Final Self-Assessment Assignment

                                        

I have learned a lot about myself in this short first semester of college.  I learned that I’m self-motivated and can do well if I apply myself.  I’m still progressing as a student but I've come a long way from where I was in high school. I really surprised myself this semester because I've always been responsible but never overly concerned about school work.   Everything changed when I came here something in my brain just clicked and I wanted to make sure I did whatever I could to do my best.   My biggest challenge so far has been making friends.  This was never a problem for me in high school or ever in my life actually because I've always played sports so I had an automatic group of friends.  It’s been a challenge finding people you can actually trust and get along with.  As the semester went on I found out who I got along with best and who I didn't.  It was just very foreign to me that not everyone around me had the same morals or interests as me.  I tried to react as gracefully and appropriately as I could to the people I didn't necessarily agree with or like.   I would mostly just cut contact of with the person who I figured that as the best way to handle it.  Thinking back on it that probably wasn't the best solution but the only solution I saw fit at the time.  My biggest achievement so far has been my academics at the midterm I had all A’s and B’s and I plan on ending the semester the same way.   This is something that never happened in high school I was always a B C even D student, so it was a big accomplishment for me and I’m very proud of it.  Some habits that I got into in order to ensure my success was not finish all of my homework early and study for test ahead of time.  For example I would wake up go to class or work then go to the gym, complete my homework for not  just the next day but for the whole week then if I still had energy spend time with friends.  This upcoming semester I’m going to stay in the same routine. 

 I've been very successful with time management and workload this semester. School work and the gym took up the majority of my time and energy this semester and in result of that I have good grades and haven’t gained the freshman fifteen.  I've learned a lot this semester probably the most in this class because it’s not just grammar or vocab like a regular English based class.  This class taught me a lot about myself and what kind of person I want to be and the mindset I need to get there.  I also learned more in my math classes then all my math classes combined in high school.  Mostly because I applied myself and because my math teacher is hands down the best math teacher I've ever had.  I can maximize my learning by looking at every subject like it’s my favorite instead of just brushing off the subjects I don’t like.  I've met every goal for myself that I set myself in the beginning in the semester.  I’m exactly where I want to be in my college career, personally and academically.  From here I want to become a dental hygienist, in order to get there I have to transfer to take the proper science courses that I need to get into the program.  However I don’t regret coming to southern at all because being here showed me who I am and what I want to do with my life.  My specific goal for the next semester to complete the pre requisites for the program I’m interested in.   Lastly I just want to thank for you being the kind of teacher you are, you really helped me figure out what I want to do and who I should strive to be. 

Last Safari Blog

For our last safari blog I attended The 2012 SCSU Day of Peace located
in the Lyman Center.  The opening ceremony consisted on guest
speakers, SCSU drum line and SCSU dance team they also had live music.Being a dancer myself I was very impressed with the dance team and there routine.  After the opening ceremony SCSU community members read their own original work on peace.  After that there was live
performances and an open zumba floor.  This was defiantly the most fun
I've had doing a safari blog and the readings on peace were moving

Success and Failure

My greatest success this semester would have to be figuring out what I want to do for a career.  Everyone always told me I would make a great nurse and others said id make a good teacher but neither of those really resonated with me.  So finally being able to say what I want to do after graduation is a great feeling and I think being here at southern finally led and showed me what I wanted to do.  Another success I had this semester was getting good grades I have all A’s and B’s which I’m very proud of because in high school I usually had C’s and B’s.  It felt good to tell my parents that I have good grades hand have them be proud of me too.  My biggest failure this semester was not focusing on math as much as I should have, I still have a B but I could have gotten more out of the course by practicing and focusing more.  I’m taking a lot away from these experiences most especially because I’m transferring out of southern but I don’t regret coming here at all because it showed me what I’m good at and what I need to work on.  It also showed me that I’m self driven and I don’t need other people to motivate me.  I’m thankful for the successes and failures this semester because they each showed me who I am and what I’m capable of doing.         

Where is your final project going?

  In preparation for the final project I’m defiantly leaning towards the writing assignment instead of the video strictly because I’m better at writing then making videos.  I haven’t started answering any of the questions yet, but I intend to do that later on tonight so I can at least get the ball rolling on it.  A goal I’ve set for myself is to answer each question with a hundred words or more.  A tip that I got from the writing center was to use a thesaurus when you run out of words to say, so I plan to put that tip to good use.  I also want to make it engaging to look at so the pictures I use will hopefully grab the attention of the reader.  I don’t want to have the normal generic answers that mostly everyone else will answer with because firstly I want a good grade and secondly I don’t want to bore the reader.  I also pan to do it one piece at a time so I have time to proof read and revise my work.  I will most likely brain storm a list of answers to each question then take the best answers from the list and elaborate on them in my blog.  If I see that that writing isn’t turning out as interesting as I would like I’ll switch to making a video however I doubt that I’ll have to do this.  I like the direction my final project is heading in and I plan to keep on track with it.    

