Saturday, October 26, 2013

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

Friday, October 25, 2013

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.


Saturday, October 19, 2013

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.

8A: Admirable Blogs


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Looking through all of the blogs, I found some that were very well thought out and interesting to read, and feel they are worth A or A+ work,(or mastery of blogging.)

The first one is Kali's blog, http://anowlsmind.blogspot.com/.
Looking through her posts, they are full of information that is relevant to the topics and she gives many great examples to go along with it. I also like how she includes interesting photos to go along with all of her blog posts. One of the posts that I found to be really good was 7B: Fighting Failure. It started out with a little humor which I found to be very entertaining to read, and it didn't make it as 'boring'.She said,  "My Algebra professor and I have a bit of a language barrier. I am not 100% sure what his accent is, but it sounds Russian"., and then went on to explain her struggles in math and ways that she could get better and get help with it. This specific post related to me because I am also having some troubles in math right now. You can tell that Kali takes time to write her posts and she is a very creative writer and it was enjoyable to read some of her posts.

The second blog I picked is Sam's blog, http://samanthamonaco.blogspot.com/
Like Kali's blog, Sam's posts are also detailed and relevant to the topic of the post. She separated her paragraph, which made it more neat looking. When the paragraphs are separated and not all in one long paragraph, it definitely shows part of mastery of blogging because you can read them easier and they look neater. At the beginning of each post, she has an interesting hook, which is also great because it really grabs your attention and makes you want to read on. In her post "5B: Surprisingly Easy to Manage Time", that post got my attention because she used bold words as part of her writing to show important parts or parts she thought were interesting. Sam's blog definitely displays hard work and lots of thought.
 
Overall, you can tell that those two blogs I picked, the writers took a lot of effort and time to write their posts and they deserve A+ work, and that they most definitely show mastery of blogging! I definitely look up to their blogs and would love to write mine like theirs because of the way they are written with so much detail and creativeness.




Friday, October 18, 2013

8V: What is Mastery?

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Mastery is defined " knowledge and skill that allows you to do, use, or understand something very well". Usually, mastery takes a lot of practice and in the past we've talked about the 10,000 hour rule, which is practicing something for 10,000 hours before mastering it. Also, using the skill of deliberate practice is a very good trait to have because you can easily master something when you have deliberate practice involved (deliberate practice is practice beyond repetition, and may not be 'fun' practice.)

I think in order to master something, you do need a lot of practice and definitely more practice on the things you struggle with most and your weaknesses. People aren't born with mastery and they have to work hard for it, even if it is hard it will pay off at the end.

Other words I've learned this week:
1. Red Herring fallacy-fallacy in which an irrelevant topic is presented in order to divert attention from the original issue
2. Aptitude- 
a natural ability to do something.

8I: Office of Study Skills Enrichment

After having my meeting to talk about classes next semester, my major, and any questions I had, I decided to take a trip to the Office of Study Skills Enrichment. Located in Engleman Hall C016, they have a lot to offer. There are workshops for students in order to help with their academic skills and specific questions. You can go for help for any class you need, and bring all your questions to get answered. It is a great tool to use because if you don't understand something, you can get help. On their website, they quote, "OSSE provides supplemental learning assistance designed to promote an efficient approach to study, master learning techniques for success in higher education, and cultivate scholarship." (http://www.southernct.edu/student-life/academic-success/study-skills-enrichment/index.html)

If I ever have a question or think I may need some help in one of my classes, I will definitely come to here because I could easily get help and get back on track right away!


Saturday, October 12, 2013

7A: Failure is a part of life

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Failure is a hard topic to talk about with most people. As we read last week, nobody likes to talk about their failures, and discuss what they could have done better or to not have failed. They are embarrassed about telling their mistakes. However, in today's day and age people are expected to fail in their life because we are humans and everyone makes mistakes. I think that kids are allowed to fail, because then they learn from their mistakes. Once you do something wrong, and see what you need to do in order to correct it, you know not to make that mistake again.

