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Finals Week Survival Guide

cat should study for finals

Sleepy Study Cat

We don’t have Library cats here, but we do have some tips to get you through exams.

1.   Check out the Final Exam Schedule so that you know when your exams will be and plan ahead so that you give yourself plenty of time to study for each of them.
2.    Study in chunks. Block off specific hours of your schedule to study for each test you have to take. A ten minute study break every few hours is also a good idea.

3.     Schedule in some exercise. There’s no better way to relieve stress.  Don’t plan on studying non-stop the whole week.

4.    Take advantage of study groups.  A group can motivate you to get started and discussing difficult concepts with each other can aid in understanding.

5.    Take advantage of review sessions.  Most professors will touch on certain topics more heavily than others in review sessions and this might give you a better idea of what will be on the exam.

6.    Take advantage of your professor’s office hours.  If you’re unsure about anything, touch base with your professor or TA.

7.    Make sure you have the materials you’ll need for the test the night before.  Bring a back-up pen or pencil.

8.    Get a good night’s rest  and have a good breakfast before your test.  If you follow tip #1, you won’t have to stay up all night cramming.

9.    Don’t wait until your class is about to begin to get a bluebook.  If you need a blue book, you can pick it up at the Library Service Desk for 15 cents.

10.  Don’t psych yourself out.  You’ve studied, so don’t talk yourself into doing poorly.  Put yourself in confidence mode, visualize it all going right and think A+.

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How to Get Registered; Do It By Oct. 13th!

registeredRegister to Vote in the General Election by Oct. 13th!

No matter your opinion of the candidates or political orientation, voting is a civic responsibility and the outcome has a great impact on our society. The off-year election will be held on November 7, 2017. While this does not including big races for President nor Senate or House of Representatives (elections for these offices are only held during odd-numbered years if accommodating a special election—usually either due to incumbents resigning or dying while in office), there are several State, County, and Town elections for which to prepare. The following offices are on the ballot for Geneseo: Continue reading “How to Get Registered; Do It By Oct. 13th!”

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How to Get Registered; Do It By Oct. 14th!

registeredRegister to Vote in the General Election by Oct. 14

Unless you have been living under a rock, you probably have heard the political attacks going back and forth between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Yes, it’s that magical time that arrives every four years – the general election! The general election is held on November 8, 2016. In this election, United States Citizens vote for more than just the President of the United States, they also vote for senators, seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and more. Regardless of your opinion of the candidates or political orientation, voting is a civic responsibility and the outcome has a great impact on our society.

Who Can Vote?

If you are a legal U.S. citizen who will be 18 years of age by November 8, 2016, then you can register to vote.  However, you must be registered by October 14, 2016. You may print and mail in your voter registration or may register to vote online.

Residency Consideration

suffrageparade-in-ny-loc
Suffrage parade in New York, May 6, 1912. United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division. Public domain.

Students may establish voting residency in the place they consider their principal home, whether that be their current school address or at another address (such as a guardian’s address) they consider their primary residence (Brennan Center, 2016). If you have not declared Geneseo as your primary residence on your voter registration, then you need to apply for an absentee voting ballot.

register here

Image by Tony Webster from Portland, Oregon, United States. CC Attribution.

Absentee Voting

“Voters in New York must have an accepted reason to vote absentee, including the inability to vote in person due to physical disability or absence from the county in which one is registered (if a resident of New York City, then absence from the city), among others. Voters may submit their application for an absentee ballot by mail (postmarked) seven days before Election Day (2016: November 1) or in person by the end of the day before Election Day (2016: November 7). Completed ballots may be submitted in person by the close of polls on Election Day or by mail such that the ballot is postmarked by the day before the election (2016: November 7) and received within seven days of the election” (Brennan Center, 2016).

New York Board of Elections Absentee Ballot

Have Questions or Need Help?

Stop by the Milne Library Research Help Desk and a reference librarian will be happy to assist you.

References: 

Brennan Center for Justice. (2016). Student voting guide 2016. Retrieved from
http://www.brennancenter.org/how-vote-2016 

Written by Brandon West.