Video #3 Reflection

For our third video assignment I talk about peer pressure and its effect on college students.  This video was actually very fun to make because I had a friend video tape my roommate and I, which was somewhat of a bonding experience for us.  I’m pretty confident in my video because I stated the problem and proposed a solution to it.  However it was not as long as it should have been, but to be honest if I made it any longer it would have been redundant.  However I could have tried to come up with a more creative way to make it longer.  Regardless I’m proud of my video, and I think I made good points in it and gave some advice about how to avoid peer pressure and still have friends.  For a lot of people it’s either they have a good social life or a good academic life, its rare and a nice combination when you can find a balance between friends and school.  That’s was the main point I as trying to get across in my video, which I think I did pretty well.  Also I added a lot more pictures to this video then I did to my previous videos.  I've become very familiar with windows live video maker over the course of this semester, which I’m thankful for because it’s one more skill I could use in the work environment.  I also did different animations in this video then the other one and I figured out how to make slides move along faster so it’s easier to read the words on them.  All together I’m proud of my video the only thing I wish I did differently would have been to try to make it longer.          

blog video #3 Peer Pressure

Safari Blog #13 Writing Center

For this week’s Safari blog I went to the Writing Center located in EN A-012.  Usually you have to make an appointment to meet with someone for help on assignment but someone happen to be available when I went so it worked out perfectly.  I figured since finals are coming up and I’m going to have to write a lot of papers I should get some tips on how to improve my writing skills.  My tutor as extremely helpful she gave me multiple techniques and tips to really engage my reader and also looked over my first draft and fixed a few grammatical errors.  You may consult a tutor with a draft-in-progress, with a completed draft, or with no draft at all.  The tutors are available to help you with whatever questions you have that regard your writing.  I would defiantly go again and recommend going to anyone who has a hard time starting or revising their own papers.  

Twyla Tharp: Last Post

After reading Twyla Tharp's book and listening to the many discussions in class about her approaches to success I think as an individual I would benefit from her ways of thinking but also as a society we would become a happier and a more successful nation.  We can gain a lot by looking thru Tharps perspective because we would become better more creative thinkers, essentially we would be able to think more abstractly and see more than one solution to a problem.   Society as a whole defines creativity as something were born with and it can’t be learned however Tharp argues the complete opposite.  Creativity is so important because without creativity we wouldn’t have creators.  People never really notice how hard it is to be creative until they have to build something from scratch, or be completely original with a thought or idea.     We can incorporate creativity more in our daily lives by taking time out of our day to draw a simple or complex picture. Even something small to get the creative juices flowing therefore taking our brains to a different level of thinking where we usually produce our most creative thoughts.  We can teach creativity by encouraging children to use different methods of problem solving.  Most teachers teach lessons one way and make it clear that there is only way correct way to solve the problem at hand, promoting this problem solving method leads to non-creative thinking, basically killing children’s imaginations.  We should attempt to teach kids and teach ourselves how to be more creative because it opens up some many more doors and helps us see and interrupt things in more than one way.  

Individual vs. Team Autonomy

After our library assignment about autonomy I found the article Under the influence of the team? An investigation of the relationships between team autonomy, individual autonomy and social influence within teams written by Jønsson, Thomas  and Jeppesen, Hans Jeppe.   Initially I thought individual autonomy would be better to have then team autonomy, but after reading the article I've changed my mind.  In this article the author states that team autonomy and individual autonomy are closely related and basically play off of each.    “The results of the multiple regression analyses show that team autonomy is positively associated with individual autonomy, which is neither moderated by the team's ability to make the employee feel responsible nor by team support."   This quote from the article is very powerful because it shows not team and self-autonomy are very similar and anyone who is capable of team autonomy is capable self-autonomy.  I learned a lot about how to utilize the library’s website and how to use it the right way.  Also I learned the different parts of the library and where to go if I have a problem or question about any of my assignments.  Obviously I learned about autonomy and how there can be more than one type.  Pervious from today I had an idea of what autonomy meant but now I know for sure that autonomy is self-reliance and independence.  This applies to me as a first year student because autonomy is required as a college student and part of being autonomic is knowing where to go to get the proper information such as the library.        

Safari #3 Health Center

  For this week’s Safari Blog I went to the Health center to see what they had to offer, and what kind of personnel they have on staff. At the Health Center, you will find a physician, advanced practice nurses, and registered nurses. The staff of the Health Center can treat illnesses, refer you to specialists, answer your questions, and help you handle medical problems.  They ask you to make an appointment for all visits. Most times an appointment can be obtained on the same day that you call. They also take urgent walk-ins.  It’s also possible to will be tested for HIV / STIs at the health center. It’s located on Wintergreen Avenue near university residence halls and across the street from Moore Field house.  There open Monday – Thursday 8:00am-6:00pm and Friday -8:00am-5:00pm.   

