sapphoe-studies-blog - Tumblr blog

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

I almost had nothing to post today because we just had review games in both architecture and astronomy

This was all I had for economics since we had an exam tonight.

Notes: macroeconomics, specifically inflation

My day: work, work, work then an exam

The rest of my day: studying for management! Midterm at 9 in the morning - wish me luck!

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

you deserve to nourish your body today and every day

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

follow the person i reblogged this from

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

noah fence but i love all that cheesy romantic bullshit! love letters, jewelry with your s/o’s name on it, making playlists for each other…that’s my aesthetic bitch!

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

How to e-mail your professor to ask for things, if that’s something that makes you anxious.

Midterms are approaching, and one thing that I’ve always noticed in my own students is that some of them are really anxious about e-mailing me to ask for things. This is frustrating for both of us, because I can’t help them if they don’t ask for it, and they can’t get what they need if they’re too anxious to ask for help! So, I’ve written up a bit of a guide with some advice. 

Generally, the types of e-mails students are anxious about are requests for things like extensions or excused absences. I’ve been a TA/head lecturer for six years now and have gotten literally thousands of student e-mails. The fact is, your professor isn’t going to dissect your e-mail for every little tonal shift. Don’t worry about it! I give you official permission to not over-analyze the e-mails you’re sending to your professor/TA/whomever asking for a couple extra days on that paper! Just be polite, honest, and succinct. Generally, student e-mails are read very quickly, unless there’s extenuating circumstances or the request is unusual. The format I suggest to my students and that I often use when I’m contacting someone for the first time professionally goes like this:

Greeting Introduction, if it’s a big class or you don’t know the professor well. Description of problem/Question. Steps you’ve taken so far to correct your problem. Where you’re at now. Query about further steps. Thanks, Your name (first and last)

This is just a skeleton- you don’t necessarily need every single part. But it is good to let your professor know what you’ve done to fix the problem on your own- whether that’s getting notes from a friend, taking things to the writing center, etc. Not all problems have an obvious solution, but if you’ve done something, letting them know shows your instructor that you’re taking ownership of the situation.

A formal e-mail like this also helps you judge their response to your situation. If you’re overwhelmed and having emotional distress, that’s not something that every professor is sympathetic about, unfortunately. If you don’t have a good gauge on how they react to students, keeping your e-mail very task-oriented without giving too much away about your emotional state can be healthier for you and will lead to better outcomes re: the thing you need.

A couple of good tips:

- Check your syllabus for your teacher’s absence policies. Many universities and/or departments require documentation, and if you can provide this ahead of time, it’ll be easier for you. 

- Talk to the person who has the most direct contact with you in the class. This means that if you have a TA who leads your section, ask them your questions before the professor or head lecturer. Most likely, the TA is the one who’s handling the direct permissions for excused absences or extensions. If you’ve gotten to know your TA a bit, they can advocate for you for things like permission to take a test earlier or later. 

- If you need to make arrangements for alternative test dates, always go earlier if you possibly can. 

- Don’t make up fake excuses or exaggerate; honesty is important, and professors have seen some very creative lies. By now, we’re good at detecting them. I once had a student who e-mailed about a car accident and attached a photo of a car with a smashed headlight as “evidence.” The picture was the fourth result on google for “car with broken headlight.” Had the student just asked for what they wanted, they may have gotten it; instead, all they did was infuriate their TA and give me a good example of why you shouldn’t lie about why you’re missing class. 

- If you have a disability that affects your work or your ability to attend classes, your school should have an office of disability/disability resource center. In the US, disabled students’ accommodations are protected by the ADA, and getting a letter of accommodation will ideally ensure that your needs are met. If your professor pushes back against your accommodations (unfortunately, that happens sometimes), go back to your DRC and let them know, because that’s a violation of federal law. Remember that learning disabilities, physical disabilities, and mental illness are all protected by law- you can get accommodations for any of those conditions! 

- Always end your e-mail with a question. The question mark flags the e-mail as something actionable, something the person can answer immediately. Just seeing the ? makes your e-mail something to deal with now rather than later. 

