Textbook analysis at UT Tyler

As an English Graduate student a large part of what I want my future to include is teaching. I am a self-admitted loud mouth who always has something to say about everything and this includes wanting people to have the best future possible. In my case I take 'best future possible' to mean 'you can understand why rhetoric and writing are important and you can use this skill to go where you want to go in life.' Every student has different needs and so, as a wanna-be-teacher, my interest often turns to subjects like 'teaching with unorthodox materials,' ie: graphic novels, movies, images, etc...

The Path

   College can be stressful? I am not sure that such a phrase is exactly the kind of wisdom you will find carved on a stone near the oldest human settlements on account of how obvious it is, but there is a lesson that comes from it. College is the beginning of something bigger and better. I know, I know - you probably heard that about High School, too. The thing is, High School prepares you for social interactions with others on a large scale where-as college prepares you for ... well, being you.
So,

Holiday Retail Experiences

This past holiday break was full of great memories from spending time with friends, and spending time with family. You couldn't help but feel the Christmas cheer and New Year hype. This was a nice break from all the study night grinds.

I went back to working retail at Hollister again over the break. It was constant running around as people scrambled to purchase Christmas presents. I may also have become a bit claustrophobic. Maybe. It got really hot as well in the store as all those people were crammed into the small area.

I was able to tolerate it though, as retail can be really fun. Co-workers are the best and we make the time enjoyable as we get to see each other. You should definitely try working retail to learn necessary people skills.

Here is where retail comes into play.

You learn:

·         Interpersonal skills

·         Customer service

·         Work experience

All three are important components in refining your work abilities when you go out into the real world job market. In any field it is excruciatingly important for you to have interpersonal as well as communication skills. Everyone needs to be an effective communicator no matter what your job market is. You needs to effectively express your ideas and opinions or else the dam will not be built right, the patients won’t be taken care of properly, and the computers won’t be wired properly.

Customer service is essential in every job field as your basically pleasing a customer’s demand. This is why retail is a good foundation to start out your work experience. You will learn how to interact with people in a professional setting.

                You should definitely try retail options such as working at the mall, or even smallboutiques.

Work Ahead ... or Else!

New semester!

New classes!

New deadlines!

While the third thing I mentioned might not seem like the biggest concern when held against things like "Where is my Financial Aid?" and "Why did my roommates think watching You Got Served was a good idea?"

Looking for a job or internship?

                Jobs and internships can be hard to come by. In college, there are times that it is difficult to balance work, school, getting involved on campus and having fun. We all need money, so sacrificing some things are necessary. Whether it is sacrificing time with friends or working less hours, it is all up to the individual’s discretion. Nevertheless, finding a job or internship related to your major is absolutely essential in honing your skills in your field of study.

                There is a relatively new resource offered for students who need to find a job or internship. It is called MyEdu.

How to work while attending college at UT Tyler

College is expensive, and the price isn’t going down.  It is not uncommon for college students now to have to work to pay rent and buy groceries while attending college. In fact, just over 74% of America's college students were reported to be holding down a part time job while attending college in 2012. If you are or you will be one of those 74%, then hopefully this post will provide you some basic tips for how to work while attending school.  

·   
  Keep a good schedule of classes and work – It’s crucial that you keep an accurate schedule of your work and your classes so that you know where you are supposed to be and when.  It is also useful so that if you are trying to make plans with friends, you have an easily accessible reference for what your plans are. 

·         Stay on top of your homework – Homework piles up quick when you are constantly pushing it back.  You may not have a lot of time for homework, and when you do have time you will likely not feel like working on it at all, but you have to. Otherwise, you are undermining the ultimate reason you are working in the first place.  Staying on top of your school work means that you will not have to pull an all nighter just to finish a paper.

·    
 Know your priorities – There will inevitably be times that you would rather go out with your friends instead of going to work or working on a project.  Sometimes it just seems really easy to “call in sick” and get a night off to spend with the friends, but this ultimately will hurt you, as you will fall behind in your classes and in your work.

·         Sleep – It will sometimes seem like you need to stay up until 3 or 4 AM to finish a paper, but sleep is something that you can’t replace.  Most scientists will agree that sleep is necessary to be productive and for good health.  You cannot work if you are too tired to move, or if your health begins to deteriorate because you haven’t allowed your body to rest enough.

      Eat regularly – Like sleep, food is something that you cannot neglect.  Your body requires food to produce energy, so when you skip a meal, like breakfast, because you are “running late,” your body has no basis to begin its day.  Eating regularly is key if you want to make sure that you’re at your best all day.

·    
 Accept that life won’t be perfect – Something I notice about people who work while in school is that they become frustrated when they don’t have enough money to purchase something that they want, or they become angry at the end of the month when they are out of money to buy groceries.  My advice to those of you who are or will be working in school is to accept that there will be times when you don’t have everything that you want.  The key is to just take a deep breath, and keep moving.  Things will get better, it’s just a matter of how you look at your current situation.

