Thursday, September 24, 2009
A Challenging Situation
Tonight I was on duty and ended up having to document my own residents for a policy violation. My residents are used to me being nice to them, being interested in what they have to say, watching out for them, etc., so tonight was a bit of a challenge. I'm not afraid to do my job. If they do something to make me do my job, I will. The rough part is...they don't like that. All of the sudden I'm the bad guy. It's okay when I tell them to quiet down, but not when they are actually documented. Normally when I tell them to quiet down I'm firm but nice. Tonight I feel like I was the same way. Now two of my residents are pretty upset with me. I feel bad. They said things like "Why are you doing this to us?" and "What did we do to you?" and "We're not talking to you anymore." It's not my fault. They broke policy, so they got documented. I tried talking to one of them after the fact, but that didn't go over well. I'm sure things will eventually go back to normal. Right now its just frustrating that they're so mad, when really, it is their fault that they were documented.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Another Day in the Life of an RA
Well, today was pretty darn busy.
It all started at 8:00am. Woke up, thought to myself "A few more minutes" and hit, what I thought, was the snooze button. Unfortunately, I was incorrect.
So, at 9:41am I woke up and realized "Crap. I have to be at class in 19 minutes." Normally on M/W I leave for class at 9:40am. And, lucky again, I had a paper due at exactly 10:00am. I jumped out of bed, threw some water on my face and brushed my teeth and basically jogged to class. I made it, and handed in my paper. Success.
The day continued as normal, class from 10:00am-4:00pm. Six hours of class, two ten minute breaks in between. Classes went pretty well though, I was very rested ;).
I got back to the residence hall and was informed that I needed to go to HR to fill out some form for my job. Nice. That walk back to campus was AWESOME. Sarcasm.
Then I got back, finally got to take a shower. Then I worked on my RA weekly report, and headed to dinner with residents. Had some really good resident interactions at dinner.
Then I went to SAA. It was fun.
Came back to A/S, worked on RA stuff like program planning, poster making, and floor sign making.
Then, at about 10:30pm, it was time for homework! Luckily I only have one class on T/R. Read, and now it's time for bed.
Busy day, great day.
It all started at 8:00am. Woke up, thought to myself "A few more minutes" and hit, what I thought, was the snooze button. Unfortunately, I was incorrect.
So, at 9:41am I woke up and realized "Crap. I have to be at class in 19 minutes." Normally on M/W I leave for class at 9:40am. And, lucky again, I had a paper due at exactly 10:00am. I jumped out of bed, threw some water on my face and brushed my teeth and basically jogged to class. I made it, and handed in my paper. Success.
The day continued as normal, class from 10:00am-4:00pm. Six hours of class, two ten minute breaks in between. Classes went pretty well though, I was very rested ;).
I got back to the residence hall and was informed that I needed to go to HR to fill out some form for my job. Nice. That walk back to campus was AWESOME. Sarcasm.
Then I got back, finally got to take a shower. Then I worked on my RA weekly report, and headed to dinner with residents. Had some really good resident interactions at dinner.
Then I went to SAA. It was fun.
Came back to A/S, worked on RA stuff like program planning, poster making, and floor sign making.
Then, at about 10:30pm, it was time for homework! Luckily I only have one class on T/R. Read, and now it's time for bed.
Busy day, great day.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
The End of Week 2 of Classes
Hello!!
Things have been going really well in the realm of 1st Shilling. I'm not sure where to start with this update, so I will just start to ramble and try to list as many things as I can remember!
Last night I held a "1st Shilling Hits the Books!" program. This will be a weekly (or bi-weekly) program where the residents of my floor and I will all study together in the Shilling Study Lounge. I started the program initially because a lot of my residents (at least 7) and I are enrolled in PSY 100, Intro to Psych. We had our first exam this morning (it was way easy) and so I decided to host the program for all of us to get together to go over the material. The program ended up being opened up to anyone who wanted to come, and 13 of my residents attended! It went really well, and those of us covering Psych went over a ton of stuff and answered a lot of questions. It was pretty fun, too. My residents expressed to me later that they felt really confident for the test. Realizing that for many of them this would be their first college exam, I went over some things to expect on test day (student ID checking, leaving after you finish the exam, etc.) and I think that put a lot of nerves at ease. It was great.
I also worked the desk last night from 11pm-2am and I will do that every Wednesday night. It was long, and boring. But one resident from 5th Ackley was working with me, so that made it a little more interesting.
The residents are still testing the boundaries with me. Two of them were documented for playing hall sports after I warned them several times. Luckily I wasn't the one to document them, but I'm pretty sure they knew I was involved in it. After the documentation, I had a talk with one of them, and just explained the policy again and told him that he was the one who made the decision to keep playing hall sports after I had told him not to. He understood, and I think it was really good to follow up with him after the incident.
I've started to see some really good friendships forming on my hall. I think my residents are really enjoying living on 1st Shilling. I have one open room, for two girls, and I've had some people talking about wanted to move to my floor. It's really nice to hear that the work that I'm doing for my residents and the community I'm trying to facilitate is appreciated.
