FINAL VIDEO - Dorm Life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rSUMiZXMig&context=C3a7a806ADOEgsToPDskId0UoWLR0nZ8fcK_g6y9OJ

Final Self-Assessment

I can't believe that my first semester of college is over! While I was growing up, I always felt like time passed so slow and it felt like I would never be able to say that I was actually in college but now that I am and the first semester is over, it's just such a weird feeling and now I feel like I have been in college forever and high school was so long ago. As a college student so far I have learned that I am a major procrastinator and one of my new years resolutions is actually to stop procrastinating because I do it way too much and it stresses me out alot in college. I think that I still use the same study and homework methods as I did in high school and I also need to change that because the work is very different now and I need to study more than I am used to. One of my biggest challenges so far has been trying to participate in class, but that has always been a challenge for me. I guess I really haven't reacted towards this or met this challenge that much because I didn't really push myself to participate as much as I should, so I definitely will try to work on that next semester. My biggest achievements so far would probably be that I made new friends a lot quicker than I usually do. I think I opened up outside of the classes a lot more than I did inside the classroom and I am really happy about the friends I already made because I think I could remain friends with them for the rest of my time at Southern. I don't know what habits or processes made certain that I was able to do this because I usually don't open up to people so quickly like I did here but I think the fact that I came to this school without knowing anyone made me realize that I need to meet some new people or my time here would be miserable. I have not been too successful with time management in my courses. Especially in inquiry. I don't think I realized how much work would need to go in to my first video project, so I thought I could just wait until the last minute to work on it and that was a very bad idea. And then with the second video, I knew that I needed to get started on it earlier but my terrible procrastination kicked in and I kept waiting to do it and before I knew it, I was back in the same position I was in with the first video and I was rushing a little bit at the end to get it done.

I think my grades this semester have been pretty average for someones first semester in college. Obviously these classes take some time getting used to and it is not easy to just start college and automatically have really good grades and perfect time management and things like that. I think I did ok on meeting the personal goals I set for myself, but I didn't really get as involved on campus as I hoped I would, so that is something else I will work on next semester and it will probably happen more next year when I actually live on campus and I'll be there all the time. Where do you want to go from here and what do you think you need to do in order to get there? Well, I want to raise my GPA and I know that I need to study more than I did this semester in order to do that. So obviously, study habits are what I need to improve on next semester.

The specific goals I want to set for myself for next semester are as I said before, studying a lot more and participating in class more. I plan to meet these goals by changing my time management so I have more time to do the studying that I need to do and not procrastinate on anything.

I am so glad that I got to experience the things that I did in this first semester of college and I am excited to continue my education and find out what else I will experience in the next 3 and a half years!

Commuting vs Dorm Life Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixzcNlKEPQQ&feature=g-upl&context=G13ad2AUAAAAAAAAAA

Final Campus Safari!

For the last campus safari of this class, there is no number for this activity on our list but I went to this fun winter thing in the Student Center where they had tons of free stuff for everyone to do! You could make your own mini pillow pet, make a gel candle thing, get your picture taken with all of your friends or get your picture taken with santa. I went with one of my friends and first we made our own candle which was like sand art, then you poured this hot gel over it and after a few minutes it hardened and then you could pour on a scented liquid so it smells good. Then we went over to get our picture taken and you could decide whichbackground you wanted behind you, and I will post that picture at the end of this. And then we went to have our picture taken with santa! If you got your picture taken with santa, you got a little ornament to put your picture in which is now hanging on my mini pink christmas tree in my room! It was a really fun and Christmasy thing for the students to do around campus.

have a merry Christmas everyone! :)

Learning Community Reflection

I really liked being a part of this learning community, and I'm glad that it is something we were required to have this year. I think that having the same people in these two classes together made us all closer than people that are only in one class together because we can discuss the two classes together. Also, the fact that we had such a strange experience in anthropology, it has given us all something to bond over because we could talk about that teacher together and even though we really didn't have good things to say about her and most of the things we have said are probably not very nice, it was a good way to connect with each other. Since I am with all of these students more than with students in my other classes, I feel like I can just talk to any of them much easier and it's just a more friendly environment than other classes. I will definitely miss everyone in this learning community because they are all so nice and funny and they really made me look forward to going to class on Tuesday's and Thursday's. I hope I have classes with them in the future and hopefully keep in touch with many of them!

