16; Final Blog Post

I cannot believe how quickly this first semester of college has gone by! It has been good and bad at times, but I have to be honest and say that I do like college so far for the most part! I have had some successes such as getting good grades and working and doing the best I could, and I think the biggest was making friends because coming into college I was scared I wouldn’t be able to make friends who I could talk to even beyond class. But I have found that the FYE helped me a lot to make friends, and I really enjoyed our class because we all knew each other and spent two classes together so we really have become a great group of students together. I loved being able to get to know people and knowing they were in two of my classes made it better because I looked forward to seeing them. That was probably my favorite part of this semester because it was a great way to welcome us to Southern and our first semester of college!

With successes come challenges, and my biggest challenge in college so far has probably been commuting to school. Commuters have a lot of problems they face such as high gas prices, traffic, weather conditions, parking, being able to socialize on campus and more. The first couple weeks of school I joined the FTO(Future ) with my friend. We only went to a couple of the meetings, but unfortunately never got to do any of the events except for one. I think that commuting had a problem in that because some of the times the meetings or events were at, we either didn’t have classes or didn’t want to take the drive up to school. However, next semester, I think I want to try something such as joining a group again so that way I can be more social with people at Southern and make more friends! Another problem I faced with commuting is the time management. I have to make sure I get to school on time in order to be on time for class, and I also have to make time not only for driving, but for parking and walking to campus (which sometimes takes around 10 minutes depending where I park.) Also traffic is one of the more annoying parts of commuting, especially the times I got out of school which was usually around rush hour traffic time. The first couple weeks of school, I took the highway and went through Hamden to get to my house in Cheshire. However, my friend who also commutes showed me a back road way which takes only 20-25 minutes and there’s usually not a lot of traffic which is great!

Speaking of time management, I have been okay in successfully managing my time and workload with all of my courses. I found that I usually did my homework right when I got home from school on most days, but some days I put it off. I have a lot of time to do my work, but some of the time I chose to do something other than my work and put it off until late. I do have enough time to do everything, considering at the moment I do not have a job or anything that would prevent me from having less time to do stuff, but considering I’m looking for a job and need one soon, I might have to work on time management when I get a job, and be able to make time for work, school and a social life/everything I want to do. It might be a little hard but I think I will just need to try and make a schedule for everything and make sure I’m doing everything I want and need to do.

For next semester, my main goals are to, yes, do better than I did this semester, but not just academically. Of course I will want to study more than I did and work harder on homework or assignments because sometimes this semester I could have spent more time on them. This is everyone’s typical goal but I think it’s good for me because I would love to see my grades go up, especially in math which was my worst subject. I will definitely go for help when needed because sometimes I didn’t ask for it when I should have. I also want to make sure I make friends with people in my new classes, because I did this semester and I think that’s a huge part of the college experience because having people at school makes going to school better!!

Final video -college level work

http://youtu.be/fA7O2Iq8qVg

16I: Interfaith Office

Considering Southern has a wide range of students, and definitely a variety of cultures, Southern offers an Interfaith office, which offers an exploration of spiritual and religious growth for students. You can learn how different faiths work and learn different faith traditions. The Interfaith Office wants to recognize and welcome all the different religions there are on campus. It is located in room 325 of the student center and there is also a mediation room on the second floor of the student center. For more information or questions, you can call (203) 392-5331. Considering Southern is a very diverse school, I believe this resource can be very helpful toward students who are interested.

http://www.southernct.edu/student-life/health/interfaithoffice/SCSU_12_Spring-3509.jpg

16V: Freedom

The definition of freedom is "the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint." People love having freedom and in college you get a lot of freedom. If you are living on campus, you may have more freedom than you do rather than if you commute, because no one is looking after you and you can do whatever you want. College has much more freedom than high school does because you are in control of what you do. No one tells you to go to class every day or to do your homework, it’s all up to you. And also, right after finals week, everyone at Southern is now 'free' for a month without school, and it’s a great thing to look forward to.

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Other words:

Everyone is studying for finals this week and here are two words from my history study guide and that we've talked about in class this semester;

Slave:  someone who is legally owned by another person and is forced to work for that person without pay

Slave Trade: traffic in slaves; especially :  the buying and selling of blacks for profit prior to the American Civil War

15V: Autonomy

Autonomy is defined as "the state of existing or acting separately from others". Before this blog post, I couldn't have came up with a definition if I tried, because I had no idea what the word meant. In relation toward INQ class and college, I think autonomy means that once you're in college, you are basically on your own with things, and separating from people such as your family if you are living on campus. We now need to learn how to be independent and on our own, because unlike high school, people don't tell you what to do anymore!

