the C student

I sent the following message to Louise Robbins regarding Dorothea on November 12, 2007. I encourage my classmates to do the same or something similar if you had as great of an experience as I did in LIS 644!

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Hi Louise,

I don’t know who to tell this to, and I’m sure I could save this for my course evaluation form, but I often tire of writing those evals by the end of the semester.

I just wanted to say how amazing Dorothea Salo has been in teaching LIS 644. She is incredibly passionate as a teacher and it is contagious. There are students in that class who were nervous about all the ‘techie stuff’ but have been really glad they stayed with it. And they’re doing things they probably wouldn’t have had any inclination to be doing otherwise, like writing a blog or exploring a new software application or tool. Dorothea keeps the assignments meaningful, the topics current, and the readings concise (I don’t think professors consider the adverse effects of assigning lengthy articles whose contents could be summed up in one page).

Her classes aren’t lectures, they’re events! From technical school to undergrad studies and up until now, I’ve never had an instructor like this. I don’t think anyone misses lectures for that class; if they do it’s planned or an emergency has arisen. If it wasn’t for my looming tuition bill, I’d feel inclined to pay admission before each class. Students arrive with laptops, curiosity, and a handful of questions and we just delve into the latest and greatest library-related topics in computing technologies. If she didn’t stop lecturing at 8pm, we’d probably role on into midnight!

Dorothea has also been awesome at discussing how to get our first job in librarianship. She has incorporated the job searching aspect of librarianship into the lectures almost seamlessly. It’s as if she really does care about whether we make it in our post-SLIS lives.

I guess what I’m saying is, Dorothea’s 644 SHOULD be required. It’s just a shame that there weren’t more of my colleagues in this class as I understand it’s not offered next semester. They’d be feeling much more prepared for the workplace if they did. Oh, well. I guess I’ll just count myself lucky and grateful for this to have been my opportunity.

I just thought you should know. 
-Dan

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