" The results of the Junior/Senior Survey suggest that, during freshman year students often worry about whether or not professors and other students at [school name] accept them. However, the survey results also suggest that most students eventually become comfortable at [school name] and find a family of people at [school name] with whom they are close and feel they belong. In an effort to further understand how the transition to college takes place, we would like to ask you to describe why you think this would be so—that is, why students might feel initially unsure about their acceptance but ultimately overcome these fears. Please be sure to illustrate your essay with examples from your own experiences in classes, seminars, lectures, study groups, and labs." This was a study conducted by Stanford University. We were asked by Dr. Mangini to give our own response to this prompt. This is my answer: Have you ever heard someone say "The more you say something, the more people will believe it."? My dad is infamous for saying this quote. When we are young we begin to hear people in our lives, our influences, say that college stinks, it is hard, it's the worst schooling you'll ever face. So, the more we hear it, the more we believe it. Eventually, as we grow up, we have friends who go off to college, and they tell us it's actually not as bad as they thought it would be, but the bad we've heard still outweighs the good. So we go to college with the bad we've heard. Not only that, but in an attempt to 'protect' ourselves, we close our minds in the process. We're in a place with people we don't know, concepts we don't understand, and new experiences altogether. We are afraid of how we will be accepted, how we will rank among our classmates and our peers, and even just how we will feel going through this new stage of our life. There are numerous reasons why freshmen might be afraid of how they will be accepted. They might feel that people will judge them for being younger or older than the rest of their classmates, they could be afraid that their professors will be too loose or too lax, they might even be worried that they are walking into a setting too over or under-dressed. Plenty of things can stop someone from embracing their first year at college. In my mind, the biggest fear is that they won't connect with another student. Two examples of my own are the first two classes I had. I knew that two of my high school friends would be at the college, one in my psychology class, and another in my statistics class. This left English as the class I was worried about. I went to college completely open minded about my psychology class, the teacher walked in, and not even five minutes through I decided I loved her. Next came English and I was a bit worried, but there was a shock, a disturbance so to say, the teacher walked in, and cracked a joke. This quick, unexpected, remark forced my mind open for just enough time to make me hopeful about the class. Since then, English has become my favorite class, and I find myself wanting to be there when I'm not. I have even managed to make some friends in that class. Freshmen have a lot of reasons to be scared, but once they get through the stress of their first week, it isn't so bad. Not all people allow themselves to open their minds, but by the time they are finished with their freshman year, they have the summer to think about it, and they finally realize it wasn't actually all that bad. Once they come back, they have opened their minds, they know what's going on, they know a few people, they don't feel judged, they decide to enjoy their time. They begin putting together their social circle, they find people with their major, people they might work with one day. They realize that college is okay, and not the end of the world they heard about when they were younger. I know there are plenty of reasons freshmen might feel out of place at college, but this is what I believe. Go ahead and list some of your ideas or fears about college in the comments. No explanation needed, but feel free to write one if you'd like.
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Class Life: Class this week was pretty interesting. Our professor was mute for the day... Yep, mute. He made a silent argument using videos, he arranged them in the same way he would an argumentative essay, and taught us a lesson using a different genre of text.
Home life: This was a pretty interesting week, as I said above, my grandparents left this week. Actually, it was just my grandpa (Poppop), my grandma (Mommom) left in August. Poppop left on Tuesday while I was arriving at college. Both my grandparents go to Florida every year, they hate the cold, so the go to the sunshine state. We usually visit them in February, but there have been a few exceptions because my dad had to work, or we didn't have enough money. This year we may just have to go early because college starts again mid-February. Anyway, I was also invited to a homecoming dance, but I'm not going. (Sorry Tori!) My friends have heard me say that the only thing I don't like about homeschooling is the fact that I'll never get to go to a homecoming or a prom. Of course, there is a homeschool prom, but there's only one guy I'd want to go with, and he wouldn't want to go with me. Plus it's out in Harrisburg, and that's a long ride. We were coming home from a small group, and my friend's mom was driving me home. She asked what school I would normally go to if I wasn't homeschooled. "Uh... I think, maybe Penncrest?" Came my unsure reply. "What?!?! No way..." You could just tell how excited her mom was. "Girl, I got you hooked up. I can get you into all the dances, I got you covered" Said Emily. Immediately, her and her mom started talking about which boy they should find to be my date. "Oh yeah, that would go great, tell my mom you're getting me a date for the homecoming dance." I said with sarcasm emanating from every word. "What, no, you'll be fine!" Emily laughed. "Yeah right, that'd go over so great." Was my reply. "No, besides, I can just your ticket for you to go, it doesn't have to be with a guy." Emily said, trying to get me to come along. "I don't know, we'll see, I have to talk with my mom. I'll message you, okay?" "Yeah girl, let me know!" I said goodbye to Emily, and thanked her mom for dropping me off, and I went inside. They next day was college, and when I came home, on the stove, was an apple ginger cake my mom had made. Yes, I know, we're still trying to use up those apples. I forget what my family was watching, but I know when it was over, mom brought out a batch of kettle corn she had just made. We convinced them to watch Jack Black's "Gulliver's Travels" from 2010, because they still hadn't seen it, and then we all went to bed. Today, I