With the dawning of the Spring semester comes a full instruction load for me. Yes it is now time for me to assume my proper place here as a full instruction librarian. I will no longer be shadowing any of the other instruction librarians. I will be doing it on my own, designing scripts and worksheets, like a real instruction librarian. No time was wasted in throwing me into the ring either.
The week before the Spring semester began, I "volunteered" to teach two faculty workshops, one on RefWorks and one on Prezi. Now I have put volunteer in quotations because the head of instruction here asked me to teach these workshops, and being one that never steps down from a challenge I accepted. It really does amaze how my fear of teaching, and for that my fear of public speaking, has almost completely disappeared. It seems with every class I teach, every group I speak in front of, it lessens. It has diminished greatly just from the time I began graduate school in August 2008. I am truly grateful for this considering that 45% of my job is teaching instruction classes. (I'm already scheduled to teach four classes this semester. I have one this week and three next week. I need to enjoy the lite load while I can.)
The two faculty workshops went really well. I taught the RefWorks workshop first. It was attended by three people, and lasted about an hour and a half. The second workshop was on Prezi, and it was attended by twenty-one people with a great deal of them being teaching faculty. The workshop only lasted an hour, but I could have easily gone on another thirty minutes. The head of instruction in the library assisted me during this workshop and was very impressed by the number of participants that were in fact teaching faculty. She said that oftentimes they do not attend these workshops because they are too busy gearing up for classes the week before the semester begins. The Prezi workshop was a big hit. I even received applause at the end. (I love applause. It's always nice to feel like the work you put in is appreciated.) The Prezi workshop was so popular that I'm doing it again next month and in May. I guess I'm going to be the Prezi goddess around here. I've already been getting emails from faculty with questions about Prezi. It's nice to fell needed.
Last week brought lots of excitement with the two faculty workshops, but a funny thing happened at the Prezi workshop that was even more exciting. A professor walked up to me and introduced himself and said that he knew I was Sigma Tau Delta. (Sigma Tau Delta is the International English Honor Society.) He went on to say that whenever I wanted to take over the university chapter of Sigma Tau Delta I should let him know, it's all mine. Well, I was rather surprised that he knew I was a member of Sigma Tau Delta, so after the workshop I emailed him to inquire about the position and about how he knew I was a member. He said he'd Googled me and found my capstone website that had my resume on it. Of course. Well we've exchanged several emails, and I have decided that I would like to take over the university's chapter. I believe this will be an wonderful new adventure for me, and I am excited to begin pursuing it. This will be a great opportunity for outreach, and it will get me an in with the English department. Shakespeare instruction classes here I come! That is my dream, teaching instruction classes on all things Shakespeare. It might help if they actually taught Shakespeare classes here. [Sigh] Maybe someday...
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