Big Announcement!

So I've been holding this off for three weeks until my first ultrasound, but here it is: I'm 7 weeks pregnant and due July 2011! I'm just glad to be able to tell people and talk about it. This is my first pregnancy so everything is new for me. I'm glad to be able to apply the things I've learned in Early Childhood Materials class to my own personal experience, and will start reading to the baby soon, probably after I graduate. I know how important it is to start early, even when the baby is in the womb. 

The other big news is that I finally got the results of my graduation portfolio back and I aced it. So I don't have to worry about that, just need to write the Research proposal and papers that go with it and I will be done for the semester. 

*Muppet Wiki*

I'm a day late with this, but I've been swamped with school work,  so I apologize. Well that and I couldn't come up with a good website to share until now, lol. I finished my portfolio Sunday night and submitted it so just waiting for the feedback on it. I spent about half of the day today working on a paper for my reference class which was due tonight, and now my brain is fried and my lower back is killing me from lugging a heavy bookbag and laptop all over the library. So I'm watching Inuyasha episodes and relaxing. I think I might have some ice cream after I finish this post. 

 

So the website of the week is the Muppet Wiki, which I discovered last week while browsing the web.  As they say on the website, it is a "collaborative encyclopedia for everything related to Jim Henson, The Muppet Show, Sesame Street and The Muppets Studio. The wiki format allows anyone to create or edit any article, so we can all work together to create a comprehensive database for fans of the Muppets." I think it is a great idea! I have loved the Muppets ever since I was little, probably 8 or 9, and I grew up watching Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, The Muppet Show, and Labyrinth. I was a little miffed when the Jim Henson Company (JHC) officially sold the rights to the Muppets to Disney (both companies I love watching movies and TV shows from, but they were owned by Disney before unwillingly and it just looks like they sold out). I know they probably did it because Disney is able to market them in ways the JHC couldn't dream of, because they have so much more money, but it kinda seems like they sold out. But anyways, I ended up browsing the wiki for news of the new Muppet movie that should be coming out next year's Christmas Day. So yay, excited to hear that! So take a look around the wiki and enjoy.

Quotes about reading to children

Since I have just finished my portfolio and submitted it, it makes sense to do a book-related quote. It's funny that I was better at writing about Youth Services than I was the reflective essay that actually counted towards graduation. Either I found this quote somewhere along the line while researching something online or it was one from one of my Children's Literature classes. In any case, it is a great quote and one that should be followed. 

• "Read and tell stories to children when they are babies, and they will love the colors and shapes of illustrations and the relaxed mood of your voice. 
  Read and tell stories to children when they are toddlers, and they will shiver at the recognition of animals and listen with delight to rhymes.
  Read and tell stories to children when they are true walkers and talkers, and they will laugh at funny incidents and fall in love with special characters.
  Read and tell stories to children when they are in their first years of school, and they will appreciate the opportunity to retreat from learning and embrace the world of relaxed imagination.
  Read and tell stories to older children and adults and they too, will find themselves transported into the world of image and wonder."--Ken Roberts

Portfolio Drama

I am finally working on my portfolio that is due on Monday. Part of the holdup was that I didn't know how to add content to the digital part of the portfolio, which is the part that the committee grading it will be seeing. Well that and I'm stumped as to which papers to add to it, which was why I hadn't really worked on it earlier. It has five areas of competencies that I have to include: information and its organization, provision of information services, organizational/leadership/management issues in information agencies/services, application of technology and research to evidence-based practice, and lifelong learning/professional development. So far I have two papers up, and need to find three more, plus write a reflective essay on why I have chosen those particular papers, looking at the classes I took and what worked/did not work, and reflecting on the program as a whole (i guess, only part I'm REALLY not sure about). I am hoping to get a look at a friend's portfolio to see how it should look. 

I was finally told by my adviser that I didn't have to find papers for the other nine Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC) competencies but only write a reflection paper on them based on what I learned during my degree. So I have conquered this part of the portfolio first, and have created a pretty decent first draft of that, minus two competencies I just can not think of what papers/class to use.