 

registereddeadline

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Grief and Campus Counseling Services

Grief is a complicated emotion that affects us in many different ways.** It can be messy, confusing, prolonged, consuming and can sneak up on us at odd times. Grief can make us think differently about the world around us, about our safety and our loved ones. It can be all of these things, or none of them. It can change with time.

As we near the end of a very difficult week, Lauderdale Center for Student Health and Counseling would like to offer a list of resources for you to refer to now, or in the future. We would also like to encourage you to look after one another, pay attention to the signs and signals associated with prolonged grief, and to seek support whenever you are are in need.

Student Resources:
Counseling Services are available Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday from 8:00am-5:00pm andTuesday from 8:00am-7:00pm in Lauderdale.
CARE Services (support and referrals to on and off campus resources): [email protected]
The WARM Line (general support from a certified specialist): 585-563-7470
Lifeline (general support or support for suicidal thoughts): 1-800-310-1160

Mobile Crisis of Livingston County (24/7 crisis support and evaluation) 585-255-0288
Pathways (general support from a student peer advocate): 585-237-8860 or online chat
Off campus therapists: http://www.geneseo.edu/health/off-campus_referral
Domestic Violence 24-hour Hotline: (888) 252-9360, http://www.chancesandchanges.org/
Wyoming County Crisis/Information and Referral Hotline: (800) 786-3300
Upcoming Group Support/Group Discussion for students:
Wednesday January 27, 2016
All College Hour – 2:30pm-3:45pm
Bailey 102

Upcoming Group Support/Group Discussion for student athletes:
Wednesday January 27, 2016
All College Hour – 2:30pm-3:45pm
Bailey 103

Additional counselors available for walk in appointments:

March 7th – 11th from 9am-5pm (week before Spring break)
May 2nd – 13th from 9am-5pm (week before and during final exams)
May 14th (graduation day)

​Faculty and Staff Resources:​
Counseling Services is available for consultations on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday from 8:00am-5:00pm and Tuesday from 8:00am-7:00pm in Lauderdale.
NYS Employee Assistance Program (during the day): (585) 245-5740
NYS Employee Assistance Program (after hours): 1-800-822-0244
Off campus therapist referrals: 1-800-THERAPIST (1-800-843-7274)
Upcoming Group Support/Group Discussion for faculty:
Wednesday January 27, 2016
All College Hour – 2:30pm-3:45pm

Bailey 104

Upcoming Group Support/Group Discussion for staff:

Wednesday January 27, 2016
All College Hour – 2:30pm-3:45pm
Bailey 101

All:
If you are in need of support that is not provided on this list, please contact Counseling Services at 585-245-5716.

As this semester continues we hope that you will pay attention to your own internal cues for stress, anxiety, depression and grief and, instead of struggling alone, will look to us for support and guidance.  We also hope that you will look out for one another, share your concern, and alert someone who can help.

You are never alone.

[**The text of this post comes from an email from Erin Halligan-Avery in Lauderdale Center for Student Health and Counseling.]
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Lesson Plans: Resources to Engage Students and Enhance Learning

MichellePostIt can be difficult to find the right website to use in lesson planning, specifically one that contains videos, activities, games or other engaging material. I am highlighting three that stand out: two because of their high-quality content & their alignment w/the Common Core (BrainPop & PBS LearningMedia), & one that specializes in hard-to-find educational videos (Kanopy Streaming Video).

These media resources are helpful to use while creating lesson plans for your classes and for use with students in the classroom. In addition to containing subject and topic specific videos, they are also rich in lesson planning and activity ideas, many aligned to the common core.

BrainPOP creates animated, curriculum-based content. Resources include: movies, quizzes, games, mobile apps, experiments, activity pages, and much more covering hundreds of topics within Math, Science, Social Studies, English, Technology, Arts & Music, and Health. All content is aligned to and searchable by state standards including Common Core.

PBS LearningMedia provides access to thousands of classroom-ready, curriculum-targeted digital resources. Resources are aligned to Common Core and national standards and include videos and interactives, as well as audio, documents, and in-depth lesson plans. You can browse by standards, grade level, subject area, and special collections.  You must be a SOE faculty member or student to access this resource. Please contact me if you have issues accessing the site.

