Bowling...fun?!?

                The timing for the topic of doing something out of your comfort zone couldn't have been better. This past weekend I did something that I have never done before, and I hadn't done it before because it was out of my comfort zone entirely. So this past weekend I was bored sitting at home with my girlfriend when she asked if I wanted to go bowling. Now I have gone bowling back when I was VERY young and I hated it then. Since then I have never gone until this past weekend because I hated it so much and I was pretty afraid of wearing those nasty bowling shoes that were used by like millions of people.

                After some convincing my girlfriend had me driving the car towards the bowling alley and preparing myself to go through hell. When we finally got to pay and get to the lane with our nasty bowling shoes I was pretty nervous. But I wasn’t going to go back at that point so I prepared myself for the disgusting shoes and slipped them on. After the whole ordeal I actually had a pretty good amount of fun. To be honest I am actually considering joining a league this summer and making a team with my friends.

                So I am very glad that my girlfriend suggested that we should go there because without her I would have never gone back to the bowling alley and tried it again. I found something that I think I might really like and it will definitely be a fun and safe hobby for me to do with friends in the future.

MIDTERMS!!!

                Looking at my midterm grades I can say at this point I am not quite where I want to be. For all of my classes except for one I am doing pretty well in. There is still one class though where I am not dong as well as I should. It is probably because it is the subject I am worst at but I still think I need to work harder at it. But not including that class I am definitely doing well in my opinion so far.

                I think that my study habits have definitely helped me in achieving my grades thus far. I feel that I will probably need to study harder for that one class and probably even seek extra help which I'm not very comfortable with doing. But I know that I have to at this point because I am in college now and there is no second chances here.

                As for goals that I would like to set for myself for the remainder of the semester I have a few of them. One would be to definitely pass my lowest class right now and I mean easily pass it. I also would like to strive to bring my other grades from all B's to A's because I think it would be very beneficial for me to do this. It would help me get used to what I needed to do to receive good grades and classes in the future in my college career.

Narcissism?!? No way!

                After reading these articles I would have to say that I definitely agree with the fact that students are expecting o receive high grades on assignments for just doing the bare minimum. I can honestly say that I used to be that way in high school. I would do everything the assignment required me to do and hand it in. When I got the assignment back and it ended up being a lower grade I was confused and often talked to my teachers about the problem. Luckily for me from the start in college so far all of my professors have made all of their specific expectations very apparent to me so I know already that is I just do the bare minimum then the best mark I can receive is going to be a C. I think that when students begin new classes whether it is in college or in high school the teachers need to tell them exactly what to expect from them. That way if any student complains to the teacher then at least the teacher an say that he or she told the student their expectations.

                As for schools raising their grading criteria, essentially making it easier for students to receive high grades, I think it's horrible. It says that they are only trying to help their students so the when they graduate they will have a better chance at obtaining a good job. But in my opinion the schools are only hurting the students in the long run. If an employer sees that you went to a school that made their grading criteria easier it's going to seem like you are either a lazy person or you are not as intelligent because you weren't challenged enough by your school. I know that is what I would think as an employer.

                So overall i think that the teachers need o le their students know their expectations at the start of each semester and be very clear with them. Also schools shouldn't make grading more lenient for students because it really will hurt their future.

INQ Midterm Video

                So this video took me quite a while to put together, and I can definitely say it's the largest project I have ever created with windows movie maker. But overall I would say the experience was great because now I such a better understanding of what people think about time management but also how to use movie maker fluently. With this project I was able to look in depth at the amount of time that freshmen spend doing things like schoolwork every week. I can still say though that I believe that most freshmen are not managing their time wisely enough to succeed at this point.

                But anyways here is my video , it is also posted on the right side of my blog page.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCecr0LoRz4

Being Bored really is good!

            For my free choice blog post this week I feel like talking about the article that we had to read this week about how being bored can increase your creativity. I know that when we discussed this article in class most students were saying that they don’t think that they are very creative when they are bored. Also students said that when they are bored they usually just sit down and do nothing. In my opinion in think that most of them weren’t realizing what the article actually meant.

            Personally I was able to connect to the article very easily because I feel bored all the time when I am driving from place to place. I am in the car for about eleven hours over the course of one week, and this is not counting the time it takes me to drive to and from work and also if I’m driving anywhere else. So I have a lot of time to be bored and because of all this time in think I have become a more creative person and I know more about myself from it.

