First Semester at Rhode Island College

Finals are next week and it is almost time to relax. However this means that my first semester at college is coming to an end. When I first got to this school I thought that it was going to be just like high school. I thought that the work was going to be easy and all I had to do was show up for class, but boy was I wrong. College requires so much effort, just showing up for class and doing the minimum amount of work will not help you to succeed. I now understand that it is only going to continue to get harder from here on out. My first semester at College has been a very good experience. I have made so many new friends, these new friends are people that I know will still be friends when it is time for me to graduate and go off on my own. I have also learned so much about myself while being here in College. Through some bad experiences here at the College I have learned not to be as trusting as I used to be, and I have gained a lot more Self Esteem.

There are some things that I would change about my first semester. I wish that I had gone into this school with the motivation that I have now, because then I think that I would have done much better. When I first came to Rhode Island College I was very lazy and I would procrastinate a lot. If there was something that I knew was due in a week, I usually wouldn't start it until the night before. However after awhile I started realizing that this is not an effective way to get good grades, and I am not exceeding the expectations. I decided to put more effort into my work as the semester went. There is nothing that I can do about the way I started out the first part of the semester expect change these behaviors for next semester.

Next Semester I know that I will give even more of an effort and do much better then I did this semester. The reason why I feel this way is because now I already have a feeling for the College life, and I know what is expected. I am not in College to waste my parents money, I am here to learn, do my best and get a good job when I graduate. This motivation came from the first semester of me being in College.

This week..........

This week has been very stressful for me. I have had a pretty rough week, with having to deal with family problems, problems with my roomate, and the holidays comming up around the corner. This week I almost felt like giving up alomst a couple of times. However, I have pulled through and I know that if I were to give up I would just be hurting myself in the long run. As far as all of my classes go, I think that I am doing pretty well. I am very confident about passing all of my finals and I think that I will do a good job. My math final is the only one I am iffy about, but I feel as though if I devote art least three hours a day to studying for the exam and if I continuosly go see a tutor, I will pass the exam with flying colors. I have learned a lot at my semester in college so far, I have learned how to get along with people better and I have learned how to managae my time better. I have been trying to make use of all of the tutors and opportunitys we have here at Rhode Island College and I feel as though I am handling it farily well. I cant wait until the end of the semester so that hte new semester can come and I can start all over again. I know that next semester I will do twice as good as I did this semester because I already have a better feel for the "College Life".

College life/Editorial

Over the past few weeks I had been extremly stressed with all of my midterm due back to back and trying to make sure that I am up to date in all of my classes and handing in my clas work on time. My grades so far are not to bad,but I could always do better. Next semester I feel as though I will do much better then I did this semester because I will already be a pro at College life and the college classes. As I stated in the first blog adjusting to college life has been very hard, but I am handling it better day by day. Things with my suitemates have gotten better, we all get along and I love each and every one of them. I am not as nervous as I used to about speaking up and participating in class disscussions. In fact, I participate in all of my classes and make sure that I am not just sitting there, I make sure that I am also participating. I have learned that if you just sit there in class and dont participate, or do not pay any attention at all to what the proffessor is saying then you might as well not be there because you are not learning anything and you are wasting your time. So far I really like College, like I said I am adjusting to it better day by day. I do not think I would go to any other College other then Rhode Island College because of the small class sizes, and the way that the professors show you that they care.
This week in our College Lecture Class we were expected to write an editorial. An editorial is almost like a persuasive essay, therefore we had tomkae an agrument about something that we were passionate about or something that we thought was important and right and explain in an essay why. I decided to write my essay on Native Americain govenment funding. The reason why I did this was because I am a native americain, and it was a topic that I feel very strongly about. All my life I would always hear people talk about Native Americains getting government assistance and how unfair that is, so in my essay I talked about why I thought we deserved the funding and how important it was to our people. The most challenging thing for me about writing this essay was orginizing my thoughts and making sure that everything I said was a good argument and had a point. At first I was not quite sure on how to do this, but after I made myself a web I got my thoughts orginized and I just started writng. I think that I did well on this essay, I know I put a lot of effort into it, and I treid to find as many soruces as possible.

