5V Learning Something New

Agency is a word I am not too familiar with. I know of the basic definition referring to an organization such as the CIA for example. I was unaware that there was a different definition than the one I was used to hearing in the news or in school. As I researched a different use of the word I found this definition; An agency may be classified as unconscious, involuntary behavior or purposeful, goal directed activity (intentional action). Before finding this definition I was puzzled to why an agency would have related to the topics we’ve been discussing in inquiry class this week but I now know why there is a connection.

The readings this week talk about different tips and strategies to becoming a successful college student, which would require an agency. This is important in college because no one is telling a student when assignments are due and when to start their homework, they're all on their own. Being an “agent” in college means making unconscious decisions to complete homework and assignments on time. This is so much different from high school where the teachers would tell the class directly what is due the following day. Teachers in high school would also alert you if you are missing work or a test. College professor don’t do what high school teachers do. In college it is your responsibility to know what is due and when it’s due, which is a huge responsibility for first year students because they are not used to this from their teachers. This teaches first year students how to become responsible and independent during their first semester which is something new to most. So far this semester I have been an agent through my school work because I have made unconscious efforts to do my homework and assignments on time without forcing myself to do so.

My media class is the only class I’m taking this semester where we are constantly discussing and learning new vocabulary words. This week we read chapter 8 and discussed the key terms which are located in the back of every chapter. This week the two most important words we needed to know from the chapter was mainstream culture and referent class. Mainstream culture refers to the core beliefs and values that have been part of American dialogue since the 1600’s that are accepted by the majority of Americans. Referent class refers to a subgroup against which the mainstream culture measures itself. These two words are important to know because chapter 8 talks about and discuss culture and how persuasion is affected by the culture. It is very important in my media class to know and be familiar with all the definitions because it makes for better class discusion and a better grade on the next test.  

5B So Far So Good

The time study assignment really made me think and reflect how I should be spending my time while here at college. When I finished the study last night before I went to bed, I quickly glanced at what I had completed this week and noticed how busy I was during the school week and how relaxed my weekends were. From the second I woke up on the weekdays I was always doing something until I went to bed later than evening. I was either in class, eating meals, studying in the library, or at cheerleading practice. This was nothing new to me though, my days in high school ran just as busy. Monday - Friday I would wake up, go to school, go to work and then go to practice. When I came home from practice around nine o’clock I then would have to complete my homework and assignments that might be due the next day. Being just as busy as I was in high school probably helped me adjust to college with ease. Even though I am doing something at almost all point of the day, it doesn’t stress me out. Always having a class to go to or homework to be worked on keeps me focused all day.

During the time study, I studied and worked on assignments for a total of 22 hours on the weekdays and only 4 hours on the weekend. The reasoning to why my time working on assignments on the weekdays is so much greater than my work completed on the weekend is because I am already in the mood to study from being in class for a couple hours before hand. Usually right after my classes are done for the day, I grab something quick to eat to head to the library to complete my homework. This is something I started doing even the first week of classes because I knew I needed to create a habit of going to a quiet place to do my work or else I knew I would never get any work done. On the weekends though, I try to relax and hang out with friends as much as possible because I spend most of my school week studying and doing homework. Though my weekends are mostly relaxing, I do try to find time to complete assignments that may be due that following monday. By either starting or completely finishing an assignment on the weekend helps make it easier when Monday rolls around and I’m stressing out because I didn’t realize how much work I should’ve been doing on my time off from classes. As of right now I believe I am devoting enough of my time to studying as I can at the moment. It is suggest that college students study 30-40 hours a week, but right now I am only studying 26 hours a week. I think that this is a perfect balance for my work load right now. I am completing all of my assignments on time and handing in quality work with the time I have been using to study. As I begin to get used to college and what my professors will be expecting of me, I’m sure I will slowly increase the time I spend studying to reach 30-40 hours a week. Right now though, that is an impossible amount of time to study with only in the 5th week of the semester. As the semester starts to wrap up and I am thrown into more exams, projects and finals, I am certain that the time I spend studying will increase. I am content with my 26 hours of studying as of right now.