·    
 Budget, budget, budget – This is crucial if you want to minimize feelings mentioned in the point above.  You will likely not be paid too much, but if you are budgeting your money and sticking to your budget, then you will be much happier.  Yes, this means that there will likely be 1 or 2 fewer midnight trips to McDonald’s just because you want a McFlurry, but you will thank yourself when you still have money to buy milk at the end of the month.  There are also multiple budgeting websites like this to help you.

·    
 Take some time for yourself – Far too often people burn themselves out while working and going to school.  To ensure that this doesn't happen to you, remember to take some time for yourself.  Even if this just means watching an episode or two of your favorite TV show, or reading a couple of chapters from a book, it is important to take some “Me time.” It also helps you to retain some mental stability.

      If you want to work while in college, it will be hard.  There will be nights where you get home and all you want to do is crash for several days.  However, when you have your diploma and a degree that allows you to receive a high paying job, you will be happy you did it.  If you have additional questions, feel free to stop by the university website, where we now have a department specific to student money management!

Jobs while going to school; don’t sweat the stress!

We all love money. We love using it, we love getting it, and we all hate losing it. There are some students like myself that used to worry about getting a job while going to school.

                I did not want to ruin my GPA by piling on things that I thought I could not do. Some of you may think that getting a job will make your school load unbearable, and your social life would be inexistent.

             

Find your balance!

   But I am here to tell you that it is very doable! Get those applications filled out!

              

We Want YOU... to Work at UT Tyler!

Being in college, most of your parents are going to cut you off, or at least give you less money than they used to (as my mother has done). 

I have to beg her for a little $20, but that money disappears quick.

So getting a job was imperative. However, I have a really busy school schedule and no transportation. So I started looking on Patriot Jobs for jobs on campus. 

There are all kinds of awesome jobs to do on campus. I happen to love my job in the communications center, but if I could pick ANY other job, it would be to work in the Visitor Center. 

...and they happen to be hiring right now.

In the Visitor Center you'll get to work with all kinds of people, you'll get the amazing job of giving tours to prospective students, and just getting paid to share your experience and knowledge of your school with people. 

It's a fun job it looks like, and so simple. 

Plus, you'll be working on campus so that means no traffic worries, no worrying about your schedule interfering with studying, and you won't be working nights. On campus jobs are the best just because they cater to you as a student, but still allow you to make a pretty good salary. 

Imagine all the people you'd get to meet working for the Visitor Center? I'd love to do it. But hurry, because applications get sent in pretty quick. 

Check out Patriot Jobs to apply to work for the Visitor Center quickly!

The Power of Using a UT Tyler Planner

It started in Elementary. They just smiled and handed me a "planner". They told me they would monitor my use of it. So I wrote in my horrible handwriting what was due and threw it into my backpack never to be looked at again. It was a horrible cycle. It continued to middle school without a thought. 

Then dark times came (the fire nation attacked) when I entered high school.

It took about three years before my cycle was finally crushed and squashed between the pinky toe of a small bald man. My previous teachers were sub par in seeing the past the facade of my  "planners"

I was too disorganized and failed to turn in projects, my mediocre grades dropping even lower with the Texas heat. Then the short bald man lectured into seeing the light of using such devices to make sure I did everything I needed to do. 

Strangely, this use of the planner worked to my utter shock. I was strong, I stayed on the path for a good two years THEN I graduated high school.

I went down an even more dangerous path my freshman year of not writing down any of my assignments or when tests were other than in the margins of my notebooks. I somehow managed to do pretty well in all my classes both semesters. 

Now today, the below picture is my Google Calender , my "planner".

It pops up reminders on my phone with such strange magic. 

I really developed and started using the schedule because my life became so full that if I didn't schedule time for things then I would procrastinate and fail to do something and would be found crying under my desk. Now I breathe with a little less weight on my shoulders.

The point of that long dramatic sarcastic soliloquy was that if you've given up using some sort of procedure to schedule class work or your life, try again. 

If using a old school paper planner works for you, do it! this is how Kat does her planning!

if you are an electronic person like me, use whatever  applications work for you.

If something else works for you, do it that way.

Now I bide you all adieu. So I can go study for my two tests this week. 

A Senior's Message to Freshmen

   A Message To Incoming Freshmen from a Senior – 

   As I sit here pondering the eight ( yes, eight! ) years this college experience has taken me, I would like to reflect on some things you will encounter as you march along the college road. Am I some expert guru whose wisdom will guarantee you success, or even steer you towards some magical destiny? No, I am not. I leave that kind of advice to mystics on mountain tops and to fortune cookies. What I can offer is perspective and the hope that (perhaps?) my words will be encouraging where needed, as well as sincere.

