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.

1/28/2015 Casa Latina Workshop Willa

Casa Latina

January 28^th, 2014

4:15 PM – 7:30 PM

            This week, we had an extraordinary amount of children (4 babies, 4 older children), but we also had more help. Liz Mills, a PhD candidate, as well as Elan (I don’t remember her last name) helped with the children. One boy, who had attended the program before, has difficulty being away from his mother and those he is emotionally attached to. Thus, one of us had to pay specific attention to him consistently throughout the night to prevent loud crying. I spent the time holding him and after he calmed down, playing games with him. He liked to hold on to various items and usually distracted him. For example, we have soft letters that we showed him that he held onto for most of the night. When I got tired from holding him, we sat on the floor and bowled. We used paper cardboard tubes and a relevantly small ball to knock them over. We also stacked these tubes – standing them up and stacking them on top of each other. He also liked the finger puppets.

            He tended to get most upset when people came in and out of the room. I think this is probably because he thought his mother was returning to pick him up. Also, a smaller baby started crying and her mother came into feed her. He was very upset when the other baby cried and even more upset when she got her mother while he did not.

            I also had an interesting conversation with Liz Mills about the apps that I downloaded onto the iPad for the children. We started to talk about my reasoning and how the apps can aid in the intellectually development of the children. Hopefully, I will be able to talk with her more in the future.