#16 Pick a Fight

For this blogging assignment I choose to do #16 Pick a Fight.  Usually I wouldn’t even take this exercise into consideration because in most situations I don’t care enough about the opposite parties argument is to fight with them about it.  However on this one particular morning my friend and I were waiting in the omelet line at Conn for about an hour then when our turned rolled around two other girls thought it was there turn as well.  Usually no problem id let them go before us but I had work in ten minutes and already waited an hour so I wasn’t leaving there without an omelet. Obviously the two other girls were not happy about this, but I wasn’t too concerned with their feelings at that point.  So I did something very out of character and completely disregarded what they were saying and started ordering my omelet.   If they had been there before us I would of never done that but they were wrong and I was right therefore I was not going to wait another fifteen minutes for an omelet just so I wouldn’t offend two strangers.  Obviously confrontation in a public place is never the way to go but instead of arguing    I just ignored basically everything they said and proceed with my order.  Which might have made it worse, but it felt so good for once to put myself before someone else.  I constantly do what other people want to do because it’s not worth an argument to me, but for some reason this omelet was.  After this situation I’m defiantly going to challenge things that other people say more, because I always just assume oh that must know what they’re talking about, but sometimes they have no idea.  This exercise opened my eyes and showed me that’s it okay to be stubborn sometimes.

Facing Fears

This blog was very hard for me because I don’t really fear that many things in life besides the obvious things like death or being tortured, however I do not like heights.  In fact even looking at tall buildings can give me slight anxiety.  I figured the best way to help conquer this fear would be to desensitize myself to it.  Therefore I went to the top floor of the student center sat in the lounge section by a window and did my homework.  This may seem small or ridiculous to others but to me it’s a real fear.   Every so often id look out the window and be reminded of how high up I was, but then id realize there’s no way I could fall out.  I wouldn’t say this made me completely get over my fear of heights, but it’s a step in the right direction.  The strange thing about my fear of heights is its only when I’m in a stationary place.  For example I can go on any roller coaster and be fine, but if I’m on the top level of a mall and look down I get very scared.    While I was doing my homework on the top level of the student center after awhile I didn’t even realize how high up I was because I was more concerned with doing my homework.  So my strategy from now on is going to be to preoccupy myself when somewhere high up or on the top floor of a tall building.   

Safari Office of Study Skills Enrichment

The Office of Study Skills Enrichment located in Engleman Hall C 016 promotes time management skills, note-taking and study skills along with test taking strategies. The staff at the Office of Study Skills Enrichment Program was very helpful and more than willing to inform me about their services.  They work to impart useful personal management skills for school and for day-to-day life in addition to study strategies. Students of all ages and backgrounds use this service. Each year the numbers of workshop attendees increase.  This is a great resource to have on campus especially for the students who don’t have strong study skills.  I plan on going there to get help with studying for my finals when that time comes.   

Twyla Tharp

After completing this week’s reading assignments for Twyla Tharp Creative Habit so far I think it’s interesting.  Being a non creative person most of the concepts she talks about are all foreign to me.  Such as you can do exercises to get your creative juices flowing, she also talks about things that block creativity.  When I say I’m not creative I have a hard time thinking outside of the box and drawing was never one of my strong skills.  On the other hand I relate to her in some ways because she is a dancer/ choreographer, I've danced since I was two years old and now I assistant teach two classes on Saturday mornings.  However I couldn't imagine creating my own numbers and teaching them to students, that’s why I’m still an assistant.  After reading the first few chapters of Twyla Tharp a lot of my misconceptions were cleared up.  For instance I always thought someone who was good at drawing would be just as good at sculpting or pottery which is wrong.  She also goes back to the question of natural ability or practice.  In her research and professional opinion she believes there is no such thing as natural talent.  Using Mozart as a example he was not just a natural musical genius he practiced so much his hand were deformed by the time he was twenty eight.  Twyla Tharp makes a lot of good points in her book one of them being that having rituals is vital to leading a healthy life.  Because having a ritual makes you do the specific task that you know you should do but sometimes feel too lazy to get it done.  I find this to be very true in my life.  I try to go to the gym six times a week and the days where I usually go but didn't that day I find myself eating unhealthy things and more lazy in general.  

Video #2 Reflection

I think my second video turned out pretty average.  Nothing too extravagant but also had a sufficient amount of information.  One strength would have to be that I took a different approach to this video assignment.  I choose a topic a unique topic.  I wanted to choose something that would set me apart from my fellow classmates, but was still relevant to the assignment.  The student center was a perfect match.  I didn’t want to talk about a specific program or major and SCSU because I wanted to do it on something everyone uses and could relate to.  One of my weaknesses defiantly was the fact that I didn’t talk about the bookstore in the student center.  Two days after I posted my video I realized that I didn’t cover anything about the bottom floor, so that was a bit of a setback.  However I was very thorough while covering the other three levels. In comparison to my last video I’d say my second one was without a doubt better. I put my own personal voice in this one instead of just constant interviews of other people.  Also I figured out how to use Windows Movie Maker better so I could do more editing and animation than my first video.  All together there’s defiantly room for improvement in my second video, but it was better than my first one, as they say practice makes perfect.   