My Ideal Life After College

It's very hard to plan exactly how my life will be after college since I am only a freshman and somany things could change in these next years before graduation. My major could change, or maybe I won't even be studying at SCSU anymore, who knows what will happen in these next 4 years? Ideally, after college I would love to have my nursing degree and begin working in a hospital. I would like to get married and own my own home with my husband somewhere out of Connecticut, like California or somewhere in the south, and hopefully have children shortly after that. Before having kids, I want to travel to the places in the world that I have always wanted to go like France, England, Ireland, China and Australia. If my plan of becoming a nurse changes during these next few years in college, I hope that I will have another successful job and still be able to fulfill the other things I want I do with my life after college.

Update on Final Video Project

For my video project, so far I only have some of the introduction to the video. I am doing the pros and cons to commuting and living in a dorm, so I have been trying to think of ways to do this creatively rather than just listing the pros and cons, and I decided I need to interview peop

e and ask them about living in a dorm since I obviously don't know much about that part of my topic. I think an interesting and creative way to do this might be to have like a talk show kind of thing and just ask different people about commuting or living on campus, and that would probably be more fun to watch rather than just seeing different clips of people talking one at a time. I still don't know who I am going to be able to get to do this talk show, so that's one thing I need to figure out soon. I haven't really thought of any other ideas to make this video more creative or different from my first video but I still have 2 weeks until I need to share the 2nd draft with the class so I am sure that by then I will have thought of something and have the video pretty much completed.

Final Project Proposal

For the final video project, I decided that I would do my video on commuting vs. living in a dorm. I decided to do this because I am a commuter and I honestly wish that I had decided to live on campus instead. This will be helpful to other students because they will hopefully learn about commuting if they are living on campus, and if they are commuters they will get to learn more about living in a dorm. I will do the pros and cons of each situation and try to interview some people that are commuters and some people that live on campus to get their opinions on what they like about it. Along with the pros and cons, it will tie into campus safety if you are living at college and the problems that a commuter faces like being as social as the people that are at college all the time. I hope I can learn a little about this myself because as a commuter, I have had trouble being active in the SCSU community and I think many other commuters have this problem.

My only concerns with this project are the timing and getting interviews because it was a little difficult finding people to interview for the first video, but hopefully it will all work out ok for this one.

Campus Safari #12

Yesterday, two members of the MTV show The Buried Life, Ben Nemtin and Dave Lingwood, came to the Lyman Center at SCSU to talk about their show and this bucket list idea they started 5 years ago. I have been watching the show ever since it first started on MTV so I was beyond excited to hear that they were coming to our school! Basically, these four guys, Ben, Dave, Jonnie Penn and Duncan Penn made a list of all of the things they wanted to do before they died and no matter how crazy the things may sound they want to accomplish all of them. Some of the things on their list that they have succesfully completed are riding a bull, playing basketball with president Obama, spend one night in jail and crash a party at the Playboy mansion. When they started getting well known in their town, other people would write to them asking them to help complete one of the things on their bucket list. For example, they helped a man reconnect with his son that he walked out on when he was just a baby.

This was one of the most inspiring events I have ever been to and it really made me think about all the things I can do when I really put my mind to it. The stories that these guys told really prove how you can make a difference in your own life and the lives of so many other people.

One of the quotes they said was "today is the youngest you will ever be" and that really is true so don't waste the time you have now because you will never get another chance.

Student-Led Discussions for Tuesday

I really liked taking the personality test for Louie's group, and I was interested in seeing what my results would be. I got ESJF, and I think that most of it was so true about me. Some things were wrong like that I like to be in charge and am a very sociable person in social gatherings. But other than that, it says that I am very friendly and take it upon myself to insure the health and welfare of people in my care. That is very true because that's the thing I want to do most by being a nurse. Then I read the other articles about the left and right brain and I am definitely more of a right brained person. I am a creative person and prefer visual descriptions rather than having things all written out. Pretty much every thing in the list of chracteristics of right brained people relate to me and maybe only one or two in the left side relate to me. I am glad that their group decided to do the student led discussion on this topic because I think it was very interesting to read about.

