First things first, I owe you all some tidbits and updates from the great workshop I attended last Thursday. I’m working on it and should have a post or two about that before the week is over. It was my first workshop and I was not disappointed.
Yesterday, the lovely Amy Rau at Green Girl Press sent me a proof of my business card. I requested a few minor tweaks and she sent me back a new proof later that day. I loooovvveeddd the revised version and that was that. She is having the plates made as I type and I should be holding the actual cards in my hand before I know it.
Here are the two proofs she sent me. Can you guess which is the first and which is the second with my requested tweaks
If you guessed that the one on the left was the the original and the one on the right was the final version with my requested tweaks, you would be right. I loved the layout of the first one but thought a) it could use a little more space between my titles and my information and b) my name grabbed and held your attention just a little bit too much. So, we’re going with the second slightly more subdued design but, I’m going with the more blue grey color from the first one. I originally picked out the darker steel grey from the one on the right but love how the blue grey makes the yellow look more chipper and cheery and gives the whole thing a lighter, more friendly appearance.
Psst…..To track this whole business card adventure from the beginning see this post and this post.
See you later this week for some Library Leadership Academy Workshop highlights and sharing.
Oh my, I have been neglectful this week haven’t I cats and kittens?
I didn’t mean to up and disappear on you all but, well, there hasn’t been anything major to share with you this week. There have been a few random this and thats and now that I have a week’s worth of them, I guess I can share them in a single post (rather than give you a week’s worth of posts that contain less than 10 sentences).
So, without further ado, here are some of the random happenings from the past few days:
Stories from Student Teaching
One of the high school classes is studying Ancient Greece and her students are working in groups to create newspapers from that time period. A group came in during study hall to do research and get ideas for their project. The one girl was reading about gods and goddesses and while reading about the god of fertility, came across a word that stumped her, phallus.I watched as she asked her group members and none of them knew what it meant. I watched as she went to several other class mates in the library and none of them could help her. (I mean genuinely, could not help her. Not a one of the showed a hint, a glimmer, of recognition of the word. I was shocked, don’t kids make it their business to learn every way possible to say “naughty” words like that?) I would have left it at that but it became clear when she returned to her table that she could not get over not knowing what the word meant and was having trouble making progress with her research as a result. When she got up to sharpen her pencil I waved her over and assisted her in locating the definition of the word. After discovering what it meant, she turned 18 shades of purple and while looking at the floor instead of me said,
“Um, well, okay. Um, thanks, I guess? I don’t know.”
And she booked it back to her table and quietly worked on her research for the rest of class.
The next day, the same girl was in the library with her class for additional group research time. She approaches me and we have the following exchange:
Her: Hi! Do you have any geometry books in here?
Me: Geometry books? (Already mentally preparing the best way to scold her group for working on their math homework instead of the project their teacher brought them here for and getting them back on track)
Her: Yeah, you know, geometry books. Like with maps and stuff.
Me: Ohhhh, maps. (The relief of not having to scold them quickly being replaced by an intense sadness at their lack of basic reference book knowledge). Maps, geography, yes we have those. They are called atlases and they’re right over here.
In preparation for collaborating on a research project, my host librarian and I observed a Junior High social studies class to get a better idea where they are in their unit and what they are expected to know/be able to do.
The class is studying colonization and was given a reading on English colonization to read and fill out a note taking sheet together in groups of two or three. Shortly after the assignment began, I heard one of the girls say she didn’t get it. Since the assignment had just been handed out, I assumed she was struggling with the directions so I went over to help her and we had the following conversation:
Me: Hi, are you having some trouble? What don’t you get? Maybe I can help you figure it out.
Her: Well, no, like I get what we are supposed to do. I just don’t understand something.
Me: (crouching down next to her desk) Well, what don’t you get? What’s got you stuck? Let’s figure it out together.
Her: Well, I’m just like confused.
Me: Okay, what are you confused about.
Her: Well, this time time we’re learning about…..Well, wasn’t like, Hitler, like from the 1660’s too?
Me: (Without making the face you’re probably making right now or laughing) Well, no. Hitler and World War II happened in the 1940’s. You’re learning about colonization and that happened 100s and 100s of years before that.
Her: Oh, okay.
After that she seemed to work through the activity just fine. Apparently, she was having trouble grappling with the conflicting images of the colonists arriving in ships after months on the ocean, having to make their own clothes and dying of so many diseases in the wilderness of the new world while Europe was waging a war filled with tanks and airplanes?
In other News……
I meet with the lovely Amy Rau at Green Girl Press yesterday afternoon to start talking business cards. I can’t say enough great things about working with Amy. She had studied the Pinterest board I put together of business card inspiration and had identified some key themes and reoccurring elements in what I liked.
After walking me through the different themes she picked up on we discussed what messages those themes conveyed. She helped me identify what message I wanted my business card to send so we could narrow down my inspiration points. Actually, before we even did that we kicked the first theme, clean design, to the curb. Amy knows me well enough to know that clean design isn’t really “me” and knew I would be happiest with something that showed more of my personality. We decided that what really appealed to me about those designs wasn’t the design but other elements, like font choice. Of the remaining two themes, I decided I liked animals more because they represented a little more whimsy and personality than the traditional, classic repeating patterns and geometric shape designs.
Then, we through each element of the card (information I want on the card, front and back or just front, shape, colors, fonts, images/graphics etc) and talked about what would best meet my vision complete with her showing me samples/potential elements so she could get a better idea of what I liked and didn’t like.
I’m so excited about what we worked on and can’t wait to see the ideas she comes up with. Something tells me I’ve have an even more difficult time narrowing down my favorites than I did when she designed our wedding invitations!
As always, I’ll keep you updated on the process as it happens.
Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week (promise!).
‘Til then,
~Serena
Pssst….I know Amy is in the process of revamping and rebranding her website. Bookmark it anyway. When it is re-launched you will be glad you did. There will be more eye candy than you ever thought possible.
Librarian On The Loose 