Saturday, October 25, 2014

#SAChat Final Thought: Practice Makes Progress


I'm honored to have another post appear on the Student Affairs Collective. It's about the value of writing professionally and why it's important to write, write again and then write some more.

Check it out HERE.

Friday, October 24, 2014

The Top 5 Res Life Skills You Need to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse


It's that time of the year. Halloween. Ghosts, goblins and ghouls. It's a holiday for those who love being scared and being scary.

So in honor of Halloween, let's talk about The Top 5 Res Life Skills You Need to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse: 

1. Occupancy Management. When the Zombies show up for your brains, it would be wise to retreat to your underground shelter. But who is staying in which bed? Do you have enough pillows and sheets? Need some loft kits so you can bunk up and create more space? Your occupancy management skills will come in handy!

2. Rationing Food. Did you mistakenly advertise a hall program to last from 9-11pm only to run out of food by 9:05pm? It's happened to all of us. But you've been polishing the food rationing skills, making sure that there are enough toppings for all those ice cream sundaes you'll need to serve. With the Zombie Apocalypse, you never know how much time you'll be spending in shelter so you'll need to ration your food as strictly as you do those milk and cookies at a hall council event.

3. Active listening. This one will be very handy. First, Zombies kind of drag softly across the ground and often grunt nearly inaudibly as they approach. All that time living in a residence hall has prepared you to hear even the most cat-like movements outside your apartment door - so you should be ready for Zombie visitors! Your active listening skills will also come in handy if you should enter into dialogue with said approaching Zombies. Seated in an open position, ready to receive the grunts and moans with approving nods will help greatly. Repeating and paraphrasing may help put the Zombies at ease and buy you some time to escape.

4. Mediation. Another place your active listening skills will serve you well is mediation. Perhaps you are face to face with a Zombie - ask them what their main concerns are with your existence. Use "I" statements (i.e. "I need you to stop gnawing at my skull" or "I need you to stop grunting so loudly. It's quiet hours.") and try to work out issues before they get out of hand. A behavioral agreement is recommended - get the offending undead to agree to be upfront, honest and open about how they will behave to move forward in a peaceful manner.

5. Delegation. You can't survive off the apocalypse by yourself. But you've assembled a great team to assist you, so use them! Need someone to board up the windows? Ask an RA! Need someone to take inventory of dried goods? Rely on your colleagues! There will be lots of tasks and lots of opportunities for group decision-making - trust your co-workers and maximize your group's effectiveness in keeping the brain-eaters at bay.

Of course, the downside is that because you are dedicated professionals you have spent much time and energy developing skills and acquiring knowledge to make you smarter. Smarter means a bigger brain, right? Bigger brain means more appetizing target for the Zombies. But focus on the skills listed above and I'm sure you'll be fine...

Good luck to you this Halloween!

(*Note: Nothing in this blog post is scientifically accurate. Pretty sure Zombies don't even exist).

(Or do they?....)


Monday, October 13, 2014

Proving Yourself Right

I still get caught up in this. I want to be sure I'm the one with the right answer. And while I'm constantly humbled by the fact that there's no possible way I can know everything, I still want to be right.

I've realized that no matter what I do, there is always someone somewhere doing it better than I ever could. It's the old adage about how it's more important to surround yourself with smart people than to try to be the smartest person in your organization.

It's draining to prove others wrong. It inhibits partnerships and collaboration. It leads to quicker burn-out. And it just makes for a crappy work environment.

So focus on proving yourself right.
  • Be an advocate for your own ideas.
  • Learn from your failures. (We all make them. Accept it and learn from it).
  • Don't forget to celebrate your successes - even the small ones.


Friday, October 10, 2014

Rethinking Education via Social Media

What does social media use teach our students? More importantly, what is it teaching us about how we help students develop? It might be time to rethink our approach.

At our most recent meeting of the Associated Twin Cities College Housing Administrators (ATCCHA), we had an interesting conversation about the use of social media use in professional development. (Check out the Slideshare link - the result of a fun collaboration with Erica Thompson). Prior to the meeting we conducted a brief survey to assess social media use among group members, and respondents were asked to cite concerns they had with student social media use on their campuses. Most focused on the perceived deterioration of skills.

A few examples of our concerns with student use of social media:
"[Students] constantly looking at phones - in and out of class."
"Addiction of quantity over quality of relationships."
"Trying to solve issues passively (being passive-aggressive)."
"Deterioration of in-person skills."
"Lack of professionalism [online]."
"Not understanding 'it's out there forever.'"
"Blurring boundaries with administrators/staff."

Valid questions all. But as I was sharing these survey comments with the group, I began to think more deeply about how these comments - and the approach many of us take to social media use - creates a negative framing of the impact of social media.

We take the adult normative perspective when analyzing our students' social media use. Rey Junco outlines this idea in his book, Engaging Students Through Social Media (a great read - highly recommended), and this view of social media use is problematic because it limits our understanding of how students are processing what they are learning and developing while using these tools.

We need to re-frame our perspective and do what we do in most other aspects of our jobs - find the learning moments and center our ideas of development on the students in front of us. The seven items listed above are all concerns that can be addressed. Rather than looking at the things from our adult normative perspective, we need to be open to the pedagogical potential of social media use. 

  • "Deterioration of in-person skills"? Perhaps we should focus on the soft skills and how students can integrate networking tools into real-life situations.
  • "Lack of professionalism online"? Let's demonstrate what professionalism on social media looks like and encourage students to take steps to professionalize accounts before a job search.
  • "Blurring boundaries with administrators/staff"? Have the tough conversation about the significance and importance of boundaries and how you can hold each other accountable.
  • "Students constantly looking at phones - in and out of class"? Give them a reason to connect with your department while they are doing it. Put educational info on their screens. Or even create opportunities to "unplug" and promote aspects of wellbeing that encourage other forms of interaction.
We're educators. As a profession, we spent years and years and years teaching these skills before the creation of social media. Social media is not an imposition, it's just another layer of student identity that informs our approach to assisting in their development.

Reframe. Refocus. Rethink. Instead of assuming social media use is a distraction to daily life for students, grab the positive aspects of it and create opportunities to teach skills that integrate social media use. Shift your thinking about the power of social media use for students and incorporate it into the things you already do so well.