Dear Diary,I taught my second class today. My manager commented that my students love me, but mainly because I wrapped up early and dismissed them. Although, we did have a really interesting class. The students gave very encouraging feedback on the worksheet they had. Some comments included:
"We have never used Google to do conversions and calculations. WOW!"
"How can we use our ned defintion retrieved from Google in a regular conversation? "
They were asked to define "Defenestration" which is "the act of throwing someone or something out of a window." That will definitely start a lively conversation at a cocktail party.
But I think the classic line that forced me to say, "Well I can't top that, so class is dismissed" was during the evaluating website portion, they were asked to evaluate a website about the Bird Flu Conspiracy. The student replied, well the author is sorta qualified to speak on the subject b/c he is a Quack. The room burst into laughter and that was a great end to a great class.
I spoke with my managers about attending the Tanzania Library Association Conference since the discuss University and Academic libraries in Africa, I would like to compare and contrast them to ours. Coincidentally I was asked to contribute a piece to an International Newsletter for the American Library Association, today as well. So I offered to write a perspective about the African Conference and that idea was well received.
Although I received mixed feedback from some people, as to the professional value such a conference would have on my career, I feel so strongly about it that I plan to go on my vacation time with my personal funds. http://www.tlatz.org/scecsal2006/scanulecs.html
I have scheduled my next 2 speaking engagements in concert with my co-Resident. The first one will be in Indianapolis and the second one will be in Detroit.
