our first SKYPE and more

Remember the other day when I mentioned that I'm working with a professor in the Education Dept. of Sticks College?--well, I had my first batch of students come this week and it went swimmingly! Not only is it great to have someone else reading the stories, so I can have a break, but it's also been fun encouraging the students and helping them through their anxiety. I was once an Ed. major too, and I remember that fear of being in front of others/being in charge for the first time; even though it's just small kids and their parents, it's still intimidating.

It's also been great to have the students start coming because, until I hire a new children's librarian this spring, I've been doing between 6-7 storytimes a week on top of all my other Director duties, and filling in as people take vacation and get sick, and quiet honestly, you can only burn that candle at both ends for so long before you burn out. It's nice to have fresh energy and someone else trying to figure out the art projects. So, this weekend while I've been bumming around and fighting a cold and drinking lots of tea, I've been able to relax and not worry as much because I know I'll have storytime help and I know the busy week that was last week is behind us. :) On top of everything else, this past week included:

Our call was hands free, but not like this.

A Chinese New Year program run by the Asian American Student Union of Sticks College. Kids K-5 came for a story, snacks, a game, and some art that included learning simple calligraphy and origami.

We SKYPED with author Susan Orlean about her book Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend.         

When I was on vacation in North/South Carolina this past October I'd been tooling around on some websites for work and noticed something about skyping with authors so I clicked it and within the week I'd received an email from both Susan Orlean, and Carol Anshaw, both who offered to SKYPE with our library for FREE!  We will be SKYPING with Carol Anshaw at our March book group about her book Carry the One: A Novel.