Flexible Class Schedule

A lot of people either don't know how or have forgotten how to write a letter.  Knowing how to write letters is important, even today with texting, cellphones, and email.  How a person writes says a lot about that person.

A good letter should have an opening that is interesting to the reader and a statement of what the letter is about.   The body of the letter justifies the topic of the letter.  This is followed by a conclusion which restates the point of the letter - and may contain a call to action on the part of the recipient.

Why is all of that important?  For starters, the ability to write well can give a person some measure of job security.  I have had several jobs where part of my duties was to write the letters the boss wanted written because he knew I was a better writer than he was.  This made me even more important than my job title might have indicated.  My job description did not include this chore, but it was one I accepted because it made my job more secure.

Anthony Balderrama of CareerBuilder.com says, "Between e-mails, texts and Tweets, our society spends a lot of time communicating via the written word. We spend more time writing in our professional and personal lives than we probably imagined we would back in school. What you may not realize is that these written exchanges can boost your career or hinder it, depending on how you treat them"  (The Importance of Good Writing). 

Often the choice to hire two equally qualified people is difficult.  Most human resource people then choose the better writer.  Communication problems plague the business world and businesses want better communicators... especially now that so much business is conducted online.  A solid writer creates clearer, more successful websites, writes better, more effective emails, and sends out stronger, more impactful memos.

A good reason to engage in an adult education program at an Indiana career college such as Harrison College is to learn how to improve your writing and gain the ability to represent yourself well on paper, giving the reader a sense of your professionalism.  Assignments in many of the courses are designed to improve your writing skill just as much as they are intended to help you learn the topic.

Are you looking for a college for working adults with flexible class schedules?  Visit the Harrison College website today and become an adult learner!
 

Most students take notes during lectures and some take notes while doing their reading; however, few students take good, quality, useful notes.  Having good lecture/reading notes can make a considerable difference in your learning.

First, a comment on highlighting.  I have been teaching for a bit more than nine years now.  Most students who use a highlighter still do not take good notes - and they highlight more than they need.  Indeed, some end up highlighting entire chapters or close to it (having more material highlighted than not).  This defeats the purpose of highlighting as a note-taking method.

Here are some tips on good note-taking.

1.  Don't try to write everything down.  Most of the stuff the instructor says is by way of explanation and clarification - or just down-right repetitious.  Just write down the main points and omit the descriptions and full explanations (you can look that stuff up in the book later).  Also, don't write down material or concepts you already know!  If you already know it, don't spend time with it.  Write down new stuff.  You don't need to write down what the instructor/book says verbatim (word-for-word).  Just get the ideas down in your own words.
                    A.  Write down dates of events you don't already know.
                    B.  Write down the names of people associated with the topics
                    C.  Write down any theories discussed - these almost always are on tests and are main points.
                     D.  Pro and Con lists need to be written down.
                     E.  Anything the instructor writes on the board should be written down in your notes, unless you already know it.  Even the names of related movies or books; these can be useful when looking for sources for papers or projects.
                     F. Write down your questions and the gist of other students' questions & comments.

2.  Use short sentences or key words.  When the instructor gets sidetracked (and if I am your instructor, it happens frequently), use that time to flesh out material you've already written down.

3. Take notes in an outline format, with indentations to show relationships of sub-ideas with main ideas.

4. Don't worry about missing a point.  You can usually pick that up later (instructors often repeat themselves, or summarize main points at the end of the class session), get it out of the book, or even figure it out with some common sense.  If you know you missed a point, just leave space to fill it in later.

5.  Don't take notes on strange, oddly shaped scraps of paper.  Keep a notebook just for notes, that are uniform in size.  Indeed use a consistent style for taking notes.  Many people like the Cornell system, which can be done easily on regular notebook paper.

6.  Use group notes.  Get a group of like-minded students and take turns taking notes.  When it is not your day to take the notes, be a good listener, so when the group goes over the notes (see point 8), you can add to anything the note-taker missed.  This way you can spend more time participating in class, and less time taking notes.

