Workload
I’m Back!
Posted October 4, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
It’s been a little while since my last post! At the beginning of August (literally less than 12 hours after my summer class ended) I was in the hospital getting major surgery. Unfortunately, the recovery time for this surgery is rather lengthy, and I’ve been staggering my return dates, but now I’m back in the saddle for school, work, and now blog writing! Woo-hoo! Thus far at Simmons I’ve taken all of my core classes (LIS 407: Information Sources and Services, LIS 415: Information Organization, and LIS 488: Technology for Information Professionals), and two of my electives (LIS 451: Academic Libraries and LIS 404: Principles of Management). I mentioned back in April that I had registered for LIS 421: Social Informatics for the Fall 2019 semester. Since then, I ended up switching classes to LIS 401: Foundations of Library and Information Science. This class was recommended to me when I was talking with someone late last year about switching out of archives, and had the two year projected course schedule that SLIS puts out been…
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…
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…
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…
Crunch Time!
Posted April 23, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
It’s almost the end of the semester and I can’t believe it. Where did the time go? I am really looking forward to having a break, but I still have a lot of work to do before I can relax. I have two big projects due the last week of classes: a group project for my info organization class, and an individual project for my tech class. My goal is to complete the tech project early, partly because I want to use the last week to focus on finishing up my group project, and partly because I just plain want to get it done! Our assignment is to create a personal website for prospective employers. It’s a really great project because it requires us to use and showcase all the skills we’ve learned in class this semester. I have learned so much this semester, and I am definitely using everything I’ve learned, and more. Right now, I have the formatting all set up, and I just need to play around with the wording…
Group Work Thoughts
Posted April 18, 2019 by Megan Ondricek
My family and I have been spending the kids’ spring break down in southwestern Virginia at my parents’ house and absolutely loving it. Spring is farther along in Virginia than it is up in Connecticut and all the burgeoning green and flowering trees are simply gorgeous. This trip has been so good for my soul. Having grown up in small towns and fresh country air I honestly feel suffocated living along the crowded, overdeveloped I-95 corridor. If I couldn’t get out every now and then I think I’d burst. Anyway, we are one week closer to the end of the semester with just about two weeks left of class! Things aren’t exactly winding down yet, but I’m hoping that having the end in sight will give me the strength to get through this last final push. One thing is wrapping up though, and that’s my group project for the Metadata class. We’ll be turning it in this week and viewing the presentations of the other groups for class. I used to hate group projects in…
Participation
Posted April 16, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
I’ll start with good news. I was able to register for all the classes I wanted! Yay! I also signed up for two summer courses: LIS 407, Info Sources & Services (my final required course), and LIS 439, Preservation Management. I might switch out 439 for LIS 404, Principles of Management, but it was full and I had to sign up for the waitlist. I don’t know if I’ll end up getting in, but I won’t go wrong with either course. I’m not too worried about it. Now, onto this week’s topic. One of my main questions heading into this semester was how the participation part of my classes would work, since both of them are online. The answer is: discussion forums. Each class has forums for instructor announcements and general help questions, but how many other forums there are, and how often to post to them, can vary. For my technology class, we have one main board in which we discuss current technology trends and articles. I don’t usually keep up with technology…
It’s Not Easy Being Green
Posted April 11, 2019 by Megan Ondricek
My senioritis went out the window this week as my schedule really started heating up. I’m currently involved in two group projects: one for my online Metadata class and the other for a conference presentation! Way back in January, Eric Poulin, SLIS West program director and instructor for my User Instruction class, asked me if I’d be interested in presenting at one of the state library conferences with some other students. I said yes, of course, and nothing much happened until last week. Our proposal had been accepted for the Massachusetts Library Association conference to be held on May 21, but then Eric found out (unbeknownst to him) that we were also on the schedule for the Connecticut Library Association conference on April 29! Eek! So now I feel like I’m drowning in virtual group meetings and deadlines and everything is coming up so quickly. Fortunately, I just taught the last class for my internship this morning so at least that part of my work load is winding down. All told, I taught 8 sessions…
Stress
Posted March 26, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
Remember when I wrote about being a bit bored on spring break? I knew that would come back to haunt me. It’s been super busy lately and I could use some of that free time! It’s been crazy at work and the past few weeks have been exhausting. All I want to do when I get home is sit on my sofa and relax, and I can’t right now. But what I can do is be a little more flexible about my study schedule to make sure I don’t get too overwhelmed. Up to this point I’ve been getting most of my work done during the week. The main reason for this is because I hate procrastinating, but the other reason is because I need my down time. I can’t work for hours or days in a row with no break. I know some people can do this, but I am not one of them. I get too stressed out and my brain turns to mush. It’s really important for me to spend most of…