Other words:
Counter intuitive: different from what you would expect : not agreeing with what seems right or natural
Tastemakers: a person who decides or influences what is or will become fashionable.
Both of these words are from an article for my online communications class, which we are talking about how to make a video go viral, because we are making a public service announcement video as our final project.

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15A: Video Feedback

Our final video project for Inquiry is a problem solution type video of a typical problem that college students encounter. My topic is college level work, so I'm showing the amount of work and how it affects students, and solutions they can take to help with their work.

This week, our class watched everyone's rough draft final videos. I think it was a good idea because everyone could get feedback from each other about what we should add, what is good and what might need working on. My video was just text so far, and I had said I planned on adding some sort of video such as interviews or a skit. The feedback that I got from my peers was that I definitely needed a video or something in my final project, and also to add more pictures, and maybe add music to the beginning when I only have text.

I found that with watching everyone's videos, that the video was more interesting when there was a lot of creative aspect in it, such as a video. A couple of people's videos had a little humor in them, and that made it interesting, but also getting their point out at the same time. I also learned to check for spelling and grammar errors because you might not notice them, and then you see the video and it looks bad.

Everyone's thoughts and ideas really helped me to understand what I needed and what was good/bad about my video. I could also add more ‘college level thinking’ type of ideas into my video, such as getting more statistics and facts for my topic to incorporate into my video. I am also thinking about adding information about all the places on campus you can go and get help, such as the math tutorial center, writing center, ect, so you can get an idea of all the resources you can use that can help get all you work under control.

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15B: Finals!

The simple word "finals" brings much anxiety, stress, and even fear toward students. Studying, studying, and more studying, and wishing they were over. In order to prepare for finals, I will be gathering everything necessary for each class that I will need to study with. 

For math, I have a study guide set up like the final exam, except with different numbers in the questions. The final is only 20 questions, but a lot of work will need to be written out in order to complete them, so if I study the guide we did in class, and make sure I am able to complete every step, I should be fine. I could also look through homework examples for each of the questions on the guide, and re-do them for practice.

For online communication, we have a presentation of our final self reflection. The assignment has not been given to us yet, but once I have it I will begin it and make sure I have everything that is included on the paper, then I will prepare what I am going to say because we need to share our self reflections in front of our classmates.

For Inquiry, we have our final video, which mine is on college level work. I am about half way done, still needing to add a couple of my 'creative' parts and a little more information. For our in class 'final', which really isn't a final, we have just a in class writing, so I just have the video to finish and make sure it has a lot of creativity and college level thinking like we talked about in class.

For history is a exam on everything we've learned this semester. This one could be a little tough, but my professor gave us a study guide on everything we should know in order to pass the exam. I will need to look through all my notes and previous notecards/study guides I had from previous tests. 

For sociology we have a exam on the last 5 chapters in our book. This exam should be easier because we are allowed to use our notes. I have to continue and finish taking notes for the last couple chapters, and have everything in order to prepare for this exam.

Overall, to wrap up the semester, I will organize everything I need to study for finals, and begin studying, and finishing up projects. I think if I get everything in order and make sure I have everything that I need for my finals, that I should do well and pass all of them. 

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15I: PB&J Day

Every Thursday in Engleman right across from the Bagel Wagon, Southern offers free peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for students from 12-2pm. I had passed it sometimes, but never actually went to it, so I decided to check it out. This week, not only did they have the regular peanut butter & jelly, but they also offered a variety of snacks and drinks, such as different juices. I took a couple snacks such as a rice krispie treat bar and a juice box.

I think it's great that Southern offers students free snacks every week, because we all are hungry and knowing that it's free makes it 100% better! You pay so much to be in college, so it's great that every week, you are offered something totally free, and I think we should take advantage of it!

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Final video rough draft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho9zZyJ-5kM&feature=youtube_gdata

14I: Campus Writing Center

Southern's writing center is a great place for students to go when they need help with their writing skills, or help with a paper or assignment. Located in Engleman A-012, there are many different writing tutorials there to get you started such as: starting a paper, developing ideas, reviewing grammar, and clarifying thoughts. The center can be used for starting, continuing or reviewing a writing assignment. It's not just used as a resource for editing papers, it is designed to help your writing skills improve! The center wants you to better yourself as a writer and have more confidence and be a better writer! Visit them and you'll be sure to get more writing knowledge.

To schedule an appointment, call 203-392-8967

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14V: Investment

The definition of 'investment' is "the investing of money or capital in order to gain profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value." When people hear the word investment, they usually think of money, as in investing money into a stock market or something, but there is more to the word than that.