mostly did homework, and then we had a movie night, we watched the second half of "The Croods" and all of "Hotel Transylvania" and then it was off to finishing my blog. I did most of it, but there's one last thing I want to tell you guys about. It's my favorite place in the world, with college coming in as a close second. My church. Calvary Chapel of Delaware County, CCDELCO, for those of us who are there all the time. Sunday's, we have church, movie theater seats, worship with the band, and the projector slides that help me write down the notes when Pastor Bob goes a bit too fast. Wednesday's, off to midweek at Julianna's house. We used to all get together and do an outdoor thing, but we moved it so that girls are at one house, and guys are a few streets away. Just because of the other stuff going on at the church. We changed the setting a bit too. Instead of John Reilly leading worship (check out his music video with Lecrae here), we sit around with our leader Mrs. Lisa (Love Her!!!), we talk about the different aspects of the bible, how to get the most out of reading it, how to take notes that mean something, and tons of other subjects. Saturday's are the best things ever. The second and fourth Saturday of each month, we meet at 5, eat dinner together, play crazy games that we have no clue how they ever came up with, we have a live indoor concert, and we listen to John Reilly speak for 15 minutes. Then it's dessert and a dance party, and before we know it, 8:30 rolls around, and John comes out with his famous quote "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here." Then we go outside, and we either all hang out or go to our cars... This week, we had Anthony Pagán and John Olgram sit over a tarp (you know it's good if they have to bring out a tarp) and there was a carton of eggs numbered 1-12, nine were hard boiled, and three were not. They took turns calling numbers, they received the egg with the matching numbers, and then proceeded to crack them with their foreheads. The first person to get two raw eggs cracked on their head lost. Anthony was the winner, and he won $20 towards our fall weekend at camp stream side. Lucky ducky! Disclaimer: This may make more sense after having read my previous post - My Mindset.
I believe you’re never too _____ to learn. I left something out, right? I believe you are never too young to learn what you want to learn, if I want to go take college courses as a 15 year old, I am going to be 15 and take college courses. I could be taking just about any courses I want to. I believe nobody is ever too (enter excuse here) to learn. Anyone, anywhere, anytime can learn something, anything. Commit yourself to learning one non-school thing a week, then if you seem to have extra time on your hands, try to learn something extra. If you seem to be having trouble, learn one new thing every two weeks. At least you’re still learning, right? If you understand a fixed versus a growth mindset, you can obviously tell which I have. If you don’t understand it, I will explain it for you. A growth mindset says I have the ability to learn something new, a fixed mindset says what I know is what I know, and I can’t change what’s been predetermined. I personally have a growth mindset. I know I can learn more, and I really want to, and for as long as I can help it, I will keep learning. Math is one of my favorite subjects... when I’m not being pressured to get it done in a certain amount of time. I love learning it, mainly because it’s something a lot of people struggle with, so it makes me proud to know I can understand it pretty easily. The Pythagorean Theorem was my absolute favorite thing ever once I had finally figured out how to do it. I struggled with it for the longest time, I cried over it even. But I knew I had the ability to comprehend it, I just had to want to. So I visited my teacher's office hours, and together we figured it out. After that, I was teaching it to just about everyone I knew. I loved it, I was making up problems to do in my free time, and it literally became a hobby of mine. This is a big part of my growth mindset; I know that all I need is to want to be able to understand something, and I can. I have the ability to learn anything I want to learn, especially in this day and age. Even if its just little by little I can boost my education, I just have to know how to go about doing it. I can ask a teacher, talk to a counselor, receive tutoring, watch YouTube for goodness sake. I am able to learn something. I truly believe everyone should have this growth mindset, and that they are never to ______ to learn. What goes in your blank? What won't you allow to overpower yourself? Let me know in the comments, let's create a discussion. I want to talk with you about these blanks. I want to know what obstacles you choose to overcome. Tuesday in English Composition, we went over a Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset. A growth mindset means that a student (or nonstudent) believes they have the ability and capacity to learn new things and to change their basic, everyday knowledge. A fixed mindset means that a student (or nonstudent) believes that the amount of knowledge they have is predetermined and hardwired into their system, and they will never be able to change, or do anything about it. I personally believe I have a growth mindset in and out of an academic setting. I feel as though I was raised this way, and that my mom was a big part of this mindset. She made everything a learning opportunity, and there was nothing she couldn’t relate to school in some way, shape, or form. Her main motto’s included: “There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” Isn’t it exciting how you can learn anything, anywhere,” and the number one motto “well, we can learn from it!” Baking was an opportunity to learn fractions, working with my grandma was my day’s math homework, going to a friend’s house usually involved packed homework, and trivia flashcards. It’s actually a big part of who I am though, I never go to hang out with a friend without a new fact or a bit of information to show them, other friends, I actually repeat our professor’s entire lecture so they can figure out how to do their homework.. I am always eager to show them how they can learn from anything. I truly think that everything sticks with you in your subconscious, only to be revealed to you at a later time. Even if it was something you didn’t understand at the time, maybe what you’re experiencing right now will help you to figure out the memory. I hope my mindset never becomes a fixed one, I love to learn, it’s part of who I am. While here at college, I hope to experience things I have never thought of, try some new things, and to rewrite my thoughts a thousand times over.