7. Attend class!  Even another student's notes are not helpful if you were not there. 

8.  When you are done taking notes, go back over them and rewrite them in complete sentences and look up in the text any missing words or concepts.  Budget time to do this, just as you budget time to attend class and do homework.  Type the notes if you can, and always do this step while the lecture is still fresh in your mind.

A final tip:  Use a different color pen than blue or black.  Strange, but often true - you will remember more if you write it in an odd color.

• What do you see ahead for your company in the next five years?  How do you see the future for this industry?
• What can you tell me about your new product or plans for growth or plans to compete stronger than your competitors?
• What is your competition like?  How would you rate them?  What strengths do you have over them?
• What successes has the company had in the past year or two?
• What challenges face the company in the coming years/months? 
• How would you describe the company's culture?

• How does this department fit into the overall company structure and mission?
• What improvements would you like to see in the department?
• What have been the department's successes in the last couple of years?
• What are the typical career paths in this department?

Of course, you can also ask about the position you are interviewing for.
 

• Could you describe a typical day or week in this position?
• Could you describe the typical customer I would be dealing with?
• What are the performance expectations of this position over the first year?
• What are the most important aspects of this job?
• What are the most immediate challenges of the position that need to be addressed?
• What are the skills and attributes valued most for this position?
• Where have successful employees previously in this position progressed to within the company?

Asking questions strengthens the interview.  Also, don't forget to ask, "What are the next steps in the interview process?"

Are you looking for a college for working adults with flexible class schedules?  Visit the Harrison College website today and become an adult learner!
 

What does the Evansville campus of Harrison College have to offer? Plenty! The latest commercial highlighting the Evansville College will air on WFIE-14 later this month. 

Tiffany Arrigo, Senior Admissions Representative highlights the many Associate and Bachelor adult education programs available, including Business Management, Business Finance, Business Marketing, Accounting, Human Resources, Criminal Justice, Medical Assisting, Medical Reimbursement, and Health Care Management. In addition, she discusses the ease of the flexible class schedules that are available.

Next, Rebecca Moran, Assistant Director of Financial Aid, details how the Indiana Financial Aid process works and how she assists in helping students file the proper paperwork to fund their education.

Regional President, Steve Hardin highlights the many advantages of career development assistance that Harrison College offers to its students.

Watch, learn, and enjoy!
 
For more information, visit www.harrison.edu

Many students like to blame their lack of success in the classroom on a lot of outside factors when they need to look first at their own classroom behavior.

In the article, Negative Behaviors That Can Affect Your Grade, by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., ten classroom behaviors are examined to show how they can affect your success.

The first negative behavior listed by Dr. Hansen is being unprepared for class and unable to add to the class discussion.  Learning is an active process, not a passive one.  By not being active in the class, participating fully, then one is not learning to one's full potential - and neither is anyone around the unprepared person.  Your experiences and comments in class can often help another student understand a concept.  If you do not participate, you impact their potential learning negatively.  Further, you impact your own negatively.  A fully engaged student is also more likely to be retained by the college and is more likely to graduate - in other words, the fully engaged student is less likely to become bored because that student is participating.

The second negative behavior listed by Dr. Hansen is submitting late homework assignments.  This not only inconveniences the instructor, who has possibly already graded everyone else's assignments, but it also shows the instructor how seriously you take his or her class.  You won't get far in business if you can't consistently meet deadlines.  Would you hire someone who you knew consistently submitted late work?

The third negative behavior listed by Dr. Hansen is skipping homework assignments.  Even if it is late, penalized or even worth zero points, you should still submit the work to show you can do it - and perhaps the instructor may still give you some feedback even if the instructor gives you a zero for the assignment.  Skipping homework is essentially a refusal to learn what the homework was designed to teach.  Would you hire someone if you knew the person routinely refused to learn various lessons and was in the habit of skipping homework assignments?