Investment definitely comes into play in a college students life. For one, you are investing a lot of money to get a good education for a job in the future, but also investing your time into work and studying for all your classes. You wouldn't want to waste lots of money by not taking school seriously and slipping in all of your classes would you? College is a big time investment, both financially and mentally, so you need to take it seriously and know that all the 'investing' that you're making with your schoolwork will eventually pay off in the future when you have a degree! (and a job!)

Other important words from this week are thankful and stress. 
Stress is definied: a state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life, work, etc.
Thankful is defined: : glad that something has happened or not happened, that something or someone exists, etc.: of, relating to, or expressing thanks

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14B: Warning; Cheesy Thanksgiving post!

Thanksgiving is a time where families gather around the table, share a big, delicious meal and are thankful for what they have. I'd say that I'm pretty thankful in general, because I'm lucky to have a roof above my head, clothes on my body and food to eat, because some people don't have that. Some people don't realize that the little things are the most important. 

In my life, I have so many things to be thankful for. I am thankful for a great family and I love spending time with my family because we are all so close to each other and love doing things together. I live with my mom, dad, and two brothers and we all get along and enjoy being in each other’s company. Of course, my family outside that is terrific as well. All of my cousins, my aunts/uncles, and grandmother are amazing as well and I love all of them.

I am also very thankful for my friends. My friends always know how to make me smile and we always have good times together. Specifically, I am very thankful for my best friend Alison, who is like a sister I've always wanted. I can tell her anything and go to her whenever, and I always look forward to hanging out with her. We have been friends for about 14 years, and she is and will always be my forever friend. I love all of my friends and am glad I met every one of them because they are all amazing.

To list other things I am thankful for would be the following; my health, my education, my home, food, clothes, my car and my phone. Of course those are just some of the many things I am thankful for every day of my life. I am blessed beyond belief and even though my life can get rough sometimes, I wouldn’t change a thing with it, and I believe ‘everything happens for a reason.’ Thanksgiving brings people together, but you should always be thankful for what you have and cherish the people around you. Happy Thanksgiving!!

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14A: Thanksgiving break and finals!

Thanksgiving time for most people is a time to relax, hang out with your family and EAT! Typically, everyone will be having a huge Thanksgiving turkey dinner with all different foods, and be thankful for all that we have. 

This week, in order to have some 'stress relief' from school, I mostly was hanging around and trying not to worry about anything. Since it was Thanksgiving, I spent time with my family and friends, which is always a nice thing to do and to have some fun. The earliest I have to get up during the school week is 9:00am, so I can’t say I really had to ‘catch up on sleep’, but I was able to sleep until whenever I want to (and sleep is always a good thing!!), and I will just be able to not worry about any homework I have for the week other than my inquiry video project that I am working on. Overall, just hanging out with friends and family, sleeping, and being able to do whatever is how I spent my break, and it was very stress relieving to do so.

To prepare for my finals, I will obviously have to start gathering everything I need to study with. For my history exam, it is a multiple choice, matching and true and false questions on everything we've learned this semester. I have kept my study guides and the notecards that I made, so I will easily be able to study for that one. For my online communications class, our final is a presentation, along with inquiry which is our video projects. Luckily in my sociology class we are able to use our notes, so I will have to gather those and sort through them in order to study. Last is math, and we were given a study guide on what the test pretty much will look like (just changed the words and numbers around.) If I am able to understand and work through the study guide then I will be able to pass my final. My finals will be (hopefully) easy to work through and get through if I study enough and make sure I am prepared and understand everything I need.

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13B: Creative style videos

My final video for INQ class is focusing on college level work. Since this is a problem-solution type video, it will show the problems that students have with the new workload they encounter, and how they can deal with it, be less stressed and focus on school. And there are many problems that first year students encounter, much being their new amounts of work and how to deal with it all. Since this is a video project, it should have some sort of creativity toward it to make people want to watch it! I have thought of some ways that I will add creativity into my video project.

In order to make my video better than my midterm video, I will definitely be adding some sort of music or background to the parts of my video I will be writing on. I will want to have a lot of pictures to make the video more fun and entertaining for people to watch. Also, I will be sure to interview people and get their actual interviews in my video. I am thinking about adding something that will make my video more creative and so people are actually interested and hearing what I am trying to say and get out to people. I will somehow want to figure out how to make my video more 'special' than anyone else's and how people can be interested in it.

