My poor poor neglected blog! It seems I started out with good itentions but 'stuff' always seemed to get in the way and I never set aside a specific time to blog - until NOW!
I attended the #NPC2011 yesterday. It was great to catch up with people from library school and from when I was a graduate trainee. It was, of course, also great to meet new people and learn lots of exciting things. One of which was how we should embrace our career deveopment and how it is up to us to make the most of what we've got.
Hence the reason why I'm here. The past 12 months has been crazy. I've moved back home (scary), started a new job (even scarier), finished my MA dissertation (no mean feat), and a lot more besides but I've never really sat back and thought about what I've done and how it has helped/hindered my professional development.
Helen's presentation really hit home how I need to embrace CPD, maybe even go as far as mentioning the scary 'chartership' word and learn the skills which will make me (more) useful. I'm really looking forward to taking part in CPD23 and hope to learn lots of things I didn't know before and to learn new stuff about things I do know a little about.
I'm going to 'try' and slot in other blog posts inbetween posts about CPD23 in an attampt to make blogging a regular thing in my life, I just hope the dredded 'stuff' doesn't crop up again!
See you for Thing 2 :)
Tuesday 21 June 2011
Tuesday 14 September 2010
My first week ...
Technically I've been in my job just over a week but things, as always, seem to have got on top of me and I've just got round to creating this blog!
I've just started working for Ullswater Community College in Penrith which is about 1/2 an hour away in the car or 1 1/2 hours on public transport which is how I'm getting to work at the minute until I get my driving test done.
It has been a great first week. Inset day the Friday before term started was interesting. The school had got extreemly good G.C.S.E results this year and so the head talked about them for a while and was using some terms and acronyms I didn't really understand but it was interesting all the same. I got to meet a lot of the staff that I was going to see a lot of, they regularly book the LRC computers for lessons. They were all very nice to me made me feel really welcome. The LRC manager is lovely and has made sure she introduced me to every member of staff we saw and although she mainly used in house nicknames I managed to remember a few names which stood me in good stead for the week coming up.
After a morning of being talked at by various heads of years we escaped back up to the LRC and we sorted out our hours and the other library assistant showed me how to navigate Eclipse, which it the LMS that the school use, as previously I've only used Talis. Thankfully it has been pretty straight forward so far and I seem to be getting the hang of it.
My post is going to involve the ordering of all the new stock for the library. A huge responsibility which I was very nervous about at first, as I've not had any experience with childrens fiction before, but after my first week I have come to realise that the kids will soon let me know what books they want to read and I'm sure I'll know all about the latest kids and teen fiction in no time! I'm also looking after the subscriptions for the LRC. My predecessor didn't leave me a whole lot to go on so I've had to go through all of the journals, find the suppliers and email them and ask them where we're up to with our sunscriptions and if we owe them any money. Whilst it seemed like an annoying job at first it means that all the suppliers will now know who I am and can direct enquiries to me directly.
I am also responsible for all of the school librarians. Currently there are about 10 kids from a mixture of year groups who help out in the library at lunchtime. By help out I mean the come in and eat their lunch in the 'cubby' and mess around until I badger them into putting some books away. I'm planning on getting to grips with them this week, assigning them their own sections etc. Hopefully I wont be seen as the wicked witch of the west or a soft touch, just somewhere in between.
The school has Moodle on it's system but no one really makes use of it. 'Moodle Man' it trying to change this and I have told him that I'll sort out the libraries area on Moodle which I'm really looking forward to do. I'm going to put some quizes and stuff on there and use some of the videos from the radio/podcast station have produced to promote the LRC and what we have to offer.
I'm pretty sure there are other things that I have done but I can't just remember them. I am also very aware that this blog post is VERY long and so I'm going to head off and plan my day for tomorrow - I'm only in for 4 hours so it's going to be tough to get everything done!
Ta Ta
I've just started working for Ullswater Community College in Penrith which is about 1/2 an hour away in the car or 1 1/2 hours on public transport which is how I'm getting to work at the minute until I get my driving test done.
It has been a great first week. Inset day the Friday before term started was interesting. The school had got extreemly good G.C.S.E results this year and so the head talked about them for a while and was using some terms and acronyms I didn't really understand but it was interesting all the same. I got to meet a lot of the staff that I was going to see a lot of, they regularly book the LRC computers for lessons. They were all very nice to me made me feel really welcome. The LRC manager is lovely and has made sure she introduced me to every member of staff we saw and although she mainly used in house nicknames I managed to remember a few names which stood me in good stead for the week coming up.
After a morning of being talked at by various heads of years we escaped back up to the LRC and we sorted out our hours and the other library assistant showed me how to navigate Eclipse, which it the LMS that the school use, as previously I've only used Talis. Thankfully it has been pretty straight forward so far and I seem to be getting the hang of it.
My post is going to involve the ordering of all the new stock for the library. A huge responsibility which I was very nervous about at first, as I've not had any experience with childrens fiction before, but after my first week I have come to realise that the kids will soon let me know what books they want to read and I'm sure I'll know all about the latest kids and teen fiction in no time! I'm also looking after the subscriptions for the LRC. My predecessor didn't leave me a whole lot to go on so I've had to go through all of the journals, find the suppliers and email them and ask them where we're up to with our sunscriptions and if we owe them any money. Whilst it seemed like an annoying job at first it means that all the suppliers will now know who I am and can direct enquiries to me directly.
I am also responsible for all of the school librarians. Currently there are about 10 kids from a mixture of year groups who help out in the library at lunchtime. By help out I mean the come in and eat their lunch in the 'cubby' and mess around until I badger them into putting some books away. I'm planning on getting to grips with them this week, assigning them their own sections etc. Hopefully I wont be seen as the wicked witch of the west or a soft touch, just somewhere in between.
The school has Moodle on it's system but no one really makes use of it. 'Moodle Man' it trying to change this and I have told him that I'll sort out the libraries area on Moodle which I'm really looking forward to do. I'm going to put some quizes and stuff on there and use some of the videos from the radio/podcast station have produced to promote the LRC and what we have to offer.
I'm pretty sure there are other things that I have done but I can't just remember them. I am also very aware that this blog post is VERY long and so I'm going to head off and plan my day for tomorrow - I'm only in for 4 hours so it's going to be tough to get everything done!
Ta Ta
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