Just Checking In!

Toward the middle of the semester I was starting to notice that quite a few of my residents were having roommate, homework, and personal issues. Part of my job is to address these issues that my residents are having and help them to solve the issue, whatever it may be. However, I was having trouble addressing their issues because I wasn't being told about the issues until they had already progressed to a point where they were hard to fix.

In order to combat this problem, I thought it would be a good idea to check in with each of my residents. As much as I wanted to be able to do one-on-one conferences with my residents, I didn't have the time because I have so many residents. Instead, I decided to send out a survey for my residents to fill out. In the directions I asked my residents to be completely honest about their feelings so I could help them if they needed it.

Making the survey was extremely easy and I was able to get the information I needed in an organized, timely manner. Google has an option to make a "live form" through their Google Doc system. This form can be designed in any way you want. This format helps the residents fill out a simple survey while giving the information to the CA in an organized manner (excel spreadsheet). Here is a picture of the form I made for my residents so you can have an idea:

 

These are the questions I asked on the survey:

• Name
• How many credit hours are you taking this semester?
• Are there any classes you are struggling with? If so, what classes?
• Are you familiar with the tutoring services on campus?
•  Do you know how to find the tutoring services/where they are on campus?
• How is your room/ living arrangement?
• Are there any roommates/suitemates you are clashing with? If yes, who is the roommate/suitemate and what are some of the problems you are having?
•  What clubs/activities are you involved in on campus? 
•  Have you had trouble making friends here?
•  What could Kevin (co) and I do to make your experience here better?
•  Other questions, comments, concerns? 

Overall, I think that my residents were pretty honest in their answers to these questions and it helped me to guage a littler better what I needed to do to help them.

Although I didn't get the personal interaction that comes with a one-on-one, I thought the survey was a great approach to finding out how my residents were adapting to college life.

There were some other benefits that came out of making students complete this survey. Many students provided suggestions for new events or activities in the suggestions box. One great suggestion that I got was posting a poster in the hall that allowed students to see who else on the floor had their same class/professor. I thought it was a great suggestion and so I created a poster and put it up in my hall. This is what it looks like:

 So far I've had a few residents use it, but it hasn't caught on yet. My thought now is that I will make a new one for second semester and ask all my residents to use it so that they can study with their floor mates.

My overarching theme of this post is simply this: There are many benefits that come out of taking the time to see how your residents are doing. Not only will you get closer to them and more involved in their lives, but you will also get great suggestions on how to do your job better/ service your floor better.

Gangnam Style Door Decs

At ASU, new "door decs", as they are called, are supposed to be put up twice a semester - once at the beginning and once in the middle. This time of year came fairly recently. So, I am sharing the idea my co and I came up with with you!

At the beginning of the school year, my co-worker and I decided that we wanted our floor to be Mario themed. When it came time to change the door decs, we were sick of Mario. Something totally different is what we were shooting for.

At the time that we were doing door decs, "Gangnam Style" was a pretty big deal. If you haven't seen the video, you are missing out! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0) "Gangnam Style" was loved by so many that we had no other option but to use it as our theme for the new door decs.

Here is what they ended up looking like:

Overall, these door decs were fairly simple to make. I printed multiple copies of the Gangnam man and name box and then cut them out individually. Then, I backed each one with colored construction paper to make the door decs a little more visually pleasing. These door decs were extremely time consuming, but my residents got a good kick out of the new theme, so it was worth it to me.

*Note: The idea for Gangnam Style door decs was solely that of my co-worker. I simply created the decs.

November Bulletin Board

All of my bulletin boards up to this point had been about fairly serious topics. Although these were important topics that I felt my residents needed to know about, I thought it was time for something a little bit lighter and humorous.

November has become known as "No Shave November". This is the time of year when mostly males, let it (facial hair) all grow out. Recently, some women have decided to partake in the November festivities and decide to not shave for the month.

"No Shave November" was the theme of my bulletin board for this month. I was curious as to how this tradition got started, so I researched it more. Apparently, the event originally started as a prostate cancer awareness event. The event is called "Movember" and focuses on raising money and awareness. The website contains more information about the organization and event: http://www.movember.com/.

I think my bulletin board this month came out to be fun and informative. These are two things that I think are important characteristics in a bulletin board that will catch a resident's eye. Here is a picture of the board so that you can see how it turned out:

On the bulletin board I put the history and facts about Movember. Also, I added pictures that revolved around the theme of not shaving. There are many pictures on sites like Pinterest and Tumbler that could be useful for a bulletin board like this. Finally, I left a space for my residents to leave comments about what they think about No Shave November. One resident already wrote: "It's a hairy situation".

This will be my last board of the semester where I will have creative control. My next board will contain facts about moving out of the residence halls for Christmas Break. Therefore, I won't have a new board to show until January. Until then, I'll be brainstorming! :)