Invasion of the middle schoolers...

Yes, it is the invasion of the middle school kids. The dining facility has been overrun by a middle school program that is staying here at PSU for a good bit of time. I think for the rest of my time here actually. What went from being a peaceful, relaxing, and tasty break from work lunch has not turned into an episode of ZOEY 101. Unfortunately, this show won’t be canceled due to teenage pregnancy. This past weekend in Portland the weather was pretty Portlandy. It rained a lot, not as bad as in Pittsburgh. My mom is still cleaning up from the flood. I saw some movies. I was disappointed in Year One. I ate some popcorn, but I was also disappointed in that. I did however eat some pretty good vegetarian General Tso’s chicken.

Enough about the food of the city let’s talk about work. Every day I learn something pretty unusual about PSU. I found out today that the Park Blocks, the best part about campus, is actually still owned by the city. The University maintains the grounds on University property, but the city still has control over the area. I found this out because of a protest that happened on Friday. PSU doesn’t have to ask the city to utilize the space, but PSU can’t stop the city from booking something on the grounds. This makes sense because of the Saturday Farmer’s Market being able to take over the park blocks. Hopefully, this weekend it doesn’t rain and I can check that out. It’s most produce, but it will give me something to do until I got see Tender Forever and Nurses at PSU radio station’s festival. I am pretty stoked about that.

I have been working on creating a blackboard page for Residence Life. This would allow the staff to access all of their forms and what not online and eliminate the paper waste. It also gives us the ability to post ongoing training information. I worked on something similar before at PPU, but I didn’t have to actually build the course. Here I am actually building the course. There was a little part of me that wanted to take some classes in instructional design, now I wish I had. That has been my biggest project so far. I am going to start researching what readings and documents would be helpful to post for the staff. I can get a jump start on my staff meetings by researching stuff now. DOUBLE WIN.

I just got the list of my staff members in Mason Hall. The fall term is racing towards me. Oh yeah, I just remembered this because I just saw all of them walk across the street. PSU has partnered with Intel and 30 Vietnamese students are here at PSU for two years learning engineering. Intel pays for everything and in return the students work for them for three years after graduation. On Friday I got to set up their rooms. Intel really provided them with tons of stuff. It’s pretty unreal. They always travel in their group. So it’s 30 students walking together all the time. It’s pretty funny. In the Housing office I have the best view. It’s actually pretty amazing most of the time. It would be better if it was on the 10th floor and not the second, but it still doesn’t suck.

The cleaning staff always confuses my room with a summer conference room so I get towels delivered once a week. I wish they would clean my bathroom. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but you never know.

He SHOOTS and SCORES...

Yes,

I am still basking in the glow of the Stanley Cup Champions. I find myself watching the game highlights over and over. This was bigger than the Super Bowl for me. The title of this blog has more meaning than just Max Talbot's two goals last Friday. Yesterday I started the biggest project for the summer. DUN DUN DUN

I will be creating a Blackboard class for the student staff members of the East Side of campus. It's not like a typical class, but it will be a place for continuous training and materials. I met with PSU's Blackboard organizer yesterday and got the go ahead. Starting next week I will be building the shell of the class and starting to form the various discussion and reflection spaces, forms, and program database. I'm pretty excited about it. I really like being able to marry technology and student affairs work.

I did my first room placements this week. I set up the 30 or so summer conference guest that will be moving in on Monday. There were a few hang ups understanding the system, but after I got there that it was fine. Oh no it wasn't. The group coming in is from Vietnam and non of their names were correct. We had their last name as their first name middle name as their last it was a mess.

I ate at this place called Cha Cha Cha last night. It was one of the better burritos I had in my life and it was only $4.50. If you find yourself in Portland look them up. I am also in love with cucumber sandwiches right now, thanks to Dexter. I finished season 2. It was pretty good.

The summer blog idea is fully updated now. Everyone who signed up to blog is good to go. I am going to be posting the link on the ANGEL site, facebook, and twitter.

Well work starts here in a few minutes and I think it's going to be a busy day.

