Goofy Scavenger Hunt Pictures

So I said I would give extra points to the group who emailed me the goofiest picture of themselves in the Fireplace Lounge. I only received four photos so far (I will post the last one if I get it). Do any of these deserve points for the goofiest photo? Vote in the comments if you want, and maybe I will give a "people's choice" award.

Advising Info

I will post advising reminders on the blog as it gets closer to registration. Don't worry if you don't have a major yet -- I am going to meet with all of you and help you with everything that you will need to register for Spring classes.

If you are a Nursing major, you must attend a mandatory advising session next week. Choose one of the following to attend:

Monday, Oct 7 from 1-2pm

or

Wednesday, Oct 9 from 1-2pm


Both are held in DA 101.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” -- Aristotle

Congratulations! You have completed the first four weeks of the semester -- 1/4th of your semester. At this point, you should have an idea of what is working and what isn't working for you in terms of your study habits, scheduling, time management, and organization. It is time, then to reflect on that, learn from it, and take control of it. The transition to college is overwhelming for many students, but the best way to ease your own stress level is to take initiative: make choices that help you control your college experience rather than feeling controlled by it. Remember, procrastination increases overall stress levels in the long run even though it feels good in the short term whereas productivity can produce an adrenalin rush and feelings of elation, freedom, completion.

The two blogging assignments for this week as you to reflect on your first four weeks and your own learning experiences. This week's homework, the time study (due Thursday in class) will aid in that process. However, it is not enough to simply analyze the past four weeks; you need to also 1) plan for the coming twelve weeks, 2) learn from your mistakes, 3) set some goals to help you achieve maximum success, and 4) be conscious about how you will meet those goals. The college semester is short. It is important to try to get into a good routine for all of your classes early on and get a little ahead rather than being in a position where you have to catch up after you get your midterm grades. The readings from this week speak to the development of good academic habits and ways to become a solid student in the classroom. But don't be satisfied with "good student" -- always push yourself to set your own challenges: cover new ground, think a little differently, stretch your vision of who you can be.

Blog 5A: Reflecting on Academic Habits

Reflect on your academic progress for the first four weeks. What successes have you had so far? What has been difficult, or harder than you thought it would be? Have you had any failures? Any things you are disappointed about? The readings for this week discuss methods for improving your academic habits in order to become an even more successful college student. What methods have you used that have worked? What methods do you hope to try and implement for the rest of the semester? Many of you have large goals such as "get good grades" or "make the Dean's list" but this week I want to know the smaller goals you will set for yourself, the daily practices you will adapt to better yourself, in order to meet those larger goals. Use the readings as a guideline for what you plan to do from now on in order to advance your own self-improvement.

Blog 5B: Using your Time Wisely

This post should be all about the time study and what you found out about your habits and practices. Reflect on what the study taught you about how you spend your time. Discuss how many hours you spent on doing school work versus how many hours doing other things. Were you able to devote 30-40 hours to doing work outside of class? Also, what sucked up a lot more time than you expected? What did you procrastinate on and how (if you did)? How can you eliminate that procrastination while still allowing for downtime, socializing, etc.? How do you want to plan out your week in order to do a better job at time management and maximize your own productivity? What can you take away from the study and apply to the rest of the semester to come?

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of." -- Benjamin Franklin

On Thursday, I will ask you to begin a week's worth of Self-Study on how you use your time. I want you to make a chart of all the hours in the week (each day) and mark on the chart how many hours you spend doing all of the things that take up your time:

1. sleeping
2. getting ready to go to class
3. eating
4. going to class
5. doing homework
6. socializing
7. playing sports
8. on facebook, twitter, instagram, texting, etc.
9. participating in a club or hobby
10. whatever else fills your days

This will allow you to see how much time you spend per week on various activities and let you know if you need to plan your weeks differently or not. Also, it will allow us to see how many hours you spend on learning outside of class and if you are meeting your expectations for that aspect of college work. You can make a handwritten chart for yourself or make a spreadsheet using Excel. I found a model for a Time Study Sheet here: http://ldadvisory.com/time_management_tool. You can adapt this version or use it as a template. It was originally intended as a time management tool, but can also serve for our Self-Study. Note that it doesn't contain all of the "middle of the night" hours, assuming you are sleeping, so you can add those in or just add the extra hours of sleep at the bottom.

By next Thursday, I will expect you to have something to bring to class which accounts for all of the hours you spent in that one week.

"Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice." (and afterward, you can eat marshmallows!)

Nature vs. Nurture, Motivation, Gratification (Pulling together last week, this week, and beyond)

Think of someone who is "smarter" or "more successful" than you.

(Of course, there are lots of ways to interpret those labels depending on what exactly you value in terms of intelligence or success -- think about your own definition of these terms as you consider this post.)

Okay, now think of someone who is "smarter" or "more successful" than you. Were they born that way? Given more advantages in their upbringing to become that way? Did they simply work harder to make themselves that way? What other factors come into play?

Carol Dweck would suggest that had, or developed, a specific mindset or outlook on life that helped them achieve success. Malcolm Gladwell (who we will read soon) would theorize that they put in more hours practicing in order to get better until they became masters in their field. This week, you will see that Joachim de Posada attributes their success to the ability to delay gratification. These are all interesting perspectives to consider, and overlap somewhat, although also differ in crucial ways -- and we can learn something from all of them.