I also liked reading the articles from Dominique's group because I could definitely relate to some things in them like dating being a distraction from homework and classes. This is true for me because I went to an all girls high school, so for the past 4 years I have pretty much had no distractions by boys and dating. Now that there are boys in my classes and everywhere I go at school, it's so different from what I am used to. I can't really relate to the other articles because I am not in a relationship right now but I am glad they chose this topic because I learned some things about being able to maintain a relationship in college.

Readings for Student-Led Discussion on 11/10/11

When I read the first article that was listed for Adriana's group and I saw the list of parenting styles, I started wondering which style my parents use and my parents style would probably be a mix between authoritative and permissive. My parents do have rules and guidelines that they expect my sister and I to follow but there are very few. We also don't really get punished like most kids, for example I have never been grounded in my entire life and I know most of my friends have been grounded numerous times, but I also don't really do anything bad enough to deserve to be grounded anyway. Then I read the effects of these styles and the effects of a permissive style of parenting do not match how I am at all. I don't think I do poorly in school and I definitely do not have problems with authority.

Then when I read the second article about the innefective parenting techniques, I realized that whenever I am around kids and their parents try any of the things like counting to 3 or saying i'm not going to tell you again to stop, the child usually doesn't stop. I think this article would be helpful for parents that are having a hard time getting their child to listen to them because it gives examples of a better way to handle the situations and if I had a kid, I think they would be helpful.

I asked my mom if she ever had any trouble with this when I was a kid and if these methods would have been helpful, and she said that she never had any problems getting me to stop doing something and I was a very well behaved kid. :)

my sister on the other hand was a pain and very hard to control sometimes. I remember this because I was 8 when she was born and she has been like this for her whole life. She's 9 years old now and still as annoying as she was when she was born.

Readings for This Weeks Student-Led Discussions

First, I read the articles from Ashlee's group and I thought that they were very helpful. They tell you all about how to stay healthy in college and give specific examples of foods that are good options instead of always eating unhealthy things in the cafeteria. I also liked how one of the articles talked about being prepared for emotional eating because I know that many people including myself tend to over eat or even under eat during stressful situations or just when you're bored. It gives alternatives to eating like reading or doing something else productive instead of eating. The article also gave an eating schedule which is helpful because I know that being in college has changed my eating schedule and having an idea of when you should be eating which meals is a very good thing.

Next, I read the articles from Dion's group and there was one thing that particularly surpried me in the alcohol and college students drinking fact sheet. It says that student athletes are more often the heaviest drinkers in the overall student population. I always thought that most athletes wouldn't drink because they would know that it effects their performance in the sport they play. I was also surprised when I read that a study found that college students have higher rates of alcohol or drug addiction than the general public. I obviously knew that a lot of college students drink and use drugs but I didn't know that they have the highest rate of addiction, especially since most of us aren't even legally allowed to drink yet.

I can't wait to hear these student-led discussions in class tomorrow so I can learn even more interesting facts.

Something That Interests Me but is Somehow Connected to SCSU

One thing that interests me and is connected to SCSU is nursing. That is my major and I am really interested in it because I want to be able to help heal people for the rest of my life and really get to see how the body works, other than just reading about it in a textbook. I want to be a surgical nurse, so I really hope I can reach that goal because it would be so interesting to actually get to see inside a human body and help perform heart surgeries and transplants and things like that.

the nursing program is really hard to get into at southern, so I hope that I can work hard enough and really try my best to do well in all of my classes so that I can get into the program. I haven't wanted to be a nurse for that long, I probably decided when I was around 14. before that I wanted to be an architect, because that's what my grandfather was. then I wanted to be a hairdresser, because I'm pretty sure every little girl goes through that phase once in her life. then I wanted to be a crime scene investigator, and I would still love to be one but nursing just interests me a little more than that. the biology class I took freshman year of high school really made me want to become a nurse because I was really good at biology but I knew I didn't want to be a science teacher or a scientist or anything like that.

Something That Interests Me

this post was due on Monday night but I have not had power at my house...

One thing that really interests me is photography. I took a photography class junior year in high school and that's when I first got into it. I'm not the best photographer in the world, I don't even have one of those fancy cameras that you always see photographers using but I think it's really cool. I like how people can take a picture of the simplest thing and make it look really different just by the way they change the angle and that can make you view something it a completely different way. if my goal of becoming a nurse doesn't work out then I think I would definitely consider going into photography. maybe I could be a crime scene photographer, because then I could be doing both the things I love; taking pictures and getting to see all of the crime scenes up close. that probably sounds kind of weird but I am obsessed with the show CSI...