            When I drive I have gotten to the point where I can let my mind completely wander and still pay close attention to my driving. So as my mind wanders I often reflect on my day or week. I also think about things I need to do and I think about the kind of person I really am. So instead of just sitting there and hating every second of all the driving I do, I have now turned that boredom into a much more productive experience. I actually almost look forward to driving now because I can just let go and feel relieved after thinking about all that is on my mind.

Peer Mentors, Pass or Fail...

                At first I didn’t really think much of the whole peer mentor idea in our class. But now that we have had a few sessions with our peer mentor Lee I definitely am a fan of it. I think that having a student’s input on a lot of the conversations we have definitely helps me as a freshman connect to the topic. If we are talking about something that I don’t really worry about it is nice to hear a first-hand experience from Lee to actually see how the topic could relate to me more.

            I feel that Lee definitely adds a more upbeat attitude to our Inquiry classes. She is always very positive and she helps keep the rest of the students in the class in a good mood. Also every class when we hear a response from Lee to any question we always seem to get some very valuable information from it. Not only are all of her responses very intellectual and well thought out, but they always seem to be connectable to all of our lives in college so far.

            The best thing about having a peer mentor is the sole fact that we as freshmen are now able to hear what college level thinking really sounds like in person. All of Lee’s responses seem to have a very high level of college thinking put into each of them. Every time I hear one it makes me pay much closer attention to what she is saying because I toot want to be able to think at that level at some point in my life. So overall I would say that having a peer mentor in the classroom is a big plus to the entire learning experience. The only critique I could give would be to actually give the peer mentor more time with the class by themselves.

Computers!!!

                Currently I am enrolled as an undecided student in SCSU. But honestly I do know what I want to major in. The reason I haven’t declared my major yet is because I would rather focus on passing all of the classes required by southern before I get into my major. I do intend on declaring my major probably within the first two semesters of my college career.

                But as for the major that I will be choosing soon, it will be Computer Science. I plan to choose this major for a few reasons. The first reason is that fact that my dad works at Yale New Haven Hospital as a computer tech, and I used to go to work with him and help him during the day and I loved it. I have always been fascinated with computers and technology in general so learning more about them definitely excites me. Also I can definitely see myself working with computers for the rest of my life because computers are the kind of thing that never gets old. There will always be new computers coming out with new features. So I will always have something new to look forward to. The last added plus is that fact that my dad tells me all the time that he sees new jobs that have “six figure salaries”, for starting workers, and I know that definitely makes me want to give it my best shot to get a piece of that kind of money.

A Perfect Post

This would be my guidelines for a very well put together blog post.

1. Interesting

2. Fluency/Clarity

3. Relevance

4. Short and to the point

A blog post needs many different things inserted into it for it to be a well written post. In my eyes the words that I outlined above are all the criteria you need to be able to produce a great blog post.

                The first word, interesting, has more than one reason for being important. The first is that your blog post needs to have a topic that is going to interest all types of readers. It needs to be about something that is interesting enough to make any random reader who stumbles across your blog to want to read it and be satisfied with the post. Also the other meaning of this word is that the post needs to hold the readers interest throughout the entire post. It needs to keep the readers’ attention only on the post.

                The second piece of important criteria for a good blog post is the fluency and clarity aspect of the post. A good post needs to be easy to understand while also having a certain flow or rhythm to the post. It should be easy for a reader to read your post and come away with a clear take on what you were trying to say in the post.

                The next criteria would have to be the relevance of your topic. Does you topic relate to something that is going on in you town/country? Or is it something that only pertains to you? A well written post will have some kind of relation to the world around it so that a reader who comes across the post can relate to it and feel connected.

                Last but not least is the phrase “short and to the point.” I feel that this is the most important thing to remember when writing a good blog post. If a blog post is pages and pages long I know that as a reader I would honestly probably skip reading it all together. But when a blog post is nice and short and includes the rest of my specified criteria then it really makes the whole experience of reading it a pleasant one.

                This is what my criteria of a perfect blog post will be and below I will be listing some bloggers that seem to show these criteria well.

Perfect Posts:

http://situationsstation.blogspot.com/2010/10/we-kings-event.html

http://andrewcasey592.blogspot.com/2010/10/art-of-eatting-on-run.html