The chocolate speaks

As a break from thinking about and preparing my workshop session for STLHE, I went in search of caffeine. One of the few (relatively) nearby locations is in the CAW Centre (the students' union). This is "Headstart" week so the campus is alive with youth thinking about their new lives at the University. There are a multitude of booths set up in the CAW centre so I thought I might capture a good idea or two to bring back to New Zealand. I spoke particularly to the organisers of the orientation week (classes don't start till Thursday of the first week) and they are encouraging the new students to have input into the design of orientation for themselves. A good idea - will be interesting to see if they have any different bright ideas. They also talked about faculty holding get to know the profs as more than a distant face in a lecture theatre. Sounds like a jolly good idea to me, or even at a programme or departmental basis.

The other person I had a long conversation with (sorry Michael that your coffee got cold) was Michael from the Careers Education Centre. Aside from the accent and the looks, it could have been the head of careers at Canterbury speaking. "Students don't want to know about career planning till year 4; faculty aren't interested and see no linkages between their classroom and what the students might do in the future." He has tried everything that I have heard of to engage students and staff and has now decided to resort to good old word of mouth and customer satisfaction to develop his business - an exact replica of the conversation Michael and I had had about GA/TA training before I set off for the coffee.

On my return I noticed the wrapper from a Dove chocolate that I ate a few days ago. It is a bit like fortune cookies (each wrapper has some bright suggestion inside). This one says "learn something from everyone you meet."

Photo today comes courtesy of Hilary who called to visit between Berlin and Wellington. This is a favourite view of Petrin Park in Prague (she had a side trip there).