Diēs Caniculārē

Welcome back tutors! I hope all of you had a good and relaxing break last week. It is now summer. Hot, sunny days (hopefully) have supplanted the near-constant wet and darkness of winter. I'm glad to see so many familiar faces back in the Success Center this term. UCC has a large number of students who take classes over the summer, so our tutoring services are as needed this term as they are the rest of the year. Some of you may be new to working summer term, so there are few notes that are important to pass along.

Summer hours: The entire UCC campus is closed on Fridays during the summer. Therefore, the Success Center will only be open Monday-Thursday from 9 am until 3 pm. Students wishing to find a study space outside those hours will have to utilize the library, Student Center (formerly the campus center), or the cafeteria.

Reflection forms: There have been some hiccups in the reflection forms, but those are being ironed out and the forms will be distributed soon. Daniel will email them out on Thursday and tutors are asked to return the filled out forms by the following Thursday. Most of us have dealt with these before and thus should have some familiarity with them. Daniel can answer any questions you may have about them.

This term we will continue with each tutor being given an “office hour” to allow one-on-one scheduled tutoring with students. Daniel will be emailing those designated hours to each tutor on Monday, June 30^th.

Emotional Bank Account forms: as I’m sure you noticed, there is now a direct link to the Emotional Bank Account form on the TutorTrac login page.  We have been getting reports that these forms are enabling tutors to take a deeper look at their day-to-day interactions and analyze their behavior and improve their tutoring performance. Remember, we need three reports filled out every day you are on shift. Keep up the good work!

And last but not least . . . THE POOL IS BACK!!! After three years sitting abandoned, empty, and forlorn the UCC swimming pool is repaired, reborn, and ready for all comers. Hundreds of people have spent time in the pool in the few short weeks it’s been open, and by all reports it has been a huge success.  Open swim times this summer are 1-4pm and 7-9pm. Check out http://umpqua.edu/pool or contact Cheryl Yoder or Daniel Leeworthy in the PE offices for more information.

 

I want to thank you for all your hard work and all the time and effort that each and every one of you do to help our students succeed. Our team works so well together, and I am truly honored to be a part of it. Everything that you do for our students has a deep, profound effect on them, and this school is better for it.

"How far that little candle throws his beams!

So shines a good deed in a naughty world."

         Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, 5.1.88-89

So, what are you looking forward to this summer?

The Final Stretch

Week 10. Time to put the steel to the grindstone and make that final push for excellence and awesomeness. Since finals are next week, making sure we are doing our best for ourselves and our students is paramount. Many UCC students count on us to help them overcome academic difficulties, and being ready and prepared is one of the most important things we can do for our students.

I will keep this short, as we are all busier than usual this week. However, please note the dates and important bullets from last week’s blog and tie up any loose ends, make notes, etc. before we get into finals and the summer break.

Below are some important items and dates that I want to reiterate:

Finals week: tutors are expected to work their regular shifts Monday and Tuesday. If you have finals during those times please let Daniel or Robbie know as soon as possible so we can be prepared. Note that the center will be open for studying all week but we will only have tutors on shift Monday and Tuesday. We will not have any tutors working Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday of Finals week.

One-on-one tutor meetings: for those that have not contacted Daniel yet to schedule a meeting time, he will be contacting you this week during your shift to set up meeting times.

Friday, June 13^th at 6:00pm: Graduation. Several of our tutors, as well as many of our frequent Success Center visitors will be graduating from UCC. 

 “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”  –Nelson Mandela.

What are your reflections on tutoring and working in the Success Center this term? How do you feel about your college experience this year as summer quickly approaches?

Vaulting ambition

Today is the first day of week 9. Counting this week, we have two more weeks of instruction and a week of finals before many of you take off for vacation, prepare for more classes during the summer, and get ready to transfer into the workforce or to a university. As the term winds down students are facing the mounting pressures of finishing class assignments and projects, studying for exams, and preparing for finals. Tutors have the added burden of assisting struggling students as they work to finish their own projects and do their own studying. The beautiful weather helps little, as bright sunny days and warm breezes are big distractions when intense studying and hard work is required for success.

I encourage everyone to concentrate on time management and putting the few days that remain in this term to good use. 

Please keep the following dates in mind.

Wednesday, May 28^th at 3pm: Outstanding Student Reception in Jacoby Auditorium. Several students from across campus will be presented with the Outstanding Student Award in recognition for their hard work and commitment to UCC. Among the recipients will be our own Rebecca Foster, Ian Founds, Tyler Cheek, and Graham Founds. In addition Robert Lee, a frequent visitor to the Success Center and friend to many, will be awarded.  

Friday, May 30^th 12:00 pm – 5:00 p: Spring Fever party in the common areas in the center of campus. There will be food, music, a bouncy house, water fights . . .  need there be an excuse to party?

