In honor of Distance Learning Week, I thought I’d post on a distance learning topic I’ve not yet addressed: juggling school and work and Real Life. I’ve been a full-time distance student (3 classes per semester), part time environmental consultant, and full time wife/mom for the past year and a half. Throw in fieldwork and student teaching, and it gets more complicated! Anyone who is a distance student knows that it isn’t easy constantly shifting gears between school-work-home. But after a while you get into a rhythm and it gets easier. Here are a few things I’ve learned during my program:

• Order your books early (as soon as the draft syllabus is released) so they have time to ship before classes start.

• Be very organized. Each semester, set up a calendar for yourself (I use an Excel spreadsheet, but others I know use an online or paper calendar) to help you keep track of due dates for major assignments in all of your classes. You will have weeks with more than one major assignment due (and chances are those will coincide with your child’s birthday party, a major presentation at work, and your best friend’s baby shower), so you may need to start certain assignments early so that you have time to get everything done.

• Plan ahead for student teaching and internships. Most likely you will need to either quit or take a leave of absence from your regular job (if you have one) while you do your student teaching or internship. Set up your fieldwork and student teaching contacts at least a semester ahead of your anticipated start date, and make sure your employer has time to make arrangements for your absence. If necessary try to have some extra savings or student loans to help financially during the time when you have no income.

• Plan time for your family. It is all too easy to get bogged down with everything you have to do. If you have a family, you will probably have a lot of guilt that you don’t have as much time for them as you normally would. Be open and honest with your children about what you are doing and make sure they know how hard you are working. If possible, do homework side by side. You are setting a great example for them! Eat dinner together and talk about what is going on with them. Make sure you plan time each week for some fun activity together. You will appreciate your fun time together more than you ever did, and that is a gift in and of itself.

• Don’t sweat the small stuff. Things are going to be different while you are in school – you can’t possibly do everything you always do and devote adequate time and energy to an online program. Some distance students I know do a lot of cooking on the weekends so they can freeze quick meals for the week. Most of us let the housework go. You may have to drop some volunteer work or social commitments. Make things as easy on yourself as possible. If you are like me, this was a good exercise in learning to say “no,” and I hope to keep this newfound skill!

• Be good to your significant other. Undoubtedly, your significant other will need to shoulder a bit more of the household and/or child care burden while you are completing your program. They will do this with less complaint if you frequently express your appreciation for their efforts. Share your successes (good grades, semesters completed) so that they see how their efforts are helping you. And make sure you carve out couple time on a regular basis. Take a little time each day to go for a walk or sit and talk without the computer on (believe me, your significant other will come to loathe your laptop!). Daily connections are crucial. Try to plan “dates” as often as you can for longer opportunities to reconnect. You are working hard and going through a lot, but don’t forget that your partner is also affected!

• Communicate. Keep in touch with your fellow students, and your personal support network – online or in person. Your fellow students are a great resource, as they know exactly what you are going through! Use facebook, twitter, online chat, Skype, and the LMS to keep in touch, get support, bounce ideas, or check to make sure you understand assignments. Just remember not to rant on the LMS message boards or online public forums (which includes facebook). A rant can definitely come back to haunt you. If you have questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to email or call your professors. They are very willing to help. If you have a family emergency, let them know as soon as possible so that accommodations can be made.

• Treat yourself. Take it easy on yourself, and treat yourself with things that make you happy. Eat healthy and sleep as much as you can. I don’t sleep enough during the week, but I always try to set aside at least one weekend night when I can catch up on sleep and my family has strict instructions NOT to wake me. Between semesters, read good books, catch up with friends, have fun and rest!

• Appreciate this special time. And remember, this is all temporary.

Here are some other distance learning resources available to iSchool students:

Syracuse iSchool Distance Learners group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=123426056551&ref=ts

OrangeLearners Blog – ischool distance learning blog: http://orangelearners.wordpress.com/

iSchool National Distance Learning Week Web site: http://ischool.syr.edu/ilife/ndl/

Also, I will be participating in a live distance learning forum on Thursday, November 12 from 2-3 pm ET online via Adobe Connect. Feel free to join us! Details are here.

Posted by Rebecca Buerkett, Syracuse MLIS distance student, rlbuerke@syr.edu.

