I knew it would be a challenge but I didn't realize how much I would have preferred herding cats to teaching library instruction for basketball students until it was done. Seventeen basketball players in the classroom and I was the only adult. Technically they are also adults but believe me, they do not behave like adults.
I made it fun. We used basketball as our search topic. It's something they all have an interest in so I knew I could keep them engaged in what we were doing. We searched Google for our favorite basketball players, we searched EBSCO & Infotrac for full articles on basketball, we looked for books on basketball and even looked at NBC Learn for videos about basketball. And I showed them how to find citations to make their lives easier.
Did they learn anything? Who knows. Did they take me seriously? Not likely. Did they have fun? I think so. They did get all excited when we found a video on NBC Learn about a one armed basketball player.
It was an adventure for sure and it made me very happy to go home to my house full of girls.
Showing posts with label library instruction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label library instruction. Show all posts
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
USA Programming
Soon summer will be over (not soon enough for this summer hatin girl) and it will be time for a full set of classes to get started again so I need to get back to my Library Instruction ideas.
One of the few awesome things about summer is the programming on the USA Network. I got addicted when Monk started. I started to watch it because I like Tony Shalhoub, but I stayed because it was awesome tv. Then Psych came along, still my absolute favorite show. One of the only shows I will watch over and over and over. Just can't get enough of Shawn & Gus.
Now USA has gone over the top with their offerings and I'm watching almost all of them. Well last night it got me to thinking about Library Instruction. It used to be that all over their programming was related to crime. Most of it still is but now they've expanded. So we have Burn Notice, Covert Affairs & In Plain Sight that look at the CIA & US Marshalls, Suits is all about lawyers, Necessary Roughness is a psychotherapist dealing mostly with a football player but other personalities too, Royal Pains is about a doctor, and I don't watch White Collar or Fairly Legal. I'm sure they're good, I just couldn't get into those shows for some reason.
This is, I think, a good tie in for the library instruction that I do for a Sociology class that looks at social problems. Different types of law enforcement, different types of help for different types of problems.
If the Criminal Justice classes ever set foot in the door I could have all kinds of fun with them. TV is full of law enforcement shows but the CJ instructors just don't see the use for library instruction for their students. It's sad. Maybe one day!
One of the few awesome things about summer is the programming on the USA Network. I got addicted when Monk started. I started to watch it because I like Tony Shalhoub, but I stayed because it was awesome tv. Then Psych came along, still my absolute favorite show. One of the only shows I will watch over and over and over. Just can't get enough of Shawn & Gus.
Now USA has gone over the top with their offerings and I'm watching almost all of them. Well last night it got me to thinking about Library Instruction. It used to be that all over their programming was related to crime. Most of it still is but now they've expanded. So we have Burn Notice, Covert Affairs & In Plain Sight that look at the CIA & US Marshalls, Suits is all about lawyers, Necessary Roughness is a psychotherapist dealing mostly with a football player but other personalities too, Royal Pains is about a doctor, and I don't watch White Collar or Fairly Legal. I'm sure they're good, I just couldn't get into those shows for some reason.
This is, I think, a good tie in for the library instruction that I do for a Sociology class that looks at social problems. Different types of law enforcement, different types of help for different types of problems.
If the Criminal Justice classes ever set foot in the door I could have all kinds of fun with them. TV is full of law enforcement shows but the CJ instructors just don't see the use for library instruction for their students. It's sad. Maybe one day!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Radiation & Superheroes
I can say for sure that I know way more about radiation & superheroes today than I did 2 days ago. I spent most of my afternoon yesterday reading about types of radiation for this assignment that I'm trying to work on. Trying to find out what types of radiation each superhero was exposed to was difficult. Most of their histories just say "radiation." And some of the types of radiation they were exposed to won't work with this project that these students are working on. BTW, their assignment is to look for radiation in items we use in everyday life and look at the impact it's had on our lives.
My goal was to have 3 superheroes with different types of radiation exposure so we could have 3 types of radiation being studied by students in this library instruction. Then they could partner off and look at different resources available that will help them find not only items with radiation in them but resources to help them move forward.
First I looked at the Fantastic Four. They were exposed to cosmic rays when they took their spaceship into outer space. While fun & interesting, cosmic rays are not found in everyday items on earth. If they were, as my husband put it, we would all be dead. They're quite deadly these cosmic rays so I couldn't use that.
Then I looked at The Hulk. Success! Dr. Bruce Banner was exposed to gamma radiation from a bomb he invented which gives him his alter-ego, The Hulk. Gamma radiation is used to irradiate food, as a way to do surgery, and in cancer treatments. Perfect!!
Next I looked at Daredevil. He was blinded as a child by radioactive waste while saving an old man from a truck barreling down the road. Doesn't say what kind of radioactive waste. Interesting, also incredibly unrealistic, but also not helpful.
