True Confessions: Who has the time?

Programs, True Confessions

Our team met last week to update each other on what has been going on in our various libraries and in the programs we are running.  The consensus seems to be that we are all very busy.

Surprise surprise.

One of the reasons I wanted to do this project was because I don’t have the time to dedicate this work in my “everyday” work life.  I had hoped that the ILEAD U project would give me the push I needed to incorporate more technology into my programs.

And to be fair, it has.  I do STEM programming regularly, on top of the Robot Test Lab programs I run.  I have been successful in this endeavor.

BUT

I’m still not 100% there.  How much should we be doing?  How much should I know about this stuff?

I don’t have time to sit around and play with robotics kits.  When I walk into a program, I am just as green as the kids who are testing the kits.  We are discovering together.

This is something I am coming to terms with.  The idea of “co-creation” and “co-learning” is a new idea to me.  I have always felt like I needed to be an expert on something before I could present it to the kids I work with.  Because of the time constraints, I cannot do that.  I open up the class with a disclaimer: I am not an expert here.  We are going to learn together.

This is good and healthy for kids.  I truly believe that we need to be self motivated to learn.  Kids need to own the responsibility of learning.  And I need to be okay with not knowing everything.

It is all a challenge.  I don’t feel like I have enough time to get EVERYTHING out of these kits.  But, on the other hand, no one said I needed to.  We are experimenting, growing, changing.  Our libraries are trying new things and we are not experts.

So as we come to the close of this experiment, I can take that away from this project.  We need not be scared to try.  We will likely not have enough time to do all that we want to do, but we can put one foot in front of the other and give it our best shot.

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