The fourth negative behavior listed by Dr. Hansen is being disruptive in class.  This includes behavior such as being overly long-winded in your participation and/or questions.  Be concise and relevant.  Also, avoid being a participation monopolizer.  Are you impressing people with your vast array of trivia and knowledge, or are you irritating people who would like to say something and are tired of listening to the class know-it-all?  Instead, encourage others to participate.  Another disruptive behavior is the person who constantly asks for old information to be repeated because the person is tardy a lot, absent a lot or just doesn't pay attention a lot.  Another disruptive behavior is the student who discourages classroom participation in others by their facial expressions and gestures, obvious signs of boredom, acting superior to others, one-upmanship (by challenging everything another student says), or other discouraging acts.

The fifth negative behavior listed by Dr. Hansen is not following instructions.  I can't say accurately how many times students have had to redo work (or received a failing grade) simply because the student did not follow instructions, but suffice it to say it happens a lot.  Not following instructions can damage your grade severely.  You are an adult learner.  Adults should be able follow instructions.

The sixth negative behavior listed by Dr. Hansen is consistently being tardy and/or absent.  Tardies just annoy the instructor.  You are disrupting the class by coming in late.  It takes you a few minutes to get ready in your seat.  You've distracted everyone.  Worse yet is the student who comes in late and asks the instructor to repeat something the student missed.  As far as absences go, instructors cannot teach an empty chair.  Think about two cars coming off the line.  One car has stopped at every station and had every part put on.  The other car skipped stations and missed stuff.  Both cars cost the same and look the same.  Which car do you want to buy?  The same is true for employers.  They want to hire (buy) the employee who went to every class (station) and learned everything possible.  Would you hire a graduate if you knew his or her attendance record - and found out it was rather poor?  Even in the classroom, as an instructor, most of the students I have who fail do so because of their lack of attendance.

As a sub-point, those who ask, "did I miss anything?" or "will I miss anything?" are just piling one annoying thing on top of the absenteeism issue.  OF COURSE YOU MISSED SOMETHING!  Come on.  Read the syllabus, and arrange to meet with the instructor outside of class (during office hours) to go over what you missed.

The seventh negative behavior listed by Dr. Hansen is playing on your cell phone or a computer during class.  This is disruptive to the classroom and disrespectful to the instructor and fellow students.  It shows your priority is somewhere else.  If a phone call or email is THAT important, don't come to class.  If you come to class, make class a priority.  Even the most boring lecture has key things in it to be learned.  Find those things.  Make the class more interesting by actively participating in it.  Don't disrupt the class or mentally leave it by focusing on cell phones or computers.

The eighth negative behavior listed by Dr. Hansen is having a poor attitude about the class or even the instructor.  Every college program has classes some students see no value in.  The key is to find the value.  Make that a daily challenge - to find some value in it.  If you have a bad attitude about the class, you will find excuses not to attend, not to do the work or to do poorly on the work.  In other words, you will find excuses to bring down your grade.  Plus, you gain the reputation around the school for having a bad attitude - you want your instructors to notice your professionalism, not your negativity.

The ninth negative behavior listed by Dr. Hansen is trying to bargain for a better grade late in the quarter.  Ask for extra credit opportunities early in the quarter or semester.  Don't try to repair your grade at the last minute.  It's too late by then.  There is no time to make up tests, grade late work, or do much about your grade beyond study well for the final.  Stay updated on your grade the whole quarter.  Do your work on time and do it all.  Those things help your grade (and your learning) more than last second extra efforts.

The tenth negative behavior listed by Dr. Hansen is not taking responsibility for your actions.  Be an adult.  Take responsibility for your choices and actions.  Students who skip one week and then get upset when the next week something serious happens which causes them to miss too many days really have no one to blame but themselves.  Students who miss class because they failed to allocate enough gas money and then whine that they missed something important but it wasn't their fault they didn't have gasoline do not have my sympathy.  We all have choices to make.  Make them, and accept responsibility for the results.  Don't blame the instructor because you didn't do the homework, or forgot to make up a test, or you failed to follow the instructions.

Are you looking for a college for working adults with flexible class schedules?  Visit the Harrison College website today and become an adult learner!