2/18/2015 Federal Way Library Workshop Klarissa

Location: Federal Way Public Library

Time 5-7

Date: 2/18/2015

We were all in one room today, kids and adults. The planned theme was “Using Technology with Kids” as a family workshop, but the women had specific things they wanted to work on.

There were four boys around 6-8 years old present, which was a bit of a pickle as we had only three iPad minis. We tried to encourage them to share, to play games together, such as the word guessing game on the Osmo. The played the word game for a little bit, but then one broke off to play the chef game with the Tiggly, then another wanted to play that game and soon everyone wanted to play that game on their own tablet. It was not as easy to make that a work together game, and so one boy was left out, upset. Although Brad tried for a while, for some reason he was unable to get the other tablets to download games. So I let the other boy use my Surface tablet, though the only game I have is Jetpack Joyride. That started a commotion over everyone now wanting to play that game. It’s never fair with children, is it? I could probably say the same with adults though, we want what they have, not what we have.

Anyway, that didn’t last long as it was then storytime. I sat and listened, amazed with the librarian’s ability to keep the attention of the boys, who were not wanting to stay still. I talked to the storytime librarian for a bit afterwards about children’s programs, the ones she runs and the research she’s done with education. Meanwhile, Brad was playing with the boys in the children’s section, running around on all fours, which was funny to see.

2/11/2015 Federal Way Library Workshop Klarissa

Location: Federal Way Public Library

Time: 5-7

Date: 2/11/2015

Today, there were only two children, one older kid and an infant. Another kid, middle-school age, was doing homework in the back of the adult room. We had planned to make Valentine’s cards, and started to make a few after some negotiation with our one attendee, who wanted to read.

Again we had to move into the adult room at 6, time for storytime. There were a few kids in the children’s section of the library who gathered for storytime, which is good because I had felt bad that the librarian had shown up and there were no kids with us who would sit through storytime. The infant was not feeling well and fussy, the other was reading on her own. Since there was not much for Willa and I to do, we made cards in the back of the adult room. 

2/25/15 Federal Way Branch Library Workshop Ivette

Describe Context –The youth and adults were all in the same room today.  We had 4 adults and and a total of 8 pre-teens and a one year old.  Library staff were Edna, Jennifer, Teresa and David (translator).  Sonia was there to provide bilingual storytime the last 30 mins (this time instead of the storytime starting at 6:00 - Sonia waited til 6:30 to do the storytime).  Brad, Klarissa and I were there on behalf of the class.

           

Date:2/25/15

Name: Ivette Bayo Urban

List things that happened today:

Sarah and Willa were not going to be joining us today as both had other personal items to tend to.  

The library was planning the full two hours.  First hour as demonstrate e-readers and the final hour as exploring time and 1:1.

In the news:

Today was our last day at the Federal Way Regional Branch.
For March we will be at Casa Latina.

List Action Items from workshop:

• Sarah updating the March Flyers
• Once she does Ivette to print and bring to Casa
• Brad to upload them to latinatech website

  Things to look up, check out and explore:

•  Prepare for Latina Tech to be at Women Who Rock  
• Coordinate Month of April activities at Douglass-Truth
  

Describe an important an evocative social interaction that happened today:

One of the youth, who attends middle school, reached out to me to ask about some math homework.  I felt this was an amazing thing because even though I had only interacted with her briefly in the previous two weeks, she recalled me saying I had taught math.  I felt this was one of those unanticipated wonders that can happen when you get people from different backgrounds together conviviendo.

Describe successes.

At the end of our time Edna did an oral assessment.  Her question was on a scale from 1 to 5 (1 being least comfortable/knowledgeable and 5 being the most) - how would you rate what you knew about the library before these workshops.  On average  (including the students, youth and adults in the room) the pre workshops rating was like 2.  She then asked the question again now that we have gone through the LatinaTech workshops at Federal Way branch and all the people rated they had increased in knowledge of information resources the library offers.  I would say on average they went up 2 points in feeling they had a better idea of what libraries and libraries could assist with. 

A few things to note.  The UW students that present today were not in the MLIS program.  Two of the women attended all 4 workshops at the federal way library.  One woman attended 3 of the 4 workshops at federal way and serves as our Casa Latina mentor/leader.  The other woman was new but had participated in the women's advisory at the start of this project.  

