Cindy Crushes Programming: Five Things I Love About Working on Programming with Teens

Programming is so much work from coming up with the ideas to finding supplies, promoting your program and then doing the programming.  This week, I had a teen who told me that she wanted to be a Teen Librarian. She asked me what my favorite parts of doing programs were and it helped me think about why I love programming with teens. I thought I would share them.

Teens are creative

They still have that ability to be able to avoid being trapped in the idea of a program. It is why doing crafts with teens is so fun. They can make a craft look wonderful and completely different from what you expect.

Here is an example of a pillow a teen came up with when we were doing unicron pillows. I loved this pillow, the creativity of it.

Teens are often very honest

I love talking to the teens in the programs because they will always make me laugh. If I make a mistake they will let me know. They will let me know how my programming is going and if i do it again how to make it better. Their ability to be honest helps me be better at my job.

Teens love to win

I love playing games with teens and they want to win. They are so competitive. They make the games go quickly and it is so much fun to play games with them. We also do video games and love playing Just Dance with them. 

Watching teens making friends

I love this part of being a librarian. You get to see teens meet new people and make friends. It is so cool to see the library as a place for them to make friends. They learn how to help each other during the program and you get to see them grow as people. You see them start as a young teen and grow into an adult. They build friendships and it is awesome.

Having teens bring their friends to programs

This is one of the sweetest things because often the teen will be excited to have their friend meet you. I love that they are excited to bring more friends to the library and become part of the library community. Building relationships with the teens through the program makes it so much more valuable than whatever activity we are doing that day. 

Filed under: Cindy Crushes Programming