Tip of the Week: Arrive to class early

Arrive at least 5 minutes before your classes begin.

Professors expect their students to be ready to go when the lecture begins.  It means having everything you need to take notes and participate in class with you and on your desk.

A good reputation will take you far.  There's plenty of time between classes and after College Hour to get your butt into your seat before the professor begins talking.  You'll feel more relaxed, your mind will be open to learn, and you'll look good to the teacher. (Brownie points are a good thing.)

Images courtesy of Google Images unless otherwise noted.
(c) Robyn King. All Rights Reserved.

Tip of the Week: Read Ahead

In college, the best way to get ahead and stay ahead is to READ ahead.

There'll come a time during the semester where you'll have something due from each class at the same time.  To help you avoid the unnecessary stress and pulling all-nighters, get in the habit of reading your chapters at least one week ahead.  Another bonus to this approach is that the lectures you'll sit through will make a whole lot more sense, and you won't feel the need to write down everything your professor says.

So put your nose in your books every day. You'll thank me for this later.  Promise.

Images courtesy of Google Images unless otherwise noted.
(c) Robyn King. All Rights Reserved.

"FURRI" Friends on Campus

Kittens for All First-Year Students

1st year student Emily Hobbes and Lucy Lou

This fall, Schenectady County Community College students will get more than their textbooks and ID's on their first day. They’ll get kittens.


SCCC is proud to announce the Feline-Undergraduate Relationship for Retention Initiative, or FURRI. This innovative approach – the first of its kind in the nation – seeks to help each first-year student adjust to college life with the help of a furry friend.


“We encourage our incoming students to care about our campus, the community around us, and each other. Adding cats to the mix will simply enhance the expectation of civility, a sense of community and shared responsibility,” says Robyn King, Acting Director of Wellness and Support Services. 

“Also, research has shown that caring for an animal helps to reduce blood-pressure, stress how often one gets sick and increases focus and concentration."  All positive benefits for a college student.


King says she is excited to implement FURRI alongside the existing slate of new-student support programs.


"We seek to start our new students off strong at SCCC," King says."We have programs in place to ease the transition into college life, and the FURRI program provides a strong complement to those programs."


Kitten distribution will be seamlessly integrated into New Student Orientation. First-years will choose their new kittens in the Activity Forum in Elston Hall, which will be fully converted into the permanent home for the FURRI Program.

2nd year student Caitlin Garfield 

with Mister Wuffles

Students will select among a variety of kitten options, such as tabbies, torties and tigers. Thanks to a generous collaboration with the Animal Protective Foundation in Scotia, kittens as young as 8 weeks old will be available, as well as older cats for students who wish for a more mature feline companion.


For students unable to pick up their kittens during the FURRI office hours, the College store has graciously offered to combine kitten distribution with their textbook pick-up service.

For first-years who are allergic to cats or otherwise averse to kitten ownership, FURRI will offer hedgehogs, geckos and teacup pigs as pet alternatives.

“Whatever a student’s kitten or small-animal-related need, we'll meet it,” says Tom Katzen, volunteer FURRI program coordinator. “Our staff is prepared to answer questions, offer support and seek solutions.”


In conjunction with the FURRI program, staff from the SCCC Institutional Research office have spent the past year studying the effects of cat ownership on well-being, positive social behaviors and civility on campus. Their results so far indicate that kittens rank extremely high on the happiness to civility matrix .

To prepare for the full FURRI launch, a select group of SCCC students has been testing the kitten-ownership plan since Fall 2014.


“Having Mister Wuffles in my life has dramatically enhanced my college experience,” says Caitlin Garfield, a second year Paralegal student from Albany who lives in the Stockade. “I take him to basketball games, we hang out in the main lounge, we do everything together. Except for chemistry lab.”

Spader
(photo by Heathcliff Mew)

Heathcliff Meo of the Bronx, says caring for his grey tiger, Spader, has made his first year at the SCCC a success.


“Leaving home was a huge deal for me, and I had to leave my cat Sylvester behind. I wasn’t sure I was ready and was homesick from the first day here,” Meo says. “But once I got Spader, everything changed. SCCC feels more like home now.  I think this program is really great.”