I feel additionally that I feel the program was successful because outreach was more than bi-directional.  Students engaging with community and libraries, libraries engaging with community partner and UW, UW engaging with youth/pre-teens.  The space was full of talking, laughing, questions, trouble shooting, movement, food and in a word comfort.  I feel that very quickly we all felt welcomed and at home at the federal way library with the resources, space and people. 

Describe a failure.  What fell through the cracks?

Failure to follow up with the women from Casa Latina in a consistent manner.  I had not emailed or phoned the women from Casa Latina - the forms of outreach I have been using (because of time constraints) has been promoting it on the Latina Tech facebook and the CL fb site.  While Casa Latina members have been promoting it with members.  Library also did promoting to their outreach sources. 

What surprised me the most?

How having a dying phone (that needs to be recharged) really impacts our abilities to explore in an environment that is comfortable to us. 

Reflections

“Because there is more information on any given topic that anyone can store in their head, there is added incentive for us to talk among ourselves about the media we consume…consumption has become a collective process…. None of us can know everything; each of us knows something; and we can put the pieces together if we pool our resources and combine our skills (2006a: 3-4)  
(Jenkins, H. as cited in Balsamo, 2011)".    ------> I added emphasis.

Despite the logistical challenges (and granted opportunity - thanks Pipeline for offering the vehicle) of driving to Federal Way and coordinating people - I am going to miss going there.  Edna (and all the staff, translators, and volunteers that attended the Fed Way sessions form KCLS were enthusiastic, welcoming and greeted all of us with love and humility while sharing an understanding of additional resources.  

Anne Balsamo in her book designing culture writes:

“knowledge creation happens across diverse settings including formal institutions,  and through informal social and technological practices.” (p. 154)

“A successful project of transformative research (....I would add of community/convivencia...)  involves creating the conditions whereby participants explicitly understand and commit to the goal of creating shared rules, beliefs, and norms.”

I feel that for our time at Federal Way regional branch, we were successful in creating shared rules, beliefs and norms and ensuring that everyone brought something to the table.  We made learning a collective process.  Additionally, each of the partners pooled our resources together to combine our skills to make this experience worthy of the investment.  

 

2/18/15, Federal Way Library, Freddy Mora

Location: Federal Way Public Library
Date: Feb. 18th, 2015
Time: 5: 00 PM-7:00 PM

 

Reflection:

It was nice to be back at the Federal Way Public Library. As always, the staff members were very welcoming. Edna goes out of her way to make everyone feel at home there, and I notice how this branch is a community of its own.  It was great talking to Edna and hearing more about her background. Also nice to hear she is a UW alumni, and from the I-School! She sounds like she identifies well with the work that Casa Latina is doing, and I am sure she is one who would love to keep on partnering with this project.

 Throughout the work shop, I walked around and observed how people were interacting with one another, and with the resources that were available. Edna was working with a mom and daughter in ensuring she was knowledgeable of the free resources available to her, form scholarships to academic tutoring. The mom was very excited to hear all of that, especially. It was nice to see the kids playing on the tablets and interacting with the games. They really enjoyed a counting game that had you count the ingredients you needed (mushrooms, carrots, etc.) and upon getting a math problem right, you completed the recipe. Then they headed over to story time, which they were hesitant at first, for they were having too much fun with the tablets! It was a good chill day where people got to do their thing and ask any questions they had, and have us come in and help them find an answer J

2/18/15 Federal Way Branch Library Workshop Brad

Federal Way Branch Library
February 18th, 2015

This was my first time going with the group to help out at Federal Way Library. It made me sad that I had to miss the past two weeks due to class conflicts, but thankfully school winded down. I had no idea Federal Way was so far away from UW (I'm not familiar with the surrounding Seattle area just yet), but it gave the team plenty of time to talk, laugh and get to know each other during the car ride.

This workshop had a dis-proportionally large amount of children compared to adults, which was  a first for me. Fortunately I enjoy working with the children, so I appreciated this opportunity to just play educational games and laugh with the boys for a few hours.

We started playing iPad games with some of the boys, and they enjoyed the interactive word game we brought. I was impressed when they said they wanted to play on the setting with the most difficult words! I believe challenges like this are the best way to learn new things, even if they can be frustrating at times. Some of the words were difficult for even me!

I have to say this was by far my most enjoyable workshop to participate in. Playing with "Where's Waldo?" books and sitting in on (Spanish!) story time made me feel like a kid again, and the children's laughter was contagious the whole time. Here's to a productive last workshop with Federal Way!

