First Spread For May. This Is More Journal-style, But I Thought I’d Try It Out Because I Have No Tasks

100 Days Of Productivity: Day 4

Mere seconds ago I posted my DAY 3 post due to my productivity lag; I manage to get so much done during the day that I dont have time to write these reflections on the same day!

I am planning to get a head start on the remaining stuff left to do today which only involves going for a run and going to see friends; therefore this is sort of already the end of my productive day. The above picture is from a math lesson which I had today from 08:30 till 10, a lesson I usually spend with my head on the desk, occasionally mumbling a muffled ‘’meh’’ when asked how I’m feeling. Instead of the usual moan and groan morning routine I instead decided to switch up on the lack of sleep and just go with it; it ended up being really cool as I understood almost everything (apart from some things on the paper above, as you can see by the number of lines drawn through things) and felt really motivated. Later that day during triple biology I laso decided to change up my attitude as I had spent yesterday’s lesson sleeping for 1.5 hours and completely missing out on everything that happened during the lesson. I totalled roughly 4 pages of written stuff where I usally give up after the first page and proceed to go on tumblr or do something completely pointless with my time. Once into the late afternoon (now) I can feel the energy and motivation start to dwindle, which is why I am writing this day 4 post on day 4 (a personal first). 

So if anyone ever does read these, thanks for reading and stay posted for more posts relating to CAS or anything productivity related!

On Autism and College, revised.

Here is some advice on navigating college/university, by an Autistic (American) student, for a/Autistic students.

Register with disability services as soon as you make your decision to go to your school. If you don’t have a diagnosis, you may be able to talk to them and get tested/diagnosed and get accommodations. It depends on your school.

Make sure to research housing. You will want to know about food, the type of people who live there, location, and activities available. You want to be able to eat with your meal plan, get to class just fine, meet people there (or not, depending what you prefer), and if you want something to do there you should know what is available.

Spread out classes as much as possible. You will get to choose when you have your classes. Know your schedule and work with it. For example, next semester all of my classes are in the afternoon, which is good because I have a weird ass circadian rhythm and ended up being nocturnal for half of this semester.

Find out the minimum amount of classes you can take and start with that. Don’t overwhelm yourself. I’m taking twelve hours (the minimum for a full time student) next semester.

Make a schedule of when your work is due. You will likely (especially in math and sciences) have weekly homework due on a certain day. Know when that is and plan for it.

Try your best to not procrastinate. I’ve had far too many panic attacks and meltdowns from waiting too long to do work. You probably won’t have work assigned one day and due the next (it can happen, but I haven’t seen it), so plan your time.

Don’t overdo it with organizations/clubs. Friends are great, but don’t make extra commitments you can’t keep. I’m being treasurer of an organization I love because I’m needed and it’s not a huge commitment; I just have to turn in paperwork by deadlines, which I have no problem with.

Keep in touch with your advisor. If you need to drop a class or change your major, you will need their help. Know their email and use it. 

It’s okay to stim. No one’s gonna notice you stimming in a lecture hall unless it’s loud. I twist a paracord bracelet and chew a necklace in lectures. Smaller classes are trickier, but people tend to not care if you’re fidgeting with a bracelet or something that doesn’t make noise or chewing on something. It’s okay.

Emails can be awkward, it’s okay. You’re not going to have the perfect email all the time. Most professors are fine with a very straight to the point email. Example asking for help from a professor:

Dear [name]: I am in your [time] [class name] class. I need help with [x]. Could we meet sometime to work through this? (If you have a problem with face to face interaction, you could say “Could you explain this to me via email?” They may ask you to meet with them anyway, just a warning.) Thank you, [your name]

Write down all office hours, whether or not you think you’ll need them. Professors want to help. It looks good for them when students do well. Mostly they sit bored in their office during hours. Even if you’re not struggling, it looks good for you when you come in and talk about the course with them during hours.

If you can’t handle your major, switch. Try to major in a longtime special interest if you have one that you could do that with. There are jobs in every field. I personally am switching from physics to psychology.

