Intern Update; 6340 Wrapped

Hello! I hope you have enjoyed a few days off of graduate school. Most of you are right back into it for the summer.

I’d like to report that I’m all caught up with internship matters. That is:

• All of you should now be in WebCT/7460.
• I acted upon the “starting out” info you submitted a couple of weeks ago, as appropriate for each person.
• I created a Discussion Board for each person – which is private between you and me. Everyone now has at least a “starting out” message. From henceforth, I am in reactive mode – you do a step, and post on your Board the results, as appropriate. Follow the Checklist to the letter, and in sequence. You don’t actually have to report every little step; I think it’s clear where you have to wait for my action before going ahead.
• By “caught up” I mean that I’ve acted upon things, but some tasks take several days to 2 weeks to complete. In each case, I’ve acknowledged the task and given an idea of when it will be completed. For example, I must contact several system administrators, and that always takes time – phone tag and emails and delays, etc.

So, if you haven’t gone there yet, check out 7460 and especially your bulletin board. Also check “My Progress” for a quick view of your status.

EDIT 6340 wrapped up nicely. Course evals ended up 100% – thanks to all of you!

As for my schedule this summer, I don’t have one – I’m not really working, but will try to keep up with the little things. My computer is in the shop for 50,000-mile maintenance and my connection is too slow right now — maybe those are good things. No big trips planned; hope to do “homey” things.

Also, I changed the calendar name from 6300/6340 to Cohort 8.

Have fun on Saturday!

Finished!

By now, you probably will have noticed that Orders are all finished, with audio feedback available in the dropbox, and grades were posted.

Course evals: I still am hunting down one person, which means we are 96% complete.

E-permissions and Research permissions: Hunting two, the same two for both.

One example why e-permissions are important: if you have a really good section in your order, then I might want to use it as an example for next year.  While I’m not working on that right now, when the time comes next year, I will have to pull out the permissions to make sure it’s ok.  And it might be hard to track  you down after you graduate (I hope not, but you know how that goes).

I made two audios to “make up” for the topics not covered in our last class – these are now complete.

Intern news:  I’m slowly working through the list, adding people into WebCT and installing individual discussion boards.  It will probably take one more week to get through everyone.  Watch your WebCT – basically, we will pass things back and forth on your private discussion board (db).  So, it’s very important to watch for notifications.  I check mine almost every working day.  And – you can ignore the “late” Documentation assignment there.

Wish Cohort 7 well at Graduation tomorrow!  Your turn will be here before you know it.

Progress Update

Isn’t it great not having class today?  Whee!

Here are update numbers:

• Course evals: 52% done.  Thanks to those! 1 week to go.
• Orders: I’m still waiting for one project.
• E-permissions and Research Permissions: waiting for 4 each – lots of progress made there.

Internship: I’m awaiting info from 3 people (not counting Sylvia) – need this before I can forge ahead with the next steps.

In the meantime, I’ll work with what I have, which is a mountain of stuff to read!   I’ll send individual reminders soon, but I’m hoping there will be very few of those to send.

Enjoy your weekend!

Progress made & Intern notes

Field experiences all finished!  I haven’t started on any Orders yet.

I made an audio about Reference Instruction.  Not required – but for your future reference (pardon the pun).  Find it by going to the Reference topic page.  The audio itself is housed in WebCT – so if you want it, you should download it or listen to it before I transition to eLC sometime this summer.

Intern update: whew, I bit off a big chunk here.  Make sure you’ve sent me your initial info as requested on the Planner.  Then – wait for further instructions.  I put most people into WebCT/7460 but I’ve found this has caused confusion.  Just watch your WebCT, and you will see a message from me on your personal discussion board when I’ve handled your situation.  This message will list next steps.  Some of you saw a dropbox due date of May 1 – this does not apply to you.

Most important: here is something I should have emphasized Saturday.  It’s ok for you to have informal conversations with any media specialist you might be interested in working with.  Don’t hurry this.  If you’re in Gwinnett, I discourage it, really – it’s much better to work with Faye first, and I need to send her your information before that happens.