Safari Blog Radio Station

For this week’s safari blog I visited the schools radio station website and the actual station in the student center.  I listened to one of there shows it covered the last presidential election.  It was very informative but not very opinionative, which I was surprised by.  I would defiantly listen again to the upcoming shows.  Another thing I was surprised by is that they have a lot of job opportunities within the study, but obviously they require some experience working with the technology it takes to run a radio station.   

blog video 2

Midterm Grades

I’m pretty satisfied with my midterm grades, I have two B’s, two A’s and one C.  Obviously I’m content with the A’s, but I’m not happy with the C.  If these were my final grades my GPA would probably be around a 3.0 3.2.  My grades do represent the amount of time and effort I put into each class.  It’s clear that I spend the least time preparing for my Spanish class therefore I have a C.  On the other hand it’s clear that the classes I do the most work in are the ones that I got A’s in.     However I’m not content with one of my B’s either because I know I could do better in the class.  All together my grades are okay and I’m very proud of my two A’s but the rest have room for improvement.

Sculpture

This sculpture is titled “H20: Liquid Zone”.  Its located in front of the Engleman Hall, its 15-feet tall, and 81-feet long.  The sculpture changes with the seasons, thanks to panels of stainless steel mesh. In warmer weather, rainwater collects in the mesh creating a micro-prismatic effect. In the colder months, the collected water turns to ice, lending a new look to the work. The sculpture was designed by Mikyoung Kim, an award-winning landscape architect and a faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design.   When I first saw this sculpture outside of Engleman obviously at first I wondered what it was and also thought about how hard it must have been to make it.  My interpretation of this sculpture was something along the lines of blowing in the wind.  Especially because it’s right next to a tree it looks like the branches are swaying in the same direction as the pillars.  This to me, represents all of the different people who go to southern and each of their individual life paths, and how we may think we’re all different but were all similar in one way or another.  This sculpture is extremely intricate and artistically meaningful.  This could hold many different meanings to each person who looks at it and that is why it hold artistic meaning.   

Safari Blog CC

For This week’s Safari blog I talked to my own CC (community coordinator), Raysa, I asked her how she first heard about being a CC and she said while she was on the track team her teammates told her about it and the qualities you have to posse to be one.  You have to be an outgoing and well rounded person.  You have to be in good standing academically with the school and must participate in extracurricular activities.  When I asked her what some of the benefits of being a CC were she said obviously living for free on campus and getting to meet new people.  She said one of the draw backs was being responsible for a whole floor of girls.  For instance if an incident happens she has to get up and deal with it, also has to hold regular floor meetings and make sure that everyone is following the rules.  She said the worst part is being in a situation that someone’s doing something wrong but she doesn’t have a choice she has to report them.         

Balance Between Work and Play

Yesterday my friends and I went pumpkin picking.  One of my friends is a sophomore so he’s allowed to have his car on campus and we actually went back to our hometown to pick the pumpkins.  This was a lot of fun because it was perfect weather to be outside and enjoy the day.  Although we didn’t pick the pumpkins on campus the best part was decorating them outside of the resident hall Wilkinson.  We used paint and markers to give our pumpkins faces, one of my friends actually carved some of her pumpkin.  Considering Halloween is right around the corner pumpkins were a festive and seasonally appropriate choice.  This got my mind off the stress of studying for the upcoming midterms this week. Not only was it a fun activity, but I get to display my pumpkin out my window spreading the Halloween spirit.  Also my friend that carved her pumpkin took the seeds out, so we got to bake those in the oven of her utility room.  They were nutritious and delicious because we didn’t have any salt to put on them but they still tasted good.  Two other fun activities spiraled from one simple pumpkin picking activity essentially preoccupying most of my day so I didn’t have to think about studying or homework, which was a nice change.  Studying is obviously never a bad thing but balancing out work and play is essential to be a well rounded happy person.

Half Way Done With The First Semester

As we reach the half way point in the first semester I feel very proud and confident in my assignments for each of my classes.  My goal for this semester was to have at least an A or B in each of my classes and so far I do.  I’ve had the most success in this class and Anthropology probably because anthropology interests me and INQ being an English based course comes natural to me.  Also I’ve had success in my other classes because I do all of my assignments on time and for the most part prepare thoroughly for my tests and quizzes.  However I have had a few setbacks, on my first Math test I got a 64.  This is obviously not the ideal way to start off the semester.  This was pretty discouraging, but I decided to try to have a growth mindset and learn from it.  Before my second test I prepared more and did more practice problems and scored a 102 on it.  My second setback was in my Spanish class I received a 70 on my first test, although this isn’t horrible I wasn’t happy with it.  So I applied the same method I used for math.  I studied more and had my friends quiz me with flashcards.  On my next Spanish test I got an 86.  I have the same goals for myself as I did for the first half of the semester for the second half.  Spanish and Math have always been hard subjects for me, and usually id get discouraged and say it’s just impossible for me.  Although after reading the Mindset book I realize that this isn’t the right way to think and learning Spanish or understanding algebra isn’t out of my reach.  I’m going to try and continue to have a growth mindset and grow in my personal and academic life.     

