2/25/2015 Workshop Federal Way Library Klarissa

Location: Federal Way Public Library

Time: 5-7

Date: 2/25/2015

We were all in the same room again, and the kids were mostly doing homework and reading. We couldn’t do a craft anyway. Brad and I played with the infant and her older sister since wifi was down. Other kids left to play in the children’s area.

At storytime the boys from last week were there and  ready to listen, but the girl was not. Instead, she was quietly reading out loud to herself from a book. When we moved to a different area to read, I asked if she just didn’t like the story. She said she didn’t want to listen, because she didn’t understand Spanish. And yet, she replied to the librarian,“sí, comprendo español.” I’ve also seen her interact with her mother almost exclusively in Spanish. Questioning her on this, she said that she didn’t fully understand it and it was dumb. I only said Spanish isn’t dumb, and dropped it.

This is an interesting moment for me, because I didn’t know how to respond. How do I create a space where I only speak English, but support and emphasize the children’s Spanish and Latino identities, as a wonderful part of them, not anything to be ashamed of? 

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. 

2/18/15, 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

2/11/2015 Federal Way Branch Library Workshop Willa

Federal Way Branch Library

February 11^th, 2015

3:30 PM – 8:00 PM

            I brought my car to UW in order to make sure that we had enough room for all of the participants who needed a ride to KCLS. Ivette drove the U-car because though Klarissa and I both completed the certification, we were too nervous to drive the car. Not only was the car new and something I had no experience driving, I was also nervous about having children in the car and added confusion from the number of people in the car as well. We left a little late, but we were able to make it to the library on time. We only had one girl and one baby in the early literacy program. I chose to stay and help with the kids during the tour of the library because I want to make Valentine’s cards for my family and do some crafts. After the tour was over and the children’s story time started, I moved my crafts project into the adult digital literacy space. I made paper cranes for all of the participants while Ivette gave the lesson. I’m not sure that I fully engaged with the discussion, but I did notice some distinct differences between Ivette and Sarah’s teaching styles. Ivette, I think, was much more discursive and had the women teach each other more than Ivette teaching them. I think that is was much more open in terms of a class. Ivette’s style let it be an open forum where people could discuss and Ivette was just the discussion leader. Sarah’s teaching style seems to be much more structured. Sarah still has the women contribute, but Sarah is definitely moving with a purpose of teaching x or y. There was also a lengthy discussion in the car on the way back to Seattle about a man who had come into the room towards the end of the class. I was not in the room so I do not have much to say about the matter, but it seemed to me by way of the discussion that it was a very disrupting force.

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. 

2/4/15, 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?

 

2/4/2015 Federal Way Library Branch Workshop Willa

Federal Way Branch Library (KCLS)

February 4^th, 2015

3:30 PM – 7:00 PM

            Before Ivette, Klarissa, and I headed to Federal Way, we stopped by Casa Latina in order to pick up Sarah and to pick up some of the materials for the program. From there we left for Federal Way. We hit rush hour traffic, which was annoying and kind of stressful because we were starting to run short on time. The GPS said that we would be a couple minutes late and we had to call Edna at one point in order to let them know that we wouldn’t be on time. In the car, we discussed the plan for the day and talked about Klarissa’s essay briefly.

            When we reached the library, Edna had already gotten started on introducing the online library catalog. She had an interpreter with her because she doesn’t speak Spanish. The children were in the room next door. There were too many babies for just Ivette and Klarissa to take care of so I started helping out. However, the young baby I was taking care of could not stop crying without her mother. I decided that it would be better if the baby stayed with her mother and I would help out by entertaining the baby so the mother could concentrate on the lesson. It worked with moderate success. As time went on the baby could sit on my lap without crying, but she liked knowing where her mother was.

            Ivette and I left early around 6:30 PM so that we could go to a poetry reading by Sherman Alexie at Town Hall.

2/4/15 Federal Way Library Sarah

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

Overview:
The Federal Way branch library was a nice and busy building. Edna gave a very informative overview of library programs at the Federal Way branch. I thought it would be distracting to have an interpreter, but I think it went very well.

The women from Federal Way who attended were an interesting group. The three women in front who seemed like they were used to a formal educational environment - they had notebooks for notes, asked many questions, etc. A different woman seemed very interested in activities for her children, so I imagine that was a motivating factor for her participation.

I had planned some group discussion activities with the idea that the women from Casa and the women from Federal Way could get to talking with each other, but they were reticent to form groups with each other. (I even asked twice....) One woman from Casa was quite distracted by her teething baby, so I understand she wasn't able to fully concentrate on discussion! Another woman from Casa had a laptop with crashing Windows (blue screen; auto restart; blue screen; auto restart) so she was worried and distracted as well. Since my Windows crashed recently, I sympathize! I wanted to spend more time with her to help her troubleshoot, but the group was...well, not big, but big enough...that I couldn't get sucked into open-ended computer troubleshooting land.  Another participant wanted to use her laptop, but couldn't find a good place to plug it in. Since we only used the technology a very short time, I just suggested she use a tablet. I'll bring my power cable next time.

I was surprised that the discussion about finding info only brought up Google. I had thought participants would bring up finding jobs, or information about American institutions/agencies. The discussion evolved in a fairly interesting direction, though. Participants had good insights into the problem of credibility -- one women said, "our kids believe everything they read on the internet. What can we say?" So we discussed evaluating credibility: figuring out the author and their intent, whether they're presenting their opinion, or facts they've researched.

1/6/2015 Federal Way Library Visit Willa

Time and Location:

Federal Way Library Reflection

January 6^th, 2015

8:10 AM to 12:15 PM

            Ivette and I drove to the Federal Way Library in her tiny, but loud, old VW bug. In between the loud vrooms, we talked about the plan for the meeting with Catherine Lord and Edna. Our approach, as it has been throughout the project, is to start where we are, which means that instead of bringing any kind of definite plans to the table, we wanted to have an open discussion about what the library could offer and what we could offer in return in order to create a successful partnership. Our only steadfast requirements are a workspace for the people, childcare for their children, the requisite technology, and volunteers to help.

            The library has a beautiful space with large windows that allow viewers to see the forestry outside. It is also a large space with many computers and books of course. After we arrived, we looked at the meeting rooms where we would be holding the workshops as well as providing educational activities for the children.

I think that the future workshops at the Federal Way Branch library will be incredibly successful because of the enthusiasm of Catherine and Edna. Furthermore, they had a lot of different avenues for spreading the word about the February programs.

            Afterwards, Ivette and I headed back to Seattle and stopped by a coffee shop to discuss the blog and reflection posting for the class. We also talked about a way organize the posts using tagging.