On to Spider-man! For this project, we're using the comic book version of Spider-man because he was bitten by a radioactive spider. But there is no reference made about how this spider became radioactive or what type of radioactivity he had. But considering the effect it had on Peter Parker, one can only assume that it was ionizing radiation since non-ionizing radiation is around us everyday and doesn't cause us all to be spider-people. So after discussing with my physicist husband, we decided that I could use Spider-man and his ionizing radioactive spider and make that alpha & beta particles.
That gave me two superheroes but I still needed a third. And that was HARD. There are a lot of them out there that I have never heard of before and if I haven't then most likely lots of other people haven't either.
After lots of review with physicist husband, we settled on Dr. Manhattan. The blue guy from the movie & comic books Watchmen. According to the web sites I found on him, was disintegrated in an Intrinsic Field Subtractor. A fictional science contraption. So I kept reading and apparently his blue "glow" comes from Cherekov radiation, or electromagnetic radiation (according to husband). COOL, electromagnetic radiation is all over the place!
So my first hurdle is done. I found 3 superheroes and 3 types of useful radiation. Reading the stories of these superheroes is fun, they're all kind of ridiculous.
My goal was to have 3 superheroes with different types of radiation exposure so we could have 3 types of radiation being studied by students in this library instruction. Then they could partner off and look at different resources available that will help them find not only items with radiation in them but resources to help them move forward.
First I looked at the Fantastic Four. They were exposed to cosmic rays when they took their spaceship into outer space. While fun & interesting, cosmic rays are not found in everyday items on earth. If they were, as my husband put it, we would all be dead. They're quite deadly these cosmic rays so I couldn't use that.
Then I looked at The Hulk. Success! Dr. Bruce Banner was exposed to gamma radiation from a bomb he invented which gives him his alter-ego, The Hulk. Gamma radiation is used to irradiate food, as a way to do surgery, and in cancer treatments. Perfect!!
Next I looked at Daredevil. He was blinded as a child by radioactive waste while saving an old man from a truck barreling down the road. Doesn't say what kind of radioactive waste. Interesting, also incredibly unrealistic, but also not helpful.
On to Spider-man! For this project, we're using the comic book version of Spider-man because he was bitten by a radioactive spider. But there is no reference made about how this spider became radioactive or what type of radioactivity he had. But considering the effect it had on Peter Parker, one can only assume that it was ionizing radiation since non-ionizing radiation is around us everyday and doesn't cause us all to be spider-people. So after discussing with my physicist husband, we decided that I could use Spider-man and his ionizing radioactive spider and make that alpha & beta particles.
That gave me two superheroes but I still needed a third. And that was HARD. There are a lot of them out there that I have never heard of before and if I haven't then most likely lots of other people haven't either.
After lots of review with physicist husband, we settled on Dr. Manhattan. The blue guy from the movie & comic books Watchmen. According to the web sites I found on him, was disintegrated in an Intrinsic Field Subtractor. A fictional science contraption. So I kept reading and apparently his blue "glow" comes from Cherekov radiation, or electromagnetic radiation (according to husband). COOL, electromagnetic radiation is all over the place!
So my first hurdle is done. I found 3 superheroes and 3 types of useful radiation. Reading the stories of these superheroes is fun, they're all kind of ridiculous.
Monday, June 20, 2011
More Superheroes
After spending time thinking about superheroes and their jobs, one of our Radiation Protection Technology instructors came to me asking for Library Instruction for an assignment about radiation in everyday life. COOL!!! So many superheroes out there became superheroes thanks to RADIATION! YAY! So now I thinking my use of superheroes for this field. I have a growing list of superheroes that I can use:
The Hulk
Daredevil
Fantastic Four
Spider-man (from the comic books, not the movie - that was a "genetically modified spider")
Insectasaurus and Ginormica from Monsters vs Aliens
Then we also have Godzilla, who was that large because of radiation and Homer Simpson who works at a nuclear power plant.
In the process of researching, I found this hilarious cartoon that is about the origin of Spiderman. I really want to show at least part of this in this library instruction session because it is just too hilarious.
Any other popular superheroes I might have missed? This one isn't until August but I'm already working on it!
The Hulk
Daredevil
Fantastic Four
Spider-man (from the comic books, not the movie - that was a "genetically modified spider")
Insectasaurus and Ginormica from Monsters vs Aliens
Then we also have Godzilla, who was that large because of radiation and Homer Simpson who works at a nuclear power plant.
In the process of researching, I found this hilarious cartoon that is about the origin of Spiderman. I really want to show at least part of this in this library instruction session because it is just too hilarious.