2/11/2015 Federal Way Branch Library Workshop Klarissa

Location: Federal Way Public Library

Time: 5-7

Date: 2/11/2015

Today, there were only two children, one older kid and an infant. Another kid, middle-school age, was doing homework in the back of the adult room. We had planned to make Valentine’s cards, and started to make a few after some negotiation with our one attendee, who wanted to read.

Again we had to move into the adult room at 6, time for storytime. There were a few kids in the children’s section of the library who gathered for storytime, which is good because I had felt bad that the librarian had shown up and there were no kids with us who would sit through storytime. The infant was not feeling well and fussy, the other was reading on her own. Since there was not much for Willa and I to do, we made cards in the back of the adult room. 

At the end there was an interesting scenario, as we were packing to leave. A gentleman walked into the room, towards the back without saying anything, grabbed coffee, then asked what the event was as he left the room. I heightened my awareness when he walked in, but thought little of it until Ivette engaged a conversation in the car on this with all of us and asked me what my thoughts were. Mostly since he hadn't said anything when he entered, I was watching him, trying to figure out what he wanted. But I was on guard, as this was a man entering into a space filled with women and children. 

We want this to be a space welcoming to everyone, so this is an interesting thing to think about, how we judge those who enter as belonging or not. 

2/4/2015 Federal Way Library Workshop Klarissa

Location: Federal Way Public Library

Time: 5-7

Date: 2/4/2015

Today was the first day at our partner libraries instead of at Casa Latina. It was a bit longer drive to Federal Way than we thought but we got there only a few minutes late. There were a couple older children, and three under-ones, though one would not tolerate being away from mom. Is there a way to be less scary to kids? I’m starting to feel like I must be scary.

I thought the kids might make masks today out of paper plates, and they seemed excited about the idea, but did not get very far, though they did color up some pretty plates. They got distracted and wanted to run around, I guess they do sit all day at school. Although we were not the best planned at getting snacks, and then getting everything moved out of the room, which was otherwise reserved at 6, it did go okay. The story time was wonderful, I sat through it with one of the little ones. The older kids did not want to sit still, and ran off but I was happy to see that they had found another corner of the library to read on their own.

I am always in awe of how kids can make friends so easily, or at least find a way to have fun with people they’ve never met. 

2-11-15 Federal Way, KCLS, Sarah White

Federal Way Branch Library

February 11^th, 2015

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Overview:

We only had two participants in the library tour. One participant told me, though, (paraphrasing) that it was very informative and that she never knew the library had so much to offer. I think that even though only two people received the information firsthand, if they share it with their social networks the information will be spread to more people.

For the second hour, Ivette led a discussion of staying in touch on the computer, which four people participated in. There was a lively discussion that ranged from "how young is too young to give your child a cell phone?" to "making calls with wi-fi that don't use data." Participants gave and received advice, viewpoints and opinions. The group interaction was great to see. An hour is a short amount of time, so there wasn't time to get hands-on with the tech, but I think everyone thought about it critically. 

Ivette can relate to many of the worries the women have as mothers, and I think that created a feeling of unity. We spoke of the many ways that we are different in terms of ethnicity, gender, and other in-group/out-group affiliations. But as a woman who has chosen not to have children, I notice that I am alienated from many other women my age or older who identify first and foremost as mothers, and who may have a hard time understanding why someone would not choose that identity.

One student brought up that she wanted to learn more about Word. Perhaps we can give her time to practice it next time, and I'll also show her the GCF aprende libre tutorials. She was also concerned about what her children were looking up online. While adding web-filtering to certain user accounts on the computer seemed difficult, I did show her how to look at the browser's history.

2/4/15, Federal Way Library, Freddy Mora

Location: Federal Way Public Library
Date: Feb. 4th, 2015
Time: 5: 00 PM-7:00 PM

Reflection:

It was interesting to check out another Seattle Public Library (or in this case, a Federal One). I have only been to the downtown and University District Locations. Every staff member was welcoming. The place was quite large, and very well maintained and organized.

The presentation that Edna and the interpreter gave was very informative. The women seemed to enjoy it. I even learned some new things myself, like how you can request a book to be transferred to a different branch for you! I liked looking around the rooms and seeing how eager the women were to learn. Sarah gave a great presentation, and allowed for time to have the women interact with tables and follow alongside with her. I was curious to know from what areas the other women (who didn’t drive down with us) were from. What topics were they hoping to have covered? Are they interested in future workshops?