Safari Blog Interfaith Office

For this week’s safari blog I went to the Interfaith Office.  I was curious to see if it was mainly just for catholic students but it really is geared to all different religions.  They we're very welcoming and informative. They take a lot of pride in appealing to students of all different religions.  I went to a catholic school kindergarten through 8th grade so I'm pretty familiar with the catholic religion but not a lot of others, so it was cool to go read about the different religions and there practices.  Another cool aspect of the interfaith office is they have a meditation room on the second floor of the Student Center for more information visit the main office in room 325.

Stepping Out Of The Box

At first I didn’t know what I was going to do for this assignment because not a lot of things make me uncomfortable. However over the weekend my sister asked me to go out with her to a karaoke establishment my initial reaction was absolutely not, but then I remembered that it would be perfect to blog about for this assignment and I might end up having fun.  I don’t really have an intense fear for singing but I usually only do it in the car with my friends but never in front of a room full of people I don’t know.  My sister and I ended up doing a duet to “My Boo” by Usher although we sounded awful, it was a lot of fun and I didn’t care what anyone thought of my singing abilities.  Although it’s not like I was auditioning for American Idol mostly everyone that did karaoke that night was at about the same level of singing as my sister and I.  This showed me that doing things that I wouldn’t normally do can be fun and I shouldn’t get anxiety over silly things such as karaoke, or stressed about what other people think of me.  I know I’m not a strong singer but I didn’t care because I enjoyed doing it.  As long as I’m not hurting anyone physically/emotionally or doing anything morally questionable I plan on doing more things I enjoy more than the things I feel like I have to do or just the things I think I’m good at.  The next time an opportunity comes up to do something outside of my comfort zone I plan on taking advantage of it because the feeling afterwards is rewarding.  I’m far from going sky diving but I’m proud of myself for experiencing something new and not being too nervous to do it.              

What Is Failure?

            ..

In the mindset book they talk about failure and how it can either motivate or define you.  They go on to explain that the basic principle is saying “I failed” instead of “I’m a failure”.  Failure is painful whether you have a growth or fixed mindset, but how you recover from it is the important thing.  In our society failure is looked at as a bad shameful thing when in reality it’s just another experience to learn.  For example after reading the first chapter of this book the first person I thought of in my life with a growth mindset was my younger brother.  The surest way to motivate him to master something is to tell him he can’t do it, and he doesn’t do it out of anger to prove anyone wrong he does it to prove to himself he can do it.  I admire this about him.  My ideas about failure is that for some people it can be a great motivator but for others it just gives them an excuse to fail again, once again playing into the growth or fixed mindset.  However in some cases people may fail and for a time period after that they continue to fail, but at certain point the take a look at their lives and make a conscious decision to do better.  Failure is a choice.  You either choose to fail or choose to succeed.  There are measures you can take to prevent failure and other measures you can take to recover from it.  It’s true that people who fail usually continue the cycle but I don’t see that as an excuse. In sum failure means something different to everyone but to me it’s something preventable and recoverable.          

Safari Blog Career Center

For this week’s Safari blog I went to Career Services.  They were very willing to talk to me and help me figure out what career would be a good fit for me. They are located in Schwartz Hall 102 or you could call them at 203-392-6536.  A nice bonus that the career center offers is career counseling. This gives you the opportunity to meet with a professional to discuss career options, résumé writing, interviewing, job search strategies, selecting a major, and any other career-related topic. They are holding an event called Majors Expo on 10.10.2012 at noon-3 p.m.  After going to career center and seeing will they were to help I intend on attending this even and making a one on one career counseling appointment.  

The Impact of Mindsets

After reading the first three chapters in the Mindset book, I agree with the two main principles which are you either have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.  I agree with this because I can see that I have a fixed mindset in certain aspects of my life.  This book connects to the 10,000 hour theory and the motivation behind it.  If you have a fixed mindset you believe that the skills that you were naturally given can’t be expanded or developed.  On the other hand a person with the growth mindset believes at any point you can master these certain tasks with hard work and practice, basically agreeing with the theory that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to master something.  A person with the fixed mindset would rather do something simple and do well on it than try something challenging and have the possibility of failing.  I always knew that my mindset held me back from learning but only in certain subjects.  Math, for example, I rather do something I already know how to do than fail at something new. Therefore prohibiting my learning, however this is the only aspect of my life that I think like that.  The book states that you can change your mindset, even knowing the qualities of each mindset will change the way you think about things.  The examples given in the book are amazing, such as the man who was paralyzed from the neck down trained him to move his arms, legs and torso again.  If things like this can happen with the growth mindset why wouldn’t people try their hardest to change the way they look at things, and see stretching themselves as a learning experience instead of an opportunity to fail.  All together the first three chapters have already impacted me, and I can’t wait to keep reading.              

