"Have College Freshman Changed?"

This is the question that The New York Times poses in its opinion pages this week. All first year students in INQ should read this because:

1) It talks about you and your generation

2) It connects to the stuff about identity and autonomy that we discuss in class (and Lee will be doing a bit more with)

3) It relates exactly to the stuff we'll be discussing concerning grading and grade inflation

I hope to solicit your ideas on these pieces next week in class, and I think it will prompt a good discussion.

Lightning Strikes

I just returned from the soccer tournament where our team tied for first place (we might have won, but lightning made us all leave early). Despite the fact that not too many of my students were able to participate in this event, it was somewhat of a success in that it was a cross-class and cross-year collaboration. From one class, Niko, Gaby, Oscar, and Kaitlyn all came out to play; from the other class, just Jacob; but my peer mentor Ben from last year played with us, and my former student Erin, now also a peer mentor also put on borrowed socks and shoes to play (now that's dedication!)

Thanks to all who played! Next year...water polo?



(Cindy Stretch's nicely outfitted team)

Soccer Tournament is On Tonight!

We play at 9:00 in the Field House! Come out and play or support us! Wear green!



(If not enough players come, we will have to forfeit or I will have to recruit my daughter to play and it's way past her bedtime. Also, remember, no cleats.)

Blog Recap: Building Community

One of the best things about the FYE/INQ program is the way it helps build community. The students in the FYE learning communities can rely on each other as a support network to help them integrate into the larger SCSU community. Each year in INQ, I see many students forming tight bonds, friendships that last beyond their first year. This week, in the blogs, I saw lots of connection and interaction happening through blogging. Many students acknowledged other students' writing as setting an example of what makes a "good" post. I especially liked that these "shout outs" crossed between the two classes; students often read and linked to blogs in the other class, even if they didn't personally know the writer. In this, I saw the INQ community-building widen a bit more. Be sure to check out this week's posts and see who said that your blog was cool -- thank that person and maybe introduce yourselves in the comments.

Another way the two classes can strengthen this community building is by coming to the soccer game Monday night to see about 4 or 5 students from each class (and Kaitlyn) play in the next round of the tournament. Communities are all about support -- so come and support your peers outside of the classroom!

Finally, the moment you all have been waiting for...



This week's blogging assignment:

1) Reflect on the role of the peer mentor in the INQ class: what works? what does having a PM add? what have you learned from your PM?

2) (back by popular demand) FREE CHOICE!

The Southern Fugees

I just returned from the Freshman Soccer Tournament, and we won and advanced to the next round thanks to a winning penalty kick scored by our team captain Niko. We didn't have enough players, so Kaitlyn and I both played (and I have a bruise on my knee to show for it because, of course, I fell). In fact, our team was a hodgepodge of players, including my peer mentor from last year, Ben, who played in dress clothes and shoes. Ben said we looked like The Fugees compared to the other team.

In fact, the other team were true winners because they had 11 people from their class there and they had decorated T-shirts with their names and team name on them -- and they looked awesome and showed a lot of spirit. I'm hoping our class can rally some more folks to come out for our next game (and we can better coordinate where to go -- I was told we were playing outdoors on the field but due to rain we played in the field house itstead).

Picures to come hopefully, both of the IN.CREW Team uniforms and of my bruise.

College = Freedom: Shaping your own Learning Experience

The midterm video assignment was purposely somewhat open-ended (causing some students to feel anxious or complain that it was "hard to know what you wanted"). It was designed as such not to make students feel nervous or frustrated, but because many assignments in college are purposely open, giving students a lot of choice in how to approach the question, what topics to focus on, how to craft the final product. Like many aspects of college, these assignments don't have one right answer, but instead give students the chance to explore the many strong, interesting, unique answers. That freedom can sometimes feel overwhelming or unsettling, especially if you aren't used to completing that type of assignment. Here are a few things to think about in creating a positive experience for yourself within the parameters of an open-ended assignment:

1. Choosing a Productive Topic: The topic you choose or inquiry question you pursue can immediately raise the bar of your project if it is one that will inspire a lot of creative and critical thinking, if it gives you places to go in your thinking. The natural instinct for most people is to choose the easiest topic, the one you feel you already understand and know a lot about so you will have a lot to say. However, the more interesting and exploratory your topic is, the more engaging it will be for you to complete the project and the more engaged your audience will be. Take as an example, the topic of time management, which many students chose to focus on in their projects. This is a fine topic as long as you can find something to say about it that we don't already know, that we haven't already read or talked or thought about. Conversely, imagine sitting through 7 videos that all provide the same tips about time management. If you start with a relatively simple question, you will have to work very hard to make your final product creative and engaging (you will have to raise the bar of the technology you use or the format in which you present your work.) But if you start with a more complex question or topic, you will have to add less "bells and whistles" to your final product because the concepts themselves will grab the attention of your audience.

2. Refining your Ideas and Highlighting your Voice: Once you have collected your information and done the required interviews for this project, you will need to think about how to narrow the focus of your work since the final video is only supposed to be 5-10 minutes long. Instead of simply thinking about where to cut, you should consider how to make your ideas more refined, more specific. Instead of trying to say a little about everything, think about what smaller piece you can explore in an interesting and more in-depth way. Take your audience deeper into your topic rather than giving them more general information. Why is that a better strategy? Think again about sitting in the audience watching a talk, presentation, or video. When the speaker takes time to tell us what we already know or what seems like common sense, we tend to zone out or feel as if we are wasting our time. But when the speaker can take a concept to a new level, connect it to something specific we haven't thought about before, or get us to see a new perspective, we come away from the experience feeling energized by the topic.

One way to make your ideas more specific and interesting is to foreground your own voice, your own experiences, your own ideas about the topic. That doesn't mean that you should have your life story take the place of giving good information or reporting on your research. However, the research should serve as evidence, background information, a springboard, for your own "thesis" about your topic, just like in Composition where writing works to foreground you as the writer and doesn't ask you simply to report on others' ideas. Again like many aspects of college, you need to do the research to have a basis for your ideas and to add authority to your voice, but ultimately what you have to say about that topic is more important...and having something interesting and informed to say (whether in class discussion, your writing, or this video project) is probably the main goal of college courses in general.

3. Presenting your Ideas in a Way that Stands Out: Putting the finishing touches on your project is a crucial step to making sure your ideas are clear and that the presentation of your ideas is professional as well as unique. This requires setting aside time to self-assess, get feedback from others, build on your strengths and bolster your weaknesses, get help with the technology, revise, retune, and polish. This week in class, we are going to talk more about where to go with these projects, but in the meantime, start thinking about what you can do to make your project more professional, more creative, more informative, more unique. What is it that will make your project stand out from the other 18 or 19 videos we will see?

Blog Recap and This Week's Assignments

I very much enjoyed reading this past week's posts on events attended on campus -- and I loved the pictures you took and posted (did anyone see Oscar with blue hair at the football game?!) These were some of the most interesting posts for me to read because it's a side of campus life that I don't see or know enough about. In regard to the project posts, it seems like projects are coming along, taking shape, even if some are off to a slow start. I'm going to write more about the projects and what makes a good project in my next post.

For this week, here are the two blogging assignments:

1. What makes a good blog post? Enumerate the criteria and explain why it's important and link to students' posts from our class which exemplify your ideas.

2. This one is a way to get ready for midterm advising and Spring registration. If you have chosen a major, why did you choose that major? If you haven't chosen or are thinking of switching, what are you thinking about and why?

Looking forward to seeing 1st drafts of videos tomorrow!