  - Boomerang is a free* tool for Gmail that can:      o Schedule your e-mails, so if you’re writing an e-mail at 3 AM and you feel         weird about your instructor seeing you’re up that late, you can set the mail         to send at 8 AM instead.      o Attach read receipts that tell you when the e-mail was opened, if you’re            worried about it not getting read.      o Score your e-mail on how likely a response is based on subject length,             word count, question count, reading level, and advanced features you can         pay to unlock including positivity, politeness, and subjectivity. *Mostly free- a lot of the basic tools are free, but some you have to pay to unlock. I’ve never used any of the paid features.

How to Use Boomerang

The screenshot below shows you how Gmail integrates with Boomerang- if you install it as a browser extension, it automatically generates the buttons. No special work required. There’s also an app for iOS and Android. I wrote this e-mail using the template that I’ve provided at the end of this post; it’s short, polite, and gets the message across clearly. For initial contact e-mails, you really can just fill in the blanks.

The little blue envelope in the bottom center-right is how you turn on the read receipt feature. Your recipient will not be notified that you got a read receipt, so don’t worry about that. The green bar in the bottom right is the respondable score, and the red button on the bottom left is how you schedule your e-mail to go out at a scheduled time. 

This is a screenshot of how the respondablity is graded. There’s sweet spots for different aspects of the e-mail. It can tell you if your e-mail is too wordy or too concise to be helpful, based largely on statistical estimates. It’s not always right! Some e-mails need to be wordier or more complicated than others! But it’s a helpful guideline.

Copy and Paste (and then edit) (unless your name really is [Your name]

Finally, a template that you can just copy and edit to your heart’s content. Don’t be afraid to talk to your professors- even if they are brusque or don’t give you the response you want, polite communication wherein you outline your problem and your solution is a really worthwhile skill to develop. And the more you communicate with your teachers, the more comfortable you’ll feel. So don’t be afraid! Reach out to your instructors whenever you need something!

Dear [Name],

My name is [Name] and I’m in your [Time] [Course title and course number] class.  [Brief explanation of problem], and was hoping that I [brief description of solution]. I currently [steps you’ve taken- pages written, are you getting notes from a classmate, etc.], but need [state exactly what you need]. Is there any way I [proposal for solution]?

Thanks, [Your name]

This isn’t the ONLY way to word an e-mail, of course, and if you’re comfortable with your style, don’t change things up! But if you’re feeling lost or unsure or just want a guide, I really hope this post helped!

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

iPAD PRO GIVEAWAY (used)

i recently got the 2018 iPad Pro and pen, and have no use for my old iPad even though at one point it was an essential of mine. i’m a student and iPad lover and know how useful and handy they can be, so i’m deciding to giveaway my 2017 rose gold iPad Pro!

to enter:

follow me on instagram @ilovepaperandtape

be following me on tumblr @studythetics

like and reblog this post!

details:

international giveaway does not matter the country

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

Dear Tumblr,

All those posts you see of young artists charging $3, $6, $10 for a drawing because they need help? That’s fucking exploitation, and fuck you if you think it’s reasonable or a “good deal" to pay nickels and dimes to squeeze a full-color original drawing out of some talented, hardworking kid because things are tight, and they can’t afford their textbooks. Or food. They sure as hell can’t afford to make you art for $6.

Instead, stop. And ask them where you can donate. If you can afford a $6 drawing, then you can afford to spend $6 simply to help someone. You don’t need internal organs as payment.

Don’t allow young artists to be exploited.

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

Fragments of Sappho, circa 630 - 580 BC. Translated by Anne Carson.

Follow my instagram for more: instagram.com/ancient_archives 

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

You know when people say “I watched this movie because you talked about it” or “I’ve been listening to this artist because I know you like it”, tenderness

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

Do you ever stop for a second and think of everything you’ve done so far? If not, you should. Remember all those nights you thought you wouldn’t make it. When you stressed before an important test and thought it was the end of the world. When you got a bad mark and wanted to give up. Look at you now, look where you are. You’re here, and in case nobody has said so yet, I’m proud of you.

