Happy Veterans Day!

Last Friday, I took my son to COSI for the morning and we inadvertently got caught up in preparations for the Columbus Veterans Day Parade, which we completely missed because it was on November 6^th!  If you too missed the parade, and you’d like to know what else is going on around town to honor our veterans, check out these three things:

1. Columbus Blue Jackets will honor veterans on Monday evening before their game with the Detroit Red Wings.  See the link here for more info on their Military Appreciation Night.
2. The Columbus Dispatch has a list of events going on in central Ohio towns.  Columbus will have a wreath-laying ceremony in Green Lawn Cemetery at 11 a.m.
3. Enjoy your day off from classes!  Classes will not be held on Wednesday for either CSCC or OSU!

And to everybody who has served or is currently serving in the armed forces, thank you for all of the sacrifices you and your families have made.

Writer’s Open Mic This Friday

To all of you creative writers, CSCC is a great place to read and be read!  This Friday evening you can read poetry, short fiction or short nonfiction, and you can listen to your writing peers on campus read from their own work.  I won’t lie and say that it’s completely painless to stand in front of a crowd and share your work, but I will repeat what the coordinator Steve Abbott says:  everybody really wants you to do well.  That goes a long way towards relieving the pressure!

Join fellow CSCC writers Friday 11/13 at 7 pm in the Nestor Hall West lounge.

Who is responsible for bad grades? And who deserves credit for a good grade?

I was reading some of our previous blogger’s posts, and I came across this one, written a little more than two years ago by a man named Don Terry:  The Anatomy of a Grade.  I found it to be pretty interesting, because I can certainly identify with his dilemma – that is, doing well in a class he cares about and struggling in a class in which he’s not interested.

He lists several factors contributing to a student’s final grade, but I’ll just paraphrase:  a) how much the student cares about the class, b) how the student perceives the class and the instructor, and c) the amount and nature of the curriculum and how that curriculum is presented.  I agree with his list completely, but I think he’s more of a big picture thinker than I am.  My list would look something like this:  a) student attendance and work inside the class, and b) student work outside the classroom, including studying, writing, and completing assignments.

So while I think he dug a little deeper into the whole issue than I did, I also think he lets students off lightly.  It’s easy to justify getting a low grade by saying you just didn’t care about the class, or that the instructor didn’t teach well.  The reality is that if you’re here to earn a degree, you’re going to have to take a class in a domain in which you’re not interested and you’re going to have a less than stellar professor (maybe all in the same class).  He was absolutely right that these things affect student motivation, but you have to find some way to be successful in that quarter, if you’re going to be successful over the long haul.

I found his post to be insightful and well thought out.  Combining both Don Terry’s and my reasoning, why do you think you earn the grades you do?

Happy Election Day! And what a difference a year makes…

Today I went to Tuttle Park to drop off our recycling and to let my son play on the playground and enjoy the beautiful fall weather.  I was surprised to see the parking lot full and people loitering at the entrance to the recreation center.  I had completely forgotten it was Election Day!  It’s hard to believe that the presidential election was a year ago, and that this time last year marked the end of that historic and hard-fought race.

So even though I had forgotten about today being the day to actually vote, it would have been hard for me to ignore all of the latest television ads, and particularly the ones about casino gambling in Ohio (I know you’ve seen them too!).  And also, even though I didn’t help decide our nation’s next president today, I did help decide whether or not there will be a casino in Columbus and whether farming regulations will change in Ohio.

I’m not going to say who I voted for last year (and I did vote, and on purpose that time).  I will say this:  the past year has not been perfect, but it has been nice.  The presidential campaign exhausted me, and I was so tired of the commercials and debates and media coverage.  I guess later tonight I’ll find out how this election went, and how these issues were decided, and I bet in a week I’ll have completely forgotten who endorsed Issue 3, or whether I was supposed to vote yes or no on Issue 2.

Do you prefer to take classes online or in person?

3 upcoming events at CSCC

1. Have you heard about Columbus State’s volleyball team?  According to an article on CSCC’s home page, they’re ranked number one, and trying to stay that way.  In the next week, they have a streak of home games, and then the rest of their season will be away.  When they play at home in Delaware Hall, attendance is free for students.  Here’s the link: http://cscc.edu/ATHLETICS/pdf/volleyball.pdf .
2. Feel like a good scare?  Columbus State’s Student Activities and Athletics is screening the movie Darkness Falls in Nestor Hall on Monday 10/26.  The movie tells the story of a woman who has been falsely accused and punished for murder and who vows revenge.  Did I mention she was the town’s tooth fairy?  Really, I can’t make this stuff up.  Here’s the link:  http://www.cscc.edu/ATHLETICS/calendar.html .
3. I know Wednesday the 28^th is an in-service day, and a lot of students won’t be around, but that evening Student Activities and Athletics is hosting a capoeira workshop in room 404 of the Center for Workplace Development from 7 to 8:30.  This fascinating martial art is a fluid blend of acrobatics and strength, and it’s popular among both professional fighters and professional dancers.  You may have seen it in several movies, including Ocean’s Twelve, where a character uses the technique to get around laser beams undetected.  Click this link to see the Student Activities and Athletics calendar:  http://www.cscc.edu/ATHLETICS/calendar.html .

