The semester is almost over! Here is what you need to know for the next few weeks:
Next Tues: No class meeting; work on your final project
Next Thurs: Bring your work-in-progress to class to get feedback on it.
Our final exam is scheduled for Thurs Dec 13 (9am for my first class, 10:15 for my second class). We will not have an exam, but it is a required class period.
Blogging next week:
Mon: Discuss the brainstorming/idea generation portion of your final project. Where are you with it? Where are you going? How are you going to make it interesting/distinctive?
Wed: What are your greatest successes and failures from this semester? Reflect on this. What will you take away from these experiences?
Sat: LAST Campus Safari!!!!
And that will be the last regular blogging for this semester!
Reminder: The final project is due on your blog on Dec 19.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
If you haven't seen the final assignment yet, scroll down!
Here are some comments from Wendy regarding questions some of you submitted on the evaluation form:
Q: I don't really understand why if the articles aren't published yet they still appear and how to stop them from appearing?
Q: Finding articles online that are available?
A: Databases try to be smart, but sometimes they don't quite manage it. Every database has a set of publications that it indexes, and so as soon as those publications tell the database about the articles they have, the database puts them in the search results. However, many publications know which articles they're publishing well into the future, and sometimes they tell the databases early, which means the database can tell you that the article *will* exist, but it can't provide access unless the publication does (and some of them do). To stop those results from appearing, if the thing that's most important to you is to find an article you can look at right way, then you should go to the Advanced Search screen and check off the "Full Text" box so that you'll only see things available in full text from the database you're searching.
Q: I would want to learn more about finding books locations?
Q: Learn more about finding book locations?
A: CONSULS will give you a book's title, call number, and location, but to find where it is in the library, you'll have to take a look at the floorplan: http://library.southernct.edu/maps.pdf. If you're unsure of how to read the floorplan, a librarian will be delighted to assist you.
Q: If your book is in "SCSU Stacks" but doesn't have a letter with it, how do you find it?
A: If you find a book in the catalog that has a location but no call number, then that's a brand new book that hasn't made it into the public area yet. You can still get it, though! Just let a librarian know and we'll rush it through to you as soon as possible.
Q: If there are any tricks to finding more specific articles?
Q: How to find good/relevant journal articles?
A: The key to finding more specific/good/relevant articles is asking for more specific/good/relevant information. If you just type in "autonomy" and click Search, you will find every article in that database that mentions autonomy in any way. If you're only interested in "autonomy and education" or "autonomy and nursing" or "autonomy and sports," then you have to tell the database that. If you're ever getting frustrated with an article search, definitely ask a librarian to help you focus it better.
Q: How to sign a book out in the library?
Q: How to sign out a book?
A: Take your book and your HootLoot card to the circulation desk.
Q: I don't really understand why if the articles aren't published yet they still appear and how to stop them from appearing?
Q: Finding articles online that are available?
A: Databases try to be smart, but sometimes they don't quite manage it. Every database has a set of publications that it indexes, and so as soon as those publications tell the database about the articles they have, the database puts them in the search results. However, many publications know which articles they're publishing well into the future, and sometimes they tell the databases early, which means the database can tell you that the article *will* exist, but it can't provide access unless the publication does (and some of them do). To stop those results from appearing, if the thing that's most important to you is to find an article you can look at right way, then you should go to the Advanced Search screen and check off the "Full Text" box so that you'll only see things available in full text from the database you're searching.
Q: I would want to learn more about finding books locations?
Q: Learn more about finding book locations?
A: CONSULS will give you a book's title, call number, and location, but to find where it is in the library, you'll have to take a look at the floorplan: http://library.southernct.edu/maps.pdf. If you're unsure of how to read the floorplan, a librarian will be delighted to assist you.
Q: If your book is in "SCSU Stacks" but doesn't have a letter with it, how do you find it?
A: If you find a book in the catalog that has a location but no call number, then that's a brand new book that hasn't made it into the public area yet. You can still get it, though! Just let a librarian know and we'll rush it through to you as soon as possible.
Q: If there are any tricks to finding more specific articles?
Q: How to find good/relevant journal articles?
A: The key to finding more specific/good/relevant articles is asking for more specific/good/relevant information. If you just type in "autonomy" and click Search, you will find every article in that database that mentions autonomy in any way. If you're only interested in "autonomy and education" or "autonomy and nursing" or "autonomy and sports," then you have to tell the database that. If you're ever getting frustrated with an article search, definitely ask a librarian to help you focus it better.
