At the Half Way Mark!!

This week ended with a scavenger hunt addressing their PARP theme Trains.  This is the first scavenger hunt I have developed at the library and it was very successful.  We had eleven children (that's good for us) take part in the hunt during the three hours we are open on Saturday.  One of the areas that we had the children looking in was the historical room where they could see pictures of the trains that use to run through the area in the early 1900's.  I had only assisted in the room once but knew the resource I was looking for, I wasn't sure how to find specific resources in the room so I learned their color coded method of locating information for patrons.  The children enjoyed looking at the pictures of the trains in our community.
At the end of this week I added the hours I have completed so far and found I am over 100 hours completed already.  I know I will be spending more than the required 180 that we need since I plan to stay with the library as a volunteer after my internship is over.  I want to help with the Summer Reading Program and continue with my character education story hour.  I will continue these activities on a volunteer basis just like my preschool story hour.  The children have a spring break and we are planning to provide science based fun for that week.  I also am planning activities for every Saturday, encouraging families to include the library in their Saturday plans.
I looked over my goals and objectives for this semester and was pleased to see that I have addressed half of my goals.  One of my leadership goals was to develop resources that I could use for collaboration with teachers in a school library setting, and I have acquired and organized many resource in a PortaPortal format.
I also wanted to build resources to advocate to administrators the value of having a library media center fully staffed and equipped.  While I have a few resources collected, it is difficult to advocate for resources with the current economic situation.  I have collected information addressing the ways a library media specialist can address standards through collaboration with the core teachers.  One general skill that I have developed rather strongly is technology.  I have learned how to create a movie maker video, save photos and videos to Facebook and You Tube, create an avatar and participate in a Skype conference call.  I have learned much of the operating system, Polaris,  used at the library and can assist patrons in most functions.  I have not tried processing a new card but can perform most other requests assisting the staff when it gets busy.  Lastly, I have been actively partnering with the school assisting with their Parents as Reading Partners program implemented in March.  I have been working with a team to collect donations and support from community businesses in support of their Read to Feed program utilizing the Heifer International program.  I am also supporting their Character Education program with a story hour and activities along with a resource listing of books addressing the character value of the month.
I am pleased to see how much I have learned during the last month and a half.  I also am eager to continue working towards addressing the rest of the goals set forth at the beginning of this program.