Clubs are good for finding friends. I’m in five(ish) queer organizations and have quite a lot of friends from them. Especially in larger schools, you can probably find other a/Autistic folk by pursuing interests and joining clubs devoted to them.

You likely won’t be judged for being a little “odd”. No one really bats an eye when they find people sleeping in public places here. At most, people might know you as “that person that does X thing”, but if you have the confidence to rock that, then you’ll be fine.

 Don’t buy textbooks until class starts. You almost definitely won’t need them the first day of class and there’s no point in buying a $120 textbook you never actually use. 

Keep all of your class syllabuses together. Just… try not to lose them, and if you do contact your professor. They might have assignment due dates for the whole year.

Use a planner. I use Habitica, an app that works kinda like an RPG. It helps me remember meds and work and all that jazz.

If you need one, take a gap year. School will still be there when you get back. It’s okay.

Feel free to message me with questions! I will be a sophomore at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign next semester!

1: please for the love of god wash your hands. do foley care. check your IV lines. these things can seriously screw up a person.

2: most of the people sitting next to you the first semester won’t be there towards the end. people fall behind, people switch to other majors, people leave. 

3: your clinical group will become like a family. that means there will probably be at least one person in the group you won’t like, but you still have to help them out. and they will probably help you out too.

4: some people will gripe and be angry no matter what. you don’t need to get caught up jn their drama.

5: consider clinical experiences a job. every time you step on the floor or the unit, you are basically at a job interview.

6: some teachers will want to go above and beyond to help you out. some will not.

7: study everyday! seriously. even if you can only spare 30 minutes, use those 30 minutes. and don’t forget to look back over previous material even after the exam is over. focus on areas that gave you trouble.

8: get an NCLEX app or book and do practice questions. this will help so much when it comes to some of those crazy exam questions you really need to think through.

9: pay attention in class, even during those long lectures. the people who sat on their phones/laptops/etc my first semester aren’t here anymore. if you are having trouble paying attention, take a very quick “bathroom” break if you can to move around. it really helps to get you re-focused.

10: take care of yourself. everyone in nursing school talks about being sleep deprived. sleep is important and you’ll feel better and do better. bring some snacks so you aren’t distracted by the snackies. remember to “schedule” in some time to do something non-school related that you enjoy!

Important for people looking for colleges next year!

Campus Pride gives lists of:

Trans-inclusive women’s colleges

Colleges that have insurance that covers medical transition for students

Colleges with nondiscrimination policies that include gender

Colleges that allow you to change your name and gender on school records

Colleges with gender-neutral housing

Trans-inclusive college sports teams

Trans-inclusive college admissions policies

Also more stuff. (All are directly linked from the first link.)

Reblog so someone doesn’t have to spend their next 2-4(+) years at a school that treats them like crap.

Teaching Skills, Not Just Content

Shira Lurie is a PhD hopeful in Early American History at the University of Virginia. Her exploration concentrates on well known political clashes over the American Revolution's legacy in the early republic. You can tail her on Twitter and on her site.

This year I TAed a course on the historical backdrop of Colonial British America for the most part non-history majors. A few understudies were there out of general interest, yet numerous were utilizing the course to satisfy a circulation necessity. While I positively trust that the investigation of history is imperative for everybody, I likewise needed my understudies to see the class as by and by advantageous and, most importantly, helpful for their prospects. I think this is one of the more subtle, yet noteworthy difficulties in post-optional educating: it is regularly the case that the greater part of understudies we instruct won't seek after professions in our field. We likewise know, likely from direct experience, that post-exam cerebrum channel is a fight no instructor can completely win. As TAs, our first obligation is, obviously, to educate content. Yet, given that our understudies will probably not utilize, thus overlook, the vast majority of the data they realize, by what means would we be able to guarantee an effect comparable to the time our understudies go through with us? I think in any event part of the answer is to chip away at ability improvement.