Friday, June 6^th at 3:30 pm: CRLA / 1000 student celebration in the Success Center. The Success Center has seen over 1000 student visits this term so far. To celebrate this and acknowledge all your hard work in helping our students, there will be a pizza party instead of the regular Friday meeting. We will also be presenting tutors with the CRLA certifications that they have earned to date.

June 9-13^th: Finals week.

Friday, June 13^th at 6:00 pm: UCC’s 50^th commencement ceremony. Please join the faculty and staff in congratulating the students who are celebrating their graduation from UCC. At least three Success Center tutors will be graduating this spring, and this is a fine time to congratulate them and show support for your fellow team members. In addition, many students who have utilized out services will be graduating and cheering them on will be a wonderful way to show our pride in their accomplishments.

I also want to remind everyone of some housekeeping issues that need to be addressed.

The ESB writing Lab: writing instructor Brent Lewis hosts a writing lab in the Success Center from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm Monday through Thursday. This is an ideal resource for any student who needs writing help or guidance.

Weekly Reflection: Weekly reflection forms will be sent out Friday and will be due the following Friday. Returning these via Email or via hard copy is fine, but they must be returned to Daniel by the Friday due date. Daniel will be scheduling one-on-one meetings with all tutors, however it up to all employees to approach Daniel and let him know your availability for these meetings.

Emotional Bank Account forms: These are being turned in with some regularity, which is a very good thing. There have been some comments that when tutors are thinking back on the day’s interactions, it’s hard for them to remember details. I would encourage people who are experiencing these difficulties to take notes throughout the day of their interactions with other students so that they are better prepared to bank account forms.

Summer availability: Please Email Daniel and let him know if you will be available to tutor during the summer or fall term. He doesn’t need your exact schedule right now, but just a general idea of your availability status. Due to schedules changing near the beginning of each term, the final schedules will likely be ready during the first week of term. Remember that the entire UCC campus is closed on Fridays during the summer.

I would also like to remind everyone that we as a team need to take pride in our center. If there is any downtime while you are on shift, keep an eye out for chairs that need to be pushed in, coffee that needs to be made, or errant papers left behind on the tables or at the computer stations. Taking a moment to keep the center organized and ready for students is very important in welcoming visitors.

I want to thank each and every one of you for your dedication to UCC, its students, and their success in college. The increase we’ve seen in the number of student visits this term is evidence that our services are not only needed but appreciated.

“I have no spur

To prick the sides of my intent, but only

Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,

And falls on th'other. . . .”

Macbeth, Macbeth. Act 1, scene 7. 25–28

 So, what are you ambitious about as this term comes to a close?

Knowing is Half the Battle

Hello Success Center Staff,

I wanted to make sure that you were all aware of some campus events coming up in the next couple weeks:

The debate club will be having a debate on Friday May 30th at the Center Stage in the Whipple building starting at noon and ending at 1 pm.  The topic is, "Should Oregon open primary voting so that unaffiliated voters are able to participate." Two of our tutors are heading opposite sides of the debate: Tyler Cheek will argue for the proposal and Susie Day will argue against the proposal.  I am encouraging you all to show up and give your support to our Success Center co-workers.  

Our student government (ASUCC) is hosting the annual Spring Fever event also on May 30th.  Spring Fever will start at noon and end at 5 pm.  ASUCC is looking for some volunteers to help with the Spring Fever event.  If anyone is able to help, please contact Susie Day or another student government representative.  If you volunteer your time, you will receive a free tee-shirt as a "thank you" for your time.  

Last weekend ASUCC held their sixth annual dodge-ball tournament.  Our Success Team was able to come in second place behind the National Guard team.  The second place prize was a $75 gift card for Abby's Legendary Pizza.

While we are on the topic of pizza, we will be having a celebration for having over 1,000 student visits to the Success center for tutoring this term.  We will hold this event instead of having our tutor meeting on Friday June 6th.  I want to thank and congratulate our staff for doing a great job with getting students logged in and providing excellent support to our students at UCC.  We have been helping an average of just over 50 students each day.  We will also be giving out the CRLA certificates earned by each tutor on June 6th in addition to our previously mentioned celebration.  I appreciate all of your hard work and keeping up with what you are being asked to accomplish during your work week.  Since there have been some changes recently, I wanted summarize the tasks that need to be completed by all Success Center employees.