As I complete my final semester of the MLIS program at Syracuse and look for full-time work as a school librarian, I have been substitute teaching at a local middle/high school (6-12) for a computer teacher who is out on paternity leave. Not only has this kept me busy and active in a school setting, it has provided me with some valuable classroom teaching experience. Many of my fellow MLIS-ers are former teachers, but I come to the library from the science field. Even though I spent a semester student teaching, substitute teaching is pushing my classroom management comfort zone. Students can smell fear or hesitation, and they will take advantage of the fact that you may not be familiar with every school procedure. So I have been struggling to refine my teaching style and develop lesson strategies and management skills, and I am getting better at it. However, I was initially worried when I was assigned to cover the in-school suspension room for a couple of periods each day. The ISS room is home to the “problem students,” the ones who don’t behave properly in their regular classrooms. How could I handle these kids?

But it didn’t take long for me to realize that I like working in the ISS room. I get to work with the students on a one-to-one basis, carrying on conversations, helping with homework, responding to inquiries. This level of interaction doesn’t happen in a busy computer classroom, and it is much closer to the point-of-need interactions with students that I enjoy in the secondary school library. When removed from the distractions of friends to show off for, teachers to antagonize, and the opposite sex to flirt with, these kids are…just kids. For the most part, they are calmer in the ISS room than in the regular classroom and I’ve enjoyed my conversations with them. For example, one day, the three students in ISS were wondering how many people were in the United States. I showed them the US Census website and they spent an entire period looking up the populations of cities across the country. That type of inquiry-based learning isn’t always possible in a classroom setting.

Yesterday I had my first tough customer in the ISS room. A frequent discipline problem, this boy has trouble sitting still and tends to be verbally abusive. Plus, he’s a lot bigger than me. But when I arrived at the ISS room, I was intrigued to find the student sitting calmly and quietly. How did that happen? He was being read Ben Mikaelsen’s Touching Spirit Bear by another student. He was mesmerized by the book. When she got to the end of a chapter, he demanded that she read more. He expressed hope that they would have time to finish the whole book! Was it a fluke? I decided to try it for myself, and today when I had a different student with some serious ADHD issues and an equally difficult time sitting still, I pulled My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George off the shelf and began to read. He sat. He didn’t talk. He complained about being bored, but he listened to every word, even asking a question now and then. I don’t know if this will work every time with every student, but I’m willing to try it whenever I get the chance. Reading to a student is a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

The other thing I like about covering the ISS room is that I am forging a bond with these students. Perhaps someday, when I am working as a library media specialist, I can entice some of them to come down to the library and check out some books. Or maybe I will just make it a practice to occasionally go up to the ISS room and read to students.

Feel free to comment here or on the Syracuse iSchool LIS facebook page.

Posted by Rebecca Buerkett, Syracuse MLIS distance student, rlbuerke@syr.edu.

I started the School Media MLIS program at SU during the summer of 2008, and after what seems (oddly enough) like simultaneously a blink of an eye and a lifetime, I’m now taking my final class. I can’t believe how far I’ve come or how much I’ve learned in the past year. And while I’ll truly miss being able to read all the great discussion posts by my fellow students and professors when I’m no longer a student, I’m looking forward to getting out there and actually working in a library. I’m ready. Or at least I will be once I finish my last class, IST661, Information Management in School Libraries. It’s a pretty important class, and I’m glad I’ve saved it for my last semester. Having so much coursework behind me and being so close to working in a library is making this course that much more meaningful to me.

Topics we will be covering include managing personnel, what to do when a book is challenged, marketing, program evaluation, managing library space, budgeting, and collaboration, among others. The course instructor, Dr. Renee Franklin, is doing a great job of pulling in real-world scenarios and resources for our discussions and readings. For example, when we were discussing collection development/ acquisitions, Dr. Franklin asked a book sales representative to participate in our discussions for the week. Also, each week she posts tips and advice that she has directly solicited from working school librarians to inspire us newbies.

So how much can theoretical knowledge prepare us for the real world of school librarianship? I do think that my SU MLIS education is striking a good balance between theoretical and practical knowledge. As a distance student, I find that being able to ask questions of both my professors and fellow students via frequent Blackboard discussion posts provides the opportunity to gain more practical knowledge in areas where I may need it. And certainly, the 400 hours of fieldwork and student teaching is a great way to begin to apply what we are learning. But there’s no substitute for the Real World. My practicum site advisor told me it will take at least 5-6 years after beginning my librarian career before I will will really feel comfortable and knowledgeable in my field. So bring on the Real World – I’m ready to have at it!

