9I Sonia Sotomayor

Tonight I attended the event with Sonia Sotomayor at the Lyman Center. This event was very interesting because since our common read for the summer was her memoir, My Beloved World, it was a great honor to be able to attend an event with her and answering questions from students in my grade. Throughout the discussion of her answering questions she gave us advice as first year students to live our lives in the best way possible. To know who we surround ourselves around that will influence to do good things and not make bad choices. To always be like a sponge and take in all the advice given to us and apply it to our daily lives and college careers. 

I enjoyed this event because she gave great advice to everyone, not only first year students and that she was very open to tell us about everything that has happened to her and share her feelings and experiences with us. I think this definitely was a great experience that I will never forget!

9B Reflecting & Goals For The Future

I can not even believe that we already are half way through the semester! How crazy is that?! Well it is now time to reflect on how far I have come and some things I want to work on for the second half of the semester.

After looking at my grades on banner web I was satisfied with my grades so far except for one, that one being my microbiology class. This class is definitely a tough considering I am a nursing major. For me I think I have been doing better in my lab than in my lecture class. In my lab is all hands on things so it makes it easy to get things done and remember what we are learning considering it is all hands on and we are making samples of what we are learning. Right now I have a C- in the class as my midterm grade is not bad, but I definitely need to improve now unless I want to retake the class again. If I do not have a C+ or better in this class it will not count towards my nursing major and will have to take it again.

The way I am going to progress in this class is by start studying ahead of time of the exam time. For example, I have a lecture exam on Monday and I have already started studying the first chapter we learned and am studying one chapter each day in order to be as prepared as I can be for the exam. Right now it is crucial for me to do well on this lecture exam because if I do well it will bring up my grade and if I do well on my lab exam which I also have next week.

Another thing I need to work on is participating more in two of my class. I have B in both of these and I think if I participate more and show a little bit more of myself and my ideas can bring up more class discussions, and I think will help my grade go up. Over all, I am not disappointed with my grade, but it just shows me that I need to work a harder to get where I want to be.

9A A Critical Thinker In College

In high school you were taught just to think in general about a broad subject and not analyze the subject. Critical thinking is a kind of thinking that college professors are expecting in class and out of class. There is a lot of out of class work that involves critical thinking because when you think critically you learn how to become independent, analyze, be self- directed, and help you in life to avoid making mistakes in important life decisions. 

In my social issues class, critical thinking was the first topic we went into detail in. After learning that critical thinking was a key component in our college careers and in our lives I learned how to slowly make myself become a critical thinker. I think this is important because like I said before, every professor is expecting you to be critical thinker and think outside the box and analyze every single detail of whatever you may talking about or learning about. I believe that critical thinking is definitely very important to learn and have for the rest of our lives because that is how we learn about things and people that cross our paths.

To be a critical thinker you have to identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments or topics. Without any of these three keep components then you are failing at critical thinking and are not thinking critically. The way I have been applying these skills throughout my semester so far has been to do these exact three key components when I read articles or readings for class and when I study and go over what we have been learning in class while studying. By doing this it has helped me understand what I have been learning in class better and be able to argue in class discussions better by listening to the other side of the argument and then explaining my side of the argument to make sense to the other side. Over all, I believe that I have progressed with my critical thinking skills and will still improve as the semester goes on. 

Being a critical thinker is helpful not only in college but also in our futures when we're older. It is always a good thing to know how to argue and analyze arguments the right way, which is by critical thinking!

Hope you become one soon and if you are one then keep applying those skills to your daily lives!

8V The Art of Mastery

Here are a few words that I have learned this week in a couple of my classes!

Mastery- is the comprehensive knowledge or skill in a subject or accomplishment. 

When you master something you have accomplished what you were supposed to learn or the process of it. For example, lets say that I have been practicing an instrument and I have been gradually getting better at it. After practicing for a long time I have acquired the mastery of the instrument because I have learned how to play it very well. 

Questionable Cause- when an arguer claims without sufficient evidence that one thing is the cause of something else. I'll give you an example. Say that I was sick and I drank some tea when I was sick and that tea is a cure to my sickness because it cured me and I was no longer sick after I drank it.

Slippery Slope Fallacy- a claim without sufficient evidence that seemingly harmless action, if taken, will lead to a disastrous outcome. An example of this is would be if someone said that is weapons that are only used specifically in war are made legal for everyone in the states to obtain then there would be more violence actions and crimes due to that being made legal.

I hope you learned something new from these words just like I did! There will be another set next week!

8I Majors Expo

Yesterday there was the Majors Expo held in the Adanti Student Center in the ballroom. The Majors Expo is where all the majors that SCSU has were presented with staff from each major and went from 12-3pm. You could go and ask all the questions you have about your major or if you're undecided, about a major that may interest you and what you need to do in order to get into the major. You could also ask what minors certain majors have and what you have to do in order to do that.

I went by myself before class around 1:40pm. I signed in and went straight to the nursing table. I asked about how I would go about getting an advisor and a meeting with one because I was interested in taking summer classes this upcoming summer. They told that I had to go to Jennings room 135 and sign up for a date and time in order to have a one to one meeting with an advisor. I also asked who the advisor would be and I was told that it was Meranda Weaver who was also there at the desk. And so later that day I went to make my appointment! The majors expo was very helpful with answering my questions and cannot wait to figure out what classes I am going to take for spring and summer!

8A A+ Blogs

Snooping through the blogs I stumbled upon many blogs that I thought were A+ work. There were two Blog 1 and Blog 2(click on these links to view them). I believe that these two are A+ work because they show different sides of themselves and write as if they were talking to someone.
that stood out to me though, them being,

Their blogs both are very lively and colorful. It is easy to follow with each blog they write and the way they write is very smooth. Blog one is always asking questions and making sure that they inform the reader with what they are trying to portray in the blog. Blog 2 is very out there and has videos and clips of things she has done and what not. Both of these blogs fulfill the areas of how their writing is, the length of the blogs and they are not just writing just to write. They do not just answer questions they elaborate on them and as questions to the reader. They are creative their titles and choice of wordings for certain words and emphasize on things they want the reader to understand by underlining the word or italicizing it.

These blogs are definitely not the only ones that are A+ plus material. There are many other ones as well. I think that these blogs deserve the A+ because they put forth the effort to make these blogs ones that are easy to read and very informative. The way they format each blog is different and not a boring blog with no pictures or videos or links. They both are definitely A+ work and I will have to take some tips from them so I can make mine A+ work as well.

8B A Story In 6 Words

                                       Life always brings ups and downs.

Sonia Sotomayor's memoir, My Beloved World, was a memoir that gave a real life story of someone who had so many struggles in their life that conquered and learned from all those experiences. I think that this memoir was chosen for us the freshman class to read because it showed us that no matter what happens in life that we should learn to overcome our struggles and make the successes in our lives the best ones and cherish them. Coming into college as a first year student it gave us an idea of how she was in the same situation in parts of her life, but she overcome those times by just believing in herself and putting time into what she wanted to do in the future. 

What I got out of this memoir was her hardships and how she overcame everything that had happened to her and her family. She was not from a wealthy family, but always had family close and cherished them like no other. I believe that we as a freshman class get out of this memoir is to never give up and if you really want something then put all your effort into because if you don't love it then you do not have enough motivation to achieve what you want. Starting off fresh and new in a new environment and new to everything is hard to get accustom too. With that said, I think that this book helps us understand somewhat of what we have started and where and what we are planning on doing with our futures.

Never give up and always put your best effort forward. The light at the end of the tunnel is achievable, but only if you want it bad.