Anonymous asked: So, Im going to be a second year RA this year. My first year went great. I was in a freshman hall and had a really great community with a really active floor! Next year though, they placed me in the honors hall. Ill be working with students from freshman to seniors. Its also very quiet in that hall. Its going to be a big transition for me. Is there any advice you have to get upperclassmen involved or even quieter students to get involved and have fun? Thanks! :)
Go into it with a clean slate. They’re not going to be your first floor, they’re a new group with new needs, interests, and social dynamics. It’s like this from year to year even if you were staying in a freshman hall. I’d say don’t expect anything going in!
Get to know them as best you can. Do your best to figure out their interests and center your programming around that. Do ice breakers and teambuilders at your floor meetings and make sure you do some social programming early on.
Don’t get discouraged IF some people keep to themselves more. Soemtimes that is just the way people are, and pushing them to get involved will only make them recoil more sometimes.
Study breaks with snacks and stress-relieving activities are always a good programming idea for finals!
The best things to do are: develop personal connections between you and them individually and program according to their interests. This way, they’ll support your programming efforts because of the personal connection AND because they’re interested in what you’re doing!
abcdefgina16 asked: To the future RA that wants to do the Dr. Seuss theme, I did it this past year and it was well received by my floor! I started off with Cat in the Hat door decs and carried the theme throughout the year and ended with Oh The Places You Will Go. Good Luck!
Awesome! Thanks!
Anonymous asked: Hi there! So I'm going to be a first time RA and I decided on a Dr. Seuss theme for my floor! I have cat in the hat door tags, a Lorax themes board for environmental awareness, Oh the places you'll go! with study tips, campus resources, transitioning to university, etc., and a Dr. Seuss sleep book themed one with sleep benefits. Have any ideas on other bulletin board ideas? I was thinking maybe the Sneetches or Horton Hears a Who but not sure exactly what. Does this sound okay? (first time)
That sounds great! There is so much you can do with Dr. Seuss and you seem to have lots of awesome ideas!!!! As you get more and more involved in a theme, you’ll probably get more ideas too. That’s what always happened to me!
Good luck and welcome to the ResLife family. :)
themelinicole asked: Hello! First - this blog is heaven sent. Thank you so much for the resources it provides. I am going to be an RA next year to a coed floor and I've been trying to come up with theme ideas - The floor is comprised of a wellness learning community. Do you have any suggestions? x
OHHH there are so many things you could do!!!!! I don’t know if you have certain specifications but “wellness” is a pretty broad term. I’d pick something you’re passionate about (alcohol awareness, fitness, nutrition, mental wellness, etc) and center your theme around that!
For example if you wanted to do “fitness” you could make door decs out of running shoes, swimsuits, bicycles, weights, etc and have your board(s) have info on different community activities, benefits of different exercises, etc. OR you could even have a theme based on just one form of exercise if you wanted.
If you wanted to do nutrition, you could have fruits as door decs (you could do multiple different ones! It’d be cute) and then have healthy recipes or facts and myths about nutrition or something like that on your board.
Door decs for something like mental wellness would be a bit harder, but you could do thought bubbles with their names inside…or just something colorful or something representing creativity. And for boards you can put study tips and life tips and inspirational quotes and phrases?
Hope it helps! Good luck and I’m glad you like the blog :)
ruralboyg asked: Hello! I am an RA at CWU and was going to ask if you had any creative ideas for International House students. I keep coming back to ideas in regards to the countries flags, however I feel this is a bit boring. Haha. I am looking for Door Decs! I also am looking for a creative hall theme! Let me know! :D
Check out the “travel” themed door decs I just reblogged. They were super cute!
Another cool thing you could do would be to get a map (of anywhere, really) and Di-cut it into cool shapes.
You could do suitcases, globes, maybe animals that are native to each different country/region, postcards, landmarks from major cities (eiffel tower, statue of liberty, colliseum, etc), or passports.
Hope these help :)
