Paul Menton Centre's Virtual Make the Cut 2020: Video #3 - Learning Strategies Q&A Session - TRANSCRIPT [Music playing] [Amanda Blais] So, I think I'm going to get Sonia to join me, uhm, to talk about some questions that you might have. Hopefully you've been writing them down So, you can ask us. Sonia! Hi. [Sonia Tanguay] Hello Amanda! I'm waiting for those questions. I know there are some eager students out there. [Amanda Blais] I know! I can see all the questions rolling in. Here we go. [Sonia Tanguay] So, you talked a lot about time management, but what about organization? [Amanda Blais] Organization is also very important. So, time management is an element of organization. In order to know essentially what's required of you and to organize your material you also need to have to be able to have enough time to do all those things. So, organization is also really important and again, as a learning strategist, we can definitely work with you to help organize your material for your courses. Sometimes we even work with students to organize, like, the structure of their assignments or how to complete their labs. Uhm again, we can't inform you on content but we can definitely talk to you a lot about, uhm - y'know, how to organize your material So, you can ask questions from your professors or TAs. [Sonia Tanguay] Great, Okay. The questions are just coming in; just give me a moment. [Amanda Blais] Sure. [Sonia Tanguay] Uhm, okay. There's a - it's a long question, actually [laughter] So, is there just learning strategies offered to the disability services office or are there other services on campus that help with study skills? [Amanda Blais] That's an amazing question! So, there are learning strategies - So, the learning offered through disability services are often one-on-one learning strategies sessions where you'll meet with that person weekly if you need to. That being said, there are tons of other services on Campus. At Carleton alone we have a math tutorial centre; we have a science student success centre; we have the Elsie McGill Centre for first year students; we have the big one in the library, the student academic success Centre which houses our writing support services, our research support services, they also offer over 20 different workshops on a lot of the things we already talked about and all the services I just talked about are available to any Carleton student. And, uh, those services also exist at lot of other universities or colleges as well. Uhm, so, it's not just learning strategies supports for the disabilities office. That's usually if you want one-on-one consistent support, you come to us because with others services you don't see the same person all the time, although those other services are phenomenal. Did I miss anything. Sonia? [Sonia Tanguay] No, and you know what? I had a student - many students actually-use the science student success centre. Especially when they started their first labs in chemistry. Uhm, it was a bit overwhelming, they wasn't sure how to go about it and they received some wonderful feedback, uhm, from the individuals over there. [Amanda Blais] Yeah! And I think they help with, like, chemistry, and biology, and physics [laughing] So, that's pretty awesome. [Sonia Tanguay] So, uhm, other questions! Can I access, uhmm, learning strategies only in my first year or can I actually decide to access services later, in my second, third or fourth year? [Amanda Blais] You can access services whenever you need them! So, we have other students who will register with us get connected right away; uh, we have other students who will, uhm, y'know, see us in their fourth year and be like I'm having a really tough time finishing-off my degree, can you help me out? So, uhm, and then we also work with graduate-level students doing their masters, their PhD. So, you can access learning strategies whenever and as often you need to. [Sonia Tanguay] A question from a student! What were the names of the time management apps, can you remin-uh-repeat them? [Amanda Blais] Yeah! And I'll get, uh, our, uh, handy elves in the background to put them in the, uhm, publish them in the chat as well. So, those apps were the Pomodoro technique. So, uh, that's the one with the timer. So, on Androids in called Clockwork Tomato and on IOS systems or Apples you're looking for either the Pomodoro timer or the Focus Timer. Then the other one that we talked about was Don't Break the Chain. And, uhm, for to-do lists you're gonna do something called To-Doist as well. So, I believe I passed all of those I'll have those links off to our elves in the background who can post those in the public sections of your questions as well. [Sonia Tanguay] Perfect. Another question, I may to decide to work on my own first. Y'know, a lot of students, I hear from them, I want to try things on my own first. Are there any tutorial videos that I can start watching first to find out about universities, strategies, in terms of learning that would help me? [Amanda Blais] We have this question a lot. So, we have a lot of student who want to start trying on their own, which is fully okay. Uhmm, but again, like we said before, uhm, although it's not required for you to use support services on campus, it is recommended. And it's recommended because we often find that a lot of students who try to do it on their own, don't ask help from their professors, their TAs, their disability coordinator, often feel really isolated and a lot of times, sometimes even they feel like giving up. Sometimes being able to talk to somebody else and just to kind of see that there are solutions to problems can be really helpful. With regards to