Feel free to comment here or on the Syracuse iSchool LIS facebook page.

Posted by Rebecca Buerkett, Syracuse MLIS distance student, rlbuerke@syr.edu.

One of the more notoriously difficult classes at the Syracuse iSchool is IST618, Telecommunications and Information Policy. As a LIS-School Media student, it is the only class I’ve had with both library and non-library iSchool students since our boot camp residency that began my degree program. I found it extremely interesting to discuss ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) policy issues with the IM (Information Management) and TNM (Telecommunications and Network Management) students as well as the LIS students. I must admit that I didn’t even know what ICT stood for before I took this class, but it is possible that they don’t know what a MARC record is, so perhaps we’re even.

Regardless of our different programs, we found common ground in the often controversial ICT issues. The professor, Raed Sharif, was teaching this course from his home in South Africa (and I believe, at one point, Finland), so he encouraged us to consider international perspectives when choosing discussion topics. Since I had classmates from Hong Kong, Germany, and Ghana, to name a few, this was fascinating and very much pushed the envelope of my learning. I looked forward to the class discussions every evening.

Some of the topics we covered included broadband access and affordability, freedom of speech, Internet privacy and security, Internet governance, net neutrality, intellectual property rights, and lobbying organizations, among many others. Professor Sharif was a perfect example of what an SU professor should be – challenging, engaged, and fair. He allowed us to choose our research topics within an assignment framework, which allowed each of us to explore topics of personal and professional interest, key when trying to address the learning requirements of a diverse group of students.

I had been nervous about taking this course, since I was a science major in my undergrad, and “policy” to me conjured up images of legalese and sandpaper-dry lectures, but I enjoyed this course much more than I thought I would, and I learned a lot about policy issues that will certainly be relevant to my library career.

Feel free to comment here or on the Syracuse iSchool LIS facebook page.

Posted by Rebecca Buerkett, Syracuse MLIS distance student, rlbuerke@syr.edu.

This week I’ve returned to the Syracuse campus for the last residency of my MLIS degree: IST612, Youth Services and Libraries and Information Centers. Essentially, this is a collection development and youth literature course taught by Barbara Wall, librarian at the Krieger Elementary School in Poughkeepsie, NY. In this course, we are learning to booktalk books, write reviews and annotations, and develop a core collection of books for a library after analyzing the library’s demographics and services. This course is also a great opportunity to hear about lots and lots of different books for all age levels and discuss controversial and ethical issues in school library collection development. I have to say, I was really excited about coming to Syracuse for a week this year. After a year of juggling full time classes, part time work and a young family, the excuse to come here for a week and hang out with librarians and talk about books all day sounded heavenly! I joked to my facebook friends that I was going to “library camp!”

A weeklong class can be admittedly intense and exhausting, but stimulating at the same time. I’ve had the opportunity to talk with some new SU MLIS students who are just coming off their week of iSchool “boot camp.” They are understandably exhausted and somewhat overwhelmed, but it has been so much fun for me to talk to them and hear about the new additions to boot camp since last year (apparently there was a role playing game added which sounds like it was a blast, as well as student blogging). I’ve also been able to return the favor to some new students that was bestowed upon me by several students last year: advice on what courses to take when and with whom. Going back to school is for some people a major culture shock (it was for me), but once you get a rhythm going, it is a fantastic experience. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t change a thing, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be this week (non-air conditioned dorms notwithstanding - figured the one week all summer it’s hot!). When else have I attended a book advisory lecture by Nancy Pearl and then wandered down to Marshall St. for some of the best Thai food I’ve ever had in the company of people I really enjoy talking to, all in a couple of hours time? Honestly!

Incidentally, if you’ve never heard of Nancy Pearl, she is the author of several wonderful reader’s advisory books such as Book Lust and Book Crush, and she even has her very own action figure, complete with shushing action! She is on campus this week teaching a course in Adult Services in the Public Library, and I had the good fortune to hear her speak at the Onondaga County Public Library. She booktalked a list of 21 books and was so obviously excited about them and so engaging that I couldn’t help but want to read them! If you ever get the chance to read her books or hear her speak, take it. SU is lucky to have her here.

Feel free to comment here or on the Syracuse iSchool LIS facebook page.

