Get Involved II--Extra Credit Opportunities

In order to get the most possible for a university education, it is *very* helpful to take advantage of the many opportunities for learning there are outside the classroom.  I like to see my IDL students participate in as many campus events as possible.  I especially like seeing student attend NSU plays and concerts.

Tonight (Thursday, October 16), tomorrow, and Saturday, the NSU theater department presents "On the Verge."  The show starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Williams Library "Round Room."

Also tonight is the annual aria and concerto competition.  The aria portion of the competition begins at 5:00 p.m. in Krikac auditorium.

For extra credit, just add a comment to the post here your impressions of either the play or the aria/concerto competition. What did you find particularly memorable/enjoyable?

Gendercide--20th and 21st century genocide (extra credit)

"Never again" said the Jews (and many others) about the Holocaust. However, there have been many such tragedies in the 20th and 21st centuries, some of them going on right now. Please take a look at the "case studies" on the Gendercide site (look at the case study drop down menu on the right hand side of the page). Choose one of the studies (or one of the articles on the main page), and comment here on that article/case study. In what way does the information on this site help justify the 20th century's nickname "The Age of Violence" or the 21st century's nickname "The Age of Stupidity"?

Yad Vashem (extra credit)

"One death is a tragedy: a million deaths is a statistic," said Joseph Stalin. Unfortunately, this tends to be the truth. Numbers are a useful tool for measuring things that are too big for us to understand in any other way, e.g., how far it is from earth to the sun. But using numbers often blunts the reality of human tragedies.

The Yad Vashem site tries to make the victims of the Holocaust something more than just statistics. Its database is an attempt to preserve a memory of as many individual victims as possible.

Browse through the database, and look through some of the individual pages of testimony. What do you find interesting/memorable in these pages?

Readings, Exams, and Papers (Dragons V, VI, and VII)

For our September 15 class session, please read Units V, VI, and VII of Dragons. These chapters offer advice on how to approach college reading assignments, exams, and papers. If you were Polonius and trying to give advice to a son or daughter headed off to college, what bit of advice from these chapters would you be most likely to include? Why? [Remember: Polonius' advice usually sounds good, but it isn't necessarily all that helpful....though it might be!]

Get Involved!

Please stop by the "Club Rush" tables set up on the campus green on Wednesday, September 3. Which of the organizations/activities represented at the Fair interests you the most?

Bonus: which organization offered the best "freebies"?

No chance to visit the Fair? Well, you can do the next best thing: look at the on-line list of student clubs on the NSU web site (see the drop down menu when you scroll over the "Clubs" link in the left-hand sidebar on this page: http://www.northern.edu/sil/pages/default.aspx). No free food, but you can earn your extra credit (one whole point!) by commenting here on the organization that looks most interesting to you.

Time management and note-taking

Please read Chapters III and IV of Dragons. Of the planning, time management, and note-taking advice here, what do you think will be most important for you personally? In which of these areas are you already fairly strong? Where do you need work?

How to find what you are not looking for

Please read Chapters I and II of Dragons, History Professors, and Other Hazards of College Life. There's a lot of advice in these two chapters, much that you've heard before, plus (perhaps) a few things you hadn't. What (if anything) in these chapters surprises you? Of the familiar advice, what seems worth reinforcing? Is there anything you would have added to the chapter if you were giving college success advice?

Welcome!

Dragon trouble? The guy on the white horse just may be on this blog! Harry the Talking Hand sometimes stops by as well. Feel free to share your questions, comments, and/or advice about life at NSU.

Just about every week, there will be a short assignment on this blog asking you to post your thoughts on the IDL class and NSU in general. It might be good to make yourself a blog "follower" so that you are aware of each assignment as soon as it is posted.