Practicum Site Week 5

Sarah F
Practicum Analysis
Week 5
October 19-October 23, 2009

Day 9

The Accelerated History teachers have asked the School Library to select books that compliment their text book and showcase them in a presentation to get the students interested in other books corresponding with the history of the French Revolution. My main task was to find key words in Chapters 8-11, select books with those key words that the library owns, and create a resource list of those books so that the students could check them out after the Head Librarian’s presentation. The second priority for today was to speak with the Childhood Careers instructor and pick up the leaf craft project that the students were working on. I also gave her a pumpkin craft project for the students to cut out for next week’s craft time at the Public Library. One student participated in Story Time, for extra credit on Thursday evening October 22nd. It was a great learning experience for that student. Each week the students are offered extra credit points for participating in the Books and Babies or Story Time program at the Public Library.


Day 10

I started Day 10 observing the circulation and reference desks on Day 1 of the Expos Term Paper assignment. All students in the Expository Writing courses must complete a 10-15 page research paper including 100 note cards and 25 sources. The students were beginning to place holds on library materials for the assignment and the circ desk was very busy. I helped rubber band books together, place books on a cart for the different classes, and help students find books on their topics. The second task that I accomplished was to examine the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Book Reader. The Sony Book Reader is new and will be loaded with titles that the school library can download from their subscriptions. This device will be checked out to faculty members and their families for one week on a trial basis. The plan is to purchase 10-12 of these machines to check out to students for home use by writing a grant to purchase the readers. The Head Librarian is still working out the specifics of this project but is excited to have this new technology available in her library. The Spanish teacher at the high school met with me to discuss her students’ participation in the Head Start program at the Public Library and the Family Reading Night Celebration at the Middle School. Plans are underway for both of these community wide events. I am also in the final planning stages of the Veterans’ Day project at the High School. The banners are being made this week and soldiers are being identified to be included in the project.