When I wasn’t studying, I was most likely socializing with friends or at practice. I spent 24 hours socializing and 13 hours at cheerleading during the time study. I spent a total of 37 hours socializing and practicing last week which is more time than I spent studying. I had no control of how many hours I would be practicing because that is based of my coaches, but I do have control over how many hours I spend with friends. I am proud that I spent less time socializing and more time working on school work. I am able to manage almost equal hours studying and socializing which is a key to success in college. Though I am here to get an education, being social is all important to achieving your degree at the end of your four years in college. On the weekends me and my friends relax and do something fun as a reward for working hard all week. We try to take a couple hours each day to meet up and talk during meals so were not only just working on school related things. Balancing school work and a social life was one of the many things I was nervous about when I came to college and I am very proud that so far I have been doing a good job finding a balance between the two.

Surprisingly I don’t procrastinate on many things. When I go to the library I have a set list of assignments I need to get done before I leave and I do a good job of sticking to that list. Occasionally I’ll take what I plan to be a five minute break to check my phone to go on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram but I find myself spending 10-15 minutes more than I had expected. When I get distracted like that it takes me quite a while to get back into the assignment I was working on, I waste a lot of time doing this. Sometimes if I find that my phone is distracting me from my work I give it to my friend to hold onto while we're in the library until we leave. With my phone being out of sight, out of mind, I am able to focus on my school work and get everything I need to get done.

I think my time management so far this semester has been excellent. Going to the library at the end of my academic day helps me get focused and started on my homework. Throughout the rest of the semester I am planning to sticking to how I plan my study times and my social times because so far it has been working to my advantage.  

5A It's Not as Hard as I Though

I was shocked to find out that I’ve already gone through a month of college classes already, everything is moving so fast. It almost feels like it was last week that I packed up my father’s truck with everything I needed to survive college and moved into my dorm room in Chase Hall. College so far hasn’t been too difficult for me. I have been putting almost all of my time and effort to do well in all my classes because at the end of the day I am paying for every cent of my education and can’t afford to do bad on a test or assignment or to even fail a class. My biggest trouble so far is my history lecture. The class is held in Engleman C112 which is a huge lecture hall that can fit over 200 students. Being in a class with so many students is very different for me. It is also very hard to focus in the class because the Professor talks and talk and talks the entire time without any slide shows or words to look at. I am forced to stare at my laptop for 75 minutes and type every word he says because I can’t decipher what is important and what isn’t. This class is going to be the hardest class I am taking this semester but I don’t want to let it get to me. Even though I am finding it difficult to focus and retain the information talked about during class, I am going to try my hardest to do my best to receive a decent grade in the class. I now know for future semesters that lecture hall style classes are NOT for me.

My biggest success so far has been my studying habits. In high school I never studied for a test or quiz, most of the material was repeated and taught in class so it was easy for me to remember information. I found out very quickly that college classes were not structured the same way as my high school classes once were. With being new to college classes I knew that my lack of studying habits from high school needed to change. College is a huge financial investment that I am paying for and I want to get good grades to make it worth the debt I’ll be facing after I graduate. In my Media class so far we have had two quizzes which I have received A+’s on. The only reason why I did so well on those test are because I took the time to create and study notecards. The tests were based on key terms which were discussed in class and I thought the best way to study for these test were to make flash cards; they really made all the difference. Going from never studying in high school to studying in college wasn’t too hard of switch. I am very motivated to study for my classes due to the amount of money I am paying just to attend these classes.

Now that I am ¼ done with my first semester, I have a very positive outlook on the other ¾ that are left. I am going to continue studying for my test and doing well in my classes because it will be worth it when apply to the School of Education and have no problem being accepted. I want to find more study techniques that I can used to help improve my already growing study habits. So far my flashcard method has been working very well, but I need to find a method that works well in my history class because there is just so much information that is expected to be learned. I had my first history quiz today and I felt like I didn’t do as well as I should’ve. I plan to talk to my professor and ask him for any tips or advice he might have for me to excel in his class. I have also been going to the library every night to complete homework and study for upcoming tests. This has been working very well to my advantage because the library is a quiet environment which forces me to work - eliminating the distraction of my loud dorm room. Another thing I do to make sure I am completing all my work when I arrive to the library is keeping an planner. Everyday I check my syllabus and ask my teachers what is due the next class. Before I leave for the library, I attach a sticky note to the planner and list what needs to be done before I can leave and go back to my dorm. This helps me stay on top of what I need to get done. I am also able to cross out completed tasks which makes me feel a sense of completion and pride that I was able to complete my list.  

