9A How Do I Think Critically?

Critical thinking is a word I have been hearing almost everyday in Inquiry and Media since the first day of school. Not knowing too much on what critical thinking is about, I looked up the definition and found that Critical Thinking is a process that leads to skills that can be learned, mastered and used. After reading this definition, I know why critical thinking is so important to college students. In order to be successful throughout college you need to be able to think critically to learn and master the material that is being taught in all of your classes. After college when students begin to venture out into the working world, they can look back and use the critical thinking skills that they learned in college and apply those skills to their job or career. Not only is critical thinking important during a student’s years in college, but it will also benefit those in their future jobs or careers.

Critical thinking is more than just learning the material to do well on a test or exam, its about understanding the bigger picture. Throughout high school, I struggled in almost every math class I took. Many classes friends and I would wonder why we have to take algebra or trigonometry if we were never going to use it in our desired career. Looking back and thinking critically about math, because I am now enrolled in a math class, that math teaches us how to process through problems and end up finding a solution. Maybe I won’t ever need to know the square root of a number in a future job after high school, but the process and the problem solving skills I learned in math are what I will actually use in the future.  

Southern believes learning the skills to think critically is so important that they require first year students to enroll in a critical thinking course that is incorporated with their Inquiry class. Media in everyday life is the class I am currently enrolled in. In this class we examine many different kinds of ads. Not only do we notice the obvious important concepts of the ad, we also dig deeper and look for the hidden meaning that we would normally look over. Last week we were asked to choose one company who we believed expressed a strong sense of ethos (arguments based on emotions). In our presentation, we were required to choose an advertisement from that company that related to their ethos. When we talked about the advertisement, we had to do a thorough analysis of everything that was present in the ad. Not only did we have to choose an ad, we had to think “outside the box” and dig deeper for a meaning. This process is important. This class is teaching me to not just look at the obvious, what is important requires a little more thought and examination.

Learning how to think critically will help me with the rest of my time here at Southern and in my future job or career. The skills I am learning in my classes will benefit me in the long run. Thinking critically is hard work, but with a little practice I believe every student can learn the necessary skills to become an expert on critical thinking.

8V 10,000 More Hours till Mastery

Mastery - comprehensive knowledge or skill in a subject or accomplishment

Mastery is a very important word, especially in college. In order to master something, you must practice for over 10,000 hours to be successful. Most people think that once you go through your four years of college, that you are a master at what you majored in. But according to the theory of the 10,000 hour rule this is not true. It takes about ten years to achieve mastery in any field, academic or not. When one practices for 10,000 hours or ten years, they are considered a master.

Two words I have learned this week are Abrogate and Fortuitous. Abrogate refers to cancel, destroy, revoke, or void something. Fortuitous meanings happening by chance. Learning new vocabulary words weekly is helping me become a better reader and writer because I am able to strengthen my vocabulary implementing these words into my academic life.

8I Double Major? Who's my Advisor?!

Last friday, I attended an informational meeting about the education department which is my first major. As I sat and listened to what requirements I needed in order to gain acceptance into the program, I was also told that I would have to decide on a second major. I sat and debated what program would benefit me in the future. As I read more into the requirements to be accepted into the department they suggested that early childhood education majors consider psychology as their second major.

That following Tuesday, I stopped by the psychology department in the lower level of Engleman to find out more information about this program. As I walked in a friendly face greeted me and asked me what I needed help with. I explained to the lady that I was considering psychology as my second major and wanted to know how I would make an appointment with an advisor in the psychology department. She then handed me a blue sheet and explained that when I had a meeting with my education advisor, I would have her sign this sheet and then I would be assigned an advisor for psychology.

After I visited the psychology department, I walked to Davis Hall to make an appointment with my education advisor so I could figure out ASAP what classes I needed to take for psychology. Signing up for an advisor in the education building was very easy. I walked straight into the building and approached a bulletin board which listened the majors offered in the building. I then looked for early childhood education and then picked a day and time which was convenient for me to meet. My appointment is next Tuesday, October 22nd and 2:20!

I am very excited to meet with my education advisor and make sure I am on the right track for the classes I need to take in order to gain acceptance into a program I have dreamed about being a part of. And as soon as my meeting is over, I can finally figure out who my advisor is for psychology!

8B Lessons from Sonia

A New Beginning, Time to Shine

“As you discover what strength you can draw from your community in this world from which it stands apart, look outward as well as inward. Build bridges instead of walls.” - 
Sonia Sotomayor 

 

My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor was the common read assigned to freshmen this year at orientation over the summer. Since 2009, Southern has assigns incoming students a book to read the summer before they start their first semester to open their mind to college level reading. The common read is assigned to also prepare first year students to think, write and listen to what others have to say about the book.

