Thursday, December 6, 2007

Learning Profile

What did I learn from student connect? Well in the first chapter we learned about the six basic truths about college. The basic truths are: 1) college is a two way street 2) freedom is a seldom free 3) you're in charge here 4) .com will be one of your best friends 5) an open ming and patience can be two of your best teachers 6) this is not high school. Also in this chapter we learned what some of our greatest strengths were and what things we may need to change. This helped me realize that I would have to change my study habits. In high school i was able to get my work done and get good grades without really studying, but now that I am in college I have to study to make sure I stay up with all the new learning materials. Its like the 6th basic truth this is not high school.

Then we moved on to the second chapter we learned about college policies and procedures. This allowed me to learn about the strict add/drop date and also about the attendance policy for classroom instruction. In this chapter we learned about refund policies, academic dishonesty policies, and drug and alcohol policies. I also learned that most colleges will not allow you to take more than a certain number of credit hours per semester. The upper limit of this policy is usually 18 credit hours. Playing it safe and protecting yourself on campus is some other things we talked about in chapter two. A few things we talked about to ensure our safety is don't bring valuables on campus. Lock you vechicle and park in well lit areas; never carry alot of money on you. If you do have valuables, lock them in the trunk of your car.

Chapter three we started out learning obout the dreaded "P" word: procrastination which sometimes alot of college students have problems with. Some reason college students have procrastination is fear of not knowing how to do a task, lack of motivation, fear of failing, or no real plan or goal for getting the task done. It talked about twenty ways to be procrastination and some of the ways are very simple. Breaking big tasks up into smaller ones, gives you a time limit to complete the task. Start the task with positive optomistic thoughts, and actually reward yourself when you have accomplished an important body of work. Another important thing is evaluate how you spend your time. The chapter showed us how to set out our schedule to see what we had to get done and let us know when we had spare time to do homework or just free time to relax or do whatever.

In chapter four and five we learned about our reading and learning styles. The first thing we learned is that i was ESFP which means im very good at sports and active excercises. I have good common sense and im easy going. I good at communicating with others and can be impulsive. I don't enjoy working alone and have fun and enjoy living life. I also am ISFP, i am very sensitive and modest; adapy easily to change, respectful to other peoples feelings and values, and i take criticism personally. This really surprised me because this described me very well and i didn't think a little test like that could.

Once we got to chapters six and seven we learned about learning styles and the difference between knowing and memorizing. Listening is a good habit to learn. Listening can help personal growth, it establishes and improves relationships. It shows respect to others an you can learn new information. When you are studying, knowing the material is important instead of just memorizing it. If you knowthe material then you have stored it away in your long term memory and you will always have it. When you memorize the material you are just storing it in your short term memory where you will eventually forget it. Chapter seven we also learned of the SQ3R method. The SQ3R stands for scan questions, read, recite, and review. This method is a very good way of studying.

In chapter eight we discussed how your attitude towards a test can make a difference. Haeing a positive and calm attitude when going to take a test is much better than being unsure and thinking your going to fail. We also talked about academic misconduct. Most colleges consider academic misconduct as looking at another persons test paper for answers, giving students answers on a test, using any king of cheat sheets, of discussing exam questions with students who are taking the same class at another time.

Chapter nine was about critical thinking. We learned how to make it work for us. Some of these ways are restraining emotions, looking at things differently, analyzing, asking questions, solving problems, and distingushing fact from opinion.

Now in chapter ten we talked about our future plans and careers and how relationshipa are important for your career. To function in a happy healthy manner, human beings need one another. Everything we learn in this life comes through and from our relationships with others. We need each othe to help us laugh, help us cry, help us learn, help us work, help us provide for the survival of the species, and help us die when the time comes.

In my student connect class i learned that when you use your time wisely its always better than waiting till the last second. You will always feel better and be more prepared if you studied before a test or did the assignment ahead of class. Using your time wisely always turns out better for you in the long run. I also learned that academic honesty is really important. Its not worth copying off someone because the consquences are just to great.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Butler Resources

If i were in Jessica's place the first thing I would do is get with reality. She has to stop living in the past thinking about all the good times her and her ex-boyfriend had and realize she has a baby on the way. I understand that relationships are hard when they end especially if they were long ones; but obviously in wasn't meant to be. Maybe a couple years down the road you will see that it did work out better for you to not to be together. You need to tell your ex-boyfriend that you also have a baby on the way. Don't let him back out of this its his kid to. It will be easier if the two of you raise this baby to it will also psychologically be better for the baby too, to have both parents around. You also need to tell your parents to. Even if you think they might be unsupportative and blow threw the roof they actually might surprise you. If they don't well then thats ok too they will come around. You should start going to the doctors regularly to get your check-ups and find a good doctor that you want to deliever your baby. You should also start saving up as much money as possible and start buying the babys new things.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Academic Plan