Reflection on Video

I managed my time pretty well on this project because I finished almost a week early. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it this weekend because my best friend is coming home from Delaware Sate College for the weekend.  The day it was assigned I started interviewing people.  My CC’s were great and really willing to help. I thought asking them how they got involved would be informative to anyone who watching my video that wanted to get involved but didn’t know how to go about it.  Interviewing and putting together the video was the easiest part of the project.  I struggled more with picking a topic.  I achieved most of my goals on this project because I got it done in a timely manner and I made a few good points while interviewing each person, for example asking the faculty if kids more involved had higher or lower GPAs. I balanced my video pretty well with my voce the person I was interviewing, music and pictures. I think my video was interesting and informative because I asked a variety of different people who knew what they were talking about.  I also utilized every feature I could on Windows Live Movie Maker to make it visually appealing.  The biggest conclusion I drew from my video was to get involved, because that’s what my whole video was based off of.     

blog viedo #1

Safari #9 Involvement Fair

Last week I attended the student involvement fair.  While I was there I was so impressed with the amount of clubs Southern has to offer.  Two that really caught my eye were Alpha Sigma Alpha Sorority and Best Buddies.  Alpha Sigma Alpha is a national sorority and initially formed in Virginia at Longwood University November 1901.  Alpha Sigma Alpha does a lot with the Special Olympics which really interests me because I enjoy helping special needs kids.  Best Buddies and Alpha Sigma Alpha are similar because they both work with special needs kids, but best buddies spends more time with each child because each of us get our own buddy.  I think I’m going to join Best Buddies instead of the sorority because Greek week is over and Best Buddies is a better fit for me because you really get to know your special needs individual.             

Involvement

The topic I chose for my video is involvement.  I chose this topic because during our class discussions about campus and SCSU as a whole most of them pertained to involvement or being pro active which are one in the same in some respects.  Also because I think as a new student at a somewhat large university it’s important to be a part of something and not another face in the crowd.  The main questions I’m going to cover in my video are how to get involved, does the university do a good job at trying to get students involved, do students who are involved in SCSU clubs or teams have higher or lower GPAS and what would be a main reason why a first year student would or wouldn’t want to get involved.  These questions are important to first year students because knowing how to get involved is the first step to joining a club or team. Weighing out the pros and cons are also important because even though they could be for each person mostly everyone has the same general concerns.  Determining whether people who are involved have higher or lower GPA’s is crucial.  Once again it depends on what kind of person you are, but in general if kids involved have higher GPA’s it’s something to consider doing if your grades are subpar.  These questions will make for a interesting video because knowing the opinion of faculty, CC’s and other first year students may or may not change your opinion on being involved.  Also each person’s answer will be different therefore giving a variety of opinions that will be able to connect with each different person watching it.  Essentially I hope my video can relate to everyone, and leave the audience thinking about whether getting involved is or isn’t for them.     

Where Does The Time Go?

After recording my time for the past six days I realize that I spend most of my time in class or studying.  This study showed me that managing my time by writing it down helps me accomplish much more.  In a sense, scheduling my time holds me accountable for where every minute of my time goes. This makes me participate in more deliberate practice rather than going through the motions.  This week I spent 26 hours studying and doing homework, 19 hours exercising, eating, working or hanging out with friends and the rest of my time in class or sleeping.  In my opinion, this is a well balanced schedule for a first year college student.  Eating surprisingly took up more time than I thought it was going to.  Strictly because of the time it takes to walk to the café, get food, sit down, socialize for a bit and walk back.  I didn’t procrastinate this week, although I did save my hardest assignments for last which is a bad habit I need to break.  Next week I’m going to schedule my time better by focusing on my harder assignments first because this will save me some time on homework.  Hopefully by doing that it will give me more time to sleep. Throughout the semester I’m going to try to keep doing this because as I said before it makes me do more deliberate practice rather than just getting something done.  I also learned from this assignment that making to do lists is crucial part of succeeding in college.  I have a planner and a to do list with the specific assignments I need to get done for that week and I use it religiously.  These techniques will help me tremendously throughout the next semester if I continue to utile them.    

Safari Blog #5 Sporting Event

For this week’s Safari event I went to the football along with almost every other student who attends SCSU.  Going to the game was more of a fun activity for me rather than an assignment.  Even though I’m not a die heart football fan I enjoy watching mostly any athletic event.  SCSU ended up losing 30 to 14, but it was still fun to go watch the half time shows and meet other people at the game.  Also I learned a little more about football than I had previously known which could come in handy one day.  Never the less I plan to attend the next home football game and any other sporting events on campus.        

