Computer & Internet

Archive for July, 2010

If you cannot view this poll click here.

And here are the results from the last poll.

Source: The SA Team

Hi folks.  Am I the only one out here in SABlogger land that feels like the academic year has been long already and it’s barely even a month? 

During the craziest days on the job in student activities I always notice that things get most out of control when I lose sight of all of the great time management lessons I have learned over the years.  It never fails, but on the worst days I see that my To Do List is a mess, my voice mails are piling up, and I’ve lost track of every committment I have made that day while also having no idea what the next day will bring.  Sound familiar?  Well, I’m here to offer some quick time management tips both in an effort to share my experience and also to force myself to take another look at how my semester’s been going!  So, I’m admitting to being a little selfish…but here we go:

1 – Is it time for a planner makeover?

If you’re like me, I can’t go completely techie in time management so there’s still some element of paper in my time management life.  Check out your planner and make sure it’s keeping track of the right information for you.  If you’re using the same “monthly calendar boxes” planner that you’ve used since your junior year in college, it might be time to see what else is out there.  Make sure your planner or other tool is helping you to manage your tasks, helping you to manage what kinds of tasks you are agreeing to complete, and helping you manage your appointments.

2 – Take time for power planning!

Whether you are most productive in the morning or at night, take ten minutes and force yourself to plan your To Do List for the day ahead and review the day’s prior events.  Don’t just spend three minutes doing it.  Force yourself to take the full ten so that you offer yourself the benefit of a little clarity before the day gets hectic.  Don’t you deserve it?

3 – Plan based on your roles!

We all play so many roles in life – employee, sibling, spouse, mentor, volunteer, parent, manager – list them all.  Now that you’ve mastered your daily planning routine, take that up a notch and plan based on your roles for the week ahead.  Set at least one focus for each role so that you work to maintain some degree of balance.  For example, if you’re a mom and you’re also having a crazy week at work, this will assure that your ‘mom stuff’ still gets some airtime whether it’s a small task like “enroll kiddo in swimming lessons” or a big one that makes sure you save time to go pick out a new bike.

4 – Take control of your calendar life, too!

No one says that you have to attend every meeting just because someone asks.  Make sure your time is scheduled “on purpose, for a purpose” and start asserting the importance of your personal time.  If someone schedules a meeting and you don’t know why you are going, ask them! If you feel your participation in a committee is a duplication of someone else’s role, then talk with your supervisor about what he or she is looking for.  Also, if you reciprocate the value of people’s time by making sure your meetings have clear and communicated agendas it will let people realize how kind it is to have that kind of consideration.

I could go on and on here, but let’s hear from you! What are your favorite tips to keep things afloat?  Student affairs folks, I know you’re great at this stuff so let the comments roll!!

Have a great week!

Source: Cindy Kane

Unlike a lot of my peers, my advanced degree isn’t in Educational Leadership, or Educational Counseling, or any other field one would generally expect to see on an Academic Advisor’s resume.  My Masters degree is in Theatre Pedagogy…leaving me in the unenviable position of lacking the “standard” degree for a profession I love and not currently working in a field in which I hold a degree.  I came to advising while working on my Masters and I realized that advising suits my “teaching style” (something we discussed a lot in the pedagogy program) far more than a regular classroom.

But in these difficult economic times, students in the Performing Arts (the majors I advise) are struggling against the need to be “practical”; believing, as their parents do, that there are no real world equivalents for their artistic skills.  I’m here to tell you that my students are wrong.  They just need to look at their skills in a different light.  Because everything I know about advising, I learned in the theatre.

1). Never turn your back on your audience.  The whole purpose of staging a play is to draw the audience in to the world you are creating.  Every aspect is considered–especially the psychological ramifications of body positions.  By turning your back on your audience, you are shutting them out–you don’t allow them to see your face or your emotions.  We do the same thing to our students when we turn our backs to them.  Think about the position of your body as you advise students.  Are you hidden in any way (i.e. by a desk, a computer monitor, etc.)?  Is your office door open or closed when the student approaches and what kind of message does that send?