I chose that there were sure abilities I could concentrate on over the semester that would serve my understudies well in whatever professions they in the end sought after. Notwithstanding future convenience, investing a portion of class energy in expertise advancement additionally gives understudies chances to track their own particular advancement in specific zones. Here are a few aptitudes I underlined this semester and a few thoughts on the most proficient method to create them:

Composing

I started the term by disclosing to my understudies that written work would be a high need for us since great composition can separate them in whatever order they pick. About each different class I would break them into little gatherings and have them compose a couple sentences on a given brief or idea. For instance, I would give every gathering a term that they may need to recognize and dissect on the last, most decisive test. We would then put them up on a projector and investigate them as a class. This permitted understudies to get criticism on their composition and to thoroughly consider what makes a compelling sentence, section, and contention. It additionally empowered them to rehearse for the exam.

ARTICULATING AN ARGUMENT

Scientific speculation and the capacity to marshal proof in administration of a contention are likewise generally pertinent aptitudes. It is likewise essential to have the capacity to survey the contention of someone else and give reasons why you concur or oppose this idea. I had my understudies respond to the contentions of the books we read in class, and also to the feelings I and different understudies would voice. Contemplating a power's sentiment and having the capacity to mindfully voice resistance are profitable aptitudes that require sharpening. For instance, I set up a sentence from the book we were perusing on the board and sorted out understudies into two gatherings: the individuals who concurred and the individuals who couldn't help contradicting the sentence. The understudies then discussed with each other, offering proof from the book and different readings to bolster their focuses.

Open SPEAKING

While I didn't have my understudies give formal presentations, I saw investment in class exchange as a decent open door for them to hone their open talking aptitudes. I urged understudies to illuminate any ambiguous dialect they utilized and to work off of every others' focuses. I additionally attempted to discover chances to urge shyer understudies to talk up. For instance, amid gathering work, I requested that calmer gathering individuals be the ones to represent their gathering's commitment when we returned together as a class. This gave them an opportunity to rationally plan and even record their remarks on the off chance that they favored.

Reblog for reblog

Study Tips

- Eat before you study.

- Have a small healthy snack with you whilst studying (just in case hunger strikes).

- Prepare a large, clean workplace.

- Prepare everything you will need before sitting down to study (pencils, computer, notes, etc.)

- Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated.

- Put some music on quietly.

- Take breaks. I usually do it in durations of 25 minutes studying, then a 5 minute break and then I repeat that as many times as needed.

- Always write down definitions of important words!

- If you don’t understand something underline it in red and ask the teacher next time you see them.

- Always stay updated with the news.

- Research, research, research.

- Read over your notes.

- Don’t overcomplicate your note taking or it will end up confusing you.

- Keep it simple.

writers:

break up your paragraphs. big paragraphs are scary, your readers will get scared

fuuuuck epithets. “the other man got up” “the taller woman sat down” “the blonde walked away” nahhh. call them by their names or rework the sentence. you can do so much better than this (exception: if the reader doesn’t know the character(s) you’re referring to yet, it’s a-okay to refer to them by an identifying trait)

blunette is not a thing

new speaker, new paragraph. please.

“said” is such a great word. use it. make sweet love to it. but don’t kill it

use “said” more than you use synonyms for it. that way the use of synonyms gets more exciting. getting a sudden description of how a character is saying something (screaming, mumbling, sighing) is more interesting that way.

if your summary says “I suck at summaries” or “story better than summary” you’re turning off the reader, my dude. your summary is supposed to be your hook. you gotta own it, just like you’re gonna own the story they’re about to read

follow long sentences w short ones and short ones w long ones. same goes for paragraphs

your writing is always better than you think it is. you just think it’s bad because the story’s always gonna be predicable to the one who’s writing it

i love u guys keep on trucking

What studying Maths at uni is like:

1. Very different to A-level. There is more emphasis on proof, theorems and definitions so expect to be learning these lots. Even in modules like Probability and Statistics, not just Pure. 