I also may want to add some sort of statistics toward how many first year college students are stressed out because of their work, or just what the percentage of them are. To do this, I could look up statistics or I could even make a survey of my own and give it to college students to take. Some of the questions I could ask could be how they feel about the work, if they find resources helpful, office hours, ect and ways they can deal with their work. I also am thinking of adding a stress relieving section where I can have stress relievers students can try out and use. I want my video to help college students to understand that college work is hard, but it is manageable and there are many ways you can manage and get through it all!

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13A: Final Video Project- College style

For our midterm project, our class had to make a video on a specific part of Southern that we thought was fun or helpful and all different parts of a college experience. My topic was Southern's resources, and to be honest, I didn't put as much effort into it as I could. For our final project which we are beginning right now, we have a same video project assignment, but this time our topics have to be a 'problem-solution' argument. For my topic, I chose the problem of 'college level work'. Coming into college, you know it's going to be different and probably more work than you're used to in high school, but what kind of work? How will everything affect you? I chose my topic because I feel like a lot of people (including myself) are still adapting to the amount of work we have and the 'college level' that it requires.

My video will exhibit a high level of college-level thinking because I will put a lot of thought into it. I will think deep into what I want my message to be in my video. That message will show that college level work is definitely different than high school, but there are ways you can figure out how to get your work done and not be so stressed about all of it. I also want to get many peoples views on college level work. I want to ask teachers how they feel about it, or how some students can adjust, and definitely ask students their opinions. An example of a question for a teacher would be “How do you feel the work in college differs from high school work?” and “How could students adjust to the workload that they have?”  I will make sure to get a lot of deep thoughts, questions, and answers all in my video!

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13V: Purpose

The web definition of 'purpose' is "the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists." There is normally a purpose toward everything in life, and everyone believes they have a purpose in life, which is very true.

However, what is the 'purpose' of going to college and getting an education? Most people think that they need an education just to get a job and live their lives, but there is more purpose toward going to college than just being able to get a job. We've talked about getting a "liberal arts education" which is very important because it prepares you with more knowledge that you can use in the workplace, and most employers look for employees with a liberal arts education anyway. It gives you extensive knowledge and prepares you for the real world, not just the subject of what you're job is. Overall there is a purpose to everything and we've learned a lot about the purpose of a great college education. 

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13I: Registration

The past couple of months of college have flown by and at 6:00am on Monday November 18th, most freshman students were struggling to pick out their classes for the second semester. I had gotten up around 5:45 to get ready and from 6 to 6:30am I hadn't gotten into the system yet, or it kept crashing on me. Being so early and so frustrated, I tried as hard I could not to scream and yell at my computer. Finally, I was able to get through and went as fast as I could to attempt to get the classes I wanted. My only concern right now with my schedule is my math class which is from 6:15-7:30pm, because I wouldn't want to be on campus that late as a commuter. I know this is my first time registering and probably (hopefully) will be the only tough and really stressful registration I will have!!

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12B: Q&A

This weeks readings focused on a "Liberal Arts Education" and what it can do for students all around the world. Like last week, we are thinking again of 'college level questions' about the readings that we can dig deep into the articles and answer in a great college level response.

My questions:
1. Why does a liberal arts education benefit students?
2. Why should students be 'innovation ready' rather than 'college ready'? Why is that important?
3. How are liberal arts and innovation related?

3). Innovation is something we've talked about in class and it has been a part of our readings as well. Talking about liberal arts this week, the term innovation came up again. These two terms can be very much related to each other. Nowadays, employers are looking for employees who can bring innovation into the workplace. Why? Because they want to know that you are using your brain in just more ways of doing your specific task at work. They want you to come up with new ideas yourself that can impact the workplace greatly. Liberal arts education can teach you how to take different ideas and incorporate them into your work. As stated in the article "Liberal Arts and the Work Place" by Tim Hall, "a candidate's demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than their undergraduate major." Employers don't necessarily just look for the specific skills used in the work place, but other skills that can be very beneficial toward them and can also be learned in a liberal arts education. You can use innovation and bring in other skills and thoughts to the work place. Overall, innovation and liberal arts can be easily related to each other. When you have a liberal arts education, you can bring more innovation to not only the work place, but also your life. When you learn all different skills and different subjects, you can learn more about the world, be a smarter person, and contribute lots in the work place!

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12V: Interdisciplinary Perspective

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Interdisciplinary perspective refers to two areas of learning or subjects that share the same context or they have a similarity. For example, if you're talking about a specific subject in one class, then you might be able to relate it to a different subject class. This term relates to the one we've been talking about in class this week, Liberal arts. The two tie together because a liberal arts education can easily be taught through interdisciplinary perspective. When you're taking ideas from all different topics and ideas, you're not just focusing on the main focus of your career, you're learning many other things. I think interdisciplinary perspective can be a good thing because you can take two sides of one subject and see how they compare to each other, and use them together.


