Module 15: A Wild Few Months

This class flew by. I learned a lot both in this class and in my new job. It's been almost three years since I graduated college and I finally feel like I know who I am and what I'm supposed to be doing. I feel secure in my job at SJP and I absolutely love it. This is the first job that I absolutely and completely love. It just fits and I am so happy.

I think one of the most important things that I learned from this class was assistive technologies. It can be easy to forget about the types of technologies that will help students who may have learning disabilities or special needs. However, as librarians we cannot forget about these technologies and these students. Like my boss always said, our main job is to serve our patrons and our patrons are our students. I feel like I have a better understanding of adaptive and assistive technologies and how I can implement them into my own lessons. 

I also enjoyed learning about new web tools and technologies. It is easy for us to fall into the trap of using the same tools over and over again. Once we find some program on the web that work for us, we tend to use it more than anything else and I know that I have a habit of this. However, as a school librarian I need to be staying on top of the new programs and apps that are being released. It is important that we stay up to date with all of these technologies so that we can be a resource to our students. I love working with new technology and getting the opportunity to teach it to students. For example, I just taught a class about how to make a brochure in Microsoft Word. This isn't necessarily a new tool but it was new to them because the majority of the students in the class are more comfortable using Google or Pages. After practicing how to make a brochure and actually making an example for them, I have become a resource for them to use when they need help. It is our job to help our students as much as we can, and we can do that by continuing to grow and learn new things.

When I had my interview in the beginning of September here at SJP, they asked about the class I was in. It was still early in the class, but I was able to talk about the different forms of technology and what it meant to be a technology leader. My boss told me after I was hired that she could tell I was passionate about libraries from the way I talked about my classes. So thank you Barb and LBS 850 for giving me the tools to show what I know and giving me the confidence to use these new technologies and systems. I definitely have learned a lot these past few months and I am grateful!