New Semester, New Goals

"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." - Francis of Assisi

Happy New Year, Everyone!  The blog is back!

I realized rather slowly last semester that I was in over my head in this endeavor.  I barely had time to tell my wife about my day, much reflect on it with you all.  So now, after being rejuvenated by a relaxing winter break with my family, I am setting out to do one post per week on Mondays.  As always, thank you for understanding and reading!

I believe a good way to start the new semester would be to set some professional goals for now through May.  I have had the chance to think back on last semester and want to reach for developing in the following ten areas.    Hopefully some may be general enough that other new professionals can relate, or at least consider where they can be analogous to their own positions:

1. Ask for more feedback - I have yet to figure out why, but I find myself consistently wondering if I am doing things well or doing enough in my position.  I think some of the time I spend wondering would be better spent this semester by actually asking someone who will have an answer.
2. Plan and implement a campus-wide program with the Hall staff - We have started to think about it and are excited to make it happen.  This will be a grand test in the action of following-through!
3. Assess some initiatives within the hall - There is a lot that we do that we assume is working.  It is about time that I actually talk to some residents about what they think works and doesn't work.
4. Create more space for academic success - I discovered at the end of last semester that many more residents than we thought were struggling with academics.  We can always do more, so it is time to rethink how we incorporate our Faculty Fellow, intentionally discuss classes, and create a space for students to be first and foremost academically successful.
5. Be a more approachable and intentional supervisor - Again, there is always more to be done, and facilitating the professional development of RAs to me is one of the most important areas of my position.
6. Reflect more on how students manage conflict and how to facilitate this - I plan to discuss this in depth with the RAs I supervise during our winter training; it is an area in which I have become very interested, and I believe helping students manage conflict became a much larger role last semester than I had expected.
7. Gain a sense of my professional network / reconnect - I did not realize how quickly a professional network grows in this field, and before I even thought of how to best network I had more connections than I could track in my head.  I need to at least start a list before it grows beyond my reach.
8. Be more present with advising - I have had the chance to reflect with some mentors on advising and realize that my approach could be less hands-off.  Redefining my role with Hall Council is one of my primary goals this semester.
9. Give more time to one-on-one conversations - Within a conversation with a student I (ideally) have a captive audience.  I need to appreciate this more, capitalize on these moments, and have the conversations I can have with those students.
10. Continue to bring theory into practice - My cohort is finally studying student development theory this semester, and I am excited to apply this to my work.

There you go!  What do you think of these goals?  What do you plan to work on this semester?

Quote Citation:

Francis of Assisi. (n.d.). BrainyQuote. Retrieved from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/francisofa121023.html 

Photo By: Me :)

The Importance of Faculty Connections

"The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate desserts." -  C.S. Lewis

     I had a wonderful conversation today with one of our AVPs of Student Affairs on our Faculty Fellows program in Residence Life here. It was a rather informal conversation, so I had prepared very little to be honest; however, I found myself speaking rather passionately on the program's importance to our students, citing my own former connections with faculty in my undergraduate experience.

     What I shared with our AVP were thoughts on the relationship between institution size and faculty connections. This is nothing ground-breaking or even that difficult to deduce - a smaller student body tends to afford undergraduate students with more opportunities to interact with faculty, while a larger one tends to decrease such opportunities. In my undergraduate experience, I was essentially able to ask any professor any question over e-mail and expect a response within 24 hours. Beyond that, they were very open to appointments and held regular office hours, and classes were usually small enough to allow for multiple questions each block. Yes, I was that student who raises hir hand at least once per session (and still am - apologies to my cohort...).

     When I overhear or speak to students about their experiences here - at an institution much larger than that of my undergraduate experience - I obtain a rather different story. Many students here do not have the same personal connection with professors, and those professors do not seem as available to them. Most know how to reach out to a TA much better than how to reach out to the professor, and even I would be very hesitant to raise my hand in a class of 800 students. Faculty do hold office hours, but I have not heard about students utilizing them as much, and it seems that they occur only two hours per week for the most part.

     These are simply personal observations - I did not collect any data and my sample to draw from is very limited and not random. However, I think these observations still highlight the important academic resource that all students living in the halls here have - the Faculty Fellow. When my hall's Fellow came for a program the other day, the program turned into a Q&A session, with the participants asking many important questions. These ranged from "How do I use a syllabus" to "How do I choose a major" to "What should I do to get into [insert program here]." When I heard these questions, I was surprised - why did these students not have these answers already. For some, the answer was probably that they had not thought of them yet. I am sure that others, though, had not had the chance or felt comfortable asking yet. That program gave them that chance, and the connection our hall has with that faculty member enabled that program.

Quote Citation: Lewis, C. S. (1943). The abolition of man. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Photo By: Me - Boulders Beach, South Africa :)

Don't reinvent the wheel, unless you want the challenge...

"Don't reinvent the wheel, just realign it." - Anthony J. D'Angelo

      During my training, many of my colleagues provided "Don't reinvent the wheel" and similar sentiments when discussing the myriad materials and sessions I had/have/will have to prepare for my position. In the past I have seen this as great advice - if a tool comes pre-made and does the job you are looking to fill, why make a new tool? Using the "wheel" already has many pros, including saving you both time and energy - resources that can be put towards the next task, for which you may have to invent a ball because a wheel won't work.

     However, as D'Angelo points out, there are cases in which a "realignment" is warranted (and I promise this is as far as I will take the metaphor). On one end of the spectrum, a training session may need to be tweaked due to the original facilitator having a much larger staff with which to work. On the other end, sheet for RAs to fill-out while on rounds may need to be almost rewritten due to the original institution having different policies and procedures (something I did yesterday). But even on that end I was able to keep the original formatting, which would have taken me another hour to recreate. In fact, I have spent most of the past few days retrofitting my old resources and realigning others' for this new position, saving minutes and hours everywhere.

    While realigning and not reinventing are both great time- and energy-savers, I could see why a professional would still want to start something from scratch: the challenge. For an example, I will turn to my programming model for the RAs I am supervising. I made it from the bare bones, which were my supervisor's programming expectations for our area on campus, and then built it into a year-long programming plan for my residence hall. Yes, I took some advice here and there, but in the end I typed the entire plan and the ideas and intentions were mine. My supervisor telling me that he believed it was a good plan felt like the biggest praise ever, all because I had taken-on the challenge and met it.

   The purpose of that example is not to put me on a pedestal (I'm afraid of heights anyway), but instead to show the importance for a young, sub-entry level professional of creating your own ideas and materials every once in awhile. Starting-off fresh has been very stressful at points, but I feel that the longer you wait to truly challenge yourself to utilize the skills you are building, the longer you wait to grow in your position. So, realign when you do not have the time, but when you do have the time, take it to at least consider the challenge of reinventing. Who knows - your wheel may roll you further.

Quote Citation: D'Angelo, Anthony J. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved from: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/anthonyjd377829.html

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