I appreciate all the enthusiasm, but I confused you with too much too fast. More on this soon, probably after I’ve worked through my grading pile.  This blog will be your channel for group-internship issues in addition to class business.  I’ll use WebCT (or its successor) for our one-on-one discussions, as mentioned in class.

Some numbers for you

Number of field experiences left to grade: 11 (these are fun to read!  Downloading them took about 2 hours.)

Percentage of course evals submitted: 26%

E-permissions needed: 12 more

Research permissions needed: 11 more

(A note on the Permissions: these are in the Dropbox.  You may certainly download the form, say “NO WAY” to everything, and load back up.  Right now, I’m just checking “submitted” versus “not submitted” and promise not to review them until I need them – much later.  You’ve heard all of this before, but it’s been awhile since I mentioned it.)

Order Projects: these are coming in.  However, I know these will be graded late — and you still have several more days.

Internship details: I am compiling info – not everyone has responded yet.  I haven’t set a firm deadline – but do this as soon as you reasonably can.  Make sure to include all the info requested; see the Planner.

I will next “poke” you on these things in 2-3 days.

Course evals open today

Hello! Thanks for a pleasant final class on Saturday.  And thanks for perfect attendance!

Please let me know if something seems to be wrong with the course eval, which should be open today.

I clarified minor details on our final agenda and planner.  We never did get to Reference Interviews and External Resources; I plan to provide you some audio on these topics, just for future reference. I’m sure this will take several days.

I’ll be updating you frequently on all course and cohort matters as we wrap things up here for Spring 2009.  I’m already looking forward to staying home on May 2!

Ready for last meeting of the semester!

I don’t know about you, but these last 3 weeks have been a whirlwind for me! Nothing dramatic, but lots going on.

Things are mostly ready for tomorrow. There are way too many items on the agenda, but I have a plan for that.  One highlight will be Kristie’s talk about developing a new collection (and facility).

We will also, as long promised, discuss the internship in depth. This discussion will make much more sense to you if you’ve had a chance to read at least some of the documents referenced on the Planner.

See you there!

Order Drafts: Two Thoughts

I’m almost finished with your Order Drafts – earlier than expected.

I always think of things late in a grading batch that I wonder if the earliest projects graded were lacking – and it’s too late to go back and check again.  So – make sure about these things whether I said anything to you about them or not:

1. Format diversity. The Order assignment sort of expects to see this – and for most teams, it’s there.  I’m just looking for a minimal amount of 3 (or more) different formats (and books can be one, or even different types of books).   Your order need not be balanced across formats. I think this is clear in the “big” order assignment description, but if missed at this early stage could cause lots of trouble later – and if I didn’t mention to you that it’s a problem, then you might think you’re ok.  So just check on this.
2. Intellectual freedom.  I think I’ll just remove this from the Draft assignment for the future – but make sure that in your final submission that you give this a sentence or two.  Ideally, mention in your presentation that this is always an underlying value.  It might help provide a philosophical foundation if you get arguments about why certain items are needed.

That’s it!  I have one more to do, but most teams can access their feedback in the dropbox.

Follow-up to April 4th

Hello!

You’ll be glad to know that I finished my taxes; it feels good to get something off the plate that I’d been dreading.

And – I updated the Planner and the Agenda.  The Planner, which I failed to go over very well on Saturday, contains an item about bringing a fundraising idea – this is something for you to think back through your experience and contribute if you can.

I’ll get to your Drafts as soon as I can. It may well be Saturday before I get them all done, but I hope to keep that particular commitment.

Have a nice week, and here’s hoping that we’re experiencing our last cold snap for this season!

Ready for April 4

I still haven’t finished your IMEs but plan to get that done today.

If you are still experiencing registration difficulties, don’t suffer in silence!  Contact your advisor to discuss backup plans.  Children’s lit courses filled up fast, or one of them did – throwing many people into their Plan B.  Just don’t put this whole thing off  (like me and my taxes).

The agenda for Saturday is ready.  Once again, I can’t imagine that we’ll get it all done. I’ve yet to decide the exact order of topics.

See you at 9am.