I haven't really been taking a lot of pictures since a little while after that photography class but every now and then I will get inspired by something and just start taking pictures again. I would post some pictures on here that I have taken but they're on my computer that I can't use because I have no power at home. :(

Campus Safari #10

I forgot to write about the majors expo that I went to a few weeks ago so I thought I would write about it this week! I went with my friend Melanie who is interested in changing her major from education to nursing, which is my major. I wanted to see what information I could get from the nursing major group at the expo but honestly I didn't learn anything that I didn't already know. the expo is probably more important to go to if you are undecided or looking into changing your major. the nursing advisors did remind me that I needed to go to the nursing advising meeting, which was good because I might have forgotten. I hope that all of the undecided major people went to the major expo because I think it would have been very helpful for them.

Midterm Grades

My midterm grades this semester turned out good and bad. I was happy to see that I got a B in math, because I usually do terribly in math and always had my friend to help me study and tutor me all throughout high school, but now that she is gone I did not want to go find a tutor, so I just tried to do it all by myself and it definitely helps that I am in a low math class so it is easier than my previous math classes. I was also partly surprised that I have an A in anthropology, but I have done well on quizzes and essays so it was a surprise but it also wasn't. I am not very happy about my Inquiry grade but it is my own fault that it got so low. I did not do as well writing blogs as I could have, so this term I will definitely work harder on my blogs. My computer class grade is also not as good as I thought it would be, it's a computer class so how hard could it be? but it actually is a tough class sometimes. So I definitely plan on also working harder in that class. Overall, I plan on working harder in every class and now that I know how much work I get, I know how hard I have to work.

Critical Thinking Midterm Video!

Here is the link to my finished midterm video project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWUlD4MTSpo

I hope you like it. :)

Out of My Comfort Zone

I went to this "haunted" mini golf place with my family and it was totally out of my comfort zone. Not the mini golfing part, the haunted part. I know it probably doesn't sound scary at all and it probably wasn't but to me there is nothing scarier. The whole golfing area is decorated with fake body parts and blood and spider webs and things like that all over the place, and you're just playing golf as usual, having fun with your family, and then out of no where comes a guy dressed in all black so he is very hidden in the dark and he starts swinging a chainsaw all around you. Obviously it isn't even a functional chainsaw, there is no chain on it because that would be dangerous, but to me it was like I was about to be murdered. I am obsessed with horror movies but when it comes to me actually being in a horror movie situation, I react just like I am actually in the movie and am about to be killed. There are so many things I would rather do than be chased around with a chainsaw. I know a lot of people love those kinds of things like the Trail of Terror and Fright Fest, but I just can not even step foot into one of those places. I know, I'm a wimpy little girl but whatever.

Campus Safari #2

For this weeks campus safari, I went to the library on campus to look for a book. There was not a particular book that had been discussed in any of my classes, so I just went to find something on nursing that could be useful for my future career. I found the book called The Nurses' Career Guide: Discovering New Horizons in Health Care by Zardoya E. Eagles. The author is a registered nurse, so I thought the book could be better than any other book that is written by someone that isn't even registered as a nurse. The book guides the reader through all the different career options for nurses today, and it could be a book for a recent graduate or even a nurse that has been working for a while. It will help the reader discover their ideal job in the health care field, which is very helpful to me because I am not exactly sure exactly what kind of nurse I want to be once I get my degree. I would definitely recommend this book to any person that is going into the nursing field.

Time Management for Projects

My time management for this video project so far has not been very good at all. I started working on the project last Tuesday night and since I didn’t have any videos or interviews to put it in yet, I did not get very far on it. Since then, I’ve honestly only put in about 20 more minutes of time working on it. Usually, I would have most of it done by now, but with all the other midterms and homework I have been focusing on, I let this project get pushed to the back of my mind and I regret it because now I’m getting worried that I won’t have it done by the due date. Today I did ask one teacher for some opinions on the topic, so I plan on adding those quotes to the video. I still have to record some students talking about critical thinking and what it means to them, and then it will be smooth sailing from there.

