Day 9

 Daily hours: 3 1/2 

Total hours: 58

Today I started off in the library by taping more books. The spines of the books are now starting to have overlapping colors. In the photo above some books are marked with green (poetry), red (primary sources), and orange (general history). This process is proving to be one of the most time-consuming ones I have done so far so I am just hoping I can make a good dent into the collection for the rest of the week. I want to make sure these books can start to be cataloged and become easy to find for many students. 

After about an hour of taping Laura Ostrowsky came into the library to check out the collection and catch up. She used to be my dorm surrogate in Gulick so it was great to see her back on campus again. She had some good recommendations about Native Americans in relation to ecology and land. One of her favorite books is called Changes in the Land and we talked about the use of the word Indian and how despite books using outdated terms they can still be very valuable. We have it in the collection currently and I think it could be a great option for some science courses here. 

I went back to taping for about 20 minutes when Pete Southworth walked in! I had been hoping to meet with him for a while and it was great to talk about the English 10 curriculum with him. He mentioned that he had taught Sherman Alexie in the past and his students seemed to understand it a lot more than There There. We agreed that while There There is a great book it is very difficult for students to keep track of the 12 characters and all the new information. Pete thought that it would be a great option for the spring term when students had developed their reading skills further but maybe starting with something more approachable like Sherman Alexie in the fall. This conversation reinforced the ideas of why it would be beneficial to break up the information about Native people throughout the school year. Not only is it better for the teachers but also better for the students so they don't feel bombarded with tons of Indigenous studies all at once. I personally think it is good idea so that students don't learn that Native people are something Proctor talks about in the fall and then never again. 

As I was finishing my conversation with Pete, Melanie Maness walked in with An to return some books she had grabbed earlier in the spring term. One of them was a book I recommend all the time, All the Real Indians Died Off and 20 Other Myths about Native Americans. The other book is called Winter Counts and she is thinking about using it to replace or pair with something in C&C. I am going to take some time to read parts of the book and get a sense of whether it is a good choice for the course. We chatted about C&C some more and then talked about Athletes in Literature. I made sure to recommend the book Undefeated which is about Jim Thorpe because Heidi really thinks it is a great option. I read the introduction to the book and it feels really approachable with the narrative voice as well as having pictures throughout. Mel agreed that it could be a good option for the fall in Althetes in Lit since students like reading about the sport during its season. 

Once everyone had trickled out of the library I typed up a summary of the conversations I had and the main takeaways. This is a document that I continue to update for Lori and Heidi. I really enjoyed getting some conversations going with teachers which will hopefully lead into some of the end of the year faculty and department meetings. I chatted with Heidi about things I still hope to get done for the rest of my senior project. Once I finished my hours I headed to the dining hall and a couple teachers came up to me to compliment me on the work I have been doing in the library. These cudos were very sweet and there were a few teachers that said they would reach out to talk soon. I know that this time of year is pretty hectic and so I really appreciated teachers reading my emails and being interested in what I was doing.