I think Southern choose My Beloved World as the common read this year because there is so much we can learn from Sonia Sotomayor's story. Throughout her childhood she experienced so much at such a young age. Her father was an alcoholic, who died early, she lost her best friend who was her grandmother and she lived in one of the poorest areas of New York. Though she faced so many hardship throughout her childhood, she never gave up. Sonia was the first to go to college in her family and ended up becoming very successful when she finally became the Supreme Court Justice of the United States.

All first year college students can look at Sonia Sotomayor’s story and learn the act of persistence through her experience. College is never going to be easy sailing, there are going to be times where many students consider dropping out because their classes become too difficult. Whenever a student begins to feel like things are too difficult to push through, they should all think back to Sonia’s story and how she overcomes many difficult times throughout her childhood. Whenever I have a difficult time here at school, I am not going to give up, I will get through everything I need to get through just like Sonia did in her life.

First year students can take the lessons of hard work and persistence from Sonia Sotomayor's book and apply them to their first year.  I learned so much about never giving up from Sonia’s book. I plan to apply all of what I learned through her book and put it towage my first year experience here at Southern!

8A Strive for A+ Work

When I first began blogging, I viewed a few blogs just to make sure I was doing everything correctly and to get some ideas. Now, 8 weeks later, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on how to create and compose blogs that will result in A+ work. I’ve now decided to look and explore into other students blogs who demonstrate quality A and A+ work.

The first blog I looked at was Stepphhr’s blog (http://stepphhr7.blogspot.com/). When I began looking through some blogs her stuck out the most to me. Her blog is simple, yet it sticks out due to the bright pink she has as her text color throughout the blog. As I began reading her blog posts, I realized how much detail and effort she puts into each and everyone of her blogs. Even though the minim word count for the blogs is 300, she write more than that and in great detail talks about the topic that is assigned. One post specifically I thought was A+ work was her post 7B True Strenght (http://stepphhr7.blogspot.com/2013/10/7b-stronger.html). She starts this post with a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche which states “That which does not kill us makes us stronger”. Starting with a quote that relates to what the post is about is very beneficial. As you write about the topic you can go back and talk about how the quote related to what you are writing about. As I read more into this post, she talks about her strenghts and weaknesses are throughout her first semster at school and talks about ways she could improve for the semesters to come. She talks about an experience how she failed her first math exam and how it was a huge wake up call. She goes into more detail to talk about what she learned from failing her math exam and how she could improve and do better next time. This is an A+ blog because she created a good story with detailed and related it back to her life and how she can improve for future situations. Her story grabbed my attention and was very strongly written.

The second blog I looked at was Samantha Monaco’s blog (http://samanthamonaco.blogspot.com/). Her blog stuck out to be because of her layout, which was so much different that anyone elses blogs. Instead of scrolling down to see older post, all her past blogs are posted on the side, which is very convient. One of the post I clicked on was 6A The Person I am Today (http://samanthamonaco.blogspot.com/2013/10/6a-person-i-am-today.html). In this post she talks about a challenge she had faced in her life. What grabbed my attention to this blog was the photos she posted, which were all of her with different family members. This helped create a mental image of the people who she was talking about in her post. She talks about the issue she faced with her brother’s drug and alcohol use. Even though her family faced such a hardship with her brothers drug use, it made her family stronger and closer. She also ends her post by saying “So if you're reading this and you're someone who went through a similar type of challenge I want you to know you're not alone. Don't let peer pressure make you do things that you know are wrong. Don't lash out and follow that person in your families footsteps. Instead I want you to turn their mistakes into lessons for yourself and see how better your life will be!” This was a very insparation way to end this post. Not only did she talk about how she overcommed difficult things that happened through her childhood, she encouraged others who are facing the same issue that their is hope.

These post exemplify A and A+ work. They incorporate specific things such as quotes, pictures and stories that relate to their lives that strenghten their blog overall. These are things every blog should put in their posts!

Midterm Draft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8sQa2w5vp4&feature=youtu.be

7V "Failure is the Road to Success"

Failure - a lack of success

In our society, to be a failure is never a good thing. People frown upon failing. As children we learn very quickly through school that receiving an F on an assignment was bad. Many kids would be grounded or get certain privileges taken away because of failing to do well on an assignment. We are taught that failing is a bad thing, that we should be scared to fair but in reality failing somethings can be beneficial. When we fail at something, we should reflect on what went wrong and fix those mistakes. By looking back and seeing what worked and what didn’t we learn from our failure and mistakes. Learning from our failure leads to future success.

I find it ironic that the basic definition of failure is a lack of success, which can be true, but I believe failure can actually lead to success. As I said before when we fail, we learn from our mistakes and make sure we figure out what worked and what didn’t work. Failing is all about trial and error in my eyes. In order to be successful you have to fail at least once to reach a status of success.