Week One Part Two 7 1/2 Habits

Teaching/Mentoring is the easiest and strongest habit for me. I was a university lecturer for almost 20 years in stateside and European schools. After receiving my MLS 30 years ago, the bottom dropped out library funding and one couldn't find a job anywhere near a reference desk. I ended up with a second master's out of necessity and ended up teaching. That was a journey of amazing and exponential growth for me because of what the students brought to the classes. I discovered that no matter how much prep I had done, I always came away with new resources and skills given to me by my students. My last 8 years have been in a public library in reference -- the best of both worlds. Mini-teaching, no homework to grade. I am involved in mentoring in the library system and public teaching for patrons.

Describing my writing instrument for the majority of my years of teaching will clearly demonstrate why technology is my weakest area in the 7 and 1/2 habits. I wrote with a field typewriter that my father brought home from Viet Nam and bequeathed to me for my college career. It was tiny, extremely lightweight and designed to be carried in a field pack during war. It had minuscule keys that took the strength of an Olympian athlete to strike. The use of 2 carbons was effective, 3 carbons was pushing it. Never mind that I had to retype my syllabi AND all my handouts for every class for every semester. Social scientists say that the formative years of learning influence the attitudes of the learner throughout life. I am ready to stop thinking using ancient, painstaking pathways and "embrace the technology boom".