tutorial sessions online, the MORE program that I talk to you about, there are tutorial videos available for you to watch. Uhm, now, those are available once you get accepted to Carleton and have a number. But if you want to look at some really good tutorials even on your own, we love The College Info Geek. He is phenomenal. He has a great YouTube channel, website. And So, I'll also ask our elves to post for the link for The College Info Geek in the question and answers as well because if you want to check out his videos he's got loads of information on there and we refer students to The College Info Geek all the time. [Sonia Tanguay] Okay. Another question. Someone asked, is it a good idea to do a double major and what time management skills are most helpful for that? [Amanda Blais] That's a big question. [laughter] So, uhhhh [laughing], like most program selection it's really up to, essentially, what you want to do with those degrees in the future. So, when it comes to, the type of career you're looking for, you really going to wanna think about what's applicable and what's not. So, it might be helpful to meet with either, you know, a career service counsellor or specialist to kind of explore, like, what you want to do in the future. Uhm, you can even meet with academic advising to kind of see what's manageable, what's not. Students with permanent disabilities may qualify for reducing their course load which means they can choose to do it for more years. So, you don't have to do a university degree in four years; there's no requirement for that to happen and often we have a lot of students who do their degree in five, six years; seven years, sometimes, right? That gives them enough time to learn the information, do well in their classes, but also have the opportunity to be able to do placements, or, uhm, to work outside of school So, they can get experience from where they graduate. So, yeah, with regards to time management, uhm y'know, that's where a learning strategist can help navigate all of your requirements to make sure that you're not overloading yourself with too much. [Sonia Tanguay] And I think this will be the last question for this question period. [Amanda Blais] Sure! [Sonia Tanguay] Are learning strategist disability-specific? [Amanda Blais] If you go through the disability office, then yes, they can be disability-specific. Uhm so, again, uh, we work with a lot of students to address their executive functioning difficulties which we often see with students with ADHD, mental health disabilities, uhm-uh, learning disabilities; we see all different types of students. So, if you go to the disability office to work with a learning strategist they can be disability-specific supports. Uhm, if you go through general services and the university or the college they're going to be generalized to all the population, uhm, and the people you'd work with there wouldn't necessarily know you have a disability. Uhhm, that doesn't mean that they can't help you still, it just means that it won't be, uhm, necessarily specifically to your needs, it's going to be more generalized towards, uhm, anybody who's accessing it. Did I miss anything there, Sonia? [Sonia Tanguay] No, I think you - you did great in terms of providing, uhm-uh, good information that will be useful. There will be more questions I'm sure and I will have - I will be able to answer questions as well during Planning the Transition but I think now we're going to be moving on to Paddy as our host. [Amanda Blais] Awesome. Well thanks everyone for joining me. And I hope to see you someday in learning strategies. Take it away, Paddy. [Paddy Stewart] Alright, thanks So, much Amanda, that was brilliant. I want to reiterate that students, when you graduate, be sure and seek out the supports services available at the college or university that you attend. Uhm, because Amanda, oh, and it was nice to have Sonia in the background and she sort of reminds me of Siri. You know, that voice you can hear off the side - fabulous. We're going to give Amanda a big round of applause. All you kids and teachers, I want you to do this with me: give her a big round of applause. All the way 'round; that's a round of applause. Come on, do it with me! And then give her a big hand like this. And give her the other big hand. And then we give her a big O like this, Ooooo for and ovation. Ahh! Now, it's good to know that there are about 200 of you students have joined us to today. I do wanna mention a couple particular students. Uhm, one is a student from West Carleton and, uh, this particular student actually got caught skipping; and she was skipping to go bungee jumping. Yeah, she skipped school to go bungee jumping. And, uh, you know what happened? She got suspended. Thank you, thank you very much. We have another very interesting, uh, student and this one is from St. Francis. And this particularly interesting student only wears his glasses when he goes to math class. You know, he wears glasses in math class. It's to help with division. Thank you, thank you very much. I have one quick thing to show you here before we move on. This relates to what Amanda was saying about seeking out the supports to help you. This is a jaw harp. Now all by itself you can just barely hear it, but, if it gets the support and everything it needs, it will be bigger and better. So, listen to this now - here's the support. [Playing jaw harp] [Singing] You're all going to graduate. [Laughing]. Everything is going to be up to date. [Playing jaw harp] So, there's a jaw harp for you showing that to be sure and seek-out support services from wonderful folks at your post-secondary. [Music playing]