Oh thanks to the town of McKees Rocks for not closing the flood gates in time last night. Linda's house is flooded.

Catlin

WOW I suck at blogging....

I do suck at blogging. 

It has been about a week since I arrived in Portland. I have yet and will not be posting pictures on this blog. I am going to just upload them to flickr and then have the link here. It was such a long process to put that many pictures on this blog. 

Let's start with working at Portland State. It has been, as I coined it in my practicum reflection, an information overload. I have been introduce slash had so many meetings with various people that it's hard to remember names and faces. I have a split assignment between housing and residence life so it's double the staff to meet. Here at PSU, it's even weird calling it PSU, but here at PSU there is a split system with housing and res life. 

In the residence life side I have been working on New Student Week and planning some educational programs. I also investigated how to use Strengths Finder 2.0 for student staff training. It was pretty interesting. Actually all of the materials I gathered were from Loyola College in Maryland. If you are interested I have the link to their NASPA presentation. 

Another project I am working on is creating a program database and program evaluation. The staff has been very receptive and their student staff is pretty amazing. I had a chance to show off my cooking skills at their Study Jam. PSU is on a quarters system so they currently in finals week. This weekend is move, but thankfully I don't have any responsibilities. 

On the housing side I started my first day there on Tuesday. I work there Tuesdays and Thursdays. So yesterday was my first day. I learned the general responsibilities, wow responsibilities has a lot of Is . Anyway I I learned what they do and all that good stuff. I also learned how to use STARres. Which is their housing program that tracks students throughout their housing experience so to say. I got to contact student who have to transfer their rooms for the summer. It is a bit intimidating trying to guess how to pronounce a student's name, but I don't think I hurt anyone's feelings. 

Tomorrow I will be learning more about the facilities side of housing, but I am not too sure what else I will doing tomorrow. Today, I did get a chance to become a member of the Global Village Committee. The Global Village is a themed living and learning community at PSU that focuses on multicultural issues and themes. Today we reviewed application essays for the incoming students. This would be for the fall semester. Starting next year there will also be a Russian Immersion floor. Students living on this floor sign a pact to speak Russian while on the floor. PSU received a grant for a Russian capstone project and this is part of that grant. 

This is going to be a long entry so maybe at this point you should get a drink of water or a bucket of popcorn. Go ahead I'll wait. ..... 

As for the rest of my cross country trip... 

It really was an amazing experience. I don't remember where I left off in my last post talking about it, but I really recommend giving it a try. It cost a lot more than expected, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. I would suggest scouting out your hotels a bit more, but that was also part of the adventure. I only stayed at one place that I was afraid that I would wake up without my kidney. Driving through the Colorado mountains was beautiful. The Grand Canyon was pretty terrifying. I thought I was going to fall to my death. I wonder how many people die there each year. I seriously thought I was going to die one night driving through South Dakota. It was so dark and I kept thinking about Jeepers Creepers. 

There was a wonderful woman Minnesota named Sandy or Sally either way she was nice. She was all over Miranda and I like really touchy, but she was drunk so we just went with it. She was about to commit adultery so you know how that goes. California was only disappointing because when I came in from Vegas there was no welcome to California sign. I loved San Francisco too bad I only had a day there. It was a big deal for me to drive into California considering I was so obsessed with the state since I was a little kid. It seemed so far way and out of reach. 

I am missing a bunch of stuff and stories, but it's a blog and it's getting late. 

So far Portland has been cool. I haven't had a lot of time to really explore the city mostly because of the Penguins, but I am not complaining. This weekend is Pride here in Portland so I am sure there will lots to see and do. Friday night will be devoted to the Guins, but the rest of the weekend will exploration time. I am going to be eating at a different vegetarian restaurant every Friday or Saturday complete with a review so look forward to that. I am also going to be making more of an effort to update. At least twice a week. 

I finally got the map done on the SAGA website that link is https://www.msu.edu/~saga/classof2010summer/

So there are some people on there, I'd like to see a few more, come on cohort give me your blog info. 

Yeah, so that has been my first week. I will do a better job at this. I promise. Photos on flickr this weekend. 

Go PENS!