I have very high expectation and goals for myself not only for this semester, but for all my semester of college. In order to make it through college not feeling like I wasted my time and money, I need to do well in all my classes, get accepted into the School of Education, and graduate on time. I will continue working hard and achieving my goals as the weeks pass, the semester ends and a new one begins. I have no doubt that I will strive and be successful through these next 12 weeks as I complete my first semester

5I Southern's Good Deed

Last Saturday, I woke up early to be bussed to a park in downtown New Haven to clean up Edgewood park as part of SCSU’s Day of Service. The Day of Service is Southern’s way of giving back to the community through student volunteers cleaning up and making the city of New Haven look better than before. I participated in this community service opportunity with the SCSU Cheerleading team. As a team we were bussed to Edgewood park in New Haven and were assigned to pick up any trash we found. I was completely shocked how much trash covered this park. The woods, the pathway, and the playground were covered by trash. For over two hours, we walked the entire parking picking up every piece of garbage we found.

I am very glad I was able to participate in such an event. It shows how Southern isn’t just another University in New Haven, that we care about our city and want to make a difference in the community. Everywhere you looked, a piece of trash was littering the park, but at the end of the day the park was transformed. Almost every piece of trash that covered the park was eliminated. Those who use Edgewood park on a daily basis appreciated all our hard work we did to clean the park up. Participating in this event made me feel better about myself at the end of the day because I did something that would make someone I don’t know happy to see a clean park. I will definitely be joining Southern in their Day of Service next year!  

4B Questioning Joachim de Posada

This weeks readings have been the most interesting to me so far this semester. The theory of the marshmallow test still blows my mind. Through watching multiple videos and reading articles about the study I wondered how someone came up with this test. Who would have thought that if a 4 year old waits to eat a marshmallow, their chance for future success would be much greater than those who ate the marshmallow within the 15 minutes. I still am curious how someone discovered the correlation between waiting at younger age to how successful you will be later in life.

Joachim de Posada was one of the first to test this relationship between waiting and future success in children. Though I am not sure why there is a link between the two but through the readings I have found what lead Joachim de Posada to his discovery. When Joachim began his testing he recorded and videotaped the children as they were able or unable to delay gratification. About 15 years later Joachim found the children who were in his study and requested to see their grades and SAT scores. He found that the students who ate the marshmallow were struggling in school and had lower test scores that those who delayed gratification 15 years earlier. I am still unsure if Joachim had any logical reasoning to his theory when he first started testing the children. I wonder if Joachim knew then and there that there was a link between delayed gratification and future success.These are questions I still have unanswered but I’m sure with a little more research I could find the answer to my questions.  

Psychology is a topic that has always interested me, which is why I’ve chosen to double major in it along with my top major, early childhood education. The theories and ideas which revolve around early childhood development always make me think back to when I was 4-5 years old. I wonder if I would have been able to pass the marshmallow test if I had participated in a study similar to Joachim de Posada. This weeks readings really got me thinking and I enjoyed every minute of it!

4V Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

Delayed gratification is a word I was unaware of until this week. While watching a video on the marshmallow study, Joachim de Posada talked about and explained what delayed gratification was all about. In the video Joachim tested 4-5 year olds on if they had the ability to delay gratification. They would be placed in a room alone and the instructor would place a marshmallow in front of them and explained if they waited 15 minutes they would be reward with a second marshmallow.  In this process, delayed gratification means the ability to wait in order to obtain something that one wants. If these 4-5 year olds waiting the duration of the 15 minutes they had the ability to delay gratification and would be more likely to be successful later in life than those children who ate the marshmallow. I would have never thought that having a skill such as waiting 15 minutes for a marshmallow could predict future success in children.