2. What is called Further Pure at A-level is not actually much like Pure maths at all. So if you’ve got a module with Pure in the title, don’t expect it to be second order ODEs, polar coordinates and complex numbers. It’s very much here’s a definition, here’s a theorem, here’s how to prove it (from my little experience of it). 

3. Very algebra heavy. There are lots of questions that take a lot of rearranging and it gets very messy at times. Don’t be afraid of messy algebra, attack it.

4. Things start to become multidimensional. Like, most integration becomes stuff like surface and volume integrals. In my course I started multiple integrals in first year an then began applying them in second year. Even Statistics uses vectors more than scalars as you progress through the years. 

5. There is a lot more focus on how you write maths. It’s like a language in itself. You can get a correct answer and still lose marks because you’ve used = instead of ~ or not connected your working with implication symbols. It gets easier as time passes. 

6. You’ll have a variety of lectures (lecturer talks at you), problems classes (you work on problems with help from postgrad students and the lecture), examples classes (lecturer works through practise questions on whiteboard/projector) and tutorials (small group working through pre-completed questions with a tutor). From my experience, examples classes are more useful than lectures and problems classes are best when you’ve done the questions beforehand so you can get help on what you’re stuck on right away.

7. You probably won’t enjoy all of it. Most people enjoy either Applied, Pure or Probability/Statistics. Myself, I hated Pure. Some people love it. You can drop what branch you don’t like after first year. 

8. It is stressful. The modules contain A LOT more content than A-level modules. It is difficult. Especially after first year when all of the stuff you’re learning is new. But it is manageable. 

9. It is tiring. Having to concentrate in lectures for (about 22 hours in first year, 20 in second year, 12 in third year…) a week is hard. And then going back to halls/house and doing more work makes it harder. 9ams are difficult to get up for even though at school you probably did it every day with no problem. 

10. It is satisfying. The best thing about it is being able to solve a problem you never dreamed you could do. That is rewarding. It makes it worth it. 

If anyone wants to chat about maths at uni, feel free to send me a message. I’ve only done a BSc but have a few friends doing an MMath so I know a fair bit about it. 

Tips for Job Interviews:

So people are graduating high school/college and I thought it would be a good idea to compile a list of solid interview tips so you’re not only surviving on that MSG Ramen diet.

1.) Research: Know at least a little about what position you are applying for. Sounds obvious, I know. But I mean about the company or organization itself. You’re applying at Subway? Know a little bit about the company’s history or what a Sandwich Artist is.  Applying at a store? Know that clientele that frequent the store, etc. Applying for a desk position at a college? “I was amazed at the new addition to the library and the dedication to student life and improvement just stood out to me that this is a university driven towards student success and something I would be proud to be a part of and strive for.” It’s like giving the hiring manager a high-five. Says why you chose them. Make them feel desirable in interesting to you.

2.) How to dress:  When it doubt, always overdress. Nobody is gonna not hire you because you wore a nice suit to a gas station cashier interview. You’ll be taken more seriously than the khaki shorts and white t-shirt you were wearing to that cookout yesterday. Not sure what colors to look for? Black is your safest bet. Black and white are neutral if you have absolutely no clue. Pro tip:  If you listened to number one and know the color of the uniform, try and incorporate that into you clothing selection because it helps hiring managers to see you like their co-workers. (e.g., If you’re applying at a hospital where the unit wears, say, maroon scrubs, try wearing a maroon top or tie.)

3. Behavioral Questions: It’s inevitable. Most jobs are going to give you a series of behavioral questions to gauge you as a person. It is what will divide you from other candidates. What’s a behavioral question? Here’s some examples: “Name a time when you provided exceptional customer service”, “Describe an instance when you had to resolve a problem/confront a coworker/maintain professionalism”, etc. Come PREPARED to name instances. Have about 3-5 in mind and get ready to tweak any of them to fit the frame of the question. Practice speaking in the mirror, to a friend, record yourself etc. But practice saying it out loud because you don’t want to stumble. (InterviewStream is a helpful website!) Answer completely! Explain how your response fits the mold through the story. Tell how you felt at the time and the outcome of what happened. It’s to figure out you as a person. (e.g. “I did ___ for a customer/client/patient/whatever. They were having suchandsuch issue and while what I did was so mundane, it really made their day. It was something that comes so naturally to me that I didn’t realize the impact it would make and it felt good to provide a service that wasn’t simply a run-of-the-mill thing we normally did working for ___). You feel me?

