Goals and Plans

Week 7 is all about goals and plans. If you have had your students do the Discovery Wheel, the discovery exercise about health and the nutrition journal, they should have some data that should prepare them to think ahead. You can tell them that people who write down their goals are 85% more likely to reach those goals.

In addition, the students have probably had a test or two. They know how hard they need to work to attain the grades they want.

As I mentioned to you in the training seminar back in August, I really like the goal setting exercise in BAMS. This exercise is available online at the Cengage site for Becoming a Master Student:
http://college.cengage.com/masterstudent/shared/content/get_real_with_goals/get_real_with_goals.html

You can also just do the exercise on paper or do the 3x5 card version of it that I put in your notebooks. Mid-semester is a great time to think about both short-term and long-term goals. It's not too late for a mid-course correction.

Instructions for Importing a "Test" or Survey

Here are the instructions that Matt wrote for us. They will stay here in the blog, and I won't have to search through old email archives again to find them.

Instructions (by Matt):

1. Save the attached ZIP file to a location on your computer (I'd recommend putting it on the Desktop)
2. Go to Blackboard and navigate to the Test area (Control Panel -> Course Tools -> Tests, Surveys and Pools)
3. Click on Tests
4. Choose Import Test
5. Click Browse for Local File
6. Find the ZIP file you saved in step one using the file chooser
7. Click Submit

The test is now in your test bank. You'll then need to:
1. Go to the Quizzes button
2. Choose Create Test (Evaluate -> Create Test)
3. The test you just imported will be in the list, so you can set the time when the test will be available.

Information Literacy

Week 6, September 28, 29, 30, is "Information Literacy" week in KING 2000.

We will meet our classes in the library, where Jenny Horton has arranged for a librarian to go over basic skills with the students.

Before class your students need to complete the information literacy survey on Bb. They need to do this by September 28. This survey is a zip file, just like a quiz. I will email it to you, and you will upload it exactly as you do a quiz.

In class you will give them the assignment sheet for the project. I will email the assignment sheet and post it on our Mentors' Blackboard site as well.

I suggest that by Friday of this week you send them an email telling them that they need to do the survey and also letting them know what the topics are for the team project. Each student should think about the list of topics and know what two or three they are interested in. You need to get the students into no more than 4 teams (there is only enough time for 4 teams to present on presentation day, which is November 18). I will also draft an email message that you can use or not use.

Perhaps at the beginning of the library session you can have them turn in to you their list of three. By the time the librarian is ready for them to begin their research, you can have the list of teams ready.

Our goal is graphically depicted by this cartoon (found on the North Myrtle Beach High School Website):

BAMS

OK, I admit it. I am definitely a devotee of Becoming a Master Student by Dave Ellis.

One of the most memorable conferences I ever attended was one that he led for freshman seminar instructors. As I told you at our workshop, even though there were 500 attendees, he made us feel as if we were in a small group.

I stumbled across the website for the 10th edition of the book.
http://college.cengage.com/collegesurvival/ellis/master_student/10e/students/index.html

Perhaps you will find it a useful resource as we move into Week 5 and begin to talk about both study skills and health issues. The menu along the side of the splash page gives you many choices.

There is actually an online version of the Discovery Wheel exercise, but don't tell the students--since we had them buy the Discovery Wheel booklet.

This week could be as illuminating as the Learning Styles Exercise was for my class. Almost literally, lights went on all over the room the day we did that exercise. Seeing the graphs the students made based on the word lists I read them was instructive for me--made me realize why individuals were reacting to their classes and their new experiences the ways they were.

I expect the Discovery Wheel to provide the same sort of insight.

Preparing for Buechner Lecturer Makoto Fujimura

Makoto Fujimura's "Golden Summer"

Once again, my apologies for being late with the quiz on the Fujimura readings. I have spent several hours immersed in the texts and following up with some web reserch. The links below were instructive to me in the process.

Japanese Tea Ceremony
http://www.chinatownconnection.com/japanese-tea-ceremony.htm

abstract expressionism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_expressionism

Nihonga
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonga

Fujimura assumes that his readers know the terminology he is using; my guess is that our students will not know these terms. I am going to send my class an email suggesting that before they do the reading and take the quiz they should look up the following words/terms:

abstract expressionism
Nihonga
modernism
post-modernism
anime
metanoia
Eucharist

I have a lot of cool ideas for teaching this week's material, but...ALAS...I am out of time for today. Other tasks await. I want to make a slide show of some art from both the abstract expressionists and the Nihonga painters to give students a sense of the two traditions. I'm also thinking about using a movie clip and some music. It's too bad my class is not first in the week. That would make me work faster.

I am sending by email some class discussion questions that have occurred to me as I read and wrote the quiz.

Katie

Honor Code Cards? + Service Fair Accountability

After a search, we were able to come up with Honor Code Pledge Cards--enough for our transfer students to sign. Since only a few of them signed the banner on Monday during Launch, the cards are appropriate.

The question is...do we want to back track to do this?

My workship will deliver to you an envelope with enough cards for your students. You can decide whether or not you want to use them.

CROSS-CULTURAL EXPERIENCE & SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES FAIR
The event on Wednesday, September 9, may have even exceeded our expectations. We had lots of students! And, furthermore, the agency representatives were very complimentary about the smooth organization of the fair and the genuine enthusiasm of the students who talked to them.

We do have an accountability sheet from everyone who was there. Heather is going to take care of organizing those and pulling out the ones for your students. You will receive them soon.

Free Lunch for Commuters on Wednesday, September 9!

FREE LUNCH is always good news!

Commuters can thank Student Affairs for a free picnic lunch on Wednesday as part of the Cross-Cultural Experience and Service Opportunities Fair being held on the Oval. The Fair will kick off with a devotional from Fred Foy Strang and music by the Chapel Band.

Then students will move to the grassy area in front of Bristol Hall where more than 20 local agencies and campus trip sponsors will be set up with information to help students understand how the Cross-Cultural Experience works now under the revised Core and what services King students can provide for less-fortunate citizens of the Tri-Cities area.

This event has been long in the planning (since last spring) and carefully imagined. We are elated by the response of area service organizations such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters, the Salvation Army, and Appalachian Service Project. Faculty and Staff will be on hand, too, with information about study abroad possibilities, mission trips planned for 2009-2010, and important information about the Cross-Cultural Experience requirement. There will be prize drawings every few minutes and a grand $$ prize given at the end of the fair.

I said on the syllabus plan that I would design a feedback sheet for students. But, actually the feedback sheet has become ubiquitous. A form will be given to all students who attend. Once they visit several of the tables to get information and get their sheet initialed by the information providers at those tables, the sheet turned in to Heather Levesque will serve as their entry in the grand prize drawing. We can retrieve those sheets from Heather to use to record attendance for our transfer students.

I hope each of you can come on Wednesday at least for part of the time. We are anticipating a successful outcome. Join the committee in prayers for good weather.

Katie