Each week in my media in everyday life class, we learn and discuss new vocabulary words from the assigned chapter reading. This week two of the words we learned was popular culture and mainstream culture. Popular culture is the products of a culture that are owned and produced by businesses for the purpose of making a profit. Mainstream culture is the core beliefs, values, and behaviors that have been part of the American dialogue since the 1600s and that have been accepted by the majority of Americans. These two words are important to know for my class this past week because we have been discussion how persuasive message affect the culture. Also understanding these words will help make understanding the rest of the material easier because I already have a good idea what of popular culture and mainstream culture means.

4I College Can Be Stressful, Here's How to Solve It

The Granoff Student Health Service Center is Southern’s health center on campus. It is located on Wintergreen Ave near the reslife quad of Chase, Wilkinson and Farnham hall and can also be located across the street from Moore Field House. The SCSU Health center serves the same purpose as going to your local physician. With a qualified staff of physicians and nurses they are there to help students with health or emotional issues and to answer any questions you may have. The help center also provides information about sexual health, allergies, flus, self care and stress management. The health center is opened Monday through Friday, 8am - 4:30pm.

One of the biggest issues the health center sees with college students with is stress, especially with students who are new to college. Most freshmen in college have had a pretty stress free high school experience and college is a huge wake up call for many. The biggest problem college freshmen face is trying to balance their school work and their social life which can lead to having a high stress level. This increase of stress can also be due to leaving home for the first time, making new friends, avoiding the freshman 15 and being introduced to drugs and alcohol.

The health center says that the first step is to know the signs of having a high stress level which can include a change in sleep patterns, change in eating habits, feeling overwhelmed and increased frustration and anger. Once you can recognize the signs you can begin to resolve the stress and reduce it. The health center suggest to doing this by eating a balance diet, talking to friends about your problems, laughing, knowing your limits, avoiding drugs and alcohol and find a balance in your life. If you are unable to reduce your stress levels alone, the health center suggests to make an appointment with them. From there they can provide you with advice to guide you in the right direction.

College can be a fun yet stressful time. The health center is always opened to those who need help balancing school and life or to those who need someone to talk to. Before visiting the health center I thought it’s only purpose was a place to go when you were sick, but now I know its more than that. Its a place to go for not only physical sickness but also emotional issues as well. The health center is a very friendly environment and I’m glad I made the decision to stop by!

4A Marshmallows Predict the Future

On average, Americans as a whole will spend 37 billion hours waiting this year alone. Our country is thought of having very little patience, which can be true in some cases. When I am craving a donut or a coffee from Dunkin Donuts on a monday morning just before my 9:35 class, I walk to the student center to fulfill my craving. When I see the line almost leading to China and back, my craving for that delicious treat or coffee disappears instantly and I settle for yogurt at Conn Hall. I no longer have the time or even the patience to wait in a line that long, but many students do. Some student will even wake up early to ensure they receive their coffee before the start of their day. So why do so many other countries believe Americans are so impatient?

I believe it is because of our inability to delay gratification. This is a skill that almost all Americans lack. Delayed gratification is the ability for a person to wait in order to obtain something that one wants. Joachim de Posada is one of many psychology professors who have studied this topic. His experiment was called the Marshmallow Study which he tested in the 1960’s. Joachim would conduct his study by placing 4-5 year olds in a very bland room and place a marshmallow in front of them. Next Joachim would tell the child that if they could wait 15 minutes and not eat the marshmallow, they would then be rewarded with a second marshmallow. Those conducting the study would then leave the room for the duration of the 15 minutes and come back and record if the child had or had not eaten the marshmallow. The study involved 35 preschool aged children, ⅔ of the children ate the marshmallow within minutes or even a few seconds and only ⅓ of the children were able to delay gratification and resist the urge of eating the marshmallow.

Here is a video I found from a recent test of the Marshmallow Study: (

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX_oy9614HQ

)

Many children in this study seemed like they were able to delay gratification, but they did not show all the children at the end receiving or not receiving a second marshmallow. What was clearly shown in this video though was the children who were unable to resist the urge of the delicious marshmallow. One girl, towage the end of the video started eating the marshmallow even before the instructor finished explaining the test. This little girl had a mindset of eating the marshmallow and did not care about anything other than her treat. Some of the children waited a while, maybe a couple minutes before taking a few small bites and then fully eating the marshmallow.

