Classes
Keeping Track
Posted September 10, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
My first week of the semester went well. Usually the first week is a bit lighter than the rest of the semester, with the professors introducing themselves and giving a basic overview of the courses, and the students answering some forum questions to get to know each other and the course topic. Week two is where the more serious work starts. I certainly have a lot of work this semester, with several group projects, research papers, and presentations. I was overwhelmed when I first read my course syllabi. For my first two semesters, all my classes have followed a similar format, with Day 1 being the first day of class, and Day 7 being the due date for the assignments. I didn’t write down any deadlines, because I knew that I had to get everything done by the end of the week. It was pretty simple to manage. This semester, however, is different. All my classes have work due on Day 7, but two of my three classes have additional work due before the last…
Tidbits of the Week/end
Posted September 5, 2019 by Peggy Hogan-Rao
This has been quite the busy week! I started off my week with grocery shopping, and will finish the week with my LIS-483 “Library Collections and Materials for Young Adults” class. Grocery shopping may seem a very mundane chore, but I love finding new ethnic food shops around Boston. Boston is a city that welcomes people from all different cultures. In Allston, there are Asian food shops and even a market with a few different Asian restaurants called Food Connection. I am not your typical Asian, and most definitely not your typical American. My father is from India, and I was excited to find a huge Indian grocery store in Somerville, a suburb of Boston, so I did another round of grocery shopping Monday evening. Friday evening, I went to Kiki’s Market in Brighton. Kiki’s Market has specialty Irish foods, such as Irish brands of cookies and chocolates. After visiting Ireland only a few months ago, it was nice to see name brands I recognize, and my favorite Irish tea at a discounted price. Most…
Getting Ready
Posted September 3, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
Where did the rest of the summer go? I feel like I just finished my summer classes and now I’m starting my fall classes. I managed to pack a lot of reading and audiobook listening into the past few weeks (my favorite book was Daughter of Molokai by Alan Brennert and my favorite audiobook was Circe by Madeline Miller), which is great because I don’t think I’m going to be able to spare much time for recreational reading from now on. I’m taking three classes this semester and I’m a bit nervous that it will be too much. The good thing is that I don’t have to take three classes, and if I feel that the workload is overwhelming then I can drop a class. I’ll see how this week goes. But I’m very good at setting up a schedule for myself and I feel confident that I can juggle the three classes. Plus, each class seems very interesting and I really don’t want to miss any of them. The class I’m most excited about…
Getting Ready For Fall 2019
Posted August 27, 2019 by Peggy Hogan-Rao
Wow! It is hard to believe there is only one more week until classes start! It’ll be nice to get back into study mode after having a month break. The last few things I need to do before classes start are buy my textbooks for class, buy some notebooks, and get ahead on readings due the first couple weeks. In the School Library Teacher Program (SLTP), students are able to take two electives. I have always loved writing for fun, and one of the reasons I chose Simmons was due to their exceptional Children’s Literature department. (not to mention their very reputable School Library Teacher Program within the Library and Information Science department). My one fun elective for this fall semester is Writing for Children I. Some of my other SLTP friends are taking electives such as Storytelling and Medieval Manuscripts. My one required class for the fall is Library Collections and Materials for Young Adults, where I will learn about how to create and manage a library collection for teens. I am excited…
End of Summer Term, Plus Beach Reads!
Posted July 30, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
It’s the last week of summer term! Yay! I am almost done with all my work. I submitted my final project for my Info Sources class, but I am still finishing my final paper for my Management class. It’s a grant proposal and I’m struggling with it. Grant writing is very different from academic writing. It needs to be very concise and to the point. I love to write and play around with words and sentence structure and having to pare down my language has been tough. I’m focusing on brevity but I’m also worried that I’m not explaining myself enough. I’m sure there’s a sweet spot between too little explanation and too much explanation, but I haven’t found it yet and I’m frustrated. It feels very sparse and cold somehow. Thankfully I have a solid base written out and I just need to make sure that I’m being addressing all the necessary points. But grant writing is something that I am probably going to be encountering in my library career, so it’s good to…
Summer is Flying By!
