Learning Profile

#1: We pretty much only read the chapter titled 'Engage." From this chapter I learned how different college was from high school and how focused the student needed to become in college. The biggest difference between college and high school that I have found in this chapter is the one on one attention that you do not get in college, and also that college is a choice while high school was not. This is where time management comes in for you to succeed. I learned ways to help you study such as the SQ3R method ( Scan, Question, Read, and Recite.) You should also surround yourself with positive people whom carry high self-esteem and not only believe in themselves but you as well, because if you don't have people that believe in you, you will go no where in life, but that believing needs to start with you. You should learn not to bring yourself down, give yourself credit for making it this far and that you are continuing on your journey called life. You need to believe in yourself and focus on what you want out of life in order to be successful. Success and self-motivation is only two ingredients you need for your career in college.
#2: I feel that my strengths as a learner have greatly increased in the transition between high school and college. I think this may be in part to the ability to choose what I take and what I do with my life. If I stayed consistent with how I was in High School, i would not be successful in college. I feel my strengths are being organized, keeping a daily agenda of the happenings/assignments in not only school but life, setting specific times aside for homework, being focused, motivated, ambitious, mature, and staying persistent. With all these strengths, i feel I could teach incoming college students how to change their habits of slacking off, as college leaves little room for that. I feel I could teach the incomers how to become more organized and excited about their life in college as a learner. I have had to become strict with myself about my schooling. As i will soon have a new baby here, I am changing my ways and adapting to as if it were already here because I know if I don't, college will not become as fun as I hope and want it to be. After all college is a choice, and should be fun!
#3: I feel my number one weakness as a college student is procrastination. There are sometimes that I tell myself I need to do my homework, yet feel unmotivated, causing me to wait till last minute to accomplish the task. By me procrastinating, I feel that I do not give my assignment the 100% of energy that I should to achieve the best grade possible. Another weakness is the amount of reading. I do not know about you, but I cannot sit a read something that does not interest me. When I was asked to pick a parenting topic to read a book about and do a book report I had to think. And finally I cam to the conclusion that I wanted to learn about child abuse because of the fact my niece was physically abused. I found that interesting and could not put the book down. However, reading stories or essays about gun control that was assigned in my English class was hard because that does not interest me. Sure, its an important topic, but really, what can I do about it? I feel that If I am interesting in the topic being read about I will obtain a better grade on a paper because I have feelings about it. Another weakness is boredom. I easily become bored when the class speaker, or any speaker in general is babbling on about a topic I could care less about, like reading a topic not interesting, I get bored with a speaker that is not interesting and will miss points they will more than likely test on at a later date, which causes me to do "not so great." So all in all, I feel that these are major weaknesses and if I don't achieve a grade I want in an assignment or class, these reasons would be why.
#4: I believe the skills that I learned in the class are by far extremely helpful and I will carry them on throughout my high school career. The class really opened up my eyes to time management skills and I have slowly been applying them to my everyday life. Before this class, I never really kept an agenda, i just went off of my memory of what I needed to do for each class, and that was not the best idea because I could have forgot and then watched my grade fall. Also, I have set times and days to focus on my homework, and if I didn't happen to have any, I studied the next chapter and got ahead so that I could leave room if I got sick or had an emergency. Time Management is probably the most valuable skill I attained from Student Connect. Another item that tops my list of things I learned are the resources that the library and school offers students to help them achieve in classes, even if that have not managed their time well. I learned how to actually use the many resources, and for the first time I checked put a book from the library at the college. I was amazed by the variety they offered to help any student with any project.
#5: I believe all of the assignments were of help in one way or another. Each blog assignment helped me realize why I was in college and what I need to change about myself to succeed in not only school, but life as well. I really enjoyed the Ultimate Speed Reader assignment because that is one skill I need to work on. Sure, I can read, but I'm not up to par on my reading speed. Most, well, all of my classes have me reading at least a chapter a week if not more and I am slow. I am not a big reader of text book material, but I need to read it in order to obtain a good grade and to understand what I am supposed to be learning. I will find myself reading one chapter out of a text book non stop for two hours because I feel so slow. I believe the program helped me not only read faster, but actually understand what I was reading. I also enjoyed being able to do my articles online because I write better online than I do in pen or pencil. Sure, I could write this same thing, but it would take me forever and this is pretty much what all of my teachers are requiring is typed work so as I would write my blogs my typing speed got faster and more accurate.
#6: Like I said before, I believe each assignment we did in class was of some help. I really liked that we did our assignments on a blog because we are all "tech kids." It's nice to see a teacher who is willing to adapt their curriculum to students these days. Last semester I was enrolled in a student connect class and I was so bored that I just quit going, even though i knew it was required. I believe the projects and assignments and discussion in the class were fun and informational, and it helps when we have a teacher that is interactive with us. My favorite thing about this class was how the students were allowed to interact with each other and the teacher was always there to offer pointers. I loved reading the stories of the illiterate because there are so many of those people in this country and it is sad to me. I do not know how much I can say it but having the majority of our assignments on the computer was a huge help. Being able to be ourselves also helped me where I was not so bored. I was able to be who I really am not only in class but in my assignments as well, and to me that is really important.
#7: Future students should know that although they may think that this class is pointless, if you stick with it you will learn many skills that you can use through college to help you become successful. This class will open your eyes to your weaknesses and your strengths. This class helped me focus on what I needed to better about my study and life skills to become a successful student. Student connect will help you bridge into college life, because weather you want to believe it or no, college life is completely different from high school or, if you have not been in school for a few years, a lot has changed. Student Connect offers a variety of activities and assignments to help you achieve your goals in college and spending only 2 hours a week for 8 weeks is not that demanding. Sure, it may seem pointless and boring at the beginning, but seriously, what class is not boring during your first week? My suggestion to you is attend classes, manage your time, and do your homework, with those three ingredients you are bound to succeed, and don't be afraid to ask for help!! Not only ask for help form your teachers, but peers as well. Your peers can probably help you in a way you better understand than a teacher can, but that is just my experience.
#8: I believe the thing I will take from this class is the time management skills I learned. I believe I can put this into use in school, work, and social life. I have always watched these people on T.V. use agendas and always say "I'll pencil you in." now I understand what they mean. I always find myself writing down days and times to see friends, I make sure I write down ALL my assignments, even though they are done in class, and whatever I need to do for work. I also use my agenda for my doctor appointments and any other even going on in my life, even if I just have an important phone call, like calling my doctor to send a referral to my OBGYN. Keeping all this written down not only keeps me sane, but also help if someone calls me and tells me that I didn't do something or what not, i can go back into my agenda and see when I did it or realize I forgot. All in all, Time management is a very important lifelong skill that everyone should learn. It WILL indeed help you in the long run! So go get those 5 dollar agendas and start managing your time!

