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Home > Happy Birthday Buddy! Interview :( My Plan

Happy Birthday Buddy! Interview :( My Plan

April 9th, 2011 at 12:31 am

Today Buddy is 1 year old (as best as we can figure.) He's no longer a puppy. Smile

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This morning I mailed out a thank you card to my interviewer. I didn't email a thank you note because she'd said they wouldn't be deciding till next week. Apparently someone better qualified than me interviewed today. Frown Frown Unlike with the school library job though, they had the decency to let me know right away that they'd chosen someone else.

Sigh.

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So ... my plan.

I called the lady I count money with each Sabbath who had casually mentioned her 3rd bedroom. I asked her if she and her daughter had been serious. She said that they were. We talked a bit more, and I told her what I thought I could afford. Then I asked her to talk with her daughter and just make sure that whatever the expectations are, are known up front. She's going to do that, and then in the next few weeks I'm going to go over to their house and we'll all sit down together to hammer out an agreement.

I think besides the problem of other states not wanting to bother with someone with out of state certification, my other big problem is my lack of actual experience as a school librarian.

So, this is what I am thinking. I am going to continue to tutor and bring in as much as I can that way - only during the school year, keep it from 3 p.m. forward. In order to gain experience as a school librarian, I am going to offer my local church school my unpaid services. I'm thinking M, T, TH from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. and Fr from 9 - 5. Our school currently has 21 kids from pre-school through 7th grade and two teachers. I can do storytime, book talks, technology/research classes. I can put together a library website and maybe use the open source software program Koha to set up an assessable catalog. As far as databases, I can have the kids sign in under my library card to do searches, and check out extra books on my own card to supplement units (I know, I'd have to be *very* careful with this ...) Maybe I can set up a book fair too ...

I'd then keep track of everything I do in a digital portfolio - take pictures of kids projects, record outcomes of information literacy skills pre and post, etc. Then I'd have something concrete to put on my resume. It'd also be a tremendous boost to our school.

I'm also thinking that this summer I am going to offer technology/research classes. It'd be to a limited number of students and would include instruction on typing skills, MS Word, PowerPoint, video editing software, etc. I'd also take them through an involved research project, teaching them the needed skills step by step and the final project would be their choice of a written essay, powerpoint presentation, video (youtube, etc) or maybe an Xtranormal presentation. I'm thinking it would last 7 weeks, 3 days a week for 3 hours and cost $950 per child. So ... 63 hours of instruction at about $15/hr. It would be limited to age ten and older, and no more than 8 students - unless I had an assistant, then I could maybe take 4 more.

There are obviously a lot of details to be worked out .. such as where would this take place ... where would I get the computers/software (have each student provide their own???) etc. As far as parents willing to pay that much ... I think it is quite likely. It would offer their kids both invaluable skills for school and life, but also give them something to keep them occupied during the summer. I know several of my students parents would probably go for this idea.

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What do y'all think?

Far fetched? Reaching? Maybe possible??

9 Responses to “Happy Birthday Buddy! Interview :( My Plan”

  1. jewels3 Says:
    1302321852

    If you have the right target audience I think it would be feasible. Just thinking of my daughter, the last thing she wants to do on her summer vacation is a research project, she's been using Word and doing PowerPoints since she was 8. And no way would I pay $950 for it. If we spend that much it will be on a family vacation. But that's just our situation. If you feel parents would pay, I say go for it and see what happens.

  2. mjrube94 Says:
    1302352945

    Good luck! Sounds like you have a great plan. In my neck of the woods, parents are so eager to get their kids a leg up that they would bite at that...

  3. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1302353760

    Jewel,

    You are right, many kids have been using these programs now for several years. However, in my experience working with kids in this age range (9 - 20) most of them may have played around with it, or even done some work in it, but they don't really know how to use it most effectively.

    The families I'd be targeting with this are ones exactly like what Mrjube said - they do just about anything AND are willing to pay for it ... to make sure their kids have every advantage. The asking price *may* be a little too high - but I'm just really thinking/writing out loud right now.

    I would of course want to make it as fun as possible - there is a really fun/edible activity for learning about how to use Boolean operators to do a more effective search ... and many other things like that. Like I said though ... I'm really just thinking out loud right now ... trying to figure out how I can bring in income ...

  4. Ima saver Says:
    1302356222

    Happy birthday buddy. When Molly turned one, I thought she was no longer a puppy. Boy, was I wrong!! She was two last month and just starting to settle down. Puppys are fun, especially when housebroken.

  5. jewels3 Says:
    1302378168

    I didn't mean to shoot your idea down, so please forgive me if I came across that way.

  6. frugaltexan75 Says:
    1302379226

    Thanks Ima. Smile
    Jewel,
    I appreciated your feedback. I'm sorry if I came off as defensive in my reply.

  7. debtfreeme Says:
    1302409096

    As someone with a degree in training desing, wold you be setting up each week as a different program with a series of modules? That might help attract those who are interested in learning about a specific software and open it up to more people.

    I would also look into the types of courses that are taught to older adults (age 60+) to learn a specific program. My mother would take a series of classes to learn specific program or even be better at running her lap top.

  8. debtfreeme Says:
    1302409143

    And I would approach it as a college prep course for students eading to college in a year or two.

  9. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1302409299

    debtfreeme,

    Thank you - those are all very good ideas ... I wonder what kind of market there is here for the older adults ... I've had LOTs of experience teaching my parents how to do stuff on the computer. Smile (often done over the phone!)

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