Posted July 25, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
Things have been crazy! Summer is just flying by! There are only seven weeks in my summer class (LIS 404: Principles of Management), and we are in Week 6, and there is so much left to do. During these last two weeks, we’re learning about Change Management, Grant Writing, Fiscal Responsibility, Budgeting, and Evaluation and Coordination of Library Functions! So many topics, so little time! There are still several assignments left to complete, readings to be done, and forums to participate in and it is crunch time. I’ve really enjoyed this class, especially because this class has more of a classroom feel to it. Even though this is an online course, this class utilizes “wikis” on Moodle where we have discussions that are more personal (like the one about the Jung Typology/Myers Briggs personality test that I mentioned in my last post), so we get to know our classmates. This past week (Week 5), one of our topics was Motivation and Drive, and we had a discussion on what our motivations were for pursuing our…
Adventures in Reference
Posted July 16, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
It’s week 5 and I still haven’t gotten the hang of how fast summer courses go by. Including this week, there are only three weeks left in the semester. *takes a few deep, calming breaths.* How did that happen? Basically, because all I’ve been focusing on is my schoolwork and how to get everything done on time without cramming. I’ve been keeping a very regular study schedule so that I don’t get behind. When I get home from work, I eat, then do school work, and on the weekends, I spend a lot of time finishing up projects. There really is no time to procrastinate or take a break, and the time has gone by in a blur. But, I am loving both of my classes and have learned a ton already. I’m particularly enjoying LIS 407, Information Sources and Services. It’s all about reference services–basically, teaching us how to search more efficiently and effectively. We’ve learned many searching strategies, including how to combine those techniques to broaden or narrow our results, and how to…
The Dog Days of Summer
Posted July 11, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
It’s Week 4 of LIS 404! Oh, my goodness, this class has been keeping me on my toes! As I’ve said before, this class is a lot shorter than a regular semester class, but we’re doing the same amount of work, which is a little bit intense! There’s a lot of material to cover in a short amount of time, so each week there’s an abundance of readings to be completed, notes to go over, and lectures to watch. I know that theoretically it is same amount of work as a regular semester class just in an accelerated timeframe, but between this class and my summer class last year, I feel that there is a lot more reading in summer classes than there is during the semester. However, this could just be because of the timing- maybe I just don’t notice the amount of reading as much because it is more spaced out during the regular semester classes? These past two weeks have been more ‘participation’ weeks rather than ‘assignment’ weeks, with us participating more…
The Summer Semester Has Begun!
Posted June 27, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
The summer semester has begun! This summer I am taking one class, LIS 404: Principles of Management. Summer classes at SLIS are shorter in length than normal semester classes, but have the same amount of work. My class this summer is only seven weeks long. You may have noticed in Amie’s post that she is also taking LIS 404, and we are both in the same online class section, so that’s exciting! The really good thing about this class is that all of the course content is available, so we truly can move at our own pace. There are due dates of course, but if I want to see what assignments are coming up, or work ahead, I have the option to do so. For my summer course last year, there was a lot of “locked” course content, everyone had to move at the same pace. I understand the logic behind that, but with the shortened time frame and so many things being due each week, I really appreciate being able to know what is…
Back at It
Posted June 25, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
Summer break #1 is over. It was nice to have a few weeks off, even though I was lazy and didn’t do a lot of the things I meant to do. But I got to relax, which is great because I don’t think I’m going to relax again until the end of summer term. I’m taking two classes, LIS 407: Information Sources and Services, and LIS 404: Principles of Management. Each week of a summer course is equivalent to two weeks of a fall or spring course, so there is a lot of work. I was expecting this, but I was still shocked when I saw the syllabus for each class. There is a ton of reading. A TON. It’s pretty intimidating. I am going to have to be super organized to fit in all the reading and the assignments each week. I know I can do it, but I’m probably going to be miserable the whole time. Having said this, I managed to make it…