For me, this year feels all about putting theory into practice. What I love about grad school (especially this semester) is all the theory I have floating around in my head. I'm constantly challenged and questioned and encouraged. I read every reading because I just never know when a reading will be "the one" aka when things click and my brain whirls around a bit faster.
And then there's practice. So often we make this divide between those who deal with theory and those who are in the field, practicing. Both experiences are important and when you have a balance of both, they inform each other. Making you a better person and for me, a better librarian.
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It's been a week since Camp Clover and today is the first chance I've had to sit down and really write about the camp. There's so much to say, so many stories to tell, and so much learned. I'll try to condense a week's worth of experiences into five lessons learned, YouTube links, and lots of great photos.
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Day three of camp went by way too quickly. It was another day of rearranging the schedule but feeling confident in our ability to change and adapt.
We finally started working on their iMovie projects. Essentially, every kid has interviewed someone they know in their community. They recorded this interview using the app, Recorder. From that interview, they'll take a couple of sound bites, bring them into iMovie, and add photos and videos on top of the audio for a multi-media clip. At the end of the week, we'll combine all these clips together for a mega movie.
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I walked into the center last week to be greeted by this now 8th grader:
“Hey stranger.”
His greeting contained a hint of sarcasm with a hint of truth. I hadn’t been back to the Urbana Neighborhood Connections Center (UNCC) for a string of days since May. I had visited the center twice before the current visit but his greeting stung a little. I missed the center (and the kids) like crazy but have two other summer campus jobs right now. Sometimes I have a hard time keeping everything straight.
So then why am I willingly at the center, ready to teach a series of weekly classes on Monday afternoons until the end of July?
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