Hixson Blog Post #9

Hixson Blog Post #9

Today I am just going to go through some academic resources and strategies for academic success here at Iowa State

The main acedemic resource that is available here at Iowa State is the Academic Success Center (ASC) The ASC is a collection of services and programs designed to help you reach your academic goals.

One resource that you are able to use is the Academic Coaching, which provides one-on-one meetings with students seeking help in evaluating and correcting academic challenges. Students are encouraged to seek academic coaching to develop skills that can improve areas of their lives such as time management, note taking, study skills and test taking. The coaches are trained in teaching effective college success skills and can also assist students with test anxiety or motivational challenges. For example you can meet with them to go over  productive use of study time, goal-setting for improved academic success,  reading and note taking strategies, and overcoming test-taking challenges. Pretty much any other academic skill you want to develop or improve! The best part about this service is that here is NO cost!

Another helpful tool for academic success is taking the class Psychology 131 It is designed to facilitate students' development of academic skills, behaviors, and attitudes. Content in this course helps students immediately, but also prepares students for academic success throughout their college career. Psych 131 is one credit, graded satisfactory/fail.

I’m sure many of you have had or are currently taking a class that has a Supplemental Instruction (SI) This is also a free program that have regularly scheduled study sessions for difficult courses. SI sessions are facilitated by SI Leaders, who are undergraduate students who have previously taken the course and demonstrated academic competency in the subject area. Each SI Leader facilitates at least three 50-minute sessions per week using collaborative learning methods. Attend once or attend every session.. data suggests that the more you attend, the higher your final grade will be in the course.

And of course there is tutoring, which is free for all of us Hixsons. As you can see there are numerous resources on campus to help you succeed academically. So in conclusion if you haven’t taken advantage of these resources you defiantly should, almost all are free and very useful.

Cole Schlitzer

Hixson Blog Post #8

Hixson Blog Post #8

What sort of descriptive words come to mind when describing a leader? Enthusiastic, well educated, good communication, or consistent? These are just a few of many characteristics of a leader.

Leading groups effectively was the topic of discussion for this week. There are many effective ways in working with groups, but leading one requires a little more skill. An effective leader will provide the members of the group incentive to engage, create, and assume responsibility for them to achieve goals. We also talked about the physical environment that can influence the group's nature of activity and level of performance. One way of effectively leading a group in the physical environment. This is usually not considered enough. It will include factors such as temperature, lighting, seating, distractions, and seating arrangements appropriate for the tasks of the group. When leading our session next fall it will be important for me to be sure to be aware of such factors, for they will only help with cooperation with the students. When a leader acts in these ways group members will truly engage and own results as their own and will be able say "we did it ourselves."        (Newton:Students helping students)

Question: Are leaders born or developed into one?

ISCORE

ISCORE

On Friday March 1st, 2013 i attended my first ever ISCORE. ISCORE is a conference on race and ethnicity. The first event I went to was the keynote speaker, Nancy Barcelo. She talked about equity and diversity in the higher education. She mentioned that Iowa State is doing a great job at this. She also talked about the challenges growing up with diversity in New Mexico. Diversity is your reality, she would say. Being activity involved with diversity will allow you to have a clear understanding of it and the positives that come out of it. She also said not to have tunnel vision and have inclusion. I learned a lot of new things and from different viewpoints. The only negative I got from this event was sometimes it was hard to understand what she who she referring to when she said "we". Other than that it was a great learning experience and I had a good time spending it with Easton, Ally, and Debra.

Expand your dialogue and do something new.

Cole Schlitzer
 

Hixson Blog Post #7

Hixson Blog Post #7

Already March and you know what that means? Spring Break, Midterms, March Madness, just to name a few exciting activities!

This past week we talked about understanding group process. A good majority of your life you will spend time interacting with groups of people. The types of groups that you interact with will vary, from the levels of effectiveness, to satisfaction of members. How well people work together to accomplish their purposes and how much cohesiveness develops to motivate a commitment to be involved with group activity. You need communication, formation, member roles, motivation, cohesion, decision-making strategies, task accomplishment, and maturation level to have a productive group.

As being a peer mentor it is my job to provide the students with different group processes and appropriate diagnosis as too how a group should function. One of my strengths is how well I am in working with others in a group setting. This experience will benefit me in showing the section how a healthy group works. A healthy group becomes a resource from providing information, sharing knowledge, accomplishing tasks, and enhancing personal learning. These resources are advantages over individual work or methods. In class we also did some ice breakers, which we will use a lot in the fall to better know each other. Being able to effectively carry out an ice breaker in a group setting will be key in showing your students how groups work.

That game vs Kansas though...we all know the refs hosed us the whole game. Such a heart breaker. It would be nice to play them in the Big 12 tournament and beat them though! We still are looking like we will be playing in the NCAA tournament, although may be a bubble team. Just need to finish with a win in 2 of the 3 games we play, Oklahoma tomorrow, Oklahoma State, and @West Virginia.
Real question... Who's ready for March Madness!? This and football season are by far my favorite times of the year in regards to sports. That;s all I have this week. Tomorrow or Sunday I will be writing a post about attending ISCORE.

Stay Warm and Have a Great Week Ahead!

Cole Schlitzer