Brentwood Library Internship Week Eight

On Monday, I did the usual helping with the story times, but we were a little short that day, so instead of sitting in to watch the story times, I returned out to the main children's department and watched over the desk. Being on the desk really doesn't make me nervous, like it did towards the beginning of the internship. I've grown accustomed to dealing with the public, whether it's helping them to find a book or handing out the prizes to the kids for the summer reading program. I actually really look forward to it now!

Tuesday was much more low-key. There were two librarians sitting at the desk, so I went back into the office to work on the remaining Toddler Tub plan. All I had left to do was print out the pictures for the Old MacDonald activity, cut them out and tape them to popsicle sticks for the children to hold while they sing the song. However, this was much more difficult than I thought it was going to, so it took me the rest of the day to print them off. There was some sort of miscommunication between the computer and the printer because every time I tried to print something out, it would expand the image so that it was the full page. No matter what I did, this kept happening. So after finding some help from my supervisor, I found just how useful Microsoft Word is when trying to resize images.

I was so very stressed about Wednesday because this was when the children's department's Olympics took place. I was in charge of setting up because I got there at ten, my supervisor wasn't planned to start until 12:30 and the Olympics started at 2:00. One thing that made me so stressed about this was there was a group in the meeting room, where the majority of the events were taking place, from 11:00 to 1:30. So, between 10:00 and 11:00, I got as much set up as I possibly could, while not getting anything in the way for the group that would be in the meeting room. I was in charge of the kids aged kindergarten to second grade and this was another reason I was so nervous; I'd never been in charge of kids or even really interacted with them before.

I had to come up with two events for my group and I wish I had picked simpler events because I felt like my part was a complete disaster. For the physical event, I picked a game where the kids had to put a clothes pin under their chin and drop it into a cup. Whoever got five in a cup first was the winner. There were a lot more kids in my group than I had originally planned on, so it felt really disorganized and scattered. The second game that I picked was a mind game called Big and Little. The kids were supposed to sit in a circle and one person had to say "Big" or "Little," but if they said "Big," they would have to make a little motion with their hands and arms, but if they said "Little," they would have to make a big motion with their hands and arms, and then pass it off to someone else in the circle. If they got it wrong, then they were out. Well, this was a disaster because I had to explain the game several times, but they still did not understand the concept.

After the game was over, the kids went on a little parade with medals and flags through the library, then returned to the meeting room for a cup of water and a popsicle.