• E-Mails: Regularly (multiple times per week) check your student email account and any other e-mail address that you provided to the Success Center.  If you receive an e-mail from a Success Center staff member I need you to respond to it promptly.  Also, remember to log into G-Chat when you clock on to tutor.
• Tutoring Blog:  Each employee needs to read and post a response to the tutoring blog by the end of each week that a blog is published.  I will send e-mails out with a reminder of the web address for the blog (SuccessCenterTutoring.blogspot.com).
• Student Bank Entries: Each day that you work in the Success Center we need each employee to record three entries (deposits/withdraws) to the student bank.  These entries need to be interactions with UCC students that go beyond your typical day-to-day interactions.
• Weekly Reflection Form: Fill out the reflection forms when they are e-mailed out to you on Friday's and have the previous week's completed form e-mailed to me.  I sent out the first reflection form this Monday, May 19th, which should reflect your experience during this term so far, however the reflection forms going forward will be based on the events of the previous weeks.  Please spend some time to provide quality responses on the reflection forms.  I will start scheduling the one-on-one follow-up meetings for next week.

We will be having our tutor meeting at 3:30 this Friday like normally scheduled.  Campus, including the Success Center, will be closed May 26th for Memorial Day.

Question:

If knowledge is half the battle, Can anyone tell me what the other half is?

Spring Fever

Success Center Staff,

It is easy to let yourself get distracted during this time of the year; the school year is coming to an end and the beautiful sunshine has started blessing us with it's presence more frequently.  I do encourage you to enjoy the warmth of the sunshine when the opportunity is there, however always keep in mind what your priorities are and make sure you are getting the most important things accomplished.  It is also a good idea to keep this in mind during your tutoring sessions as other students will be struggling with similar distractions.  Sometimes it is an extremely important skill to be to help students recognize these distractions and come up with ways to minimize the influence that they have on students avoiding their schoolwork.

• UCC is hosting their sixth annual dodgeball tournament on Saturday May 17th at 9 am in the UCC gym. Teams can have anywhere from 4 to 10 members.  Registration is $30 per team and the campus center will be accepting applications until May 15th.  Some of the success assistance have formed a team and I encourage the tutors to create either one team or create teams with other students.  It is fun to get involved with the school while getting connected with other students on campus.  More information is available in the campus center including the rules which everyone participating will be expected to know.

• The CSM program that is ran by our department has been rapidly growing.  We currently have 38 students enrolled in the program and enrollment for the Spring term will stay open until May 29th and then will open back up for Summer term on the first Monday of Summer term.  If you have any questions regarding the CSM program, please talk with either Blake Norton, Amanda Welch, or Tyler Ramos.  Our "Referral Form" is now available to use on the website on the Success Center's page.  We have also finally been approved for our CRLA tutor center certification as of the beginning of this month. This is super exciting and I will be following up with all of you about this shortly.

• We have hired two new tutors that will be starting next week.  Corrine Brown will be an additional accounting tutor as well as some other subjects as well.  Edgar Perez was hired to be an SI tutor for some of the Spanish courses.  Edgar will also be in the center for an hour each week holding a study group for the Spanish students on Thursdays from noon until 1.  We have also hired a new success assistant named Dustin.  Please welcome these new members to our staff as soon as you get a chance or see them around in the center.

• There have been some concerns around students having some expectations of our staff in the Success Center to work on their computers.  The Success Center does not provide computer repair services.  The services that we do not provide consist of but are not limited to: debugging, repairing/installing software, or installing programs.  The Success Center provides students with academic support and skills/tools to be successful moving forward through their futures.

If you guys have a chance you should watch this video from Nick Vujicic:                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4uG2kSdd-4 

"I think the biggest disability that we have as human beings is unbelief.  Everything starts with a vision, and a man without a vision dies."   -Nick Vujicic

Creating a Successful Community

Hello Success Center Employees,

• Many of you are either working on your last term to complete your first year of college or are looking forward to graduating after this upcoming Spring Term. I would like to congratulate each student that continues to work at brightening their future by attending Umpqua Community College. Success is typically not easy . However, the more work and effort that you put into it, the greater the reward is in the end. As we finish up these last few weeks, I ask that you not only find what motivates you to continue fighting for success, but that you also encourage others to do the same. 

• The Success Center has recently added some new members to our team: we have two new Success assistants Miles and Jacob, as well as a new skills tutor, Allen. In addition to adding new members to our team, we will be offering office hours with each of our tutors. The office hours are broke down into twenty minute increments for a total of three sessions per hour. The office hour sessions are designed for those students that are in need of some one-on-one time with a tutor to develop a plan or strategy for moving forward with their courses.  This should allow the student to be able to effectively continue with their coursework with only needing minimal help from the tutors. Because it will take some time for the students to be informed of this service, your office hour time slots may not be filled for the first couple of weeks. When you have open slots for your office hours you can either tutor during that time in the Success Center or find a tutee that would benefit from your one-on-one time. If you have tutees in need of some one-on-one time as you are tutoring throughout the week, there is a Success Center referral/appointment form on the UCC website.  This form will be sent to the Success Center front desk to schedule an appointment for the student. We will discuss this more during Friday's meeting. 