2). Find your light.  Whenever a show goes into “tech week” (the week before the show opens, when all of the technical elements come together), the actors are required to attend something called a “cue to cue” rehearsal.  Each cue “lighting, sound, etc.” is rehearsed and adjustments are made to each of the elements.  Actors will be asked to recall their blocking and the lights will be adjusted around their position on the stage.  The most repeated phrase heard from directors during these rehearsals is always “find your light”.  The actors need to know where the lights hit them the best so that they aren’t in shadow during any particular scene.  As advisors, we all need to find our light.  Are you particularly strong in organization?  Why not run seminars for your students on getting their lives organized?  Are you better in the classroom?  Consider using a bigger percentage of your time teaching, rather than in appointments.

3). Don’t forget to yell, “heads!”  Most theaters are large, cavernous spaces with complicated rigging systems for hanging lights, curtains, and backdrops.  All of these items need to be moved on a regular basis, and theatre practitioners have developed a system of yelling, “heads!” every time an item is moved (simply to remind one to watch one’s “head”).  This system is also marvelously handy if you are working on a ladder and happen to drop tools or other heavy objects.  Basically, this is the theatrical method of saying “duck and cover!”  And advisors should do it on a daily basis.  Are there curriculum changes on the horizon?  Let your students know!  Are students complaining about a departmental policy?  Why not tell the department that there is some unrest amongst the masses?

4). Work together to get the job done.  Unlike painting or sculpture, theatre is a collaborative art.  We cannot do what we do unless we are assisted by other people.  Advising works the same way.  We have to work with our students–we have to work with the departments for whom we advise–and we have to work with our advising colleagues to ensure that everyone is given the same level of care.

5). Prepare like a stage manager, react like an actor.  Stage managers are the people in theatre who organize every rehearsal–they keep copious notes on required props, costumes, set pieces. They attend every production meeting, they know every line, they know every measurement and cue.  They will run the show when it goes into performance.  In contrast, actors must simply react–they have required lines, but they are reacting to the emotions of their fellow actors and the audience members.  A good advisor has to be just as prepared as a stage manager: we know all about university policies, we know all about curriculums and university services.  On the other hand, a good advisor has to be just as flexible as an actor: we need to be able to throw a carefully planned schedule out the window if a student is in crisis and adapt accordingly.

6). “Suit the action to the word” (Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 2).  Ok, I couldn’t resist getting a little Shakespeare in here.  Hamlet’s Advice to the Players is possibly the most famous acting lesson in the history of theatre.  But it works for advisors too.  I’ve talked already about the messages we send to our students psychologically and this is a continuation of that idea.  If you tell a student you’re going to do something, do it!

7). Commit!  The number one thing any acting teacher (or any art teacher for that matter) will tell you is that you need to commit to what you are doing.  An audience will know if you are only “playing” at an emotion.  Our students know when we are only playing at our jobs too.  If you’re going to be an advisor, commit to being an advisor 100%, or find something else that makes you happy.

8). Listen.  You cannot be a “good” actor unless you listen to your fellow performers and your audience (this follows that idea of reacting I talked about earlier).  One of the hardest parts of being an advisor is listening as much as we really need to.  We’ve all had students who don’t want to talk–and it’s incredibly tempting to fill the silence ourselves.  But the best of us will simply wait…and listen.

9.) Say, “yes, AND…”  We do a lot of improvisation in theatre.  And the number one rule of improvisation is to say “yes” to whatever you’re given in a scene, and then add on to that by saying “and…”  You’re accepting an idea and then adding on to it.  As advisors, we have a wonderful opportunity to do this for our students.  How many times a day do you say “no” to a student?  Pay attention to their body language when you shut down their hopes and dreams… It is possible to be practical with students and not use the word “no”…you just have to be creative!

