I had the privilege of attending the 2012 Immersion program at Champlain College in Burlington, VT July 22-27. I was there for the Teacher Track program. It was an intense, but rewarding experience. Whenever I am asked about it, I refer to it as the instruction bootcamp. I had the honor of having
Char Booth as my faculty advisor for the week. She has been a great influence on my style and approach to library instruction. Her book
Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning once and for all made me feel like I could do this. I could be an instruction librarian. I was honored to have the opportunity to work with her and receive feedback from her on my teaching.
I should have blogged about this months ago, but my semester has been pure madness, so better late than never right? That being said, some of the details might be a little fuzzy for me so I'll just stick with a break down of each day as I remember it (or as the schedule in my notebook reminds me).
Arrival Day
I flew into the Burlington, VT airport and caught a cab with a fellow Immersion participant to Champlain College's campus. The most notable thing about this cab ride, besides the fact that it was in fact my first cab ride, (I know I've lived a sheltered life) was the fact that we had to look up directions to the college on our iPhones. I kid you not. THe cab driver didn't know how to get their. Once we arrived at the college, I checked in and then made my way over to the dorm I had chosen to stay in. I, being as sheltered as I am, have never stayed in a dorm. I can say without hesitation that this was my first and last time staying in a dorm. The mattress was only about 2 inches thick, and therefore, very uncomfortable. I slept very little that week. The welcome picnic and opening remarks took place at 6 pm that evening. During this time each faculty member took time to give opening remarks and wish us well. The rest of the time was spent eating and socializing with the faculty and other participants.
Day 1
The first day began with an opening plenary on Information Literacy as Personal Practice. This was delivered by all of the faculty, and presented to both the program and teacher tracks. After lunch, we were divided into our program and teacher track groups. After the program track people left we broke up into our cohort groups and created a symbol that would represent us. This was the Char Booth cohort symbol. As librarians we wear many hats. :)
After we finished creating our cohort symbols, we had a session on The Authentic Teacher by Beth Woodard, Craig Gibson and Debra Gilchrist. During this session we had to think about how we think of ourselves as teachers, and how we want our students to see us. This is what I came up with:
After a break we were then given another presentation on Teaching Techniques by Char Booth and Beth Woodard. I remember the Teaching Techniques as one of my favorite sessions of the whole week. It helped me immensely by allowing me to think on how I present myself in front of a classroom. It offered great strategies and techniques that I know I will use for the rest of my life when presenting. The way your voice, body and attitude all work together while presenting is key, and something to always be aware of. After dinner we met with our faculty advisors to go over our presentations and practice them if we chose to. (Before coming to Immersion, the teacher track participants had to prepare a class that we would focus on improving throughout the week, and then present on towards the end of the week.)
Day 2
The second day began with a session on assessment given by Debra Gilchrist. This was another amazing session that I know I will remember, and use for my entire career. During it, Debra discussed writing learning outcomes. Her approach to his was eye opening, and I know (from now on) I will never write a learning outcome without first referring to her model. It's simple:
Verb Phrase + in order to = great outcome (or the why phrase). Finally, learning outcomes that make sense and that are measurable for assessment. The next session was on learning styles, and was given by Char Booth and Beth Woodard, and was followed by a session on active learning given by Beth Woodard. Both of these were fantastic sessions, and gave me a lot to think about in terms of what styles and activities are best for the students. After dinner we continued to work on our presentations.
Day 3
The third day started off with a session on connecting outcomes and content. It was given by Debra Gilchrist and Craig Gibson. It was followed by a session on student centered learning given by Beth Woodard and Tiffani Travis. During this session we took a look at how we see our students and created puppets accordingly. Here's my puppet. The purple thing is supposed to be an iPhone. (This puppet was very prophetic. We had lots of incidents with cell phones in classes during the Fall semester.)
After lunch we were given more time to prepare for our presentations that were scheduled for later that afternoon. My presentation was of the scholarly vs. popular article exercise we do in our CORE 201 classes. I received a lot of very positive feedback from Char and the other members of my cohort. I also received some good ideas on how to improve my teaching technique. After the presentations were over we got to go to the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory for a tour and tasting.
Day 4
On the fourth day was had a terrific session by Char Booth on teaching technology. It really helped me to think about what process I need to go through before deciding whether or not a certain type of technology will be appropriate for use in a classroom. This was also one of the more humorous sessions of the week, due to some pictures that were taken out of context. Oh my, you just had to be there. The afternoon session was a leadership plenary that also included the program track participants. During this session, we had to work on creating a mission statement for our library or learning commons. This is what my group came up with:
Day 5
On the last day we had the closing plenary which helped bring it all together. We also filled out assessments and received our certificates.
What a week it was! I highly recommend this experience for any librarian that is involved in teaching. I hope to one day return for the program track. I will someday be a great teacher thanks to the wonderful mentors I have had (you know who you are), but also thanks to the foundation that this program gave me.