4. Critical Thinking Questions: Some jobs may present you with critical thinking questions the require pause for thought. An example for if you were, say, a nurse: “You have four patients. One with pyelonephritis and no signs of infection, one with a fractured femur with no pain, one with a fractured hip and leg who is leaving tomorrow, and one with diabetes mellitus and an open wound ulcer. A PCA tells you the the fractured hip patient has a blood pressure of 90/60 but says she feels fine, the charge nurse informs you that your pyelonephritis patient is having difficulty breathing and is sat at 89%, another PCA tells you your DM patient is difficult to arouse, and your fractured femur patient is screaming that he is rating his pain a 9/10 and is disturbing other patients. What do you do, who is your priority, and what is your plan of care?” A tad overwhelming. The interviewer is looking at you, you’re processing your options, there’s a lot going on. Take a breath. It’s OKAY TO ASK FOR A MINUTE TO THINK. IT’S NOT A TIMED EXAM! Voice your thoughts! Give complete responses. Even if saying “I would take vitals” sounds OBVIOUS, still say it. Go through your thoughts out loud because you may forget something that speaking it aloud could help. “I would take vitals” would lead to “I would perform an assessment” to “by listening to her lungs and taking his glucose” etc.

5. Body Language: Be open! Have your body turned towards your interviewer, look him/her in the eyes when you respond to a question, smile, nod, do not interrupt, sit up straight, know what you’re doing with your hands and feet (e.g. if you’re a chronic knuckle-cracker/hand rubber, fidgeter, etc.). Body language is one of the most helpful ways an interviewer can gauge your interest.

6. Strengths and Weaknesses: Strengths are easy. Everyone can come up with a good strength (Flexible, self-starter, love constructive criticism, love to learn, great team worker, etc.). Weaknesses though? Weaknesses are tricky. Rule number one: DON’T BE THAT DOUCHE THAT SAYS SOMETHING TO THE EFFECT OF “I work too hard” because nobody is impressed. But don’t also say something like “I am not a morning person” because what if they need you for mornings? No. Find a sweet-spot. Find a weakness that can be improved and isn’t a mere personality trait. Explain the weakness and how you have worked to improve it in the past and what has been effective. (e.g. I have issues with time-management. I have learned to get tasks done as soon as they are delegated to me rather than putting them off. or I have learned to prioritize which tasks will be the most time-consuming and which can be handled quicker so that all of the tasks get effectively completed.)

7. “What are your long-term goals/how long do you plan on staying here/where do you see yourself in x years”: Ah. Do I confess to McDonald’s that I have no intention on making a career out of this and that I only want to work here for the summer and risk not getting the job? Hell no. Don’t lie but don’t be completely truthful either. Keep it open-ended. If you intend on using this job for a bit of cash, have something else in mind as your end-game, or plan on using this job as a stepping-stone, that’s just fine. But don’t go on record as saying something like “Oh I intend on working here for a few years” because you know you’re lying. Say something to the tune of “For as long as I can/am able”. Be creative in your phrasing. Unless they ask you to specifically name an amount of time, variations of that response tend to work. Important thing to note is WATCH WHAT YOU SAY HERE. If you want to go far in the company, say that you want to pursue leadership opportunities and such. Do NOT say “I don’t want to just be a ____” because that is condescending and rude. 

7. “Do you have any questions for me?”: ALWAYS. HAVE. QUESTIONS. Always have them! Even if it is something that you already know about, ask. Here are some go-to questions I have for interviews “Are there any leadership opportunities available?” “How long is orientation?” “Are there more ways for me to become involved or any committees I can join?” Having questions shows INTEREST. 

Feel free to add more tips, people!