My Purpose for attending Butler is To Graduate with an Associates Degree in Secondary Education. I plan on becoming a history major and transferring To Pitt. State University after Butler. The reason I decided to attend Pitt State after Butler was because they have a really strong history program there. Some classes I had to have at Butler in order to graduate was Comp 1&2, general Psychology, U.S. History 1. At least two humanities requirements, two math requirements and two science requirements. I also have to take an Intro to teaching class as well. At Pitt State the classes you half to take to graduate from there with a Bachelor's degreee is a geography class, lifetime fitness, College Algebra, Politics classes, a semester of student teaching. I already got Art Apperciation and Sociology out of the way, so that will help me out a little. I want to be a history major and teach history at a high school level because it was the only thing in high school that i loved learning about. I only want to get A's and B's in my classes, no C's. I also want to try and graduate from Butler with a 3.0 to 3.5 GPA.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Community Service

Community Service; its needed everywhere throughout the U.S. for anyone and everyone. There is never to much community service. The one subject that has grabbed my attention is poverty in families. It breaks my heart to hear about little kids that only get one meal a day. Usually that one meal a day comes at lunch time when kids are at school. You will see kids stuffing themselves because thats their first meal since yesterday. Little kids will even go as far as putting food in thier pockets so they will have a snack for later that day. I attended Augusta High School and was part of National Honor Society and we did lots of things to help kids and families in need.
Around Halloween time we always did Trick or Treat so kids can eat. We would go door to door and gather any can goods from people so we could take them to our local caring center. We would make a competition out of it so more people would get involved and be willing to get more cans. They usually recieved a small prize for whoever collected the most cans.
Another thing we would do is around christmas time we would have our annual toy drive so kids could recieve gifts on christmas morning. we knew their parents couldn't afford it so we wanted to help out any way possible. We even accepted cash donations and we go out and buy toys with any money that was collected.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Time Management

time management; now a days seems like i have no time at all! No time to do homework, study, or sometimes even sleep. There isn't enough time to get everything i need to do done. When i don't manage my time properly I always seem to pay for it in the end. I either don't have my homework done, or i didn't do as good on a test as i could of if i would have studied. College students today get really stressed when the get alot of homework sometimes its hard to get it all done. But i know alot of students feel pretty good when they are able to manage time right and are able to get everything done. It always feels good to have everything done your not as stressed as you would be if everything wasn't done. I always feel so much better and well prepared for my classes when everything is done and ready to go. Sometimes if i have an assignment is given and its not due for a couple weeks i always try and get it done as soon as possible just in case something else comes up. For me managing my time in high school and how i do it in college really hasn't changed for me, the only problem is i have less time in college. Especially being in a college spot takes up more time then i ever thought it would. When i get home at the end of the day the last thing on my mind is studying! All in want to do is sleep. So sometimes i tend to slack off a little.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Academic Honesty

Academic honesty is very important. Breaking the academic honesty policy can lead to being removed from the class and even the school. Today kids are being caught plagarizing thier work. Plagiarism is defined as taking ideas, writings, etc, from another and pass them off as one's own. Today, teachers have come up with new ways to catch someone who is plagarizing. It is as easy as getting on the internet and typing a couple sentences of you paper to see if you have been plagarizing. Why Plagarize? The consquences are to great. In high school you can get a detention or get in F on your paper. You could even get expelled from school for a certain amount of time. If you try and plagarize in college thats even worse, they feel that your an adult now and you should have already learned by now. You can easily get dropped from the class and in college classes aren't free anymore so you just wasted alot of money on a class because you plagarized and your not going to get it back. If your caught plagarizing it kinda makes you look like an idiot to. It always feels better when you have researched and done the paper yourself and you get a good grade on it. Academic Honesty to me means doing your own work and not plagarizing. If you do decided to use someone elses work always cite your sources.

Genocide in Africa

Genocide has been a major problem that has affected lives of milions of Africans for many years. Genocide is formally defined as the deliberate and systematic destruction of an entire people who belong to one racial, political, cultural, or religious group. More people have died in this conflict than in any other since World War II, but it has received scant attention in the U.S., and few Americans are aware of its massive scope. A mortality study by the International Rescue Committee estimates that between 1998 and 2004, approximately 3.8 million deaths have occurred as a result of the way. The number of deaths continues to rise. It is the deadliest conflict since World War II. Genocide has left many children fatherless and motherless. Many Africans have had to watch there whole families mudered right before them.

There are two reasons why genocide is still committed in the world:
1. The world has not developed the international institutions needed to predict and prevent it.
2. The world’s leaders do not have the political will to stop it.Our next task should be to create the international institutions and political will to prevent it.
Four institutions are needed: centers for early warning, programs for conflict transformation, standing forces for rapid intervention, and international courts for effective punishment.