What’s your favorite way to enjoy the Ohio fall?

We had visitors again this weekend (this time from Florida), and they were so charmed by the leaves changing colors and by our brilliant Ohio autumn weather.  We had perfect conditions for the football game on Saturday, and then on Sunday we went apple-picking, which was a first for every single one of us, although everyone at the orchard said they did it every year.

We went a little crazy, and we came home with twenty pounds of apples, two gallons of cider, and a box of caramel apple mix.  Two pies and a lot of apples later, it looks like we haven’t made a dent.  It was so worth it, though, and so fun to see my two year old son pick his first apple off a tree and bite into it!

So, we’re doing our best to not waste the apples (if you have any suggestions, let me know), and I think this weekend we’re headed to a pumpkin farm with a zip-line.  What else should we do before winter really sets in?

Have you recently changed your mind about H1N1?

During the spring quarter, Erin wrote a blog post about how the media frenzy surrounding swine flu was causing everyone to overreact.  At the time, I couldn’t have agreed more.

Well, I’ve changed my mind.

This Sunday’s Dispatch had some really interesting coverage on current CDC (Centers for Disease Control) projections.  Did you know that the CDC projects that as much as half of the US population can expect to contract H1N1?  And that they’re estimating as many as 7,500 deaths in central Ohio, just from this particular strain of the flu virus?

I don’t want to contribute to the media hype (is hype short for hyperbole, by the way?), but I do want to take a serious risk seriously.  I encourage all students, and especially those who take classes in the traditional classroom setting to wash your hands, to take care of yourself, and above all, to please stay home if you are sick!

Also, check out the link on CSCC’s home page.  There’s some good information about how to prevent the spread of the flu, and about your academic responsibilities should you contract the bug.

Seeking motivation in 3 well-known quotes

As another quarter starts, I find myself seeking motivation, so I decided to examine some well-known quotes about success, and to see if, in my limited experience, I could find any truth to them.

We’ve all heard these sayings about the road to success; in fact, we’ve heard them so often, we think of them as meaningless.  But I discovered that they all seem to have some truth to them.  I tried to think of motivational quotations that most people would be familiar with, but if you have any more to add, please let me know!

1.  “Chance favors the prepared mind.”  Louis Pasteur

I think we all agree that true success is due to a combination of luck and hard work.  But how can we harness such an immutable thing as luck?  By being ready when it comes around to you.  This spring I had the good fortune to attend Columbus State’s graduation ceremony, where Ohio’s secretary of state Kevin Boyce credited his own success to being ready prepared for opportunity, and it’s a sentiment I hear often from those who consider themselves successful.  A side benefit to being prepared when you finally get the chance to do something you’ve worked really hard for?  Success like this seems to snowball – when somebody thinks enough of your work to entrust you with an opportunity, then other people take notice and do the same.

2.  “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”  Thomas Alva Edison

Especially in the creative fields, you have to have some sort of inspiration or talent.   But the thing is, and many people don’t realize this and try to coast by on their talent alone, talent is never enough. And I think Edison got the proportion just about right.  What do you want to be?  An actor?  A writer?  A chef or a scientist?  You have something in you that drives you toward that profession – some gift or aptitude or interest – but you need more.  You need to put in the time to develop your craft, whatever it might be, to practice the small things in order to grasp the big things.

3.  “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”  Woody Allen

So you’re not going to get everything you want the first time you try.  Every one of us will experience professional rejection at some point.  If I’m feeling especially discouraged one day, I google “famous writers’ rejection letters” and it makes me smile to think that an editor told Dr. Seuss that he was too different and would never sell. Stephen King received hundreds – he used to stick them on a nail, and the nail filled up more than once.  I hate to invoke another cliché, but sometimes success is getting up just one more time than you’ve been knocked down.

And I’d also like to point out how true this is for college classes.  Seriously.  The people who do well in classes are the people who go to them.

So all of these sayings hold up under critical examination.  They all also seem to be related, variations on the theme of hard work + chance = success.  And while I absolutely agree with this formula, I couldn’t immediately think of a quote for another aspect of success which I think is important.   Simply, follow your dreams.  Do what you want to do, and what you believe in, and don’t try to make yourself fit into a career simply for money or practicality.

What sayings or proverbs do you use for motivation?  And which have you heard that you don’t think are true at all?

Record enrollment! Are you having trouble parking?