Thinking About Dirt

People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.
~Plato

I am one of those people with a strong helper personality. It's served me well in the jobs I have had in the past. However, I will confess that my new position really scares me.The trick here is that I'm not working with students any more. In those relationships I was the one with the knowledge and the experience I needed to impart upon them. Now I am working with professionals-people who in some cases have a great deal more education than I do. So how do I go about "helping" these people without coming across as the savior who was brought in to fix their institution? One of the reasons I applied for the job in the first place was the chance to work with this amazing program. It's already so good and staffed by experts in their field. I know I don't have all the answers, but my goal is to make a difference wherever I am.

Earlier this week I attended a conference called "Presentations That Make an Impact." It was developed by Jim Knight who works with KU and does instructional coaching. Despite the large balance now on my credit card, I am so thankful for this opportunity. I learned a great deal but not just about how to present. I learned a lot about people and how to relate to them. One concept really resonated with me. I'd like to share that with you now. The concept is about helping people. In relationships there are 5 truths when it comes to offering assistance. They are:

1. People don't often realize when they need help.
2. People take it personally when you offer help.
3. People have to be involved in creating a solution. If you do the thinking for them they won't engage.
4. If people perceive you as putting yourself one up and them one down, they won't accept assistance. (Think here about men stereotypically not being willing to ask for directions.)
5. Unless people care about the goal, they won't work to achieve it.

What I loved about this notion of helping is that it goes to the heart of who we are as thinking, caring human beings. I love to help others but struggle to ask for help myself. And frequently I don't realize how badly I need help until it's too late. I've also developed a new way of looking at my role at NCCU. At first I thought about how I've struggled for years trying to get students to do what I tell them to do. Because the audience is so different now (i.e. not students) my relationship must be different. No longer am I the teacher, but the facilitator of learning. And then I realized that even when working with students, I need to take these principles into account. No one likes to be told what to do, and people want an opportunity to solve problems for themselves. College students are no different. Given the needed information, they can make informed choices for themselves on how to proceed.

So now my understanding of my new job has shifted. I'm not necessarily here to provide all the answers. We have over 30 people in the University College with many years of experience in a variety of areas. My job is not to control the learning environment but to present information in such a way as to promote the ability to make informed choices about what to do in our profession. How wonderful! We can learn from each other. And how amazing would it be if we took this approach with our students? What if we made them equal contributers to the learning process? What if we gave them choices in they way in which we solve their problems? What if we listened more than we talk to them? Or even at least as much. In order to reach the people we want to help, we must equalibrate the conversation so that all participants have an equal voice. What an amazing world we would have if we all tried to approach each other in this way!

I'm interested to hear your thoughts. What do you think about the principles of helping? Are they realistic in the higher ed environment? And how can we better help our students knowing this? Please post a response below (it can be anonymous). I hate to think I'm having a conversation with myself! :)

Challenges in Motivating 3rd and 4th Year Students

One of the comments in the feedback from today's presentation indicated a need for motivating upper level students to do well, stay in college, and prepare for post graduation. A lot of what we talked about could be applied to older students. They still need to set goals, have a cheerleader in their corner, etc. The difference is the level at which they are working. For example, hopefully a junior will be pretty good at laying out his or her weekly study schedule. Additionally, they probably have an idea of what they want to do after graduation. However, despite the fact that they have achieved so much, they may need support more than ever.

I remember one particular class in my graduate program. It was summer and I had one more summer session and my thesis in the fall and I was done. But this one class was just killing me. I struggled to comprehend the material, the assignments present an even more difficult challenge, and I was definitely not motivated to work. To top it all off the professor was someone who believed that students learned more if they discovered answers for themselves so asking questions just led me to doubt whether I understood anything at all. I remember one Saturday crying at my desk because I just couldn't do it anymore. My husband came home (he had taken our daughter out to give me some quiet working time) and sat with me-reminding me how far I'd come, what my goals were, and what I would get when I finally earned that degree. I can't say that I immediately went back to work, but every time I was tempted to give up after that I remembered what he said. I reminded myself how far I'd come and what I was working for. I think our juniors and seniors need that. They need people to remind them that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and what will be there when they reach it. An uplifting speech, effective praise, or a motivational tip may be just what they need to keep going when things seem to be at their darkest.

Upper classmen also need help preparing for life after college. It's wonderful to have a job or career path in mind, but how do they get there? Hopefully students have started working with Career Services (see document for an example of what students can be doing throughout their education), and at this point we should encourage them to check out career fairs. Giving them a list of concrete actions they can take right now to prepare will help them be more motivated to get through to graduation. I was fortunate to work at a university with a fabulous Career Center (they helped me with my own job search as well). I have not had the opportunity to explore the services here at NCCU, but I do have quite a bit of material for students on finding a career after graduation. I'm happy to share that if anyone is interested.

I have also found some links to articles that might be helpful for additional ideas and information. Please let me know if there is more I can do or if we need a session specifically on this.

http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/motivation.html

http://www.virtualsalt.com/motivate.htm

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan/boost-your-skills/8454.html

Motivation-Are you a Tigger or an Eeyore?

Human beings are pre-wired to be motivated. Think about it. Something gets us up every morning. Whether it’s the need for coffee or breakfast or the desire to go to work so we can pay the bills we’re motivated to satisfy those needs.

When it comes to work, some people just seem to be naturally more self-motivated than others. And every one of us can recall a time when we felt less motivated about our current situations. The work project we don’t want to do, the laundry piling up at home, there are plenty of things in real life that act as de-motivators. On the other hand, when we’re excited about what we’re doing, we reap the rewards.