• We will be visiting classrooms during the next two weeks to inform students of the services that we offer. If you are interested in helping out with these presentations please let me or Tyler Cheek know as soon as possible. These presentations will be done in pairs and will last no longer than ten minutes. 

• "The aquarium has been sitting idly for two weeks now because it was not approved to be used. Many of the students have shown interest for an aquarium, and many more are disappointed that we will no longer have one. Robert has started a petition on behalf of the students to persuade UCC that the students have a say in whether or not we should have an aquarium. The petition can be found at:
  

  http://www.change.org/petitions/umpqua-community-college-approve-a-reef-aquarium-for-the-success-center

It just takes a moment to sign, so if you have an interest in seeing a saltwater reef tank in the Success Center make sure you do your part!" - Robert

• I will be posting the schedules by subject inside the Success Center doors Tuesday morning. If there are any concerns with your schedule times or if you need to be added to subject please let me know as soon as possible. Thank you for the amazing work so far this year that has made the Success Center such an impactful place for our student body. Let's finish the year of strong! 

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."

 -Benjamin Franklin 

  

Changing For Excellence

Hello Success Center staff members,

As I am sure most of you noticed, I was out of the center for all of last week.  I have returned to work today and it feels great to be back.  Terrance and I were in Dallas Texas attending the 2014 NADE (National Association for Developmental Education) Conference.  We were able to discover some fresh perspectives and creative ideas that will help to enhance the services that we provide to our students at UCC.  We had the opportunity to meet with and discuss student success and retention with people ranging from college professors, administrators, program coordinators, as well as program designers and chair members.  In addition to gaining knowledge from experts in their field, we were able to discuss the direction of our programs and get feedback from a wide range of professionals.

The UCC campus is evaluating two programs to replace our current on-line course manager, Angel.  We would like it if you could all log onto each of the proposed programs to see what your opinion is of each platform.  There is a survey for you to fill-out so that feedback can be collected and reviewed.  There is a link at the end of each course to the survey at surveymonkey.com; they only need to fill it out once when you are done with both course previews.  We would also like it if you could speak with tutees about trying these programs and taking the survey. Once you or another student completes the survey, please send me an e-mail stating that you have completed the survey. Once your submission is confirmed we will enter you into a drawing for a $20 gift card good for the bookstore.  This drawing will be held on Friday prior to finals week, March 14th.  Here are the links:

Canvas link is: https://umpqua.instructure.com

Blackboard link is: https://umpqua.blackboard.com

User login and password are student72 and student72

It is important to make sure that you are all caught up on your course work and that you plan your week to provide you enough time to get your final assignments, projects, and tests completed.  I expect that the Success Center will be extremely busy with students that are also preparing for the term to be successfully completed.  The study-in will be on this coming up Saturday in the library and we will be providing tutoring services for the students during this event.  Tutors are expected to work at least three hours, unless different arrangements are made in advance, and can work more hours as long as there are students needing assistance.  The study-in will start at 11 am and last until 7 pm.  The event will be hosted by ASUCC which will be providing lunch, dinner, snacks, and beverages at no cost during the study-in.  The Success Center will offer tutoring services for Monday and Tuesday of finals week and the center will continue to be open our regular hours for students to use computers, printers, ect. throughout the remainder of finals week.  If you would like to get extra some hours on Monday and/or Tuesday of finals week or are not going to be able to work hours that you do typically work, please get in contact with me before the end of the day Thursday.

Please take some time to speak with Robbie about the CIIS program.  This is the program that TutorTrac has been asking about during the log-out screen.  Even if it does not sound like something that interests you still please speak to Robbie and get some information about the program so that you can explain and assist other student with the CIIS program.

I would like for each employee to reply to this post, as I do each week that I post a blog.  However, this week I would like to get all of your input on an activity that we could do to help our team to know each other better, build stronger relationships with students, and/or strengthen team unity.  If for any reason you are unable to post a comment on this blog then you need to get in touch with me as soon as possible to get the issue resolved.  I will be posting information that is vital for our staff to receive in order for the Success Center to help our students in a consistent and efficient manner. 

We will be getting some new tutors in the Success Center to fill our new "Skills Tutor" positions.  Our first skills tutor, Julie Lee, will begin tutoring this coming up Wednesday.  When you see her in the center, please welcome her to our team.  If you have not yet filled out an availability form for Spring term, please do so as soon as possible before finals week.  I will be working on this upcoming term's schedule during finals week and getting them e-mailed out during Spring Break.  Thank you all for helping UCC to have a determined student body and creating an excellent environment for student success.  Keep up the amazing work!