Other words: 
subsidize: support (an organization or activity) financially.
Liberal arts: academic subjects such as literature, philosophy, mathematics, and social and physical sciences as distinct from professional and technical subjects.

12A: Liberal Arts Education!

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Coming into SCSU, I honestly had no idea what a liberal arts education even meant, so I'm glad I'm able to learn about it and see what it's all about. A 'liberal arts education' is general knowledge and how to develop intellectual ability and can be used in many fields in the workplace. The articles that we read this week were all about what liberal arts education is and what it provides students with, and how it is beneficial to students. Rather than developing specific skills, it provides knowledge to many different topics, even one's that you may not think are useful towards yourself, and gives you a rather 'in depth' look at topics and think ways you may not have thought to think about. To have a liberal arts education means you have more knowledge of everything around you. 

In the article "Liberal Arts and the Workplace" by Tim Hall states "...virtually all employers concluded that "a candidate's demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than their undergraduate major." (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timhall/liberal-arts-and-the-work_b_3055433.html) Liberal arts education provides students with more knowledge than just their specific area of study or work field knowledge. A lot of employers seek out employees who are going to bring more innovation into the workplace, and with a liberal arts program you can be taught the skills necessary to contribute innovation and to have more knowledge to bring into work. Employers seek it also because the skills are helpful to adapting with changes in the workplace, and to work well with others. 

Some people think it's kind of pointless to learn other things that they aren't going to use in their work field, however, the more stuff you know the more you can do things with them. The skills of critical thinking, communication and problem solving also come into play with a liberal arts education, and to have those skills means they can be well equipped with problem solving in the work place and understanding how to communicate with others. Being able to explore different topics in general is something useful for everyone because you never know what you'll get out of it. Overall, a liberal arts education can be very beneficial to students and impact their future in various great ways. 

12I: Multicultural Center

Since there is a lot of diversity around campus, Southern's multicultural center is a great place to understand the importance of it and different programs to go along with it. Their mission is for students to share their ideas and get knowledge about diversity. Located in room 234 of the Adanti Student Center, they offer organizations and activities for students to get involved with to learn about diversity. Some of the traditional programs and events include speakers throughout the year, cultural performances and arts presentations, film series for heritage months, diversity week, women's history month observance (along with other months observances such as Martin Luther King Day), and much more.


Hours: 

Monday-Thursday
8:30am-7:00pm
Friday
8:30-4:30pm

You can visit their website below: 
http://www.southernct.edu/student-life/support/mcc/

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11A: College Based Questions and Answers

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This week’s readings were focused on creativity and innovation. The articles that we read had a lot of information in them, and there are definitely some questions you can form from the readings to wonder about. But how can we come up with ‘college level’ questions to ask ourselves? Yes, there are the typical questions, “What was the article about?” “How should you use the article in your life” and so on, that can easily be answered, but then there’s questions where you need to think, analyze, compare and contrast, ect, and view the articles from many different sides. Some of the questions that we are asked in class are different from ones we are used to and this week we were told to come up with our own inquiry questions based off of the readings. These questions, however, needed to be striving toward a ‘college level’ type question. The questions should be thought out and having you really think about what you read before writing down an answer.

The questions that I came up with for the readings are:

1.       What is the ‘Overnight Test’ and how can it impact your creativity?

2.       How does being bored impact your creativity?

3.       How can we teach ourselves to become more innovative? Can we teach others as well?

4.        What is ‘interleaving’ and why should you use it? What helpfulness does it give you?

Answer to #2:

When you are bored, your mind is wandering. When you are thinking about something, or doing something productive, your mind is more focused on that one task itself. Being bored makes you think of new ideas, and some that you didn’t even know you could think of. When you are not doing anything, when you’re sitting around, you’re thinking. You can think of new things to do, and think the most random thoughts you can imagine. All of these thoughts will boost your creativity.They also say that the most ‘bored’ people are the most creative ones. I think that this is a true fact because you can do a lot more than you think when you are bored and it will show through your creativity! 

11V: Innovation

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Innovation is defined as "A new idea, device or method; the act or process of introducing new ideas, devices, or methods". How would a college student define innovation? Myself would define it as a way to come up with new ideas and putting them into play. Coming up with new ideas yourself is a great thing for you to do and it can be very useful to you.