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

tag yourself!

lip gloss- good at arguing, sings a lot when alone, likes attention, gets tired easily, provides good hugs, midnight conversations, really supportive & accepting

eyeliner- chill but gets stressed often, likes writing & drawing, makes a lot of small but dumb mistakes, wants to travel around the world, has underrated humor

blush- spends a lot of money, loves empty cafés, talks too much, cute earrings and pink aesthetics, the psychologist friend, confident but insecure at the same time

chapstick- uses emojis ironically, hella social anxiety, says they’re bad at art but they’re probably not, peach soft drinks, the reasonable friend

mascara- bullet journaling, gets injured a lot, intimidating but is actually soft ™, strawberry milk, screwed up sleep schedule, odd humor

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

At some point in our species’ future, a human will walk up to the Opportunity rover, clear the dust off of her solar array, and wake her up.

This probably won’t happen in my lifetime, but it will happen, and when it does, it will be incredible.

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

#flashback ✨ Wow, it’s been one and a half years since I created this weekly spread! I still remember how excited I was at that time: my first week at the new school was about to start and I wanted to make a super special layout for it 🌸

… … . … … . … … . … … . … .

DE 🇩🇪 Mensch, ich kann kaum glauben, dass dieses Foto schon anderthalb Jahre alt ist! Die erste Woche an der neuen Schule rückte immer näher und ich war total aufgeregt (: Dieses Layout sollte mal ganz anders und besonders werden 💕

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

2019.01.23 || the last unit in the mastery level, wrapping up my english course ✨

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

Helpful Websites

Here is our constantly updating list of helpful websites! If you’ve got a suggestion to be on here, feel free to reblog/reply and say so and we’ll add it when we can! You can also submit a detailed post about the site if you want to our blog under /submit and we’ll add it to this list with a link to your review!

ALL ARTISTS

Adobe Creative Cloud Shortcuts | @genspen A useful website which will teach you different shortcuts for various adobe software.

COLOR PALETTES

Adobe Color | @mizunostudies Colour generator based on chosen colour rule!

Coolors | @mizunostudies Simple colour generator with easy to use adjusters! (less recommended than adobe colour but less intimidating!)

Colour Lovers | @haravanda Create your own palette and test them out on patterns

Design Seed | @haravanda Palettes from photos. This helps if you need some quick colour schemes

Movies in color | @haravanda  Palettes generate from movie shots for colour studies

DIGITAL PAINTING

Level Up! | @animationlife Livestream archive with critiques that features artists that work in the video game industry

DRAWING

Onairvideo | @mizunostudies Figure drawing - video format

Artist.pixelovely | @mizunostudies  Figure drawing - the really known one

Onairvideo - still images | @mizunostudies Figure drawing- still images

Newmastersacademy | @mizunostudies Figure drawing - video format

@artmodelsphoto | @mizunostudies Figure drawing - still images

Jake Parker | @mizunostudies Speaks & draws, draws & speaks - very well known already but adding him anyways! c:

Proko | @haravanda Anatomy tutorials and tips - video format

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Wordmark | @mizunostudies Type a word(s) & see what it looks like with every single font on your computer/laptop (no download required!!)

Thinking With Type | @genspen Teaches you important elements about typography and font types!

Type Genius | @genspen Pairs up different fonts together perfectly (a set list of typefaces)

Lorem Ipsum | @genspen A lorem ipsum generator to fill up your page.

Canva | @haravanda An online, lightweight and free version of photoshop for image editing and brochure making

My Script Font | @haravanda Template and tool for making your own font

Graphic Burger | @aimhigh-studyhard Top-notch resources that include Icons and Mock-ups, among other things, free for commercial and personal use.

iBrand Studio | @aimhigh-studyhard Resources including Tutorials, Freebies, and Inspiration primarily for designing brand identity.

PsPrint | @aimhigh-studyhard Downloadable templates that provide information on product dimensions, layout, bleed, safety zone, border requirements, and any folding or mailing guidelines.

GotPrint | @aimhigh-studyhard More downloadable templates. This site includes PSD, AI, and INDD files.

TheHungryJPEG | @haravanda Online store for fonts and resources. Also, have a 1$ section deal/ month along with a separate freebies section

Web Designer Depot | @aimhigh-studyhard A useful site that has a blog with How-Tos, Resources, News, etc. They also have a Freebies tab!

[sapphoe-studies-blog]

That unstoppable girl that you’re envisioning, you’re her. She’s you. Go be her!