So what is the point of this marshmallow test? When Joachim de Posada conducted this test he discovered that the ⅓ of the children who did not eat the marshmallow were more successful later in life than the ⅔ who ate the marshmallow. Joachim traced the children who were in his study 15 years later to see what they were like. He found that the children who delayed gratification had good grades, had high SAT scores, had good relationships with their teachers, and had a plan for their future. He also found that the children who ate the marshmallow were troublesome, had poor grades, had poor relationships overall and many dropped out of highschool or college. This test is more than just a test of seeing how well a 4 year old can resist the urge, it is also a strong predictor of future success. Students who are able to delay gratification are more likely to be successful later in life.

I believe as a society we do not all have the ability to delay gratification, though very few do. Many of us value instant gratification because you are given a reward right then and there, no waiting occurs. Instant gratification is popular with Americans because like I said before, Americans do not have the patience to wait, many of us rather have the reward as soon as possible.

I think teaching children at a young at the skills of delaying gratification can drastically change many of their future success. If more children are given the ability to learn this skill, more of the kids in the study would able to delay gratification and receive two marshmallows in the end. Before watching the video of Joachim de Posada’s study I had no idea what the marshmallow study was, but now I am so interested in the whole study. I never would have guess that something as simple as eating or not eating a marshmallow could predict if a child was going to be successful later in life. Psychology has always been a topic I’ve been interested in and the marshmallow sparked my interest even more than before!

3V Desire, the Key to Motivation

“Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek”. - Mario Andretti. 

This quote defines motivation without even meaning to. Mario Andretti says that motivation is the determination and commitment to reach your goals and become successful. He also says that desire is a key factor to becoming motivated. Most motivation is triggered by the desire to attain a certain goal. For example, my desire during cheerleading season is to improve my tumbling skills. With this desire in my mind, my motivation kicks in and I am ready to do whatever it takes to obtain my goals, such as paying extra to attend a private tumbling class. Motivation is a powerful tool that can drive a person to achieve any goal they want to achieve. This tool can be used in every aspect of life; work, school, sports, family, etc.

Other than the new words I learned through the blog readings in Inquiry this week, I also learned a couple new vocabulary words in my Media in Everyday Life class. In our discussion we started talking about the impact Aristotle had on us even still today with the first definition of persuasion. While reading and discussing the chapter we defined two new words which were Ethos and Pathos. Ethos is when persuaders use good morals, well respected people, and good ideas in their advertisements to drag people in. Pathos is the goal of persuaders to capture their audiences emotions when creating an important ad. Throughout this semester I expect that I will be learning a lot of new vocabulary words I’ve never heard of before!

3B Lessons of a Cheerleader

When I first walked into the gym of Dodd Middle School six years ago, I did not realize how important cheerleading was going to be to me. Ever since the day I made the middle school team, my days were always filled with something that was cheer related, whether is was a practice, private tumbling classes, fundraising or coaching the youth cheerleading program, I always had something going on. Though most of the time I never set specific times when I was going to practice or coach the youth teams because my coaches were in charge of scheduling, I never thought that I was wasting time, I loved everything about cheerleading. Even when I would go to tumbling classes, I didn’t have to convince myself to go to the class, I was always excited to practice and improve my tumbling skills because it made me a better and stronger cheerleader. Practices were mainly structured around working as a team. We would practice stunting, synchronization, and perfecting our overall look but all of this also requires practice outside of the small time frame we were given in the gym. My coaches would strongly encourage us to work out daily and to practice our dance/cheer/jumps at home because our main concern during practice was to fix the little mistakes and to work on the timing of everything as a team. Practicing outside of the gym didn’t ever feel like an extra task that I needed to do, I wanted to become better and perfect my skills. I was strongly motivated to put the extra effort in not only for myself but for the good of my team. Cheerleading is not only about individual skills but the group effort to put on a winning routine.