Kanopy Streaming Video is an on-demand streaming video service for educational institutions that provides access to more than 26,000 films. Over 80 subject areas range from Global Studies & Languages to the Arts, to Education (K-12); Technical Training to Career Development to LGBT.

For more media resource ideas, visit the Education Lesson Planning guide, or contact the Education Librarian, Michelle Costello, directly at [email protected]

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Avoid Being the Victim of Theft!

TextbookTheftIt’s a sad fact of our world; Unattended laptops, textbooks, campus IDs, and bags attract thieves. It’s that time when we need remind everyone: PLEASE be careful with your belongings.

While it’s true that campus police report that on-campus thefts tend to increase during the last weeks of every semester, we’re really never free of being vigilant about our personal property.  But raising awareness of this issue can help prevent some theft.

Please do not step away from your valuables, even for a short trip to the copier, printer or restroom.

Ask a friend to watch them for you or (better yet) take them with you. If something is stolen from you while you are in Milne, please do report it to us at the Service Desk. Often, items are turned in by caring souls for your protection and you just might find it is being held for you, but even if it is not, we can help with reporting the loss to University Police. Don’t let the ‘bad guys’ get away with it!

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Security Issues for Internet Explorer

IE-blogIf you use Internet Explorer, you may want to check out what CIT NewsBytes has to say about protecting yourself from the latest hacking vulnerabilities in IE.

For now, CIT recommends updating your IE browser and using IE “only for Geneseo websites that require IE. All non-Geneseo websites should be accessed with an alternate browser (Firefox, Google Chrome, etc.).”

Check the CIT NewsBytes for updates on this security issue.

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Change Passwords to Avoid the Heartache of Heartbleed

HeartbleedIf you’ve been under a rock the past week, you may not be aware that many of your online accounts might have been compromised by the heartbleed bug.  The security breach is with the servers you have been logging into (e.g. Gmail, instant messaging, Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, Dropbox, etc.), so the best thing that you can do is change your passwords for those accounts sooner rather than later.

Mashable has compiled a great list of accounts that may have been affected including social networks, email providers, online shopping sites, financial institutions and more.  Bottom line, now might be a good time to update your passwords and continue to do so on a regular basis.

Geneseo’s CIT NewsBytes offers some other tips as well and will continue to update the campus on this issue.

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8th Edition of Turabian

turabianHold the presses! Students writing papers using Turabian citation style (and the faculty grading such papers) should be aware that there are changes in the conventions recommended by the new edition of the Turabian manual.

The devil is in the details. The 8th edition of A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (commonly knows as Turabian) was published in March 2013. Some of the changes involve how you cite web pages and articles you read online. For instance, the new edition flips the URL of a web page with the access date.

The older editions have you doing it like this:

“Breast Cancer Disparities.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/DataStatistics (accessed December 6, 2013).

But the new 8th edition recommends this:

“Breast Cancer Disparities.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed December 6, 2013. http://www.cdc.gov/DataStatistics.

Small change, but one that could elicit points off if the student doesn’t know the new form (or might cause the professor who doesn’t know the new form to grade incorrectly).

Another change involves the use of DOIs (digital object identifiers) instead of URLs when citing a journal article read online, or a web page. DOI’s are more stable than URLs, and usually shorter. Another 8th edition recommendation: “If no suitably short and direct URL exists, you may substitute the name of the database for the URL.” So if you have a URL or DOI, you do not need the name of the database.

Talk about it with your professor! Keep in mind that there are many professors who deviate from the Turabian manual in the way they want you to cite an article that you read in PDF form. They feel that if you read a journal article as a PDF (either downloaded from the web or via IDS), you can cite it as though you read it in print, since it is an exact copy of what appeared in the journal. There are many optional recommendations in the Turabian manual (for instance, there is a chapter recommending an author-date style of citation reminiscent of the APA and MLA style manuals), so it is really important that students and professors talk about exactly which chapters of the Turabian manual should be followed!

Short cuts don’t always work. Many citation generators or online citation guides still have not updated to the new 8th edition changes, so be wary when using “Cite This!” in a database or citation manager. And don’t forget, you can always stop at the Reference desk to ask a librarian for assistance with your citations.  “A Review of Turabian 8th Edition Changes from Turabian 7th Edition”Turabian Quick Guide