Academic Honesty

To me, academic honesty is getting your homework done on time, because if you don't you are cheating yourself out, making your work your own and not someone else's, and being the best student you can be. With all these in mind, being honest in your academics will soon get you far in life and help you achieve your goals. I believe students often resort to dishonesty such as plagiarism because they did not have their focus until last second, or feel really lazy and just don't want to do the work. They need to realize that college is a choice, if they don't want to do the work than they should not be in college. All they are doing is cheating themselves and the author out of work. There are severe consequences of plagiarism that I do not think people realize. You could end up serving time, which for me, its not worth it. It doesn't take much to research and especially with the resources students have now-a-days, they could get a research paper done in no time at all and in their very own words. The homework part is just on the student, but I know of people, and I am guilty of this that I will tell the teacher that 'I didn't bring the assignment, but its done' or 'My grandma was in the hospital all weekend and could not get to it.' This is cheating yourself because though that may have been how you could get by in high school, college is different. All in all, be honest to yourself and to your work and you will succeed.

The Plan

My purpose to attend college is to better myself and to learn about my career of choice. In today's world you cannot make any kind of money without a college degree, and as we all know you cannot make a living without money. My plan is to graduate in the spring of 2010 with an Associates of Applied Science degree in Early Childhood Education. I chose early childhood because I love to watch children grow and learn, and I want to be able to stay at home with my children, so my dream is to open up a home daycare once I get my degree and feel comfortable is opening it up. I think on down the road I will try to go for a bachelors and possibly a masters degree through Emporia State University, hopefully online. I have worked in the early childhood field since I was in Middle School. My first job was working at my old daycare, then I babysat for family friends and now I am working at EduCare. I have been around a variety of daycare settings and have written down pros and cons about each one and made goals along the way of how I want to have my daycare. I believe that a daycare is a child's first learning experience and I need to make it as fun and educational as possible. I want the children whom go through my daycare to look back when they are in high school and college to say "Trilby taught me that in daycare before i even attended school." I believe we are the ones that set the child up for either success or failure, and hopefully mine will be success.

Butler Resources

I think that the resources Butler Community College offer are extremely helpful and much needed for students. The resources would greatly help a student whom is enrolled in english classes. I am currently enrolled in a Comp II class and I believe that I will use the 'opposing viewpoints' database frequently for I will be writing argumentative papers through out the semester. I have also used 'pro-quest' or any of the other databases on the list, to help with research papers and such in previous English classes throughout my high school career. Also, I believe that these databases will help a student who has not managed their time that great and are now entering into a 'crunch time'. You could write a paper in less than an hour with the databases offered. The databases offer a great amount of resources like books, magazine and newspaper articles and so on. The citation machine will come in handy when you are required to have a 'Works Cited' page with your paper for any of your classes. All you need to do is plug in the information and the machine will make your citation for you. Copy and paste it onto your document, put it in alphabetical order and the typing format your teacher requires and you are done with that particular page. You could even check out an entire book online and read it without even having to step foot into the library. How amazing is that? All in all, the resources offered at Butler Community College are amazing and will come in much needed help to pretty much every student attending this college. All you have to have to obtain access is a pipeline account!!

