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 :)

Time Management

"In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is everything." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

     As you may have noticed, there have not been posts here the past two days. As you will soon notice, today's is shorter than others. I can promise you that this will not become a pattern, but I cannot promise that it will never happen again. In other words, I plan to write a post every business day, but have certain items that jump onto my to-do list that I need to prioritize before reflection and subsequent writing.

     Part of this plays into my new favorite way of thinking about time management. While sitting in RA Training the other day I had the pleasure of attending a session on the topic led by my colleagues Dan and Alex. They presented on three different time management theories: Eisenhower's Matrix, Maslow's Hierarchy, and Analysis Paralysis. I will discuss Eisenhower's model here, as it spoke the most to me and my time management - the latter two you find out all that you would care to on a simple Google search. The basic model, attributed to US President Eisenhower and Dr. Stephen Covey (1994) takes two facets of one's tasks - urgency and importance - and places the tasks on a grid based on the relative values of those two facets. One axis is labelled importance, the other urgency. This created four quadrants: tasks high in importance and high in urgency, tasks high in importance but low in urgency, those high in urgency but low in importance, and those low in both urgency and importance. 

     Two days ago, this is how my matrix looked:

     As you can see, "Blog" fell into the bottom-left quadrant, so when it came to the time I would normally work on this post, I instead attacked the items in the top-right. As time moved-on, though, some of those top-left items shifted to the right, becoming more urgent. For example, Opening is now in only two days! Priorities can change as well making some of those less important yet urgent items more important, such as when I realized the RA Social was only two hours away and Pandora was playing some non-inclusive music. Also, classes will become much more important for me next week, but right now I am focusing on my work.

     What do you think? I had never seen this prioritization technique before, but now I am using it almost every day! I wish I could move the blog, but right now I feel that there is simply not enough room in those two top quadrants. Maybe once opening passes!

Citation: MindTools.com. (2013). "The Urgent/Important Matrix." Retrieved from: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_91.htm .

Quote Citation: Qtd. in Nixon, R. (1962). Six crises. New York: Doubleday.

Photo By: Me

Intentional Talks towards Academic Success

“You see, in this country are a number of youths who do not like to work, and the college is an excellent place for them.” - L. Frank Baum, Ozma of Oz

      While the above quote may seem an interesting start for a blog post about practicing and studying higher education, I remain a realist (as I told the RAs I supervise today). Baum is correct in that many college students do not like to work, yet still have an amazing experience. Divisions of Student Affairs across the country provide students with plenty activities to participate in outside of the classroom and assist with the procrastination from reading, writing, and arithmetic. However, I am also happy to say that there is also much those Divisions do to steer them back towards the studies.

     I surprised myself today with how strongly I felt about that function of my Department - that of assisting students in achieving academic success. I was reviewing our department's programming areas with the RAs I supervise, allowing them to come up with their own answers of the "why" for each of the areas (thank you to my colleague Lexi for that idea!), and then providing my own supplemental discussion of the "why." I found that the longest, most passionate, and best articulated supplement I gave in the area of academic success - not leadership development, social justice, or even community building, as I had expected.

     Part of this may be due to coming from a very academically-focused institution, or possibly even my background working in an office advising on applications for scholarships. On the other hand, though, I do see it as an essential part of Residence Life to help facilitate what is often the primary reason our residents are in school: to learn. And no matter how well-prepared they are or believe themselves to be, there is still so, so much that RAs can do to better prepare them, and most of this is through intentional conversations. Here are some essential topics of such intentional talks:

1. The main differences between high school and college academics.
2. How to read a syllabus and plan accordingly.
3. How to approach a professor for help and best utilize office hours.
4. How to best manage your time to make sure that you sleep rather than study at night.
5. Why you should study / read even though there is not an assignment or paper due.
6. What resources on campus are available for tutoring and/or help writing papers.
7. What are the best ways to get into class that may be full (may not apply to all campuses).
8. How to plan your course-load so that you graduate on time.
9. How to pick a major or minor to help you towards your professional goals.
10. How to constructively manage academic stress.

     The points above are not comprehensive, but you hopefully agree that they are important points for students to consider during their college years - the earlier the better - and having a decent conversations around them could better prepare them to tackle their studies. They do not have to enjoy the work, but they have to complete it in order to learn and graduate, and ideally these conversations will help them do so and make college an even more "excellent place" for them.

Quote Citation: Baum, L. F. (1907) Ozma of Oz. Chicago: Reilly & Britton.

Photo By: Me