There are many ways that a student could successfully use innovation in their schoolwork. For one, they can think of new methods of studying or working. They can use their ideas to then better their schoolwork. Everyone has different ideas, and everyone is trying to make their ideas better than the original in today’s day. In an article we read this week called “32 Innovations That Will Change Your Tomorrow”, it showed many different ideas that people had that will change the way we live once they are introduced. Examples of the innovations included electric clothes, the mind reading shopping cart, and clean hair no hands, which cleans your hair completely for you. The innovations were very interesting to read and gave you a lot of thought of what could come into play in the future!

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Other words: 
continuum: a continuous sequence in which adjacent elements are not perceptibly different from each other, although the extremes are quite distinct.
frivolous: not having any serious purpose or value.

11B: Comparing Questions

As college students, we need to learn how to put more thought into our readings, and answer college level based questions on the readings, as well. This week, we were all told to come up with 4 good inquiry questions based on the readings we had for class. Looking through other peoples blogs I found many that I thought were college leveled questions, and have chosen a few that I really liked. 

One of the questions was from Sam’s blog (samanthamonaco.blogspot.com), and asked:
“4: Most people believe that there are only benefits from making a task easier. The author Ian Leslie of “Creativity, Education, and the Gift of Stress” explains his take on this matter. What was his take? How did the advent of the home computer affect young poetry in the example provided?”

I thought that her question was very well thought out, and didn't just ask one specific question, she asked a couple, and you needed to dig deep inside the readings to locate the answers. This type of question is good because it shows if you really read the article first of all, and if you analyzed it well enough to retain a good answer. The answer that she wrote was also very well thought out and answered all the parts of the question. She gave all specific examples from the article to know that she did know what he was talking about, and that she could answer it in a very organized way.

One other question that I found to be a very good one was from Steph’s blog (http://stepphhr7.blogspot.com/). I liked two of her questions, one was “How does the creative industry hold people who are creative ransom to their own self-image?” and the other was “What are ways we can promote more creativity? Why are these important looking towards the future?” I thought both of those questions were very college based because they call for your own thoughts rather than taking information from the readings and putting it into an answer. This is a good type of question, because it’s not really considered ‘college based’ question unless you are putting your own thought into it, and thinking about what you read, rather than taking it straight from the article and putting it into an answer. In college, your teachers don’t expect you to read your readings and retain all of the information straight out. Instead, they want you to put more thought into it, and analyze the question more so that they know you are thinking in a more "college" way. 

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11I: West Rock

This week I decided to take a hike with some friends at West Rock. I've been wanting to for a while, and I've finally got the chance to do it. Located right behind Southern, it was a fun hike, and the view from the way top was awesome. While walking up, we got to see some amazing views, although at some points it was scary because we were near the edge of the rocks!
I think that everyone at Southern should hike up West Rock at one point or another, and even multiple times! It's a fun way to get some exercise and even a good way to get away from everything at school if you need to.

10B: The Creative Life

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I believe that everyone has some sort of sense of creativity inside them, whether it being artistically, your actions, you ability to so something or through sports, those are just a couple of ways people can be seen creative. Before learning all about it, I thought that being creative just meant having a lot of ideas in your head and using them to do something specific. But there is more to it, and there may be factors toward your creativity.

For example, some people may have a "muse" in their life. Muse is defined as:
a. A guiding spiritb. A source of inspiration.

#21/22 I believe my muse would be either my mother or my grandmother. Although my grandmother passed away 6 years ago, she is one of my greatest inspirations and I want to live just like she did. She always was helping people and was a very caring person, loved her family and friends and would do anything for them. She taught me many things that I will carry with me throughout my life, some being thoughtfulness, ambition and how to be a caring person. Along with her, my mother is also another inspiration toward me because she is my role model and will always look out for me no matter what, and is just a very loving person. I think that all people should have a 'muse' and that they could very well be related to how you are as a person, how you think and how you act.

#32
Mastery was a topic we've talked about in class and read readings about, how people view it, what mastery is, and how long it actually takes to 'master' something. I believe that the idea of mastery is to believe that you can do something, put your beliefs to the test, and see a result, whether being good or bad. I believe that with hard work and dedication, you can master something. Also, I think that creativity could have something to do with mastery. If you're more creative, then you have a lot more ideas, and think beyond your normal capacity, which could help you master things easily.

10V: Let's Get Creative!

 

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Creativity is a trait that everyone wants to have, strives to have, and feels great if they have it. But what is it, exactly? The dictionary definition is:

“The use of the imagination or original ideas, esp, in the production of an artistic work.” 