Last class... I pretty much only remember Qin carrying book bags across the room, and us having to close our eyes and use our other senses to observe what had been going on around us as we wrote it down. Dr. Mangini spun the desk chair, he messed up some papers, girls were having a conversation in the back of the room, Sean and conversation, I also remember us making our drafts for The "Banking Concept" of Education blog post.
If you've checked out the Pruning Trees... Dad style, you've seen what he did to our tree. What you didn't know is that it was an apple tree. We were left with a wagon full of apples. Not like a little red kids toy. Like a wagon that you see people drag around amusement parks, the ones that fit two or three kids. Anyway, my mom has made three to five pots of applesauce so far, and she's barely made a dent in our pile of apples. We decided to make a Jewish Apple Cake. We peeled and cored six apples, then we cut them into chunks. We took a pack of J&J cinnamon sugar (the packets we get when we buy SuperPretzel soft pretzels for the carnivals), and poured it into a Ziploc bag along with the apples. We then shook up the bag and set it to the side. In a large mixing bowl, we sifted together flour, baking powder and salt, and we set that to the side as well. In a different large bowl, we whisked the wet ingredients together, sugar, orange juice, oil, and vanilla. Finally, we mixed together the wet and dry ingredients and added the eggs in one at a time (well, we threw in all of the eggs at once, forgetting the recipe said to only do them one at a time). We layered it all into a bundt pan with the apples in the Ziploc bag, and we baked it for an hour and a half at 350º. It had to come out five minutes before the oven went off, and the outer edges were just a little overdone, although the center was perfect. It kind of reminded me of the bread pudding my mom used to make when I was younger. She'd bring home all of the stale bread from her restaurant, and then she'd mix it with milk, sugar, butter, and vanilla. It was our favorite treat, mom would make it almost every week.
Click here if you want the link for the Jewish Apple Cake recipe. Reflection Time! Class Life: This week in class we talked about The "Banking Concept" of Education. I enjoyed an in class activity we did where we had to create a visual, find a quote relating to a specific parts of the banking concept of education, paraphrase that quote, and tell if the students were spectators or re-creators. Our group had to analyze the Problem-Posing method. We also did an in class free write (which will be posted shortly). There was also this one quote from Dr. Mangini that I loved, he said "Create first, critique later." It kind of reminded me just to go with my ideas, just keep typing, don't worry about capitalization, punctuation, even if the ideas came out properly, just keep typing; get it all down. Then put it all together once you've finished typing. That's something I need to remember when both free writing and when doing my assignments. Home Life: So remember my in my last reflection when I said "expect to hear how I binged watched some show, did some art, or went to the movies with my friends…?" Well, sort of, we tried. We pick a time, a theater, and our exact seats, I ordered the opening day tickets online, and I arrived with the tickets to the theater ten minutes late. Seeing as I have no phone though, I had no way of knowing that my friends decided to go to another theater a few streets away because they were worried I'd make them miss the movie. So I still sat and watched the movie (after ten minutes of previews), and luckily my mom checked online to figure out what time the movie would end so she could pick me up, because otherwise I would have had no way to tell her the movie was over. Also, my friends knew that I was only late because I was busy closing up our pool, and that's hard even with seven of us trying to work at once. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now though. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials Wondering why Weebly isn't taking your hyperlink? You made sure you have the correct address, you've tried copying and pasting the web address as well as typing in every annoying character. For some reason no matter how many times you try, it won't link properly, why?
Did you make sure your words weren't italicized? Is it really that easy? Yeah, it is. Weebly won't take the hyperlink if your words are italicized, and I'm not quite sure, but the same might be true about bold words. Hope this helps! So, I visited the blog of Katsiaryna Yeutukhova, a student in a different class, looked around her blog, left a comment, and when I came back, my entire Weebly mainframe switched itself to Russian... What the heck?!?! I don't speak a lick of Russian, and I had no idea what to do to fix it. I used my dad's laptop and signed in on my brother's account to look at the platform in English and line up the buttons, so following along with the English, I went to the website editor, I clicked on settings, then general, then I scrolled down to change language... I tried to change it to English, but it didn't do anything, I tried to switch it to another language and then back to English, but it still didn't do anything. Then I realized it's probably changing text of my website itself rather than the mainframe platform, so I figured I should probably stop. I had no idea what to do, so I decided to exit out and log back in. Shortly after this I figured it out.
Exit out and log back in. At the top of the page there is a tiny flag with a down arrow next to it. Click on the down Arrow Select your language. This is also nice for any of the ESL students in our class, you can change it to your native language, possibly making it easier for you to try and operate the site. Hope this helps! |
Rebekah W
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