I've taught my first classes of the semester. The students seemed engaged and interested, for the most part but I'm sure some thought I was just a big, dorky old lady. Unlike teachers who are with students for a whole semester, I have one hour with them to make an impact. I really never know if what I've tried to teach has taken or not. Sometimes, they come by the Reference Desk and thank me, or I see them working from the sources I told them about, but usually, I never know how they did on that research paper or if they found that literary criticism they needed. Educators these days are obsessing on outcome evaluation but it is a very complicated issue with library instruction. My hope is that, occasionally, students I teach will think, "I'll see if I can find a book for that," or "I'll look that up," rather than just blowing off a question or looking it up in Wikipedia. The fact that I so seldom have feedback makes those students who do come back and tell me they got an A on the research paper that much more precious. I wish I'd gone by and told the librarians "Thanks" occasionally at WTSU. Karma, you know.
Stretch,
Jo
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2 comments:
Is it just the nature of your job or is it the fact you work with kids you do not get feedback? If it makes you feel any better, I get little feedback from youth and I am with them more than once a semester. Those youth whom I do see once a semester I do not think I have ever heard from them. So that may be me, my job, or kids.
In any respect, thank you Jo. You have made an impact on me (although I do not have an "A" paper to show you, mostly because I am a "C+" or "B-" student.)
I hear Wikipedia is considering removing the edit feature from the site and making it more substantial.
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