One thing I think really helps me relate to my residents is the fact that I am very close in age to all of them. I just went through what they are going through now, so it is very fresh in my mind how they may be feeling. I think they feel comfortable talking to me about things because of how close in age we are. I have three residents that are older than me, and a few that are only a month or two younger. Lots of them are only 7 or 8 months younger than me.
Other than that not much to report! School is going well. I'm very busy...but loving every minute of it!!
Things have been going really well in the realm of 1st Shilling. I'm not sure where to start with this update, so I will just start to ramble and try to list as many things as I can remember!
Last night I held a "1st Shilling Hits the Books!" program. This will be a weekly (or bi-weekly) program where the residents of my floor and I will all study together in the Shilling Study Lounge. I started the program initially because a lot of my residents (at least 7) and I are enrolled in PSY 100, Intro to Psych. We had our first exam this morning (it was way easy) and so I decided to host the program for all of us to get together to go over the material. The program ended up being opened up to anyone who wanted to come, and 13 of my residents attended! It went really well, and those of us covering Psych went over a ton of stuff and answered a lot of questions. It was pretty fun, too. My residents expressed to me later that they felt really confident for the test. Realizing that for many of them this would be their first college exam, I went over some things to expect on test day (student ID checking, leaving after you finish the exam, etc.) and I think that put a lot of nerves at ease. It was great.
I also worked the desk last night from 11pm-2am and I will do that every Wednesday night. It was long, and boring. But one resident from 5th Ackley was working with me, so that made it a little more interesting.
The residents are still testing the boundaries with me. Two of them were documented for playing hall sports after I warned them several times. Luckily I wasn't the one to document them, but I'm pretty sure they knew I was involved in it. After the documentation, I had a talk with one of them, and just explained the policy again and told him that he was the one who made the decision to keep playing hall sports after I had told him not to. He understood, and I think it was really good to follow up with him after the incident.
I've started to see some really good friendships forming on my hall. I think my residents are really enjoying living on 1st Shilling. I have one open room, for two girls, and I've had some people talking about wanted to move to my floor. It's really nice to hear that the work that I'm doing for my residents and the community I'm trying to facilitate is appreciated.
One thing I think really helps me relate to my residents is the fact that I am very close in age to all of them. I just went through what they are going through now, so it is very fresh in my mind how they may be feeling. I think they feel comfortable talking to me about things because of how close in age we are. I have three residents that are older than me, and a few that are only a month or two younger. Lots of them are only 7 or 8 months younger than me.
Other than that not much to report! School is going well. I'm very busy...but loving every minute of it!!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Classes
Classes have started at WMU! They started Tuesday, Sept. 8th. I have a pretty decent schedule, three classes M/W, 10am-4pm, and then only one classes T/R 9:30am-10:45am. 15 credit hours, so nothing too time consuming. I'm hoping to 4.0 this semester. We'll see.
I have Psych 100, Intro to Psych, this semester. In this class are at least three of my residents, and a lot of other residents are in Psych 100 at a different time. It's convinient, and I think I will organize study sessions with them. It's a program...and a good way to connect with them. A lot of my residents are really excited about classes, which makes me happy. Even some residents who I didn't think would be very excited about them actually are.
I co-ran my first RA program on Tuesday...Speed Friending! We didn't expect a lot of interest because it's the beginning of the week, first day of class, etc., but we actually had 20 residents attend the program! It went really well too...they were talking and laughing and I think they made friends. I had six of my residents there, too, which was encouraging. I'm co-hosting another program tonight, Showstopper Doorstopper, where we will paint door stoppers to keep the doors open so that community is developed on the floors. It's already showing a lot of interest...I hope we don't run out of door stoppers!
That's all for now. I already have homework to do...and an exam next week. Awesome.
I have Psych 100, Intro to Psych, this semester. In this class are at least three of my residents, and a lot of other residents are in Psych 100 at a different time. It's convinient, and I think I will organize study sessions with them. It's a program...and a good way to connect with them. A lot of my residents are really excited about classes, which makes me happy. Even some residents who I didn't think would be very excited about them actually are.
I co-ran my first RA program on Tuesday...Speed Friending! We didn't expect a lot of interest because it's the beginning of the week, first day of class, etc., but we actually had 20 residents attend the program! It went really well too...they were talking and laughing and I think they made friends. I had six of my residents there, too, which was encouraging. I'm co-hosting another program tonight, Showstopper Doorstopper, where we will paint door stoppers to keep the doors open so that community is developed on the floors. It's already showing a lot of interest...I hope we don't run out of door stoppers!
That's all for now. I already have homework to do...and an exam next week. Awesome.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
The First Weekend of Residents
It's Saturday and most of the residents are out of the building. A lot of them went home because it's Labor Day weekend.
My first duty night was this past Thursday. My duty partner is Todd, a second-year RA. Duty started out slow. We delivered some microfridges, check all the fire extinguishers, went through every floor, and basically made sure the building was secure. We then got a message from one of the other RAs on staff about the possibility of drinking on her floor. It turns out that there was an incident on her floor. We dealt with it, and Todd took charge while I went over policy and got the residents' information. We had a similar situation later that night on a different floor. We also experienced our first situation involving the police and EMS.
