and shaking my head. And here’s why.

I nodded because I wholeheartedly agree that a lot of people use the "I don't have time" argument as an excuse, especially when it comes to technology. And like most people piping up in the comments, that drives me bonkers. A little initiative, please! I also really appreciate Bobbi's intro to her post on lifelong learning. Oh, it really boils my blood when librarians, who are supposed to be the champions and advocates of lifelong learning, talk out of both sides of their mouths. Lifelong learning is a process and one in which you need to be an active participant!! Yes, Bobbi, YES!

But, as I said, I also shook my head when I read the post. Because, frankly, I don't want to be on all the time. This is the struggle I find myself in with blogging. I work hard at work. I do a lot, I am learning a lot, I give a lot. And by the time I am done, I am ready to do something else than think about libraries, instruction, assessment, or technology. I want to put energy into the rest of my life: my garden, exercise, my dog, my community, my imagination, my cooking. My self. I want to put some energy into myself. Sometimes, I feel like in order to really be the kind of librarian that is recognized in our field, I have to be working on librarianship all the time. I love my work. So much, that a lot of the time, it doesn't feel like work. And I think that a lot of our most prolific bloggers would say that. Their blogging, their thinking, their extra-curricular professional activities are out of love, out of a desire to give back (great post on that from Andy lately), and out of a desire to share what they are learning. And I thank you. Truly. Deeply. It is from you that I learn so much. It is from you that I feel like I am in a field that is growing, not shrinking. I mean it, thank you.

But, I also want to feel like it's okay to have other priorities. I want to applaud the people that maintain a work-life balance that works for them. I repeat: a work-life balance that works for them. As individuals. And it really is different for each of us. As much as lifelong learning is a process, it is also without deadline. It is, quite literally, lifelong. I cannot do it all right now. I cannot do it all for tomorrow. I can only do so much when it comes to work or when it comes to the rest of my life in any one day. And that's ok. Granted, being an overacheiver, a lifelong learner, and just my self...I have to remind myself of that an awful lot. In case you needed a reminder too, this one's on me.

Join Our Team!

My library is looking for a new addition! So if you, or someone you know, is on the market, Champlain is seeking a pretty awesome person to become our Scholarly Resource and Academic Outreach Librarian.

Here is a link to the posting where you can submit your application.

And what is this job? Here is a snippet of the job ad:

Job Description:
Champlain College seeks an enthusiastic, collegial and service-oriented Librarian to serve as an integral member of a team providing high quality academic library services in an innovative setting. This position will coordinate all aspects of Champlain's collection development and management program, including both print and electronic resources, to ensure that the library's collections and procedures remain vibrant and responsive to our academic environment. Responsibilities for this position include: continuing a well-developed faculty outreach program; developing and managing the library's print and online collections; negotiating contracts; participating in curriculum review; managing the production and analysis of statistics related to the library's collections and their use; creating and maintaining appropriate policies; and contributing to the library website. This position will also participate in the library's course-embedded inquiry-based information literacy instruction program, and will share in reference and other outreach services.

I can't wait to welcome a new librarian in this position and onto our team and I'm sure Andy B feels the same. So spread the word!