Creativity is a great thing for college students to have, because they can increase their basic thoughts and have more ideas on everything. In order to be creative, you need to 'think outside the box', and there are many ways you can be creative except artistically, which many people think is the only way you can be creative. In this week’s readings, they talked about the importance of this trait and how some schools lack it, and that is a bad thing because we need creativity in order to become successful and more smart. In one article, they said creative thinking is the key to successful innovation. Basically without creativity, we wouldn't get anywhere in our lives! Whether you know it or not, you have some creativity inside you, and you can make it better and learn how to become more creative. 


Other words:
Inherent: existing in something as a permanent, essential, or characteristic attribute.
Muse- a. A guiding spirit.

b. A source of inspiration.

10I: A Spooky Night with Lorraine Warren

On Wednesday, October 30^th, at 8:00pm, Southern had the great pleasure of having ghost hunter Lorraine Warren at the Lyman Center. I myself, am a fan of ‘scary’ things and love to watch scary movies, so I was very interested in what she had to say and was excited about the presentation. Part of the topic of the night’s discussion was about the film "The Conjuring", which came out in July of this year, and was based on true cases of the Warren files.  Lorraine said that even if she was paid a million dollars, she would never set foot in that house ever again, that’s how much it completely terrified her. Lorraine and her late husband, Ed Warren, went all over and helped people with their paranormal and demonic forces that were haunting their homes and families.

The first part of the presentation, however was very interesting to me. Lorraine and her son in law, Tony, were showing pictures which captured images of ghosts or spirits in them. For example, there was one photo taken in a graveyard and you could see the outline of a woman’s face through the whiteness of the ghostly activity that was in the picture. All of the pictures were real and all of them had some sort of story behind what was being shown in the image. We were also shown an exorcism of a real man, who was also featured in the movie The Conjuring at one point, and it was thrilling to see how a real exorcism went down.

At 86 years old, Lorraine is a great storyteller and it amazes me that she loves what she does and still comes out to see people and talk to them about her experiences with the supernatural, demons, ghosts, ect! And overall, it was a very exciting and scary night for all who were there! 

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10A: Video Reflection

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For our midterm project in INQ, instead of a test or a paper, we had to create a video on something we thought was interesting about Southern and wanted to tell people about it. My video was on Southern’s Resources, and how they are helpful to all of the students. I found a lot of information, because there are a lot of things at Southern that are useful to students. I didn't use every single resource that is available, and tried to pick the most important ones and ones that I thought were most beneficial. Most of the resources I used were helping students with their schoolwork/education. The time of my video, however, was a little short, it was a little over 3 minutes long, when the video was supposed to be 5-6 minutes long. I interviewed people, but I never recorded the interview, I just asked them questions and wrote the answers into my video. I got my video done on time, it did have a beginning, a middle, but sort of lacked a real ending, so that could have been something I needed to work on.

If I ever have to do a video project again, I will want to learn more about the movie maker program that I used so I would be able to make my project better. I think that was the hardest thing for me because I didn't exactly know how to work the program, so if I figured out how to work it better I would make the whole presentation more interesting. I also found more information on different resources afterwards, so maybe next time I would do more research as well and give everything I can find! For a grade, I would probably give myself a B- because I had a lot of good information, some pictures, but I could have definitely added more to it to make it more fun and capturing the audiences attention better!

9A: Think Differently

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With taking a Critical Thinking class this semester, along with my INQ class, I see a lot of similarities between the two classes. Both of them are teaching us how to become better college students, and using different skills to do so. However, I believe that thinking critically can be very important to a college student in many ways. Not just because you're thinking "outside the box", but how much you can learn from thinking critically. In my critical thinking class, we talk about all the different ideas of critical thinking, which there are many, and what they are all about in detail. I find these interesting because it's gives me something to think about (literally), and I think all the topics that we talk about can be used beyond the classroom.

Critical thinking means analyzing your thoughts and thinking beyond your normal capacity to be able to analyze and assess your thinking. With analyzing, you will be able to identify its purpose, question issues, gather assumptions, main ideas, and points of view. With assessing, you will be able to check it for clarity, precision, depth, relevance, logic and fairness. In critical thinking class, we talked about all of these and use examples to help understand them better. I think that it's good to think like this, because you're thinking deeper into the question or topic, ect, and gathering all of what you can out of it.

Taken from (http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/our-concept-of-critical-thinking/411 ), there was a list of traits that a critical thinker should have: 

A well-cultivated critical thinker:

• Raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely
• Gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively
• Comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards
• Thinks openmindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as needs be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences
• Communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems

I think that if you think critically, you will be able to earn better grades. Why is this? For example, if you have an essay question and you answer it with all supporting facts and details that you've learned about, that's good right? But what about if you put some critical thinking into it? That's better because you're using deeper thoughts and incorporating more than just the essentials you learned about. Teachers would like you do think more critically and I believe your grade will reflect off of that, because then teachers know that you have gone out of the way to thinking on what your topic really means.

