Setting the Mood

This spring break I asked my residents to take a Waldo cut out with them. I then asked them to snap a picture of Waldo in a location of their choice, and upload it to our Facebook page. It was neat getting to see all of the various places Waldo got to go, but most importantly my residents got to view the other photos and connect with the neighbors in a more hands on manner.

Another neat trick one can do to promote communication amongst residents is to pass out door props at the start of every semester. A good way to obtain door props is to visit one’s local lumbar store. All one has to do is ask a worker if you can have the left over blocks of wood. Chances are they will give you them for free. The reason being the pieces are too small for them to sell, and you are doing them a favor by extracting it from their hands. Once you have obtained your door props you can start distributing them. You might think or assume residents will simply toss these aside and render them useless; well you would be wrong. Residents will use this door prop for a couple of reasons, such as smelly roommate, their room is too hot or too cold, or simply because they like to people watch. The wickedly awesome part about this is that your residents will get to meet other residents. You see you cannot say hi to a door. If you find your residents are not using their door props enough you can turn it into a reward system. Perhaps you say the room that keeps their door open the most will receive a bag of candy or something of that nature.

        

       As an RA you’re going to want your residents to feel comfortable not only with their roommate, but with everyone else on the floor. If your residents don’t get along , then Pandora’s box will fly open. Residents might inflict horrific pranks on another or perhaps play music loudly without consideration for their neighbors. If all of the residents get along then issues like this can be avoided.