   Everybody comes from different paths where college is concerned so let me get that out of the way right now. Some people do it because their parents insist, some because they need a degree to advance forward in a career, and lastly because they just want the experience for their life-journey. While I will predominantly speak to the last of these, each can benefit from my story.

   I am an English Major who was once a Film School student with 2 years of experience, a (very) small business history record, and very good connections within said fields ( school and the professional world). I experienced a major set-back regarding my college plan and seemed to have three choices:

11      Move to NYC or LA and try my hand at another film school, or just work towards screenplay writing.

22     Continue with the CSU Degree Plan, regardless of the hiccup(s) there would be.

33      Move home to Texas and seek continued education w/ family and friends as support.

I went with option #3, primarily because I did want a degree in SOMETHING after so much time having been put into the whole experience. This brings me to point one …

POINT #1 – Don’t be afraid to be undeclared … or to change majors.

   College is an experience meant to test your ability to stay with a subject, to commit to the good courses ( my Arthurian literature classes, Ghost Plays, and Literature for Science Majors in my case ), or the ones I was atrocious in ( Modern Grammar, Linguistics, etc… ). I loved them all, however. I may not have exceeded in, say, Civil War Poetry & Political Cartoons, but my professor did a wonderful job and I learned. Regardless of the course, college is an exercise in commitment. It can teach you how, despite possible misgivings about a task, to stick with it and soldier on. I know Contemporary Mathematics, Biology I-II, and Basket-Weaving 101 have *nothing* to do with my major, but then again how does Training Seminars in some businesses relate to fact that you might work in another department and you’re expected to attend anyway? You go ( to the classes and the seminar ) because you are committed to getting your task done.

   Still, what if you are genuinely not happy with the major you are in? I would advise you speak with your Advisor, as well as a professor in the major you are in whom you might feel comfortable discussing your situation with. Afterwards, if you still feel like the major you are in is not for you, work with your Advisor and figure out the best path for you.

   Also, don’t be afraid to talk to advisors in other majors while you are listed as Undeclared. Use that time to feel out your strengths, what your school offers, and how these things can work together to give you the best for your future.

POINT #2 – Don’t pursue your MR or MRS Degree, at least not at the cost of your education.

   This is something I actually hear people discuss in hushed whispers and yet nobody ( at least, nobody I know of )  speaks out against. College is for learning about yourself, your goals, and how you will handle the unexpected. Some people however view college as the place to exclusively find their future husband or wife.

   Please, if you have this notion, table it. Put it aside. Go a year without trying to exclusively hunt your college like a savannah huntsman ( or huntswoman ) looking for a target. In college you very likely don’t even know yourself yet, so how can you expect to meet somebody who is likely to be the exact same person they will be when the college experience is over? Odds are, very unlikely. How unlikely is it that you will also come out of college having fully prepared for getting that job if you are more focused on dating and hubby/wife-hunting? Again, very unlikely.

   Please understand I am not ignoring romance, or genuine attraction. Those things will always trump whatever plans a person makes, however what I am speaking out against is the act of thinking college is where you MUST find that “special someone.” Follow your career and education path to where you need to be to properly sustain yourself, and focus on a special somebody if you are lucky enough, but I would advise you to not have the latter trump the first. You owe your future Mr/Mrs a person who is dedicated to completing tasks and proving him/herself capable of getting a steady job.

   But, again, genuine love always trumps the best laid plans. Follow love if it manifests, but don’t force it for the sake of a schedule.

   POINT #3 – Get work on or off campus if possible … but don’t work too much!

   Everybody knows college costs money, and money these days seems hard to come by. I would advise, where situationally possible, to pursue on-campus work. This might be pursuing something as major-specific as working in a math lab, or even as broad as working for the college bookstore. Jobs are not always easy to acquire so ask for an interview in person with the manager ( in addition to having your own resume handy, a physical one in addition to any online resumes submitted ) and follow up at least to say ‘thank you’. I know it might seem like a lot of work, but the extra cash and the connections it brings are as important as anything else you learn from college – you learn how to take care of yourself.

   POINT #4 – Talk to anyone and everyone, and meet new people, too. Socialize.

   This one might seem like something that is hit or miss, and it very likely is, depending on the person reading, but I think it needs to be stated – college is for expanding your horizons and this also means with people. STOP. This does not mean “meeting new people for sex” or “meet new people as you drink down beer and pass out at a party.”

   I am talking about genuine human to human interaction. Get to know the people you are sitting next to in class. Talk to your professor during his/her office hours and do it without having it be an assignment. Get to know the people who work in the library, or your major department office, etc…

   College is an experience that brings together diverse amounts of people, possibly more than you might feasibly ever get to meet again in your whole life. Take the time to learn and experience as much as you can from these people. 

Megan's College Vlog About Quitting Soda Like TJ