Job performance= ability X motivation

So how do we, as professionals, respond when we are feeling less than motivated? After all, how can I inspire students to achieve if I’m not enthusiastic about being at work myself? Just as with students, there is no one size fits all solution to discovering ways to motivate ourselves. There is a motivation cycle that looks like this:

Basically it means that our motivation leads to increased job satisfaction which leads to increased productivity and therefore increases motivation. But remove one of the links and the cycle falls apart. You can’t be productive if you aren’t motivated but lower productivity decreases motivation. We can start by remembering what brought us into this work in the first place? Did you want to make a difference? Enjoy college? Delight in working with college students? Or was it just a job? Think about a time when you were excited to come to work in the mornings. What was it about that time that made it enjoyable? How can you get that back? It’s important to understand the sources of your motivation so you can use them to dig yourself out of a slump.

It’s also important to spend some time looking at what decreases our motivation. College students can be a frustrating group. They are adults, smart and competent, but in so many ways they can still be very immature. Listen to your own self-talk. Are you struggling because you feel unappreciated? Like you aren’t making a difference? Overwhelmed with the workload? And what will improve these feelings?

I am a quote queen. I have been collecting motivational quotes since I was very young and have several volumes full of statements that inspire, motivate, and move me. I love reading inspirational books and going to conferences with speakers. When I'm working I surround myself with motivational objects-quotes, pictures, plants, stuffed animals,-whatever will make me feel good when I look at it.These things energize me and help me regain focus when my motivation dwindles. What works for you and how can you incorporate them into your work life?

I've got another story for you:

The last day of classes before Spring Break in 2008 was rough, and I was feeling severely unmotivated. I had the job of my dreams, providing support services to students with learning disabilities who were attending college, but I was unhappy. I finally had a chance to make a difference for a group of students who were grossly underrepresented in higher education, but I didn't feel like I was reaching them. I was sitting at my desk that cold rainy morning trying to beef up my lesson for the day when I got an email video from my sister.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, the speaker was Randy Pausch, a computer science professor from Carnegie Melon who had given a talk at the university called “The Last Lecture.” He had recently been diagnosed with inoperable cancer and was dying. His speech was really aimed at leaving something for his children, but it had become an internet sensation. He was even invited to be on Oprah giving the scaled down version in my email inbox. My sister simply wrote "Watch this when you have 10 minutes. Very inspirational." I was in the mood to be inspired, so I watched. And I cried. And then I scrapped my entire lesson and brought the video into class. I can’t say that all of them reacted the way I hoped, but I know it touched a few. That day I realized that I cannot reach every student, but I also can’t give up on them. Four years later I still watch this video whenever I'm feeling discouraged or need a little inspiration. I hope it helps you as well.

I hope that this might inspire you the way it has for me. And if it does, take some time to watch the original lecture. The full version is available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7zzQpvoYcQ

Course Progress Record: Breathe Some Life into Your GPA!

A course progress record (or CPR) is really just an individual’s report card. It helps students keep track of the assignments for each class and also gives them a great icebreaker for meeting with an instructor for the first time. Students who take time to read the syllabus and then meet with the professor also tend to make a good first impression, and it increases the likelihood they will seek help if needed. Plus the instructor knows that at least one student read their syllabus.

It’s a win-win!

Students choose a format for use with each class (they may use different forms depending on the type of class or they may stick with just one method for all classes). The important thing is for them to fill out as much information as possible before the semester gets too far underway. Of course some syllabi have every assignment, due date, lecture topic, etc. and some don’t. Students just have to do the best they can knowing that they may have to add, subtract, or change assignments down the road.

I find that students often don’t know what their grade is in a class. They’ll tell you they’re doing great because they got an A on a 10 point assignment and they completely forget the D on the 100 point test they earned two weeks before. Conversely some students are sure they’re failing as soon as they have one poor grade not remembering that they’ve still got 1000 points possible to earn in the class.

During the first week of classes the student reads each syllabus and completes one form for each class including all listed assignments, a way of recording attendance, due dates, etc.

By the second week of classes the student needs to make an appointment to meet with instructor and follow through. In the meeting, the student should show his/her CPR to the instructor and ask for feedback. It may go something like this:

“Professor Jones, I read your syllabus and want to make sure I do well in this course. I have taken what you wrote and created a chart for myself to help me keep track of my assignments and grades. Would you be willing to take a look to make sure I haven’t missed anything and that if I do everything on this list and do it well I will learn the content and earn a good grade in the course?”

Sometimes the response will be noncommittal or even unimpressed, but in my experience instructors tend to react favorably to this kind of early interaction with students. It shows that the student 1) read the syllabus and 2) has taken the information and created a new represtentation. No matter what happens, the student has most likely made a favorable first impression on the instructor making it easier to come back later in the semester. I once had a student whose instructor suggested that he use a particular web resource from the textbook when studying for his exams. He did, taking every sample test they offered. It turned out that the instructor simply used that program and copied and pasted the test questions directly. So when the student went to take the test he had already studied every single question ion it. She didn’t share that information with the entire class just those who went to see her.

Grades should be added to the CPR as soon as they come in, and I encourage students to keep the form in their notebooks or with their syllabi to facilitate this. Once a week students should review their grades, make additions as necessary, and calculate their grade for each class. Students who are in academic difficulty can be required to email the form to their instructor, advisor, tutor, or anyone else who might be able to help them. I also recommend that a student send them to the instructor if s/he is struggling in the class.

Students struggle with deadlines and understanding syllabi, keeping track of their grades, and realizing the impact that each assignment has on their GPA. Using a CPR encourages students to actively engage in the evaluation process and reduces the risk of missing an assignment.