Beating the Requirements

The first blog to grab my attention was Allison’s her title “Don’t be Delicate be Vast and Brilliant” intrigued me.  As I started to read through her blog it became clear that she knows how to articulate herself in a way that makes you want to keep reading.  The title of her blogs also makes a statement.  Using quotes as certain blog titles eludes you to believe that the blog post is going to be insightful and interesting.  Her pictures are simple, but relevant and fit nicely with each topic she presents.  I also like her background; it’s not over extravagant but not boring either.  In my non professional opinion Allison’s blog defiantly deserves an A.  Another blog that is A material would have to be Taylor Rispoli’s.  Her vocabulary is excellent and she sounds very sophisticated through her writing, which is an awesome skill to have in college.  Similar to Allison she has an out of the ordinary title, naturally attracting my eye.  Also after reading through most of my classmate’s blogs, the ones with the interesting titles are better and more fun to read.  Therefore I plan on changing mine. Taylor also attaches links at the bottom of her posts that are similar to that specific post.  This is something that goes above and beyond the requirements, and is helpful for doing extended research on the topic.  She’s also very creative with her pictures and layout making each post pleasant to look at.  Allison’s and Taylor’s blogs are similar in the respect that they are both interesting and well put together, but they are both different.  They both put their own creativity and voice in their blogs, which is exactly what were suppose to do.  All of my classmates blogs were good but Allison’s and Taylors were excellent, so I believe they both deserve A’s.     

Tricks Of The Trade

One of the major pieces of advice that has resonated with me the most over that past three weeks is get involved.  Being involved can make a huge difference in a wonderful or terrible college experience.  I plan to join the intermural dodge ball with a few girls that I met at orientation, but doing an activity together will make our friendship stronger.  Another piece of advice that’s been helpful is to make sure your professors know your face.  One of my orientation leaders told us that and I decided to take their advice and make sure all of my professors know who I am.  I did this by participating in class, emailing them if I came across any issues with a topic, and staying after class if I had a quick question.   However an aspect I don’t find useful is online practice problems.  For example for my math class what have a “my Math Lab” and its extra inline practice but for some reason it just confuses me.   After I’ve received the first couple grades in all my class I know what I am capable in each class, and I plan to stay on top of all my assignments and do them to the best of my abilities.  If I notice that I’m slipping or getting lazy I’m going to remind myself that I’m paying twenty two thousand dollars to get an education here and I have to make the most out of it.  Two of my personal goals for the year are to go to all my classes and get at least a B on all of my quizzes and exams.  On the other hand if I do get a C or have to miss a class because I’m sick or god forbid an emergency situation occurs, I won’t let that discourage me. Lastly another personal goal I have is to keep my GPA above a 3.2 the whole year.   

         

Safari Blog #18 Convocation

For this week’s Safari blog I decided to attend the New Student Convocation Introduction ceremony.  The ceremony took place in the Lyman Center, and was very well put together.  Throughout the ceremony the class representative from the graduating class of 2013 passed down the torture to the class of 2016 representatives.  This symbolized a tradition from one class to another, in hopes that our class would be just as successful.  The president of our university also took the time to welcome us again to campus and reassure us of all the opportunity’s and majors offered on campus.   I’m glad I went to this because it showed me what to aspire to be like during these next four years at southern.        

Overcoming Difficulties

When I was in 7^th grade my parents got a divorce, similar to many kids in my generation.  However when my parents got divorced my dad moved eight hours away, we had to move from our house to a condo and my older sister moved out at the age of eighteen.  This so far has been the hardest thing I’ve faced in my life.  Since my dad lived so far away we would only get to go see him in the summer, and for Christmas.  It took me two years to figure the best way to cope with it.  At first I took it out on my mom and blamed her, which was ridiculous because she’s the one that stayed and took care of my younger brother and I.  Three years after my dad moved I had a moment of self actualization. I realized that my mom didn’t deserve the way I was treating her, and that our situation wasn’t her fault.  After this moment I really focused on bettering myself. I started focusing on my school work, picked better friends and became a lot closer to my mom and brother.  Also I would exercise; I found that to be extremely therapeutic, most especially running.  Four years after my dad left he moved back to Connecticut.  Last summer my mom and my dad actually ended up getting remarried to each other.  Although this makes me happy and I’m so glad to see them happy again, my happiness doesn’t come from them or their actions it comes from within myself now.  The coping skills I developed at the age of twelve are still the same ones I use today. In some ways I’m thankful for everything that happened, because it taught me at a young age that when things go wrong it’s not the end of the world.  These skills won’t just help me in college, but for the rest of my life.  Everyone faces problems in their life whether in there; social, academic, personal, or family life how you deal with these problems defines who you are.