I often ask my SCSU students to consider where they are and how they got there, especially in comparison to others who are on different paths. For example, what do you think is the difference between Yale students and SCSU students? Yale students are seen by many as more successful -- are they? Are they smarter? More hard working? Do socioeconomic factors separate these two groups and/or determine their different paths? Or are these two groups essentially the same but have made different choices? How about Gateway students vs. SCSU students? Or Quinnipiac students vs. SCSU students?

My questions here are not solely asking you to think about which is better...instead, I hope you will consider how you have gotten where you are and what factor have contributed to that as well as where you want to go from here and what factors can help you get there.


This Week's Blogging Assignments

Blog 4A:

This week's topic of discussion is delayed gratification. Think about what things in your life have been worth waiting for and/or what things you expect will be worth waiting for. Why? People often say that Americans hate to wait, that we have no patience? True? Do you think we, as a society, do enough to cultivate the skills necessary for delayed gratification or do we value instant gratification instead? How so? What should we be doing differently? Some people believe that technology plays a role in this -- what do you think? Include at least one quote from this week's assignments.

Blog 4B:

Choose 1 or 2 inquiry questions that you developed in response to the readings/videos assigned for this week. Use this blog post to explore potential answers. Be as in-depth as possible instead of simply scratching the surface and try to consider how you might answer your question(s) from different perspectives. Be sure to engage with this week's assignments using direct quotes to discuss, but remember that your ideas should drive this post!

"There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so" -- Shakespeare

This week's blogging exercises are listed below. Remember to begin tackling them early on in the week instead of procrastinating until Saturday! Procrastination is Enemy #1 of first-year college students! Finish your blogs by Thursday and then your Saturday is free for something else.










Blog A: Consider the above quote by Shakespeare. What does it mean? Discuss the quote and how it applies to 1) intrinsic motivation vs. extrinsic motivation and 2) growth mindset vs. fixed mindset. Use references to the readings assigned for this week.

Blog B: Think about an activity, subject, project, etc. that is easy yet exhilarating for you. You don't need to convince yourself to make time for it because you enjoy doing it and when immersed in it, you experience a state of flow (click here if you need a basic definition of flow or google it and follow links to wikipedia or TED talks or other resources). It may not be easy in that you have to work at it, but making time for it is easy because of the enjoyment you get from it. What is this activity and why is it so easy to motivate yourself to do it or to do it well? What can you learn from this experience and how can you apply it to your college education/future? If you can find a way to channel that energy into your academics, career, or future, how might you do that?

*One restriction: sleep doesn't really count because it is a passive activity, so choose something that is more active.

"The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community." --William James

What a great start to blogging and to our semester! Most everyone has figured out how to get their blog to me (check the sidebar to see if your blog is listed; if not, resend me the link). One benefit of communal blogging is the ability to look at other students' blogs as examples of what you might do in your own -- if you see something you want to learn to do, let me know and I can ask that student to share.

Sharing knowledge is one aspect of a successful learning community, and many of you noted that in your first in-class writings. In order to help the course progress, be a productive use of time, and not feel stagnant, many people noted the role of participation and communication. Many noted, also, how a classroom needs to facilitate a sense of openness and trust in order to encourage everyone to share their views without feeling judged. Here are a few guideline suggested by all of you for creating a positive classroom environment:

1. Agree that we can have productive debate and even disagreement about the concepts and ideas of the course, but resist targeting an individual or being dismissive of an individual's experience or perspective.

2. Agree to allow others to disagree with your ideas without feeling the need to shut down as an individual or even "win" the debate. Sometimes we can all learn simply through weighing various sides of an issue, without always agreeing.

3. Listen to others' perspectives, ideas, experiences -- try to learn from them as well as formulating your own response to them.

4. Keep a positive attitude, and show respect for all, even those you disagree with.

5. Keep discussion centered around relevant course topics instead of getting off topic and stalling the forward progress of the learning community -- wasting time in class is disrespectful to all who are here to learn.

In addition to these guidelines, I liked the ideas of what all of you intend to bring to the table in our learning community. Here is some of what you shared:

willingness to step out of comfort zone
patience
optimism
willingness to help others
honesty
empathy
enjoying working in groups
willingness to try new things
humor
collaborative spirit
willingness to ask questions

Week Two Blogging Assignments

(Complete in any order, but remember to label your entries 2A, 2B, 2I, 2V)

Blog A: What is most useful to you from this week's readings? What tips will you put into practice right away? What ideas were new to you or were most interesting to you and why? Use some direct quotes from this week's readings (and cite the articles they come from) and discuss what they mean to you and why they are important.

Blog B: College is very much about self-discovery, stretching yourself, trying new things, sometimes even reinventing yourself. This week, set one new goal for yourself that encourages you to try something different or work on something you want to change. For example, maybe you'd like to become a little less shy: set a goal for yourself to introduce yourself to someone new in each one of your classes this week. Or, maybe you have always thought about majoring in marine biology but aren't really sure about it: set a goal for yourself to find out a little about that major every day (go to the dept at scsu and talk to a faculty member there and get some info, talk to an junior or senior in that field, read up on that type of career, check out a marine biology book from the library and browse it, go to an aquarium or nature center or the beach and do some amateur marine biology on your own). Or, maybe you want to be more organized and on top of your homework: set a goal to put everything into your planner, set specific study times and stick with them, find a great place to study where you get a lot done, and finish everything at least the day before it's due.) In this Blog entry, write about your experience of trying something new. What did you decide to change and why? What goals did you set? How did it work out? What did you learn from this experience?

One last note: This week is New Student Convocation on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2013, at 1 p.m. in Lyman Center. I encourage you to attend, preferably with friends but by yourself is ok too. It can count as one of your Involvement Blogs, and is an easy way