Teachers

Just finished Frank McCourt's autobiographical book The Teacher Man. It was an interesting insight into a teacher's mind. He was one of those inspirational teachers kids remembered after they've grown up. So many stories of students' lives that affected him. And it shed some light on his own education journey as a Trinity doctoral candidate.

Teachers that stand out in my student career are Mrs. Nichols and Mrs. Morrell. Mrs. Nichols was my Grade 3 teacher who introduced us to the boy wonder detective Encyclopedia Brown who always seemed to crack such challenging cases and C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (when the cartoon version came out). She also recognized I needed a bit of an extra hand in the language side of things (Note: Cantonese was technically my mother tongue ... I've been told I learned my basic English from Sesame Street prior to entering kindergarten). She also was there one who assigned me extra 'homework' to help me improve my comprehension skills. Mrs. Morrell was my Grade 7 Science teacher. The most patient, encouraging and gentle person - ever. She somehow made science interesting. She encouraged me to open up and speak what was on my mind.

In high school, Mr. Kroiter's Social Studies and English classes were always entertaining and educational. He had a good sense of humour and knew how to handle kids. He once transformed the yardstick into the sword Hamlet used. He was hip enough to get the Mel Gibson version of Hamlet, too.

I've been to three universities, too. And there are memorable profs, of course. History Prof. Pitsula had a photographic memory. That or he memorized all his notes and students' faces with flashcards. Never did see him look at a piece of paper while lecturing. While knowledge of Canadian history was impressive, his interest was infectious. To help bring the history to life, he would bring in clips ... such as Tommy Douglas giving a campaign speech. Broadcast 101 ... CBC's Vinyl Cafe host Stuart McLean taught us the basics of radio reporting. He had a wicked sense of humour and was such an inspiration to us green j-school students. 502 Classification of Information Prof Davies made cataloging fun!

These teachers cared about their students and imparted more than just curriculum and book knowledge. Like McCourt, they helped students develop their potential in preparation for a journey called life.

Finally... convocation!

family picture
Originally uploaded by shutter_grl.

Well, Friday, October 20, 2006 will go down in history ... for as the MLIS convocation. Here is my family (pictured above). We're smiling because we're relieved the ceremony is over. Or maybe we're satisfied with the yummy cake we've been fed by the alumni association.

The weather was overcast, cold and rainy. It was good seeing most of the classmates. One thing they don't tell you about completing your degree ... the final test ... learning how to hold your hood properly, walking on stage the at the right speed, order and manner, and kneeling properly in order to get hooded. It was enough information overload to make us a bit nervous crossing the stage. Thankfully everyone made it safely across the stage.

Afterwards, we went over to our family friend's place to pick up some of (about half) of my stuff to move to Toronto. The next day, the family friend dropped off the rest of the stuff (as he had to go to Toronto to pick up his wife from the airport).

Moving ... and other random thoughts

This is the most disjointed move I've ever made anywhere. The good news is that I have found a place to live in a good area with reasonable rent and good location. It's located right near the subway line so I don't have to spend hours commuting to work, thankfully. I hope to learn when I can move into this new place by tomorrow. It's been a while since I've had my own private space.

As for the other two interviews, one was filled internally while the other one was filled with someone who had more experience. So, things did work out in the end.

Ever have one of those days?

trapped_hulk
Originally uploaded by shutter_grl.

This weekend, a friend invited me to go to the Taiwanese Cultural Event to watch some Dragon Boat Racing (which was quite exciting!). It was a hot day. After a couple of hours sitting in the sun, we were ready for some frozen treats (fruit bars ... mmm ...) I happened to see this toy hulk in the window of the ice cream truck. It just cracks me up.

The last leg of library school

Five more classes and four more assignments to go until the end of this program.

No update on the job search. There is a job fair for federal library jobs in Ottawa August 16, which I do plan to attend (network, network, network!). I have applied to CBC Toronto for a temporary full-time position too.

And it seems that some Vancouver friends are going to the same wedding I'll be attending in Montreal. What a small world.

This post is rather disjointed, as is the state of my mind these days.

It just hit me today.

In four months, I'll be done my Master's of Library and Information Science.

Translation: time to re-emerge into the work world after a two-year hiatus in an academic setting. I don't like that feeling of ... uncertainty. Maybe it's something to do with being a bit of control freak (kinda). There's a security knowing things will be done a particular way at regular intervals, like clockwork. Almost mindless. On the flip side, not knowning what will happen after completing courses is adventurous. Who knows what job will take me where doing what? Could be anywhere.

It'll be such a bittersweet moment when this chapter of my life is completed. I've met lots of helpful people (it seems it could be a hidden requirement to entering this profession!), some really interesting characters and made a few close friends.

folksonomies or taxonomies

This morning in descriptive cataloging class, we had an interesting discussion about whether or not access points should be centralized and regulated or left up to the users to provide. Access points are various methods people can find things, like author, title, subject or keyword in a library catalog system.

Flickr uses "folksonomy" (make up your own classification system) where as librarians use taxonomies (centralized and controlled classication system).

This discussion came up when the prof brought up the online platforms such as flickr.com. Flickr allows the people to "tag" or categorize their own pictures they have mounted on the web. For complete control freaks (as most librarians tend to be), this system which allows everyone to tag according to their own interests and needs would be a nightmare. However, there is a theory that the more people who do tag their own pictures, the more likely a pattern will emerge in what tags are popularly used.

Our prof explored this idea: What is valued more? The fact that there is complete access (all aspects, from author, subject, date of publication, and so on) be provided and maybe a handful of people know how to search and find relevant information, or, the fact that people categorize their own things and maybe 80 per cent of the people will find what they need (80 per cent is a random number ... essentially not everyone will find what they need)?

Some good food for thought.

Nearing the end

It 10 days, all the assignments will be done. For this semester. Then it's only one more semester of school before heading out into the big, bad, scary world!

While going back to school has been a great learning and growing experience, I do remember the terrible dread of looking for work upon graduation. Many of my classmates are searching for jobs. Some have landed their jobs already with the federal government or some corporation. Wow.

This time around (my third degree), I'm not quite as worried. I'm just so ready to find a place and settle down. Enough of moving around. Wow. When I was younger, I thought I'd want a career in which I could travel around the world, meet inspiring people, you know, the glamourous life. Now, that doesn't seem so appealing to me. Settling down, growing some roots isn't such a bad idea.

Does that mean I'm growing up?

aftermath of essay writing

blurry-eyed and throbbing head, i am

after a sleepless night agonizing over

definitions, concepts, examples

meta-this, meta-that, metadata

all about this, all about that

does it matter what it's all about it

after all is said and done?

connecting the dots

while i was reading up on some work-related documents about taxonomy (hierarchy) of information systems, i had a flashback to my Grade 7 science class.

Mrs. Morrell was our teacher. she was so excited to talk about science to her students. and she always had great memory tricks. to this day, I can recite the order of taxonomy for the biology world: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species. (The memory trick was: Kelly Plays Cards on Friday Generally Speaking).

although i loved learning about science, particularly biology, in elementary and high school, i couldn't quite grasp chemistry and physics as well. so, off to the other extreme, arts -- writing -- i went.

now, it seems i'm swinging back on the pendulum ... to library science, this time.

strangely, though, i have worked in some "library"-type positions ... with a non-profit organization to classify and re-order their resource centre ... with government agencies to file materials ... storing articles and photographs for a newspaper ...

mind you, the career choice of becoming a "librarian" wasn't highly promoted (nor still is) in society.

maybe our profession should be raising its profile more in light of this growing information age ...


maybe that's why i had to go through a journalism degree prior to this training ... hmm...