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.