I will want to think more critically, and now that I have some good information from my critical thinking class, I know I will be able to, and be a better thinker and college student in the future. Everyone should learn how to analyze and assess different parts of thoughts and everything so they can better their thinking skills and learn more!

9V: Critical Thinking

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What is critical thinking? Is it important? Is it important to college students? It is defined as "disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence".  Critical thinking can be used to improve your thinking skills by analyzing, assessing and reconstructing on any specific subject or problem. I believe that critical thinking is important for college students because the more they think about a certain subject and break it down into parts, then the more they will be knowledgeable and a better student. I think that everyone should learn how to think critically because it's a great skill to have and it will help you become a better student.

Other words I've learned that relate to critical thinking as well are:
Egocentrism:  concerned with the individual rather than society
Sociocentrism: a tendency to assume the superiority or rightness of one's own social group

9B: A Midterm Reflection

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Midterms have snuck up on us quickly, and it's crazy to think the semester is half over! So now that we have all of our midterms out of the way and we have our grades, it is a perfect time to reflect on what the positives and negatives and/or what we could have done better and what we can work on for next semester so our grades will be better, if needed.

Overall, my midterm grades were average for me, because usually I get B's/C's when I take tests, and my grades in general. I believe that test taking isn't my strongest ability and I'd like to better my test taking skills so I could go up a letter grade next time. I know that my homework and participation are good, and it's only the test taking I need to work on. I believe that my successes have been completing all of my homework on time and always being in class and being an active listener, note taker and participator.

I think overall what I need to work on are my study skills, so then I could do better on tests. In order to achieve that goal, I want to go to the Study Skills Enrichment office when I am finding myself struggling or want some help in figuring out a good way that I can study. I have heard a lot of great and positive reviews about the study skills office, and will want to definitely give it a try, and see what the results will be on my grades and overall skills in general. I think if they can teach me a good way to study, so I can know exactly how to take my tests and better my knowledge of test taking, I can get better grades. Also, my worst midterm grade was in my math class, which is also my hardest class at the moment, so I think if I go to office hours with my teacher and get some help, I will be able to better my grade in math. If needed, I will want to get a tutor if I feel that I am really stuck and need a lot of help. Overall, my midterm grades were good, but I would love to see all of them go up a letter grade next semester, and I will make that a goal to achieve!

9I: Sonia's Visit

On Monday October 21st at 7:00pm, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor had the pleasure of being at Southern's campus, and I had the pleasure of going to see her presentation. When she came out on the stage, everyone stood up and clapped which I thought was giving her a good warm welcome. She was interviewed and basically just asked questions for her presentation, and her information and what she had to say was very interesting to me. She spoke about the struggle of having childhood diabetes, but how she wouldn't let that get in the way of anything.
She also talked about the importance of making friends in college and also taking different classes that you might not take to begin with with help with your overall college experience. A lot of what she was saying was relevant to the topics we talked about in INQ class about how to be a successful college student, so I liked that because I could relate to everything and know what she was talking about. Overall, her visit was a great experience and it was very inspiring for all of us.

Final Draft Midterm Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQdLc-Ws6hg&feature=youtu.be

8B: Sonia Sotomayor

 

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Over the summer, Southern students had to read "My Beloved World" by Sonia Sotomayor as a common read book, which is a memoir of Justice Sonia Sotomayor's life. It wasn't my favorite book to read, but it had a lot of important life lessons. It talked about all of the struggles she faced during her life, and how she is the woman that she is today. She made a very important lesson as to not give up and always go what you're after, no matter the obstacles.

It's a memoir, so she talked about her own life and her experiences. One thing I remember is her talking about her having diabetes and how hard that was, and also how she kept it private for so many years not wanting to tell people, however that was bad. She then learned that she should share with important people in her life who care about her. Her book can relate to college students like me because you can learn that no matter what obstacle you're facing, you can always find a way around it, even if it is hard. You can learn that you need to challenge yourself at times to get what you want or to succeed at something.

She is coming to our campus on Monday October 21st, and I'm looking forward to it because I'm interested in what else she has to say about her life, book, challenges, success, ect. I think it will be a great experience for us college students because she can be a role model to us and show us that succeeding isn't always easy, but it definitely is manageable.

For my 6 word memoir, I chose to say "Ups and downs, life is good." I chose this because I believe even though in your life you will have many ups and downs, I wouldn't trade any of my ups and downs for anything different, because everything has as lesson toward it, and that's just how life goes, and it's not a bad thing.