However, people are definitely pressured not to fail, because a lot of people think that people need to be perfect. For example, some students are pressured by their parents to get good grades, and if they do not, they get straight A's, they get consequences. Then, if that student does fail, he/she will feel as if they did something wrong. That should not be the case. Yes, it is a horrible experience to fail at something, but it doesn't necessarily mean you should give up. Kids are not usually encouraged to fail, although some people/parents may tell their children "As long as you're trying, it doesn't matter". I know my mom says that to me sometimes, so she's not necessarily telling me to fail, but to try my hardest. So telling somebody this means that it's okay to fail, but as long as you're trying your hardest.

In this weeks reading "The Myth of Practice Makes Perfect", it discusses how you need deliberate practice in order to successfully accomplish something. Deliberate practice, being that you it requires effort that is not essentially enjoyable. The article states, "Having given us fair warning, he reveals the secret of deliberate practice: relentlessly focusing on our weaknesses and inventing new ways to root them out." (http://ideas.time.com/2012/01/25/the-myth-of-practice-makes-perfect/) Deliberate practice relates to failure because as I mentioned above, some people are told to "try your hardest". If you are using deliberate practice, then you are trying your hardest and will be able to better yourself.

In the other reading, "The Fringe Benefits of Failure", JK Rowling said, "The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive." (http://harvardmagazine.com/2008/06/the-fringe-benefits-failure-the-importance-imagination). The role that failure plays in peoples lives is an important one. As JK Rowling stated, failure is inevitable, if you do not fail in your life, then you simply fail by default, because everyone at one point has to fail. No matter what age you are, and what you fail at during your life, it is always a learning experience, so failure is not always at bad thing. You can easily learn from your failures to make them a positive thing and so you may not make the same mistakes in the future. Overall, having failure in your life is something that everyone needs and without it, you may not learn some important things about yourself, or succeed at anything else.
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Friday, October 11, 2013

7V: Failure=success?

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The online definition of "failure" is "an act or instance of failing or proving unsuccessful; lack of success." However, many people give different definitions to the word. People think of the world "failure" as a negative, bad word, but can you take your failure and learn from it?

For example, if you fail a test at school, you can learn from your mistake, study harder next time, and get a better grade, right? This weeks readings talked about the benefits of failure and the 10,000 hour rule(practicing something for 10,000 hours before you can fully master something.)  One of the quotes that I liked, taken from JK Rowling's speech on "The Fringe Benefits of Failure" says"The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive." (http://harvardmagazine.com/2008/06/the-fringe-benefits-failure-the-importance-imagination). Failure isn't always a bad thing, especially when you have a learning experience with it. So take your failures, and instead of being mad about them, you can make something better out of them and know that everyone has some failures every now and then.

Other words I've come across in this weeks readings are:
Invariablyin every case or on every occasion; always.
Competency: the ability to do something successfully or efficiently.

7I: Stress, be gone!

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This week I took a trip to the campus heath center, and learned all about stress and stress management!

One of the main things that's talked about in college students lives is stress. Stress is a big part of students because they are in a whole new environment, have a lot of work and studying to do and sometimes don't know how to deal with it. It also factors in with your diet and exercise. In order to learn how to manage it, you need to realize when you are in fact stressed. You may start to get sick, feeling like you have a cold, or you may be tired all the time.
Some symptoms of stress, taken from Southern's health center webpage are:
  • -Changes in sleep patterns
  • -Feeling fatigued
  • -Changes in eating habits
  • -Being short tempered
  • -Recurring minor illness:  colds, muscle aches and pains, indigestion, headaches, backaches (which if stress is left unmanaged can turn into major health problems)
  • -Feeling or acting disorganized
  • -Fear or anxiety
  • -Feeling overwhelmed
  • -Forgetfulness
  • -Difficulty concentrating
So how do you manage it? For one, you can start with an activity to help you relax. Take a yoga class, exercise regularly, or just sit and listen to music for a while. You should also try your best to eat properly, because we all know when you're stressed all you want is junk food, which will not help the situation. Other ways to help stress are writing down your thoughts/journal writing, talking with friends/family, and manage your time better. If you do all those, your stress should be long gone!