Time Management

I am slowly pushing myself to manage my time better, although in the past week or so, I have not done so great, maybe it is cause I am so WORN out, I mean I WAS sick the past two days, which is not so great... haha.
In fact, I will use these past few weeks as my examples of my poor time management. I seem to have been finding "better" things to do instead of my homework, which should come before play, or that is what I was taught way back in elementary school. I have decided to go shopping, watch T.V., or just lounge around and sleep my life away instead of doing that homework, and as it builds up I just get more and more unmotivated, which causes me to not do it at all, and well, in college, you should not slack because it is So hard to catch back up.
When the semester first started, well, a few days before, I worked out my school/work/family schedule so that I could make time for it all without interruptions. I set aside Friday afternoons/nights for homework, Saturdays and Sundays for family and whatever else happens to be going on and the weekdays to go to my classes and work. It worked for me. I felt less stressed out and felt like I was ahead of myself because I could just relax on my weekends. Well, I just got unmotivated. However, I knew that i needed to stay caught up so I set my mind to getting ALL my homework caught up and done, so now that it is done, I can relax, till Friday... then it all starts again.
In high school, I really did not have to manage my time because we had seminar, where I could study and do all my homework. However in college, you have to do your homework on your own time, meaning you have to be hard-headed enough to push yourself to do the right thing and that is managing your time!
Remember: Homework before play, you will be less stressed and obtain better grades!!! I know from experience!!

Community Service

The 3 issues in America that cross my mind most would be the War in Iraq, the cost of going to college, and the Presidential election coming up in November.
My top issue of those three would be the war in Iraq. Not only am I against the war and have always been against it, but I had to experience sending BOTH of my brothers to Iraq in the past year. My brothers and I are extremely close. They are my heroes. I was heart-broken when I had to see them off and all I could think was this could be the last time I see these men in person for the rest of my life. When my youngest brother came home in September for his leave, which was the time my oldest brother was sent to Iraq, he told my mom and I that he has been extremely close to the lines of fire, that scared me to death, and I was trying to prepare to see another brother off, with my youngest brother telling us that it made it even MORE difficult.
I don't think there is really anything we can do to get the soldiers home faster, but I do believe, since they are putting their lives on the line on a daily basis to protect us at home we should organize a welcome home "party" for each of our soldiers. We need to show our thanks weather we are against the war or not, a lot of those soldiers are against it as well, but fighting for us is their job. We could also establish a group to send care packages and cards to the troops. I know my brothers LOVE to receive things in the mail from "back home" because it gives them a sense that people really are thinking and worrying about them.

Coping with Change

The biggest change that I have experienced this past year was moving out on my own with my fiance. He and I chose to move out the week before I graduated high school, so not only was I doing all the "senior week" activities, I was also trying to work and move into my apartment and make it the way I wanted to because I knew I only had till that Sunday to get everything situated in my apartment because my family was going to want to visit while they were here to see me graduate.
I did get everything done in time, although I am sure I lost a bunch of sleep, but what 18 year old gets the full 8 hours of sleep, right?
So, anyways, I got to spend my whole summer just relaxing in my own place. It was nice, until bills started coming in and I figured out that I had it made living with my parents, all I had was a cell phone and car insurance bills. When I moved out, I now have electric, rent, cable, internet, and those darn credit cards, and a loan payment. However, my fiance and I have made it, experiencing some troubles but we did overcome them and came out on top.
In the first 4 months that I lived on my own I graduated high school, I bought a new car, started college, and got pregnant. Ya, when I think about all that happening in ONLY 4 months I get overwhelmed a bit, but then I start to think, i could not have done ANY of this without an awesome fiance and my family and friends.
I was really excited to purchase my own car, with the help of my fiance. I upgraded from a 1992 Mazda Protege to a 2007 Ford Focus (I'm NOT crazy about fords, but LOVED the price at only $9,999). I miss my green bean ALOT, but I love my new car... haha.
My first FULL time semester I wanted to major in Elementary Education, so I was following the curriculum that was given to me, however, when I got pregnant, my first trimester I spent most of the time in bed because i was SO sick, i had to even quit my job because I missed SO much. I also had to drop all of my classes because I could not keep up, so now, this semester, to stay on track, i decided to go back to major in Early Childhood Education so I could stay caught up.
With all the changes that I have gone through in the past year I have had my friends and family behind me 110% and they are excited to see what I will do in the next year or so. I feel that I have changed mentally and physically for the better and I feel much more mature!!