Midterms -________-

So far adjusting to all of the work that we have to do in College has been very stressful. The amount of work I did in High School is nothing compared to what I am doing now. Last week I had my political science and writing 100 midterm due on the same day. They were both very difficult, when I first got the midterm I thought that they were going to be easy. I thought that they were going to be multiple choice with maybe one essay question, boy was I wrong. My political science midterm consisted of 7 different essays  and they all had to be at least two pages long. My writing 100 midterm was almost the same, it was about 6 different essays and they all had to do with someone significant in history. I think that I do much better with the a test that you have to sit in a room and just answer questions, I feel this way because when I take essay tests I never know what to say and I always feel like I am rushing or not adding what I need to be. 
Grades came out today and I am very disappointed in the grade that I got for my writing midterm. I did not do as well as I thought I was going to do. However I am not going to stress out about it, as my professor Brian says "the sun came up the next day and life moves on". I just have to make sure that I will give more effort next time, and spend more time on revising the essays that I have to complete. I am very happy that I am taking this College lecture course because it have given me some really helpful tips on what to do when I take tests, and next time I think that I will do much better. For example next time I plan to devote more time to studying and actually doing the midterm.
When we learned about effective ways of test taking in my college lecture I took it all in. My Professor Brian told us that on the night of the test make sure that you get a good nights sleep, and eat a healthy breakfast. He told us that sometimes just getting a good nights sleep is much better then staying up all night trying to finish the test or cramming. I had no idea that this was more effective and next time I will do this. From on on I know that I will be better at test taking. I will take more time with the test that I have to take, and I will make sure that I analyze the answers better. I will devote more time and effort into studying and I will make sure that I get a better grade on ALL of my final exams.

Diversity

    Diversity is defined as "something that has a lot of diffrent kinds or types." When I first thought of duiversity the first thing that I would think of is poeople from diffrent backgrounds, however throughout this week I have learned tht diverysity does not only relate to background and heritage, diveristy can also relate to gender, religion and many other things. Just by looking at someone you can not tell what their background is and where they have come from. For example, someone that has the same color skin as me may not be the same ethnicity. It is human nature to judge by apperence at first look, and when you think something it is ussually stuck in your head. It is a really good thing to learn about people diffrent backgrounds, what their religion is, and what they do in there culture.
   In our College lecture Class last week it was really intesnse. We were given about eight diffrent topics such as africain americains, latinos, arabs, religion. women, men and others and then we were asked to write the first thing that came to mind when we thought of each thing. We were not asked to write down our names, therefore it was completly annoynymos. Some of the things that people in our class put down were horrible, but in the same instance if we were asked to go right it on the board nobody would be truthful. This activity really opend my eyes to how ignorant some people can be. Some of the stuff that everyone was saying may have offended some of the people in the room. I thought that it was crazy how nasty people can be when there names are not in it.
   The last class that we had was one of my favorite classes so far. We had a guest speaker named Mark come into the classoroom and teach us about history and where we all came from. One thing that he said really stood out in my mind he told us that "the greatest weapon we have is our mind, and never let someone hand you a job where you are not using your mind you are only using your handss". He taught us to stay educated so that we are not ignorant, the way he that he presented information to us was amazing, and I think that I will take the time out to read one of his peices of writing. If there is anything that this week has taught me it is that learning about diffrent people and wheere they ahve come from is fun and entertainging, and that you never know where someone has come from and what they might be.

What type of learner are YOU?

       There are three diffrent kinds of learners. You could be a visual learber, a tactile learner or a auditory learner. Visual learners are people that learn the best from what they see. For example  visual learners reatin information the best from information presented in pictures, charts, or diagrams. Visual learners learn the best from classes like art and any type of socail class. Tactile or kinesthetic learners are those who learn through experiencing/doing things. For this reason, tactile learners may become bored more quickly than other students while listening to a class lecture. Tactile learners like to experience the world and act out events. To remember a phone number, tactile learners may remember the pattern of their fingers as the press the numbers. Auditory learners are the poeple that learn the best from what hear. Auditory learners might benefit from being in lectures halls. They best way for an auditory learner to take notexs is to have a tape recorder and record what their professor is saying, then in turn going home listeniing to what they recoreded, and tkaing notes from there. Auditory learners may benefit from music classes, and any classes that you need to listen. In our College Lecture class we were expected to pick one learning style, pick a topic and teach the class that topic, depending on the learning style that we choose. I was in a group and for our learning style we decided to choose tactile learning. As I stated before tactile learners learn the best from experience and hands on activites. My group and I decided to teach the tactile learners how to sew. We made a powerpoint that listed the steps of how to sew, where sewing came from and the best way to do it. Our powerpoint did not only teach tactile learners, but it was also appealing to any visual learners in the classroom because it had all of the steps and it showed how to do them. We worked very hard on our powerpoint, however due to technical difficulties our powerpoint did not show up. In addition to reading off our powerpoint we had one member of the group choose one person in the class to come up to the front f the room, once they did she told the person each step to sewing, showed him once and then let him get in there and do it himself. Our project ended up being a success because when she let the boy try it out for himself he ended up getting it within no time, and he made a little pocket. I was very pleased with what our group did and I think that we taught the class in the best possible way. This activity also helped me learn about all of the diffrent learning styles, and it helped me better to understand which type of learner I am. I have realized that I am a visual learner, I retain information the best from charts, graphs and tables.

Free Write!