Robyn King is eager to use the next few Fall semesters to gather more data regarding the well-being of student cat owners and their graduation rates compared to previous students who did not own a pet.  She plans to write a book based on her findings.

"I'm so excited about this venture.  The working title for my book is April Fools!" 



Gotcha.

 

 

Source:  http://www.uidaho.edu/newsevents/features/kittens-for-all
(c) Copyright 2015 Robyn M. King. All Rights Reserved.

Procrastination Busters: 10 Tips to Work Smarter...Not Harder

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It is the beginning of a new semester.

It is time to sit down in your study workspace at home and get started with your daily class work.  Procrastination is a college student's worst enemy, and it can be avoided.

But how can you get that work done in a way that is less stressful, less energy consuming and simply a bit smarter?

Here are 10 tips that have helped me with that. I hope you will find something here that will help you too to simplify and "relaxify" your own daily work.

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1.  One thing at a time.  This is your new mantra.  (Repeat often.)  It will help you to get your task all the way to done, to feel less stressed and confused, and you’ll do a better job compared to if you try to multitask. And if you feel stressed and overwhelmed during your day, remind yourself to regain focus and inner clarity again.

 

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2.  Keep a minimalistic workspace. It makes it easier to keep your focus and attention in the right place and to keep your thinking clear. I keep a workspace with just a small wooden desk, a chair and my laptop and a glass of water or mug of tea on that desk.

3.  Go slow. One good way to do more focused work is to go a bit slower than you may usually do. I have also found that by just doing something at a slower pace it feels less like a mental burden and so I am less likely to procrastinate.
 

4.  Eliminate. From time to time ask yourself: what one task during my day or week can I simply eliminate and not do with few or no consequences? It is easy to just keep doing everything simply because “you should” or because you’ve always done so. So question how you go about things to free up energy and time. There is often room in life to at least simplify a bit through elimination.
 

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5.  Cycle 100% focused work with 100% full rest. This is a big one for me. By doing things this way you’ll help yourself to keep your mental sharpness and energy up for the whole day and workweek. I do this by setting my egg-timer for 45 minutes (or sometimes 25 minutes).  During those minutes I only focus on the one task at hand and it becomes easier to do so because I know that I only have to do it for this limited time period. When the egg-timer rings I leave my work for 5-15 minutes. During those minutes I focus only on resting by having a snack, taking a short walk or by relaxing with my eyes closed on the couch. 

6.  Don’t beat yourself up when things don’t go as planned. Instead, be kind to yourself and smart with your energy by asking yourself: what's the lesson in this? Use this as a learning opportunity to do things better, and to avoid making the same mistake in the future. It’s a much better use of your time than spending it on regretting a past that you can't change anyway.
 

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7.  Let emails and other online checking wait until the end of the workday. Or at least for a few hours. Don’t start your day with going through your email – if possible – because it can add a lot of stress and suck away your limited energy and attention early in the day. It can also make it hard to even find enough time for your most important tasks if you get too distracted by your inbox.
 
8.  Limit your daily information input. Regularly unsubscribe to blogs, podcasts, forums and email newsletters that doesn’t add much value to your life anyway. Keep only the most helpful, funny, inspiring and best ones. This very simple thing can free up quite a bit of both time and attention during the course of a month.
 

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9.  Ask yourself questions every day that help you to find your focus. It is so easy to get off track during a day. To stay on track or to get back there if you get lost use one – or both – of my own favorite questions:
a. What is the most important thing I can do right now?
b. What would I work on if I only had 2 hours for work today?
If you like, write these questions down on a note and put that note where you can't avoid seeing it during your day. 


10.  Focus mostly on the how to and not so much on the what-ifs. Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis, over-thinking and in the worry and lack of self-confidence that usually comes from those destructive thoughts. Instead, focus on what you actually can do, on what action you can take to move forward.  Get empowered by asking yourself: What is one small step I can take today to move forward towards my goal or out of this situation?
Source: Positivity Blog

(c) Copyright 2015 Robyn M. King. All Rights Reserved.