Q: How to sign a book out in the library?
Q: How to sign out a book?
A: Take your book and your HootLoot card to the circulation desk.
Final Self-Assessment Assignment
Final Self-Assessment Assignment
“We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience” -- John Dewey
Write a 600-word blog post (with at least 4 images) OR a 5-minute video that functions as a final self-assessment for your first semester of college.
Use the following questions as a starting point for organizing your ideas. Your answers should reflect an honest evaluation of yourself and should not be an evaluation of SCSU, me, the class, or the FYE program.
1. What have you learned about yourself as a college student so far? Where are
you in your learning process?
2. What have been your biggest challenges so far?
3. How did you react to and/or meet or mishandle those challenges?
4. What have been your biggest achievements so far?
5. What habits or processes made certain that you were able to earn success
in those areas? How have you used the resources available to you in order
to ensure your own success? How can you do more of this in the upcoming
semester?
6. How successful have you been with time management and workload in your
courses? What have you put the majority of your time and energy into this
semester? What is the result of that?
7. What have your grades been like this semester? More importantly perhaps,
what are you learning? Are there classes where you are learning a lot or only
a little? Why? What can you do to maximize your learning?
8. How are you doing in meeting the personal goals you set for yourself at the
beginning of the semester? Are you where you had hoped you would be by
this point in your college career?
9. Where do you want to go from here and what do you think you need to do in
order to get there? Is there anything you need to change? Is there anything
you can improve upon in the upcoming semesters?
10. What specific goals would you like to set for yourself next semester and how
do you plan to meet those goals?
Be sure that your post is clear, detailed, shows in-depth thinking, makes specific points, and supports those points with specific evidence. In addition to rich content,your post should have a clear beginning, middle, and end, and unifying transitions. Please do not simply answer the questions, but create a meaningful narrative.
This assignment is due (posted on your blog) on Wednesday, December 19th by midnight.
“We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience” -- John Dewey
Write a 600-word blog post (with at least 4 images) OR a 5-minute video that functions as a final self-assessment for your first semester of college.
Use the following questions as a starting point for organizing your ideas. Your answers should reflect an honest evaluation of yourself and should not be an evaluation of SCSU, me, the class, or the FYE program.
1. What have you learned about yourself as a college student so far? Where are
you in your learning process?
2. What have been your biggest challenges so far?
3. How did you react to and/or meet or mishandle those challenges?
4. What have been your biggest achievements so far?
5. What habits or processes made certain that you were able to earn success
in those areas? How have you used the resources available to you in order
to ensure your own success? How can you do more of this in the upcoming
semester?
6. How successful have you been with time management and workload in your
courses? What have you put the majority of your time and energy into this
semester? What is the result of that?
7. What have your grades been like this semester? More importantly perhaps,
what are you learning? Are there classes where you are learning a lot or only
a little? Why? What can you do to maximize your learning?
8. How are you doing in meeting the personal goals you set for yourself at the
beginning of the semester? Are you where you had hoped you would be by
this point in your college career?
9. Where do you want to go from here and what do you think you need to do in
order to get there? Is there anything you need to change? Is there anything
you can improve upon in the upcoming semesters?
10. What specific goals would you like to set for yourself next semester and how
do you plan to meet those goals?
Be sure that your post is clear, detailed, shows in-depth thinking, makes specific points, and supports those points with specific evidence. In addition to rich content,your post should have a clear beginning, middle, and end, and unifying transitions. Please do not simply answer the questions, but create a meaningful narrative.
This assignment is due (posted on your blog) on Wednesday, December 19th by midnight.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
More Important Information!!
STOP! If you haven't seen the video assignment I posted on Tuesday, continue scrolling down past this post and read that one first!
For next week, we only meet on Tuesday and we will meet in the Library, on the first floor by the reference desk. Wendy, the INQ librarian will facilitate a program for us on how to use the library resources. Our research focus will be the concept of "autonomy," the last concept we are studying in this course. At the end of the program, Wendy will ask you to complete a piece of writing based on the research, and that writing will be the one and only blog post due next week. There will be no campus safari due and no second blog post. Then we are off on Thursday for Thanksgiving.
The following week, on Tuesday we will finish The Creative Habit and read "Why Inspiration Matters." Please bring your notes/definitions on the key terms and questions presented today in class. On Thursday of that week, your videos are due and I hope to watch some in class. For blogging that week, one post should be your video and reflection (technically can be posted sometime Thursday) and the other post should be a final post about Twyla Tharp's book: based on the book/discussions, what can we gain from Tharp's perspective? Specifically, how do we define creativity, why is it important, how can we incorporate it more into our lives or even teach it, and why should we attempt that (individually and societally)?