Hours:
Monday-Thursday: 8:00am-4:30pm
Friday: 9:00am-4:00pm

Phone Number: (203) 392-6300 

Website: http://www.southernct.edu/student-life/health/healthservices/index.html



7B: Failure is a Learning Experience

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Although I believe my college experience has gotten off to a good start, there are some things I believe can be better. I think the thing that I am failing to do, even in just the slightest way, is putting all my effort into schoolwork. I do my homework, take notes, and listen in class, but am I doing it well enough? I think I'm not learning as much when I take notes because I don't really look over them after I take them. This week’s readings focused on the benefits of failure and how failure can help you. In the article/video "The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination", "Harry Potter"'s JK Rowling focused on her experiences with failure and how they taught her many things, such as things she couldn't have learned about herself in any other way. I think everybody has to fail at something in order to become better at it. 

To put more effort into my schoolwork, I will need to learn how to focus better. Instead of having my cell phone right next to me while doing homework and studying, I could move it to a different room so it will be out of my sight. Also, when I take notes, especially for my lecture hall class (history), I will want to look them over at night, so when the test comes I am more familiar with the topics. I rarely think to look over my notes, until it comes time for the test, and I think I should start looking at them every day after I take them, so I can have a better understanding when test time comes around. Also, for my math homework, when I correct it and correct my mistakes, I want to write down all of the ones I got wrong and solve them again, instead of leaving them and not thinking about it.


What I can learn from this experience is how to better my life at college. If I understand everything that I’m doing, and get it done correctly, then I can become a better, successful student. If I fail at something, I will take it as a lesson learned and know that next time I need to be more careful and understanding at what I’m doing.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

6B: Compare & Contrast

This weeks concepts were all about "Grit", as told by Angela Duckworth, aka "sticking with things over the very long term until you master them." I found that this topic was similar to other topics that we've read about before.

In the past, we learned all about Mindset. How are that and "Grit" similar and different from each other? I think that your mindset could tell whether you're less gritty or more gritty. In a fixed mindset, you believe your qualities such as intelligence or talent, are fixed traits and they cannot be changed. In a growth mindset, you believe your qualities/abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. I believe that if you have a fixed mindset, you may be less gritty and if you have a growth mindset, you'll be more gritty. If you’re not putting as much work into something as you could be, you don’t have enough grit to get it done, and that could mean you have a fixed mindset. However, the mindset could also have nothing to do with your success. As quoted from “Mindset”(http://mindsetonline.com/whatisit/themindsets/index.html)     “Think about your intelligence, talents and personality. Are they just fixed or can you develop them?” The same is true for grit. Angela Duckworth believes that grit is something that you can learn. These topics are very alike in ways that you can teach yourself to have the quality that you may not already have. Grit may also be more helpful in some experiences and not in others.
"She believes grit can wax and wane in response to experiences. In addition, people might be gritty about some things and not others." (http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/tomorrows-college/grit/angela-duckworth-grit.html) A question I came up with was "Can people teach others how to be more gritty or have another certain quality that would benefit them? Would younger children's behavior act on other children's behavior toward grit or another quality? 
Another previous reading was about goals and how to set and follow through with your goals. That reading is related to the Grit reading from this week because you must set goals in order to stick to them and get them done. The goal setting article was specifically aimed at college students, and you were told to 1)Set a goal 2)Devise a plan of action 3)Follow your plan to your goal 4)Reset your goal. As simple as that may sound, it might take you a lot of grit to actually get your goal completed. According to Angela Duckworth in the "Grit" article, grit in college is very important when things get tough. She explains that grit is very helpful in challenging experiences. If you set a goal and follow through with completing your goal, then you most likely have the trait of grit. In order to go through with your goal, you will need to “stick with it” until you get it done, and that sounds a lot like grit.