Posted by Rebecca Buerkett, Syracuse MLIS distance student, rlbuerke@syr.edu.

So to all of you new SU students who are preparing for your week of Boot Camp, here are a few words to the wise.

1. DO NOT leave all (or any) work for IST511 to do during your week at school. Do all of it before you go – you will be very very busy with group work and other assignments during Boot Camp and won’t have time to get it done.
2. Consider bringing the following if you are staying in the dorms: a small fan, microwaveable food (the dining hall isn’t open on weekends, plus sometimes you prefer to eat in your room to save time), a coffeepot, a memory stick/flash drive, an umbrella (you will have to walk a lot since you can’t park near the dorm), a travel alarm clock, and a book for fun reading (to help you fall asleep after all the information overload).
3. Get contact information for your fellow students when you leave Boot Camp so you can keep in touch.
4. Not all of the LIS professors are on campus during the summer, but if you get the chance, try to meet some of them. It’s always nice to put a face to a name.
5. Blythe Bennett is your go-to person during Boot Camp if you have any problems. Last year my car broke down just as I arrived in Syracuse. Not only did she give me the name of a good garage, she personally drove me there! She is a wonderful person and so helpful.
6. Take lots of notes and enjoy yourself!

Don’t worry if you feel somewhat overwhelmed during Boot Camp, especially if you don’t have any library experience (that was me). In the intro class, a lot of information is thrown at you but it doesn’t take long before you realize what a great foundation the class provides for the rest of your studies at SU. Enjoy it – it goes by fast! 

Feel free to comment here or on the Syracuse iSchool LIS facebook page.Posted by Rebecca Buerkett, Syracuse MLIS distance student, rlbuerke@syr.edu. �

My favorite part of Karen’s post is when she discusses how people don’t consider her a typical librarian type, and says, “I know about a hundred future librarians who are working every day to shatter your preconceived notions of what librarianship is. We’re not cardigan-wearing, pencil-in-the-hair, shushing types. We are activists, fun-loving teachers, and technological whizzes who just happen to have an insatiable thirst for information and want to share that thirst with everyone – even though I’ve been known to wear a cardigan and put writing utensils in my hair.” Well put.

Even though I don’t see my fellow students every day (some of them, Karen included, I’ve only met in person once!), I do “talk” to them nearly every day on the message boards, facebook, IM, or however we can get in touch. I consider these people my friends as well as classmates and I enjoy virtually spending time with them. And I consider myself lucky to be in the virtual company of so many smart, interesting, creative, passionate people!�

1. If you read a book to kindergarteners in which the main character needs to pee, instantly about 80% of the kids will decide they need to go to the bathroom too.
2. If you let them, students will find most of their information for research projects using Google. However, if you require them to use books first and won’t allow them to use the Web until several days into a research proejct, they will find most of the information they need from the books.
3. Pathfinders tend to be appreciated more by teachers than by students, but they can save a lot of time for both teachers and students. The key is to allow students to struggle and fail to find information using Google, then remind them of the pathfinder and show them how to use it.
4. You cannot possibly cover plagiarism too many times. At any age level.
5. Don’t assume elementary age students are too young to understand how to do proper citations. They aren’t.
6. Food and coffee are powerful motivators for getting teachers into the library.
7. Two different school principals gave me the same good advice: to deliver more than I promise, and deliver on all promises.
8. Students are drawn to technology; fortunately there are lots of ways to capitalize on technology as a learning tool.
9. No matter how old they are, kids love to be read to.
10. Test out all technology prior to teaching, and have a backup plan if it fails! 

These are some great short videos for the public libraries in Alberta:

Think outside the box!

Second, I posted on my LearningLibrarian blog about my final collaborative technology project, which entailed using Skype in the classroom to connect students in two states. The project was a collaboration between myself, Lake Placid Middle/High School librarian Sara Kelly Johns, biology teacher Christian Wissler (LPMHS), and biology teacher David Fahey (LaFayette High School, Williamsburg, VA). The classes had a debate via Skype about genetically modified foods.

This was a fun assignment that led to many amazing projects. Other collaborative technology projects by other students in IST611 included developing library instruction tutorials using Flowgram, creating READ posters for the library, using Voicethread in an ESOL classroom with Kindergarteners and 1st graders, and creating wikis, blogs, digital slideshows, videos, and other technology-rich projects. If you have the chance to take this course, I highly recommend it!