Riding the Semester Coaster!

There are no words to describe my first semester here at Southern Connecticut State University. My experience has been a blast! From my first class, to the last class, I learned so many new things about how I deal with pressure. College has been a new chapter in my life. During my high school days, I was not reliant on myself. I expected things to come to me and did not put effort into many things. Now that I am a college student, I am taking more responsibilities and actions towards my life and certainly my education. Although I improved my habits, I know there is still a lot more to come; as I am only at the beginning of the process.

Things will definitely get harder, and I will have to learn to cope with what is going on. One thing that challenged me this semester was that in some classes your whole grade depends on one or two tests. I find this to be very difficult because if you fail one of the tests, your grade is most likely not going to be an A like you wanted it to be. This puts a lot of pressure on you to make sure you know the material and study. In order to overcome those challenges, I would think a week in advance so I know what is coming up. This way I get a heads start on the material and for the parts that I do not understand, I have time to review. Another challenge I faced was how a college professor expects much more from you than a high school teacher does. In high school, all a student has to do to get a good grade is do their homework and come to class. In college, it is extremely different. In order to get solid grade, one has to go home and understand the topic before they come to class. In addition, there is much more reading to do in college then high school. I have learned that everything a professor says in class is valuable.

Although I have had some difficulties this semester, I also had many achievements. One of my biggest successes this semester is time management. I was able to handle a big amount of schoolwork, as well as handling my job. I thought I was going to have a ton of sleepless nights because I would have to work when I have to study but that was not the case at all! I learned to use my time wisely when I was not at work to finish any schoolwork that needed to be done and if I did not finish I tried to finish at work! I probably had one or two sleepless nights this whole semester! Next semester, I might quit one of my jobs so I have more time for my schoolwork. I have been satisfied with my grades this semester despite some minor setbacks. I enjoy some classes more than I enjoy others and I believe that has been deciding my grade. For example, I do not really enjoy my math class, actually I dread going, which is why I probably have low grade. On the other hand, I enjoy going to inquiry class. I love the discussions we have and the students in my class. All these reflect my grade in the class. I believe I am achieving my goal of expanding my education and learning something new every day.

This first semester has definitely taught me many things. For instance, it has taught, college is all about how with growing up also come a lot more responsibilities. It also gave me a blast of confidence for next semester because now I know what to expect and now know all the resources southern offers that I can go to if I need help. For next semester, I plan to continue to strive in my education and to spread my wings to study abroad!  I plan to continue to use the same techniques next semester such as, time management, and good study habits to get good grades.  I enjoy coming to southern because it is a university with many good resources for students to strive in their work. My first semester has been a memorable one and I hope to keep expanding my education. Here is a short video of me explaining my thoughts! Enjoy!

Campus safari!

For this week’s campus safari, I went to the Office of Study Skills Enrichment. This office focuses on everything you need to do to get a good grade in every class. Their focus is on time management skills, note taking and studying skills as well as test taking strategies. The staff at the office was very welcoming and had no problem answering any of my questions. This is a great resource to have on campus because everybody gets stressed out when it comes to tests and this is a great way to learn how to handle that. I encourage every student to visit the office!

Success and Failure!

Being successful takes a lot of hard work. This semester I feel like I was very successful due to the hard work I put into my schoolwork. One of my biggest successes is my Political Science class. Political science has always been a very interesting subject to me. I feel like I really understand everything that is going on in that class. I worked very hard to get a good grade too. We have 3 big tests each worth 25 percent of your grade. For the first test I made sure I studied and I ended up getting a 92. When the second test came around, I started to know what the professor is looking for so I studied even more. When I got the second test, I ended up getting a 101! I enjoy that class a lot because the teacher is great and it is an interesting subject. Another success I had was in inquiry. I am proud of the way my videos turned out because I worked very hard on them. Although I had a lot of success, unfortunately I had some failure as well. My greatest failure was in my math class. This class is very difficult for me because I do not like the subject and the teacher is the worst. Whenever I’m in class, it is a struggle for me to stay awake. I believe this has affected my grade because the grade I received was not the grade I was looking for. Through all my success and failures this semester, I feel like the most important thing is that I learn to learn from both of them.

Final video already?!?

Final video already?? I feel like the semester just started! I want my last video to be the ultimate factor. I want my video to stand out the most. Since this whole class revolved around creativity I want this video to be a step up from all my other videos. I plan on using all the things I learned during this course to enhance my video. Although I believe myself to already be creative, there is always room for improvement. In order to make this final video a creative one, I need to start now. This week I've have been very confused with how to start with my video. I didn't know how to be a little more creative then all my other videos. Then finally an idea popped up in my mind. I decided to make my whole video into a trailer into what is near in the future. I started working on it as soon as I got the idea. I started to answer the questions that are involved with it. I feel like this is a good way to get a good start because once I actually sit down to work on it, the process will be faster. I feel confident about this project because I'm used to iMovie by now and know my way around. I still can't believe this is the last video we have for this semester. This video is Abigail faster of our grade so I want to make sure I do well.

Campus safari!

For this weeks campus safari I decided to attend the day of peace at southern. At first I didn't know where it was located but then realized it was at the Lyman Center from 3pm-10pm. The day of peace included many interesting acts. First there was a festival of music. Then a dance group from Southern put on a wonderful show! There was also a group that discussed ways to spread peace around the campus! I enjoyed going to this event because I met a lot of people and it was fun!

Underage drinking video!

For our third video assignment I talked about dealing with underage drinking. I actually had a ton of fun doing this video, because I worked with my cousins and friends. I feel like we all worked well together. I feel very confident in my video because I used many techniques. First I used the video taping to bring the problem up. Then I incorporated some text to give the viewer a solution. I tried to make my video not go over the 5 minutes 30 seconds mark but it was very difficult for me to do that. I had a lot of information I needed to present in order to continue the story of my video. Although its a bit lengthy, I was very proud of my topic. Underage drinking is a big problem not only in college, but in high school as well. People think that drinking is fun and nothing bad can happen to them. That is wrong. There are a lot of consequences that involve underage drinking. Thousands of teens die every year because of underage drinking. Did you know, that more than 40% of car crashes are because of drinking and driving? Yeah, that's a lot. Many students think that drinking can relieve stress from the week's work, but there are many other ways to do that. Students can get involved in clubs and activities. They can also excluded them selves from students that do drink a lot. Overall I feel like I worked very hard on this video and used my time wisely to create it.        

The Finale!

As we read The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp for class, I began to think more about creativity. This book teaches a lot about creativity and how to become a more creative person. If you lack creativity, it gives you many exercises you can try, to help improve your creativity. Creativity is everywhere you turn in life. Whether its trying to find a job, or working on a project at school. It's all about how creative you are, to attract viewer. Although I feel like I'm a person with a lot of creativity, I still chose to do these activities  because you can't be over creative! Some of them even deal with how to accept failure, and what you can work on if you do!  Twyla Tharp talks about how she feels she is a creative person. Twyla Tharp works in a blank white room with mirrors on one side. She doesn't let this affect her creativity. In fact, she uses this room as a way to expand her creativity. She uses this white room to make dance pieces, and she actually wins competitions! One thing Twyla Tharp emphasizes is the importance of practice. She believes that people are not born perfect, and that everybody needs to practice in order to master something. After reading this book, Twyla Tharp taught me to not only be creative in everything that I do, but also to accept failure and to learn from it. Creatively is something that is unique in every single person. Everybody is creative in their own way and you are in control of it. I recommended everybody to read this book, because it will open your mind to things you have never noticed before. It is not that hard to read as well, so you can always read it in your spare time!