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6A: The Struggle of Senior Year

Everyone faces challenges. Whether it's a hard class, work problems, or family problems, everyone has their own challenges they need to overcome. A significant challenge I've faced in my life was my senior year of high school. The hype of being a senior, top of the school, bigger and better than everyone else had definitely gotten to me. I was so excited for all of the events that go on senior year, and my schoolwork just didn't seem all that interesting to me. A couple months into school, all I wanted was to graduate and get out of high school. 

I was taking all easy classes because I had gotten most of my credits already, so some of my electives were just random ones that I'd picked out and thought were "easy" for my senior year. For example, I had a Web Design class that was so boring to me and I was uninterested in everything we were doing. I didn't have the motivation to finish my projects, or even pay attention in class. But I knew that to get to the end of the year to graduate I had to work through all my classes and get through them. The only class that I actually needed to pass to graduate that year was my math class, and that was even hard for me because math is my worst subject.

My process of working through my challenge was working through it day by day. I tried my best in the boring classes that I had no interest in, handing in everything by the day it was due even though I wasn't sure if I had some of it right or wrong. I made sure I wouldn't hand something in if it wasn't finished. 

The strategies that I found most helpful were finishing all my homework in my study halls so I don't even have to worry about it when I get home. I also found that knowing when I was all done with my work, it would be one step closer to graduation. What I learned from this experience is that you can't move onto something else unless you finish another thing. I obviously wouldn't have graduated high school unless I passed all my classes, which I had to get through step by step. If you're faced with a challenge, you need to have persistence to get through it and get to your goal. Looking back, this challenge was one that often a lot of students face as seniors in high school, and I definitely wasn't alone. But it took me a lot to get through it, and now I know that I have the motivation to get through challenges during my life.


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Thursday, October 3, 2013

6V: Don't Give Up!



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Ever thought of giving up, but didn't? Was something so hard you didn't want to try to figure it out, but you did anyway? That means you have persistence. Defined as "The quality that allows someone to continue doing something or trying to do something even though it is difficult or opposed by other people". My definition of persistence would be working on and completing something that is hard/challenging for you to do.

I think persistence relates to Angela Duckworth's article on her research on "Grit". Grit was described as "sticking with things over the very long term until you master them". She asked what the role of effort in a persons success is and I think it has to do with their persistence. If a person have the quality of persistence, then their successes may be higher than people with less persistence. Just the definition of grit itself relates to persistence because when you're sticking with something until it's complete, just like you would with persistence and continuing something even if it's hard. Persistence is a great quality to have, especially for college students, because college can be difficult at times, but you need to get through it to earn your degree!


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6I: Work hard, play hard

You've obviously heard of it before, the term "Freshman 15". It is said that many college freshman gain those dreaded 15 pounds in their first year of college from spending all that time on homework and studying and less time exercising and eating right. There is a simple solution to not gaining the freshman 15 and it's the Fitness Center located on the 2nd floor of the Adanti Student Center. For just $60 a semester, you can use the many pieces of gym equipment and even participate in fitness classes Southern has to offer, you just have to sign up 15 minutes beforehand. 

Inside the gym there are 7 elliptical machines, 9 treadmills, 4 bikes, plenty of other machines, and different types of weight lifting machines. If you're not sure if the gym is right for you, you can sign up for a free week pass and try it out. The Fitness Center is a great way to get in shape, stay in shape, and not worry about the dreaded "Freshman 15"! 

Hours:
Monday-Thursday: 7:00am-10:00pm
Friday: 7:00am-8:00pm
Saturday: 9:30am-4:30pm
Sunday: 2:00pm-7:00pm

Website: http://www.southernct.edu/student-life/health/fitness-center/index.html/

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