06.25.08
Riding the high

I had a great instruction session this morning. Some of you may know that I was stressing out a bit about it. I haven’t had an instruction session since around mid-Spring semester and I was going to try a few things out. Additionally, this class was all grad students, so I was definitely going to get the variety of library-user ability levels.
I didn’t really do anything earth-shattering and innovative. My main goal was to keep the session as interactive as possible so they could try out the stuff I was talking about. I don’t know why I keep being surprised, but even grad students don’t know much about how to use the library and its resources.
It was great to have the professor tell me that this was the best instruction session he’s had with this class. (He’s been doing this for awhile.) When a faculty member compliments you like this, it’s a huge ego boost.
And then there were all the thanks from the students. Sure I know that we don’t do this for the accolades, but a sincere “thank you” can really make your day.
But more than that, I think they learned some things. I actually was able to expose them to some ideas and resources that they didn’t know about. In the end, that’s what really made my day.
Dani Vaughn-Tucker said,
June 26, 2008 at 6:50 am
Hey, congrats again on a job well done. Could you share some tips with me on what you did and how you kept the students engaged? I have been assigned to the History Department and will, hopefully, begin doing bibliographic instructions this fall and, like you, I want to know that the class has learned something. Thanks.