The library: my home away from home

Yesterday's excellent post You have always been my safe home: the school library  by Lia Fisher Jansoz on the Knowledge Quest blog put me in mind of this story I often told back in my days as a library consultant:

As an elementary library media specialist for the Aramco schools in Saudi Arabia, one of my favorite students was a Nigerian boy named Chinedu. Big for his age, talkative, focused on his own agenda and relentlessly cheerful, he drove his regular classroom teachers crazy. As a result, Chinedu was often sent to the library for a little timeout for the three years I knew him.

Chinedu really was a pest. He always wanted to visit at the times I was the busiest. He needed watching – his silliness could be a real bother to everyone in the library. But he also liked work. As a result, I kept on hand a Chinedu –do list of small jobs he could work at during his frequent visits that kept him productively occupied. Things would go smoothly for weeks and then Chinedu would do something outrageous like purposely dumping the cart of books he was shelving on the floor just to see reactions. And I would go home wondering why I even bothered with him. 

But late one afternoon, Chinedu reminded me of why I bothered. Out of the blue, he approached my desk, grinned, and in his melodious accent declared, “Ahh, Meester Johnson. Dees library. Eet is my hoom away from hoom.” And I was reminded again that the library is often the only place in school that is comfortable for many, many students.

As I look back on my 40+ year career as a school librarian/library supervisor, I take the greatest satisfaction in knowing I created or helped create places for children in schools where they felt safe, welcome, and affirmed. Yes, I hope the library program helped kids learn to read better, do thoughtful research, and learn some technology skills, but giving students a "third place" was by far the most important role.

So on this Library Day/Week/Moth, my wish is that my still working library colleagues continue to create spaces that are the "home away from home" for their students.

More laws of presentations (From Machines Are the Easy Part)

From Machines Are the Easy Part; People Are the Hard Part. 
Illustrations by Brady Johnson

 40. Second Law of Presentations: Audiences would rather see your face than your backside.

It is amazing how all the sins made by those using overhead transparencies have made the transition to electronic slides quite nicely.

Small illegible text and poorly reproduced cartoons are still popular in PowerPoint presentations.

But it is the overhead of solid text read in a drone by presenter who turns to face the screen that has really ported over well.

Unless you are Jennifer Lopez, your backside will probably not contribute to your message in a powerful way.

41. Third Law of Presentations: A misspelling in 48 point type is more noticeable than a misspelling in 12 point type.

The slide read:

Somebody trusted a spelling checker.

I am a terrible proofreader of my own work. Thank heavens for editors, secretaries and spouses. If you do make a grammatical error, adopt the Navajo blanket weavers’ philosophy that things perfect are an insult to the gods.

42. Fourth Law of Presentations: Be consistent.

This one is tough. Audiences will not understand on a conscious level why a presentation is bothersome, but it will be if elements within it are inconsistent.

Keep it simple. Throughout the presentation:

• Use the same fonts and colors for headings and text.
• Never use more than one sans serif font (headings) and one serif font (body).
• Use the same size font for each heading and vary the text size as little as possible.
• Start the heading and the text in the exact same place on every slide. (Use guides to help do this.)
• Left or right justify everything. Centering text is weak and hard to read.

Try this with one of your slide shows. You will be amazed at how much more professional you’ll look.

 43. Fifth Law of Presentations: Beware of some compliments.

I used to be pleased, but now I am worried when the questions from workshop attendees go like this:

• How did you make them there bullet points fly in?
• How’d ya get the program to make that funny noise?
• What fonts did you use?
• Do you like Macs or Wind’ers? 

These comments tell me the group did not get the message I intended about technology use. They were paying more attention to the slide show than to me. I’d created my own little digital Frankenstein. Don’t do it.

My most worrisome compliment, quite sincerely given, was: “Doug, just watching you set up was the best part of your presentation.”

It’s hard not to get a big head.

Achieving a "healthy" balance

Like many folks, both my weight and alcohol consumption went up during the past year of COVID restrictions.I haven't completely fallen apart -  I would be in normal BMI range were I only a couple inches taller and my wine drinking would follow CDC guidelines were my two glasses the size of Big Gulp containers. But I feel better when I am about 10 or 15 pounds lighter than I am right now.

I don't like tight fitting clothes and I hate to buy new ones of a larger size. I don't like feeling that my drinking is an addiction rather than a habit or preference. I know that I need to be in better condition if I want to enjoy, not just survive, hiking at the Boy Scouts' Philmont Ranch this summer with my grandson. (55 miles of backpacking at relatively high altitudes.) So I have plenty of motivation to improve my physical condition.

I think I've struck on a rather clever plan. A couple weeks ago, I decided to give up alcohol until I lost 15 pounds. If that takes two weeks, two months, or two years, or if I am on the wagon for the rest of my life, so be it. Quite honestly, I have not missed my Two-Buck-Chuck. Sipping water instead of vino, works. Yes, I am practicing moderation in my food intake as well.

While I've not dropped much weight over the past couple weeks, I am certainly more alert in the evenings, stay up reading later, and sleep much better. And I am just happy knowing that I have at least a bit of control over my life.

One of my favorite observations comes from Coach John Wooden who said (I may be paraphrasing) "The two most important words in life are love and balance." I will probably never be a teetotaler. I may never shrink to my ideal BMI. I know sure as hell I will never run a marathon or have six-pack abs. But I do believe I can summit Mount Baldy this July strongly enough not to embarrass myself. 

A simple goal and a simple plan for achieving it. Is that really all it might take? Perhaps if you strive for balance rather than perfection.