It was an eye-opening experience to how the year will go. We can expect a lot of alcohol-related issues to happen during our Thursday night duties. "Thirsty Thursday" is notorious for this. Didn't get a lot of sleep, but learned a lot, and hopefully if we crack down right now from the beginning residents will realize that their negative and illegal choices won't get them very far.
Classes start on Tuesday.
My first duty night was this past Thursday. My duty partner is Todd, a second-year RA. Duty started out slow. We delivered some microfridges, check all the fire extinguishers, went through every floor, and basically made sure the building was secure. We then got a message from one of the other RAs on staff about the possibility of drinking on her floor. It turns out that there was an incident on her floor. We dealt with it, and Todd took charge while I went over policy and got the residents' information. We had a similar situation later that night on a different floor. We also experienced our first situation involving the police and EMS.
It was an eye-opening experience to how the year will go. We can expect a lot of alcohol-related issues to happen during our Thursday night duties. "Thirsty Thursday" is notorious for this. Didn't get a lot of sleep, but learned a lot, and hopefully if we crack down right now from the beginning residents will realize that their negative and illegal choices won't get them very far.
Classes start on Tuesday.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
The Residents Have Arrived
The residents are here and it's the beginning of Welcome Week!
Check-in was definitely an experience. The freshmen came in to the room very timid and scared-looking. All the RAs were seated around the room at different stations. My job was mainly to talk about room inventories (checking for damages in the room) and passing out keys. We had two days of check-in, Monday from 9:00am-5:00pm, and Tuesday 9:00am-5:00pm. It was hectic, and exhausting. After they checked in the freshmen set up their rooms. Occasionally I could go around my floor and see if anyone needed help. This was a good way to meet the residents and their families. What was interesting about check-in was that we didn't really have problems with residents, but their parents were not easy to work with. Angry mothers would storm into the check-in area and demand immediate attention for an issue that really didn't have to do with the RAs...such as internet hook ups and the "safety" of the building.
So far my floor is great. I have identified some natural leaders who are very social on the floor. I have also identified some residents who are more timid and might need a little help getting out onto the floor.
It's really awesome to see the residents filling out their "About Me" sheets that I hung outside the doors, and one resident even mentioned how much she liked the door decs and everything I've done so far with the floor. It makes the 8 hours of work spent on door decs worth it.
I've got a lot of work coming up in the next couple of weeks. How things go on the floor in this beginning time period will set the tone for the entire year. I'm going to try to emphasize open doors and communication between residents. I've seen a couple of my residents talking to each other or eating together on a few seperate occasions, and that's great. The connections they make early on are crucial to how they feel about their living arrangements. No conflicts...yet.
Tomorrow will be busy...I've got work to do in the SAA office from 9:30am-it's done, then RA Olympics (the last bit of training) at 1pm. Then I am going to try to make it to the SAA session during Fall Welcome interest sessions at 2:15pm, and then planning for next week's programs and creating shopping lists, then Project RSO for SAA during Fall Welcome at 9:30pm-11pm. It's going to be a busy day, but hopefully a good one!
Check-in was definitely an experience. The freshmen came in to the room very timid and scared-looking. All the RAs were seated around the room at different stations. My job was mainly to talk about room inventories (checking for damages in the room) and passing out keys. We had two days of check-in, Monday from 9:00am-5:00pm, and Tuesday 9:00am-5:00pm. It was hectic, and exhausting. After they checked in the freshmen set up their rooms. Occasionally I could go around my floor and see if anyone needed help. This was a good way to meet the residents and their families. What was interesting about check-in was that we didn't really have problems with residents, but their parents were not easy to work with. Angry mothers would storm into the check-in area and demand immediate attention for an issue that really didn't have to do with the RAs...such as internet hook ups and the "safety" of the building.
So far my floor is great. I have identified some natural leaders who are very social on the floor. I have also identified some residents who are more timid and might need a little help getting out onto the floor.
It's really awesome to see the residents filling out their "About Me" sheets that I hung outside the doors, and one resident even mentioned how much she liked the door decs and everything I've done so far with the floor. It makes the 8 hours of work spent on door decs worth it.
I've got a lot of work coming up in the next couple of weeks. How things go on the floor in this beginning time period will set the tone for the entire year. I'm going to try to emphasize open doors and communication between residents. I've seen a couple of my residents talking to each other or eating together on a few seperate occasions, and that's great. The connections they make early on are crucial to how they feel about their living arrangements. No conflicts...yet.
Tomorrow will be busy...I've got work to do in the SAA office from 9:30am-it's done, then RA Olympics (the last bit of training) at 1pm. Then I am going to try to make it to the SAA session during Fall Welcome interest sessions at 2:15pm, and then planning for next week's programs and creating shopping lists, then Project RSO for SAA during Fall Welcome at 9:30pm-11pm. It's going to be a busy day, but hopefully a good one!
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