As for how many hours I have spent on this project so far, I have spent about an hour gathering materials for the video and 20 minutes troubleshooting and making the video. I expect to put in a couple more hours once I have finished gathering all the materials I need. For a better result, I obviously could have already gotten most of my interviews done and actually added them to the video. I am usually good at working under pressure, so I am sure that I will be able to get this video done on time and have it actually turn out ok.

Video Project (Problems, etc.)

For the midterm video project, I have not encountered any technical problems or anything like that keeping me from working on this project. I had to make two videos using iMovie in high school, so using the program is pretty simple for me. I guess the only problems I could say that I have been having are trying to think of ways to make the video creative and different from everyone elses, but I think that once I have all of the interviews and quotes that I need to put in, I will be able to come up with something.

Critical Thinking Video Project

I just started working on my midterm video project and so far I only have a definition i found online of what critical thinking is and one quote by another freshman on what they think critical thinking is and why it is important. I am planning on recording two other students on their responses to what critical thinking is and why it is important, and I am still thinking of ways to expand on that and get some different answers from people. I will ask two professors how critical thinking is a good thing to have after you finish college and how a student that shows they use critical thinking is different from other students. I will also include some information on critical thinking somewhere in the video. I am a little worried about my video making it to the 8 minute mark, so hopefully I will be able to get enough information to do that.

The SCSU Library and Critical Thinking

“Critical thinking: what every person needs to survive in a rapidly changing world.”

My inquiry class visited the library on campus last week to learn about critical thinking and it is a very important thing for college students. You need to think about things in a much broader way than you did in previous years at school. I looked for an article that would help guide students on how to improve their critical thinking skills.

1. Think creatively. This enhances your ability to think critically. As you become better at this, you can find ways to challenge yourself.

2. Play critical thinking games like chess. You might not think that just by playing a game like chess that you could be improving your brain skills. Also, games like Sudoku increase your critical thinking skills.

3. The Socratic Method. “This considers disciplined questions or inquiries that trigger critical thought to answer.” (1) You examine current event topics, politics and religions.

Critical thinking will not only be helpful to you during your college years but for the rest of your life. I am glad that my inquiry class went to the library to learn about critical thinking because it made me realize how much you really need this skill for not only college classes but also getting a job in the future and having important skills in the work place. A lot of things we do during the day involve critical thinking, even when you least expect it!

Look online or go to your library to find out more about critical thinking!

Bibliography:

1. http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/improve.php

2. McGuire, Lauren A. "Improving Student Critical Thinking and Perceptions of Critical Thinking through Direct Instruction in Rhetorical Analysis." Dissertation Abstracts International, Section A: The Humanities and Social Sciences 71.7 (2011): 2318. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 10 Oct. 2011.

Stress Relief

I always hear people talking about how stressed they are. Even my 9 year old sister comes home from school saying she is stressed... I don't even think I knew what being stressed meant when I was her age. I don't usually tend to get too stressed about anything, unless I completely forgot to do a major homework assignment or I know I'm going to get in trouble or something like that. I find that I do get stressed about small things like making friends or starting at a new school, so it was pretty bad at the beginning of this school year but since then I haven't really been stressed about much so for this blog, I can't really say that I've done anything lately to relieve stress because I have not been stressed. But for those people that do get really stressed all the time, I went online and looked up some stress relief methods! http://helpguide.org/mental/stress_management_relief_coping.htm

Staying Healthy in College

When I think about college, being healthy doesn't exactly come to my mind. But now that I am thinking about it, it's a very important thing. You don't want to miss class and have to make up work and try to get all the notes you missed from someone and risk getting really behind in your studies. I didn't really know of any perfect ways to stay healthy while at college, the only thing I do is work out every night when I get home, so I looked up ways to stay healthy and I found this website to be very helpful: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/stay-healthy-college/. This website tells you exactly what you should eat in college dining halls, how to exercise while in college, manage stress and how the amount of sleep you get can effect your health. As a commuter, I don’t have to worry about most of the things normal college kids do since I don’t eat every meal at the dining hall or another food place on campus, but that also doesn’t mean I’m eating any healthier than the people living on campus do. I also probably have better sleep habits than most people living at college because I have no distractions like roommates or things going on in the dorms.I think every college student should try to be as healthy as they can so they don’t miss class and have a great college experience.