(no subject)

[katallison]

So we have now lived through the first full session of Orientation (first out of 15 total), and I am, as always during this special time of year, utterly jellified with exhaustion. The usual jellification was enhanced this year by the fact that a couple of my colleagues prodded me at the 11th hour (e.g., last Thursday) to pretty much completely change the format and structure of the whole thing, which led to an insane weekend in the office lashing together new schedules, new handouts, new staffing rotations, etc. etc., and then trying to get the changes across to the rest of the staff in a high-speed training session. (Me: "OK, so we're now doing the College Meeting [this way]." Advisor X: "Uh, when you say [this way], do you mean [this way]?" Me: "Yup." Advisor Y: "I'm sorry, so you're saying -- [this way]?" Me: "You got it, yeah." Advisor Z: "So we're not doing it [that way]?" Me: "That would be a no." Etc.)

And after having gone through a whole session of doing it [this way], I am led to two conclusions:

a) my colleagues were correct; this is a better way to do it; despite which,
b) I really hate doing it this way.

Well, "hate" is a strong word; the way we're doing it now just doesn't work for me, which probably proves nothing more than the fact that I'm basicallly unfitted for working with college freshmen. See, what it boils down to is that my basic conceptualization of freshman orientation is:

--there are certain key pieces of information students need to have imparted to them (gen ed requirements, registration policies, etc.);
--this information is fairly complex and not intuitively obvious;
--thus, what is needed is to present this information to them clearly, with good visual aids, in a well-structured yet lively and entertaining fashion.
--And if there's one thing I am good at (I say immodestly) it is getting information across to people in the above manner; I am a *damn* good presenter of information.

HOWEVER. The salient truths I was overlooking in all this are:

--however much the freshmen may need this information, they really are not (for the most part) at all interested in it, or able to absorb it.
--Instead, they are utterly and consumingly preoccupied with their own nervousness, their social anxieties about fitting in and finding friends, their sense of lostness in this vast new place.
--So it doesn't matter if you're the best freakin' presenter-of-information on the planet, everything you say to them is basically going to go *splat* and slide to the ground.

In recognition of which, my colleagues proposed that instead we break the students into small groups, have them do dopey little exercises and games, and then have the advisors sit with them in their small groups and facilitate a discussion.

And, see, while I am a damn good presenter, I totally, completely, and unequivocally suck at any task that begins "Break into small groups and facilitate a discussion around ..." Just typing the phrase makes me twitch convulsively. I have no more conception of how to "facilitate a discussion" than I do of particle physics. (In fact, I'm probably sounder on the particle physics.) This was my downfall as a graduate student in Counseling Psych--the Group Therapy stuff. (Because the only thing worse than "facilitating a discussion around..." is "helping people process their feelings about..." Arrgh.)

However, having observed the sessions thus far, I am forced to admit that, once again, my colleagues are brighter than I am about stuff. The students are engaged, they talk, they seem to gain confidence and energy. And as my colleague J said, "I guess it doesn't matter that they're not getting all that stuff about the gen ed requirements and so on, because hell, they forget it all by September anyway."

Fortunately, because I am now Administrator rather than Advisor, I don't have to actually do the discussion-facilitating gig. I just get everything set up, and I have a little five-minute window to do my high-speed lecture about the gen eds, and then I sit and watch bemusedly as all my colleagues get in there and Discussion-Facilitate like champs, like this is something people actually do, which I guess it actually is. People who are not me, that is.