I learned so much from cheerleading throughout middle school and high school. I learned the value of teamwork, dedication, and motivation. Teamwork was one of the first things I learned when I started. Lifting another person into the air requires the help of three others to make sure the flyer goes up and comes down safely. We would also work together by helping each other when we were stuck on a dance move we didn’t get or when a stunt wasn’t going up correctly. Teamwork is very important to every cheerleading team. Dedication was also a huge part of cheerleading, if you weren’t at every practice, game and event my coaches often thought you didn’t care about performing with the team and they would switch your position with someone who was showing their dedication. This also enabled the motivation to make it to every practice, every game, so there was no possible way the position you deserve would be taken away from you.

The lessons I learned through cheerleading are skills I can take beyond the competition floor. Learning how to communicate and work with a large group of individuals, being 100% dedicated to a team, and being motivated to do better are all skills I can use in college and in becoming a preschool teacher. I am hoping that cheering in college will also open me up to new experiences and new lessons that I can also take from after my college adventure is over. Cheerleading taught me many things over the years, and I’m very fortunate for those lessons.

3A Put Your Thinking Cap On

“There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. This quote by Shakespeare relates directly to what we have been discussing in Inquiry class this week. My perspective of this quote is that Shakespeare is saying that nothing is truly ever good or bad unless we begin to think of it in that way. This thinking process can be placed into two categories; growth mindset and fixed mindset. A person who has a fixed mindset believes that they are born with whatever intelligence level they have, but a person with a growth mindset is very open minded and puts more effort and time into their learning. Someone who has a fixed mindset would look at something, whether its positive or negative, and associate their view and stick with it. Someone with a growth mindset would look at it from both perspectives, associate their view, and still keep an open mind on the topic due to their willingness to learn. Though a growth mindset sounds like it would be the most ideal of the two, a fixed mindset may work better for others, and vise versa.

This quote also relates to another topic we’ve been discussing in Inquiry this week which is Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is where a person is driven by internal awards and Extrinsic motivation is when a physical reward or praise is given. In order to be successful in life you need to have some type of motivation to drive you to achieve the things you want. No matter if your motivation comes from a positive or negative role model, motivation is motivation. In a classroom getting grades are Extrinsic motivation to the students receiving them because it is a reward or punishment based on their study efforts. Using grades in a school makes students more willing to learn and reach a higher gr ade. But with Intrinsic motivation, there are no physical rewards given. Their motivation may be for the love of learning and wanting to broaden their knowledge. Not everyone has the same type of motivation. Some may be more motivated by rewards and others may just be self motivated, it just depends on their personality. 

3I A Dream Come True

My roommate Lauren and I just before the start of the game!

Last Saturday I watched my very first college football game from a different view that those sitting in the bleachers, I was watching from the track. The Thursday before the game, I tried out and made the SCSU Cheerleading team and was able to watch and cheer at my first collegiate football game all at once. Southern played Indiana University of Pennsylvania who is currently ranked 8th in the nation. Though Southern and IUP were tied for most of the game, the final score was 20-30 and IUP took the win. Even though Southern did not win their first home game of the season, the experience is one i’ll never forget. Being on the team for barely two days I had to quickly learn sideline cheers in order to perform at the game that saturday. The pressure was taking a toll on me, I was both excited and nervous for my first game, but I was ready for a challenge.

I am very proud to be a part of the SCSU cheerleading team and to finally reach my dream of becoming a collegiate cheerleader. Every year the team makes their way to Florida to compete at UCA (Universal Cheerleading Association) College Nationals and it has always been a dream of mine to compete on that stage and at that level. This will be my seventh year cheering and I am very excited to see where the season takes us! Go Owls!

2V Taking Initiative One Step at a Time

Initiative is a word I’ve been hearing a lot since I came to college. My Orientation Leaders, friends, and teachers have been telling me that college is about taking the initiative to be independent, which is a huge responsibility. Initiative means being able to do things on your own without being told to. In the first semester especially, students need to learn how to take initiative quickly or they will start to find themselves falling behind in their classes. Since class started, I believe I’ve been taking the initiative to complete my homework on time and to study for upcoming tests.