   I am now midway into my first College Semester here at RIC, and I have to say so far it is going really well. I am doing well in my classes and trying to manage my time well. I am going to start going to a tutor twice every week for math so I can ensure that my overall grade meets my expectations at the end. College work is much more difficult then high school work, and most of my classes expect you to go in depth with everything. You can not just write things and turn them in like in high school, you need to make sure that what you are writing is proficent. I like all of my proffesors so far, they all have a diffrent way of teaching the material, however everything is easy and they all make it easy to understand.
    College life is also something that I have adjusted to. I have been  getting along well with all of my sweetmates, in fact we are all like a little family now and I love spending time with them everyday. If any of us every have an argument it is ussually over something extremly stupid and we get over it very quickly. We are all so diffrent so at first I was not sure if all of our diffrent personaliotys were going to work. In fact I used to go every weekend just so that I wouldnt have to stay in the dorm, but now I love it and I feel as though it is a very important part of College. Next year we are all going to be split up if we stay on campus so we are planning on getting an apartment together, I have made many friends here that I think will be my friends forever.
   I would like to be more involved in the community and College life, so I plan to join a club. One club in particular really sparks my intrest and that is the Colored women club. I would like to meet more women of Color on campus and talk about issues that relate to us. I think it would be a great way to make new frineds and become more involved, and maybe even find someone of the upperclassmen to become a mentor.

Personality Questionare Reflection

   After taking this personality questionare I was very shocked at how accurate my results were. The test said that I am creative and enjoy helping others, and that is me to a tee. I am always giving one of my friends adfvice with a problem, and a lot of people come to me when they need help. However, sometimes it can be a bad thing because I sometimes I feel as thoguh I am to nice, and people take advantage of me. The good thing about is that people seem to gravitate to me more, and always come to me when something is wrong. This test also told me that I would do good in carrers such as psycology, teaching and anything that has to do with the health feild because I would be helping people. These carrers I have always thought about doing and I am now working on my pursuing my degree in teaching. Overall I was happy about the resulta I got on this test, and at first I was skeptikal about taking it because I hate taking questionares, but it was very helpful and informative.

Type Focus Words: Judging, Orginized, Intuition, Extraversion
Key Words: Outgoing, Imaginitive, Compassionate, Orginized


General Description: ENFJs glow with warmth and sympathy. They are creative and organized and enjoy helping others achieve their personal goals. ENFJs want to understand people, so they are interested in theories of human behavior. Since ENFJs bring out the best in others, they make popular leaders and faithful supporters. They are gifted communicators.

Careers:
ENFJs value harmony and personal growth as ideals so they prefer to work in settings that promote these ideals. Since they are outgoing and organized, ENFJs adapt easily to organizational policies and procedures - as long as the procedures are in line with their idealized goals. ENFJs will enjoy work that helps people get along better and improve themselves. Careers often chosen by ENFJs include the religious professions, health care, psychology, writing, fine arts, teaching (art, drama, music) and counseling.

My 168 Budget:

Activity	Frequency	Priority	Hours
Class	4	4	15
Studying	4	4	17
Eating	21	4	10
Work Out	3	3	5
Hanging out with friends	5	3	8
Beauty	7	3	5
Facebook	7	1	6
Spending time with family	5	4	8
Television	3	2	3
Shopping	3	2	5
Cleaning	7	3	4
Reading	5	2	4
Sleeping	7	4	55

                                                                                         Total Hours:168

   There our 168 hours in a week, so in class today we had to orginize our time. The activity side of this table is all of the acitivitys that I do in a week, the frequency part of the table is how many times a week I do this activity, the priority side of the table is how importnat the activity is to me, and the hours side is how many hours a week the certain activity takes me to finish. The first thing that we had to do is write down everything we do in a week and how long each one of those things took us.After that we had to rearrange everything to make sure that we were not going over the amount of hours that we had in a week. Our professor explained to us that every credit we means that that is how long we are in class for. Therefore I put the amount of hours that I am in class for being fifteen because I am taking four classes this semester and they are about 4 credits each. For me this was very difficult, because there were a lot of things that I had to cut out in order to make sure that my budget added up to 168 hours for the week. At first, the hours that I had in my budget did not add up to the hours that were in a week. I think I had about 200 hours in my budget, so I had to change a lot of things around and start to prioritize my time.  After doing this activity I realized that I needed to spend less time doing make-up and partying and more time studying if I want to accomplish my goal of becoming a teacher. This activity really helped me eith time management, because it will helps me better plan my day.

College learning stratiges/First week of college

   It is my very first week of college! Not only is it my first week of going to a new school, but it is also my first week of moving out and being independet. At first it was very hard to adjust, I have to go grocery shopping by myself if I want anything for my dormroom, and I have to do my own laundry. However, now I feel as though I am very adjusted and I love ebing out on my own. I have made many new friends I love all of my classes. I like Rhode Island College because it is such a small school therefore it was not hard to find most of my classes. I am very excited about taking this College Lecture class because I know that it will help in me in the long run. After this class is over I feel as though I will be more adjusted to college and I will have all of the tools that I need to make my College journey a succesful one.