Thursday, March 02, 2006

What I do?

Some of you have asked what exactly I do at work, so I will give you an example. No I do not sit and read all day!!!! Nor do I shelve books....that is why I got my degree.
Today I had a PERC (personalized research consultation) with a student. He is writing an 18 page paper and giving an oral presentation on art in the Italian Renaissance. He wanted to focus specificly on "taboo" or "forbidden" art of that period. Before meeting with him I spent about 3 hours researching this topic to make sure I had a through understanding of what he was looking for, plus I knew what the library, OhioLINK, and the oline journal databases had. I met with the student for about 1:15. We discussed his topic and he realized that there was not alot of information out there, so we discussed changing his topic slightly. We found books and articles. We discussed how the paper should be arranged as well as copyright laws (he wanted to have slides made from some of the pictures in the book to go along with his oral presentation).
I am scheduled to do 2 PERC's a week, but normally end up doing 4-5 that I schedule on my own because the education students I work with normally can't come during my PERC hours.
This morning I taught a 1:45 class for 24 students. The class is Health and Learning: Strategies for Students and Teachers. The professor sent me her syllabus and I look it over and examen the assignments. Then I pick out the assignments that they will need to use the library to complete (or should be using the library instead of google). I then create a lesson plan complete with objectives and learning outcomes. I also try to incorporate active learning (where the students do stuff, not just me lecturing) into the lesson. If the class is geared toward something they need they learn a lot more and studies have shown they will retain what I taugh them.
I teach about 20-25 classes per semester (they are not always the same from semester to semeter). I do about 50-55 PERC's. In addition I work at the Reference Desk and am on various committees. I also evaluate the collection of books and journals in the field of education and order new material and weed (throw out) older material that isn't being used. I am working on creating online modules for students to learn who's professor's don't schedule library instruction sessions. I am also working closely with the College of Education to incorporate Information Literacy into the 4 main education courses that all the ed students have to take.
Any questions? ;-)