In my readings last week for my Media in Everyday Life class I learned a lot of new words I’ve never heard of before. One of the words was Mediated World which means, an environment where media serve as intermediaries in the communication process, coming between audiences and persuaders and affecting the information that passes between them. Another word that came up in the text was a Postindustrial culture which means, a fragmentation of society that has resulted from economic, social, and technological changes. When a word I was unsure of came up in the readings, I would look it up and it made what I was reading much clearer.

2I A Carnival, at College?

Last Saturday, my roommate and I stayed on campus for the first weekend and attended the carnival that was put on by Residential Life. When we walked outside onto the quad, booths with games, inflatable slides, an obstacle course, photo booth, and much more was set up. There was also food trucks which had fried dough, shaved ice, and other carnival foods that were set up in front of Wilkinson Hall. Upperclassmen told me that weekends on Southern were usually pretty boring until this year. The Office of Residential Life is trying to put on more programs and events to keep more people on campus during the weekends. My roommate Lauren and our friend Ali waiting in line for 20 minutes to get our names spray painted on a penet to hang up in our dorms. Overall I was glad I stayed on campus for the carnival, it was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see what else Southern has planned for the weekends to come!

2B Setting the Standards

I learned very quickly how college is so much different and harder than high school. The amount of work I got last week was unexpected. I was aware that I would get a lot of chapter readings and essays throughout the semester but I had no idea that the professors were going to get right into the material. In high school, the first week of classes were almost useless, you would show up, get to know the teacher and bring home forms for your parents to sign. The first week of college was much different, I spent almost the whole weekend reading chapters, taking notes, and writing small essays that were due the following class. Though I pushed myself to get through almost all of my homework, I found myself not being able to finishing a couple pages out of my readings. In orientation I learned that college is about being a self-directed learner and being able to manage yourself.

Knowing how the first week went I am determined to set goals for myself this semester. One of my goals is to stay on top of my work by planning out what work I need to get done. I’ve already started to put this goal into place. I’ve been visiting the library whenever I have free time to start working on assignments that are due soon. I’ve also been using a planner to stay on top of my homework. With taking five classes that give homework everyday, I need to write down the assignments or else I’ll forget within the next class. Another goal I have for the semester is to try to get a B- or better in all my classes. With these goals in place, I hope I can have a good first semester and do well academically.

2A Passion and Grammar = A Future

The blogs I read for class this week were very insightful, useful, and interesting. Though we read several blogs, only two really stuck out to me. “College Advice, From People Who Have Been There Awhile” was the first blog that I found very interesting. Being a freshmen in college, I’ve been looking for all the advice friends and family could give me in order to adjust to college life successfully. The article broke down college into several categories and didn’t just list basic college advice such as don’t be late to class, don’t do homework last minute or don’t fall asleep in class. The author gave meaningful advice for finding the right teachers, stating your own opinions, taking classes you're interested in and reading on a daily basis. One point the author included in this article was being passionate for the things you want to achieve in life. The author stated that while she was in college, she changed her major from math to biology and “fell in love” with DNA. Nancy Hopkins writes “Passion is the mysterious force behind nearly every scientific breakthrough” (My Crush on DNA), though this quote sounds like it only applies to science I think it can go along with any career choice. When you are passionate about a particular goal you are more likely to strive and achieve that goal. If you are not passionate, your goals will feel distant and will be much harder to achieve that those who strive for them. This is a quote that I can carry on throughout my college experience and apply when I begin my journey to becoming a teacher.

The second blog I read that had a huge impact on me was “I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar” by Kyle Wiens. Kyle writes about how he gives grammar tests to applicants applying for a job in his company. The test aren't just designed to see how well you remember grammar from high school, he uses the test to know who makes the least amount of mistakes. He states “Grammar signifies more than just a person's ability to remember high school English. I've found that people who make fewer mistakes on a grammar test also make fewer mistakes when they are doing something completely unrelated to writing — like stocking shelves or labeling parts” (I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar). These test have a double meanings. Not only do the test show how well a person is with grammar, it also shows how much someone cares about the little details. I never thought that simple grammatical errors could make or break a job in the future but I completely agree with all of Kyle’s thoughts in this article. Over the next four year I want to improve and develop my grammar skills so if a future employer hands me a grammar test during an interview, I can ace it with flying colors.