10). Hold on tightly, let go lightly.  When I was in college acting classes, my teacher used to bellow out the phrase “hold on tightly, let go lightly” with the fervor of the devout.  He meant that when you were in any particular moment, you should hold on to it–you should connect to it.  But at the same time, when the moment ended, you couldn’t be afraid to let go and move on to the next thing.  As advisors, we have to be prepared to hold on to our students tightly…and then to let go of them so that they can make their own decisions.

Source: Shaun McCracken

These days technology is advancing so quickly it can be quite overwhelming to keep up, and understand. What exactly is a blog?  A Wiki? A Feed? What is twitter?

For some perhaps a simple introduction to these topics is the first step in embracing these technologies, and perhaps they may start utilizing these technologies on your college campus.

Twitter is the hottest new tool in the web 2.0 spectrum right now, but how does it work? and why would I ever want to use it??

I think Jon Stewart asks this question best in a recent episode of the daily show

Source: Steve Snedeker

At the Annual Conference on the First-Year Experience, I was excited to attend a session with Loriann Irving, of Kutztown University. Loriann has built a creative portfolio of exercises for use in her first-year seminar course that she changes up to appeal to the different learning styles of students in her first-year seminar. Thinking along the lines of Scene It or Cranium, games with a variety of tasks, you have many options for interactive learning in your next course.

Source: Debra Sanborn

You may have heard, but apparently the sky is falling.  As a masters student in student affairs, I think if I hear the comment “in this current economic crisis” one more time I’m going to pull my hair out.  In a meeting last week, someone requested that we “not talk about the budget” any more.  In related news, Chicken Little has not left the building because he’s worried of the sky landing on their head.

Source: Jeff Lail

Our campus is working on expanding our support for student organization transition as a result of a recent “Aha” moment.  During some expense of brain power about the frustrating and negative impact of weak officer transition, I realized how little support we offered to the bulk of our student organizations to assist them in successful officer transition.  Of course, for those groups that our staff directly advises we try to focus a lot of energy on supporting that changeover.  My moment of clarity, however, was more about the rest of the groups and what we should be doing differently.  It only makes sense – the groups that are further “outside” the circle need more ability to exist on their own and therefore more support.

We have some things in mind for a new program and I want to share the details…

First Phase:  Deadline for Elections through end of classes

• For the first time, we have established a deadline for student organization officer elections.  By April 3, clubs need to file a form with us that informs us of their newly identified e-board. 

• We will be developing a Wiki site about Officer Transition, presenting sample outlines for meetings, checklists, and other tips.

• We will be sponsoring a “Fall Event Calendar Party” to organize fall semester planning. Through establishing a deadline for elections, we will make sure that we have the right students in the room when we are making commitments to the fall calendar.

• We will sponsor a New Officer Welcome Reception in our office where the new officers can meet each other and meet our staff before the end of the semester.

Second Phase:  Summer

• We don’t have many students around or in contact over the summer, so we will offer web-based resources (podcasts, tip sheets, etc.) and focus on the issues of “I’m in charge, so now what?”  This phase will focus on completely optional content, but topics such as Vision, Goal setting, and “Membership Management” topics to respond to an expressed need for students to get better at managing their peers. 

• Anyone with events during the first six weeks of school will be invited to attend “Open Houses” that we will sponsor at various points in July.  Our goal is to foster earlier event planning and more frequent contact with our office to prepare to host effective events during the opening of school.

Third Phase:  August 15 – end of September

We will focus on student organization registration, preparation for our Involvement Fair and host a leadership conference at the end of September with a focus on hands-on, practical topics that will be useful for the leader just starting out.

Any thoughts on this plan?  Does anyone out there in Blogging land have similar types of efforts and can share stories of success?

Have a great week!!

Source: Cindy Kane

Our campus starts fraternity and sorority recruitment next week and I know that many others are also embarking on this unique time of year.  With so much focus on these groups this week, it has turned my thinking to this area and the unique opportunities and challenges that face our students who choose to lead these groups.