Strategies For Success

In the readings “Work Hard or Work Smart”, “The Myth of Multitasking” and “10,000 Hours for Success” they all make valid points about being successful and how to achieve success.  In article number one “Work Hard or Smart” written by Tom Weber he says “It is to work both hard and smart”.  I had never really thought of it like that.  I always just heard work hard and do your best, but never to work smart.  This concept is pretty eye opening to me because all my life my parents have both worked very hard, but never really progressed in their jobs.  Working smart can change this, finding new ways to do things and learning new technology can take some of the load off so you don’t have to work as hard.  Yet at the same time only working smart won’t get you as far as working smart and hard.  In the second article “The Myth of Multitasking” it explains that multitasking is viewed as a good thing in our culture but it’s actually not, “Dave Crenshaw argues that the most common kind of multitasking doesn't boost productivity—it slows you down”.  This quote is also a new concept to me because in my mind the more things you got done the better off you were.  Granted, if the work you were doing was of decent quality.  This article looks at multitasking from a business perspective, but applying it to my life I still find it to be true.  If you’re doing too many tasks at once you can’t give the proper attention to them all.  The last but not least article “10,000 Hours for Success” states that to be exceptionally successful at something you must dedicate 10,000 hours of your time to it, which is over a decade.   The writer of this article states “if you examine the greatest athletes, entrepreneurs, musicians and scientists you will notice they only emerged after spending at least three hours a day for ten years practicing.”  I agree with this statement, but disagree that someone who has spent 9,000 hours would be less successful.  Some people just have a natural talent for things and don’t have to work as hard as everyone else, most especially some athletes.  Looking at this article from a student’s point of view I see class isn’t just the only part that goes into learning, putting in the work outside of class is what will grantee success in that class.  Looking at all of these articles side by side they all give different strategies for success in all aspects of life, and I agree with all three and plan on implementing them to my own life.    

   

Safari Blog #7 Fitness Center

The fitness center is open Monday-Thursday 7am-10pm, Friday 7am-8pm, Saturday 9:30am-4:30pm, and Sunday 2pm-7pm.  There is about ten treadmills, four ellipticals, four stair steppers, a stretching room, an abdominal room and several ab and leg machines.  They also have free weights, benching bars and three bikes.  It costs sixty dollars a semester to work out there and it must be paid with your hoot loot card.  They offer several group classes two of which I’m very interesting in taking, zumba at 7:15pm Monday- Wednesday and kick boxing at 3:30 pm on Mondays.  I’m actually a member at the fitness center, so I’m defiantly going to sign up for the zumba and kick boxing class.  My first time in the fitness center I was very impressed with the quality of the machines and the amount.  It’s almost as nice as the gym I go to in my home town, and its defiantly worth the sixty dollars a semester.            

Thinking Creatively About Blogs

   

The links to the blogs in our class syllabus were really helpful; each blog I looked at made it more clear on how I was supposed to make mine.  Tagan’s kitchen has really cool pictures and an interesting layout that caught my eye.  She also put where she took the pictures, and roughly how long it takes to get there from a common city which happened to be New Haven.  Another quality about this blog that was helpful was the tool bar on the side with all of her other blog posts and there titles.  She also added other links to other blogs similar to hers.  Charlie’s productive flourishing blog was interesting because by watching his video I understood the full picture of what his blog was about.  Also the tool bar on the top helped me navigate his cite and blog very easily.  Rebecca’s pocket didn’t draw my attention as much as Charlie’s or Tagan’s most likely because she didn’t have as many pictures or a background layout.  After looking at all of these blogs I got a good idea of what makes up an interesting and appealing blog.  For example having pictures or a colored background, but also to be informative and not use it as a diary.  My goals on bloggers for this semester are to make my blog fun to look at and interesting to read.  I’m looking forward to mastering blogger because it will be another technology I’m familiar with, which can be helpful in my professional life.  Learning how to write with style and an interesting tone will be extremely helpful.  This will be a skill I carry throughout college and into the professional world.  Lastly reading my classmates’ blogs will also give me ideas for my own blog.  Such as different layouts out a different way to set the pictures up, technical things of that matter.            

Thinking About College

Let me start by saying I believe college is what you make of it.  Going to college can help you accomplish many things first and foremost your career goals, a chance to broaden your horizons and it helps you find out who you really are.  To me being in college means more responsibilities, being responsible enough to manage your time between class, work and friends.  Also being responsible enough to make the cognitive choice to be friends with people who will lift you up not drag you down.  Coming to Southern has really opened my eyes.  Within this first week I have become less judgmental and more accepting of people.  My goals for this year are to attend every single one of my classes and be well prepared for them.  Looking over the syllabuses for all of my classes I became anxious, but I realized the work load might seem overwhelming at first but it’s doable.  My first impression of my professors was that they all seemed like they cared a lot about the course and their students.  It’s relieving to know that if I need extra help its available for me.  The expectations I have for all my classes is I’ll get out what I put into them.  This is something my orientation leaders had told me and I found it to be very true.  Another helpful thing my orientation leaders told me was to buy the recommended and required books.  This is helpful especially in my Spanish class, because I bought the Spanish dictionary and a book of congregated and translated verbs.  Which I can already tell is going to be extremely helpful.  One of my main concerns with all my classes is not being familiar enough with the type of technology each teacher prefers.  I’m sure over time I’ll get use to each one and it will become second nature to me.  Lastly my aspirations for this year and for my whole college career are to do well in my class, and build strong friendships with people.