My next post (maybe this weekend) will contain the final video or blog post assignment, so you can get a jump on the work due at the end of the semester.
For next week, we only meet on Tuesday and we will meet in the Library, on the first floor by the reference desk. Wendy, the INQ librarian will facilitate a program for us on how to use the library resources. Our research focus will be the concept of "autonomy," the last concept we are studying in this course. At the end of the program, Wendy will ask you to complete a piece of writing based on the research, and that writing will be the one and only blog post due next week. There will be no campus safari due and no second blog post. Then we are off on Thursday for Thanksgiving.
The following week, on Tuesday we will finish The Creative Habit and read "Why Inspiration Matters." Please bring your notes/definitions on the key terms and questions presented today in class. On Thursday of that week, your videos are due and I hope to watch some in class. For blogging that week, one post should be your video and reflection (technically can be posted sometime Thursday) and the other post should be a final post about Twyla Tharp's book: based on the book/discussions, what can we gain from Tharp's perspective? Specifically, how do we define creativity, why is it important, how can we incorporate it more into our lives or even teach it, and why should we attempt that (individually and societally)?
My next post (maybe this weekend) will contain the final video or blog post assignment, so you can get a jump on the work due at the end of the semester.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
3rd Video Assignment
Creative Problem Solving
One measure of success for college students is how well they can adapt
to new situations, tackle challenges, and be creative problem solvers.
This 3rd video assignment adresses this exact topic and asks students
to create a problem-solution "argument."
First, choose a common problem faced by first-year students. It can
span any aspect of university life and experience, from living away
from home to roommate problems to underage drinking to study habits
and procrastination to failing classes or oversleeping to getting a
bad professor. Think about a topic that would be unique, interesting
to you, and one that you would have a lot of information on.
In order to illustrate the problem clearly and creatively, make a skit
using either actors on video or drawings or pictures with captions or
comic "bubbles." Use your imagination in this section, and make it
entertaining (and perhaps humorous).
Then explore some possible solutions and offer your suggestions for
what could be done to alleviate this situation, either after it
happens or how to prevent it in the future or both. This part should
demonstrate some deep thinking into the causes and effects and perhaps
can include some research (cited, of course) or interviews. Also, be
sure to include the resources that are available on campus to help
students deal with these types of problems.
Length = 5 minutes
One measure of success for college students is how well they can adapt
to new situations, tackle challenges, and be creative problem solvers.
This 3rd video assignment adresses this exact topic and asks students
to create a problem-solution "argument."
First, choose a common problem faced by first-year students. It can
span any aspect of university life and experience, from living away
from home to roommate problems to underage drinking to study habits
and procrastination to failing classes or oversleeping to getting a
bad professor. Think about a topic that would be unique, interesting
to you, and one that you would have a lot of information on.
In order to illustrate the problem clearly and creatively, make a skit
using either actors on video or drawings or pictures with captions or
comic "bubbles." Use your imagination in this section, and make it
entertaining (and perhaps humorous).
Then explore some possible solutions and offer your suggestions for
what could be done to alleviate this situation, either after it
happens or how to prevent it in the future or both. This part should
demonstrate some deep thinking into the causes and effects and perhaps
can include some research (cited, of course) or interviews. Also, be
sure to include the resources that are available on campus to help
students deal with these types of problems.
Length = 5 minutes
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Applying Creativity to Our Lives...via Twyla Tharp
For next week, be creative in your blog posts! Here are your assignments:
1) Face Your fears: Do Exercise #3 on page 31 relating to the fears that prevent us from starting something, finishing something, or realizing our potential. This exercise is also related to the text we looked at on pages 22-23, so you may also want to review that before starting.
2) Choose ANY other exercise in the book, do it, and blog about it. Have fun with it as well as trying to learn something about yourself!
If you didn't see my previous post about the Snow and the Snow-Plans for our class, scroll down and read it now.
Snow
Southern opens at noon today so both of my INQ classes will not meet. Continue reading Twyla Tharp for next week. I will post blogging assignments for next week later today.
If you were supposed to meet me today, we will reschedule for Tuesday.
Stay warm!
If you were supposed to meet me today, we will reschedule for Tuesday.
Stay warm!
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