Month: June 2008

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This Really Frosts my Cupcake

Posted on by Andy Burkhardt

This news story from CNN about a teacher in Indiana who was fired for using the book Freedom Writers to get her students excited about English really got me angry.  I found myself yelling at the moving picture of the school board president.  She said that the teacher, Connie, was sending “students a very poor message, in that, if you’re told no, do it any way; if it feels good do it.”  It seems to me that that is just not the case.  Connie was standing up for what was right no matter what the consequences.  I think that is an excellent message to be sending today’s students.

The teacher Connie has been teaching for 27 years and 149 out of the 150 students she was teaching got permission from their parents to read the book.  This is a clear case of censorship and narrow-mindedness on the part of the school board.  Is anyone one else aggravated by this?

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Real Live Dinos

Posted on by Andy Burkhardt

This blog isn’t named Information Tyrannosaur simply because I am at the top of the info food chain.  I also have a deep and abiding love of dinosaurs.  This is evidenced by a very kewl show that my girlfriend took me to a month or so ago.  It was called Walking with Dinosaurs and it is put out by the BBC.  The pictures speak for themselves:

dinosaurs walking about

Life size t-rex

I reccommend this show highly to anyone.  My parents even went when it was in St. Paul.  The dinos were very lifelike and the way they made flowers and foliage was exceedingly creative.  It is the closest we have to seeing real dinos.

For now………….!

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Graduation and Job

Posted on by Andy Burkhardt

Andy graduating

I have not been posting much on my job search and graduation, mainly because I have been really busy with both.  I graduated on May 18th (that’s me above saying a few words of thanks), and it was a great ceremony.  I only attended the small SLIS ceremony.  The school wide one would have been far too long and boring.  Our professor Stephen Paling was our keynote speaker and he did an amazing job.  I am glad that I went.  The whole thing kind of gave me a feeling of closure.  I am now a full-fledged Master of Arts in Library and Information Science.

In addition, I am now gainfully employed.  I have just accepted a position as the Emerging Technologies Librarian at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont.  I am really excited about this position as it is a really good fit for my interests.  I will continue posting during this transition period from student to librarian in the hope of revealing some insights about making that change.

I will also have some advice coming soon for job hunters.  I had a lot of interviews and phone interviews and can impart some of the things that I have learned through the whole process.