Any other popular superheroes I might have missed? This one isn't until August but I'm already working on it!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Superheroes in Library Instruction
Had a conversation with my husband about Superheroes and jobs after doing the Jersey Shore session. Surely everyone knows Superheroes. I've found that most superheroes don't have actual jobs. Most of them seem to scientists or have no job whatsoever. Here's what I've found so far:
Spiderman - photographer
Superman - reporter
The Hulk - physicist
Batman - industrialist/businessman
Daredevil - lawyer
Iron Man - billionaire industrialist
Green Arrow - businessman
Flash - police scientist
Wonder Woman - army nurse
Green Lantern - graphic artist (although this seems to depend on the which version of the GL)
Captain American - soldier
Wolverine - soldier prior to becoming Wolverine
Spawn - soldier/assassin
These superheroes need better jobs. Well more interesting & defined jobs I guess. I'm thinking this could be fun with a Social Problems class. How would they attack the problem? I need to think more about this one. How would you do it?
Spiderman - photographer
Superman - reporter
The Hulk - physicist
Batman - industrialist/businessman
Daredevil - lawyer
Iron Man - billionaire industrialist
Green Arrow - businessman
Flash - police scientist
Wonder Woman - army nurse
Green Lantern - graphic artist (although this seems to depend on the which version of the GL)
Captain American - soldier
Wolverine - soldier prior to becoming Wolverine
Spawn - soldier/assassin
These superheroes need better jobs. Well more interesting & defined jobs I guess. I'm thinking this could be fun with a Social Problems class. How would they attack the problem? I need to think more about this one. How would you do it?
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Trying Out Jersey Shore
I just recently read an article in C&RL News by Amy Springer & Kathryn Yelinek from February 2011. Yeah, I'm behind on my reading. Anyway, I was instantly enamored with the idea of using a TV show to teach Library Instruction. GENIUS! I am a TV addict. There isn't any part of the year that there isn't something on for me to watch. Duh, why had I not thought of this before. So, I mentioned it to the librarian who does most of our library instruction and she was laughed. Hmm, okay, I thought, then I'll find a way to make it happen on my own.
Not 24 hours later I get an email from one of our Business professors wanting library instruction. Well, she really wanted a Blackboard orientation (because our Learning Resource Center covers both) but was intrigued when I mentioned library instruction. I asked her if she would mind if I got creative and she thought it was great. The students needed to do an Ad campaign throughout the class, a major project that involved actual research. I got super excited. I dived into our databases to find business resources of use and found ways to make it connect with Jersey Shore.
I started the class and not ONE student had seen Jersey Shore. Fabulous. They knew the characters of the show but none of them had seen it. So we went with it anyway. We went through all the resources that related to their project and I gave them each (all 6 of them) a worksheet to complete. One of the students thanked me for the class. I've never been thanked for library instruction in my 10 years of being a librarian. Wow! She said she needed that last semester for an assignment in one of her other classes. And the instructor was over the moon, she loved it! She raved to all 4 deans & most of the department chairs at a meeting about it and is already wanting to schedule her all of fall classes for library instruction with me! YAY!
I was so bummed though that none of them had heard of Jersey Shore. So I chatted with one of our work study students and she asked me why I just didn't try using a different show. Did it have to be Jersey Shore? Well no, I guess not! So now I'm working on a list of TV characters & cartoon characters that have identifiable jobs that aren't law enforcement related that I can use in different library instruction sessions.
So thanks Amy & Kathryn! This is fun!
Not 24 hours later I get an email from one of our Business professors wanting library instruction. Well, she really wanted a Blackboard orientation (because our Learning Resource Center covers both) but was intrigued when I mentioned library instruction. I asked her if she would mind if I got creative and she thought it was great. The students needed to do an Ad campaign throughout the class, a major project that involved actual research. I got super excited. I dived into our databases to find business resources of use and found ways to make it connect with Jersey Shore.
I started the class and not ONE student had seen Jersey Shore. Fabulous. They knew the characters of the show but none of them had seen it. So we went with it anyway. We went through all the resources that related to their project and I gave them each (all 6 of them) a worksheet to complete. One of the students thanked me for the class. I've never been thanked for library instruction in my 10 years of being a librarian. Wow! She said she needed that last semester for an assignment in one of her other classes. And the instructor was over the moon, she loved it! She raved to all 4 deans & most of the department chairs at a meeting about it and is already wanting to schedule her all of fall classes for library instruction with me! YAY!
I was so bummed though that none of them had heard of Jersey Shore. So I chatted with one of our work study students and she asked me why I just didn't try using a different show. Did it have to be Jersey Shore? Well no, I guess not! So now I'm working on a list of TV characters & cartoon characters that have identifiable jobs that aren't law enforcement related that I can use in different library instruction sessions.
So thanks Amy & Kathryn! This is fun!
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