Let me put it out there from the start… I am a sorority member myself and am a huge proponent of the benefits of membership.  Membership in that organization definitely made me the leader that I am today and I can attribute a great amount of my personal growht to the opportunities I was given.  Love them or hate them, fraternities and sororities are a part of many of our campuses.

Leadership in these organizations brings about significant and intense experiences for students and I’m thinking recently about what makes them so unique.  These organizations make committments to holistic support of students whether in academic, social, service, leadership or other settings.  I’m thinking that might be the ticket and have something to do with why being a chapter president is such a tough job or why membership decisions are so significant and frought with advising challenges for us.

Membership recruitment (i.e. “formal rush”) activities bring a lot of “hooplah” to our campus each year, whether good or bad… there’s a lot of hooplah.  There is intensity from current members, prospective new members, administrators, and non-members and everyone has a lot to say.

So, let’s hear from the SA blog public…. what do you have to say?

Source: Cindy Kane

We just completed the first of four half-day mini retreats for our peer leaders. These students will be facilitating our first-year seminar course in the fall and they spend this semester building team relationships and studying student development in preparation for their work. A favorite concept that we utilize is the FISH! Philosophy. We introduce the unit early and refer back to it throughout the year. FISH! includes four simple interconnected practices that are easy to remember and fun for activity transitions.

Source: Debra Sanborn

Today is the first day of classes on campus and there is quite the buzz about our student groups who did service trips over our Winter Break.  We had groups in Belize, Honduras and a Habitat for Humanity group that served in the Gulf Coast.  One of my staff members traveled with the Honduras group and had the opportunity of a lifetime to challenge her skills as an advisor and a leader but to also examine the way she views the world and her place within it.

So many distinctive lessons are learned through these great experiences on campuses across the country and it is so gratifying to watch the “higher education machine” begin to realize its opportunity to make a big difference in some of these communities.  While it’s tempting to write about the value of service, etc. especially in the context of our new president’s strong service message, I want to take this information in a different direction.

I want to know how we can best harness the learning that takes place in these environments to also inspire change on campus.  We spend a great deal of time reflecting on the student growth that happens from this service and the amazing impact we can have on those communities, but I also want to bring all of these students together to share common learning “moments” that might be able to be applied right here at home.  The place I work is a very positive environment, but I know we all share interests in improving our campus climates and, in turn, the ability of every student to succeed.

Here are the types of lessons I’m thinking about…

1 – The kindness of strangers means everything

All of these students talked about how “nice” everyone was in the areas they visited and seem to be very struck by how much they depended on the generosity of local residents.  If we applied this lesson on campus, I think our environment would be much more welcoming, civil and empowering.  If people facing such poverty and difficulty can extend themselves so much to visitors like us, why can’t that happen more regularly at home?  I know I’d appreciate a more “civil” campus.

2 – When there is a job to be done, teamwork is essential

There is nothing like building a house to show the value of teamwork.  All of the students with this kind of experience will now understand the importance of seeing each other’s strengths and weaknesses and trying to utilize them well for the good of a team.  How can we harness these lessons to develop our teams and organizations?

3 – Great risks can bring great personal growth

At least 80% of those who went on these trips have already told me that they had some fear about stepping out of their comfort zone to participate in this experience.  I feel like this kind of risk taking brought about such significant personal reward to them and wonder if the notion of the risk itself made the experience that much more meaningful.  What can we do to support risk taking on our campuses in our employees and our students?  I worry that those who go out on a limb aren’t always caught if they fall…

There is a lot to think as these great experiences are processed, as I know that those who participated will be changed forever. For some reason, this is the first time I’m thinking about what these service experiences can do to transform our campuses.  We now have a cadre of students focused on service… now’s the time for us to figure it out.

What other things can we apply here at home? 

 Have a great week…

Source: Cindy Kane