First Impressions

Posted January 31, 2019 by Megan Ondricek

Over the past week my semester has truly gotten underway and I think it is going to be exactly what I need for my final semester at Simmons. The most exciting thing to happen this week was the first meeting for my internship! I sat down with the senior reference librarian & instruction coordinator at Fairfield University and we hashed out introductions, expectations, and scheduling. For the next few weeks we will be meeting to discuss readings, instruction techniques, and lesson plans. I’ll get to observe a few classes, and then, I WILL GET TO TEACH ALL BY MYSELF. Yep, you heard that right (because I was yelling excitedly). These kind people are going to let an inexperienced library school student teach undergraduate freshman English classes. In fact, I’m going to teach about ten classes over the course of the semester! Yay for real life experience! I AM SO EXCITED.

Readings and discussions have begun in my online metadata class and I’m getting pretty good vibes about it. Many of the students are in their final semester at Simmons like me but we’ve also got folks from all over and in different stages of their life/career/education. Most of us (including me) are taking this class because we’ve gotten a sense from other classes that metadata is “important.” I like how the instructor has organized the online class and I feel like our discussions are going to be lively and informative. She’s created lots of different forums to facilitate feedback and interaction.

This semester is like my final testing ground before I head out into the real world with my MSLIS. It’s my chance to see how much I actually like teaching. It’s my chance to glean just a little bit more technological know-how before I have to decide what skills I can truthfully list on my resume. It’s my chance to figure out what area of librarianship I want to aim for. And it’s my last chance to call myself a SLIS student. Let’s see if I can make the best of it before I completely run out of steam. ?