Internship Update

So I am finished with 35 of my 130 hours. This is going to be a long process! Unfortunately I am not having quite the experience I was hoping for, so I am looking to do my last 65 hours at a middle school. At the elementary school I am at right now, library time is part of the students’ rotation time. ‘Rotations’ is where students go to PE, music, art, or the library for 45 minutes while the teachers have their conference/planning period. So the librarian I am working with teaches all day long with an hour and 15 minute break for eating lunch and doing all the library stuff that needs doing. She does have a librarian aid/paraprofessional, but the aid is also in charge of the ‘In-School Suspension’ students, i.e. the bad students. Therefore, she doesn’t always get the day-to-day tasks done. I’m sure they see me as their saving grace.

With all 800+ students visiting the library weekly, the circulation is really high, so the most time-consuming task is reshelving the books after they are turned in. I have probably spent over half of my time so far doing this very mundane and boring task, as well as check the organization of the books for inventory at the end of the year. (Needless to say, that’s why I’m not quite having the experience I was hoping for.) I’m glad to be able to help, and I have gained a lot of experience doing other things as well. I have labeled new books that have come in, entered new books into the catalog system, helped with weeding (they have quite a few books from the 80s that NEED to go or be replaced with newer editions), and checked books in and out. I am frequently assisting students with research using search engines or databases as well as guiding them through the nonfiction section to find the subject they are looking for. I am becoming quite good at memorizing where the different subjects are—jokes? 818, sports? 796, space? 523, cookbooks? 641 (surprisingly the most popular section), biographies? 920s, aliens and UFOs? 001 etc.

In all my SHSU classes, the professors have highly stressed flexible scheduling, where teachers can schedule library time but there is no fixed schedule such as rotations. The librarian I am working with is literally a teacher all day long, turning in weekly lesson plans as well. (Funny side noteà they just voted for teacher-of-the-year, and the librarian was not on the ballot because she is not considered a teacher, although the PE, art, and music teachers were.) It’s only at the elementary level that they have library time as a part of the rotations schedule, so I am hoping to be able to do the last part of my internship at a middle school and get more of the experience I was hoping for…

On the plus side, Caleb has been doing so great for my mom. He did very well with the transition. He is such a champ when it comes to eating cereal and baby food now, although he still doesn’t take the bottle all that well for anyone. After this experience, I have such a new respect for working moms. It’s a lot of stress, and I’m only ‘working’ 10 hours a week! With all the preparations beforehand, and then coming home to all the house duties and other errands, I can’t imagine doing it day in and day out full time. I also think it affects Caleb since he’s out of his home environment, and sometimes I have to alter his schedule as far as waking him up earlier etc. We’ve both adjusted well, however, and it’s been good for both of us. Matt, as always, is super supportive of the whole ordeal.