Weekly Course Reflection

My advice to you spring semester students is to stay organized, know your due dates (never ever fall behind on work), and to make sure to keep up strong study habits, whether that’s rewriting notes, making notecards, or re-reading the chapters….KEEP UP WITH THE INFORMATION! And of course, go to class!! There is a lot of information packed into each chapter which makes this course into

Upon reflection of the FYE 105 course material from this semester I realized there have been many techniques I have been able to improve or learn new strategies for academic success in the pursuit of lifelong learning. After being out of a traditional school for over twenty years, my academic success strategy began with obtaining a rhythm of life and school. Once I developed and implemented a good personal time management routine that allowed ample time for the many competing activities life brings, I was on course for success in achieving my goals. One aspect of this class that had a significant impact on my academic success was modifying the way I took notes to include all essential information in an easy to read and review format. I will be able to use the notetaking and time management techniques I have learned this semester in not only all future courses but in any environment requiring detailed notes and strict time management to ensure success.

I have made a schedule on what days I would be writing my papers for my other 3 classes. I also broke down the chapters I will be studying on different days for my algebra class. I don’t think it will be to hard because in high school I had to take 6 exams for all my classes. This year all I have to take is one physical in class exam. So this whole process will be different for me. To this day I still appreciate how prepared I came into college, in large parts thanks to my high school. If all goes well, I can finish my first semester with all A’s. Although the semester went by fast, there were days were it went by really slow. I’ve learned a lot in my first semester. Some things didn’t go as expected for me, but in the end it’s a lesson leaned. Lastly, next semester I will be having a new roommate. One of my roommates is transferring so I am assuming that they would place another girl in our room. I’m anxious to see who it is and how everything turns out. Hopefully everything works out because have good roommates is essential for a good college experience, in my opinion. Anyways these next 2 weeks I will be reviewing all my notes and writing all my papers. I know what the reward is for me if I everything goes well. I must finish the semester

▪ Overall, I learned the importance of involving group members in the decision-making process and

The biggest challenge I had to overcome this semester was learning to adapt to the late night study sessions and bounteous hours of writing. As well as having to make a series of personal adjustments and sacrifices in order to attend my classes. However I think that this is a challenge in which I will not have to struggle much next semester, being that I have already began to adjust and get adapt to these late hours, and long days.

This means developing a study schedule and times I would be locked in a room. Another way I could prepare is setting up goals after each step of getting things done before their deadline. One goal could be on the weekend, I would be able to go ice skating, another could be going to a movie I would like to see as a reward. Nows the time to put the plan to work, in the action stage. Once in the action stage I could have someone check up on my progress and see if I am achieving my goals on time or if I'm lagging behind. Another way to keep myself in the action stage is to set sticky notes reminding me not to procrastinate in places I couldn't avoid. The sink, mirror in my dorm, the ceiling above my bed, or the wall in front of my

I am a very organized person. At the beginning of the semester, I read through the syllabus. I knew that we would have a reflection paper on the course, so I have been preparing all semester to write this paper. Every chapter I read and summary I completed, I would jot down concepts and ideas that stuck with me. I took this class because it was a requirement for my ASL minor. I did not realize what I was going to learn and I think that worked out well in the end.

I am used to having the syllabus and starting with the planning in advance. I also don’t think that it helps that I just moved the weekend before class’s started and I have not fully unpacked, so my house is a complete mess. One way that I plan to reconcile this “mess”, so to speak is by taking the holiday time off to organize and get my mind set on the fact that this is graduate school, and that this is real! This is happening weather I want it to or not. Once I get my mind on that set of tracks, I believe that it will be easier for me to focus my attention on ways that I am able to complete assignments before the last minute that they are due. I also think that demonstrating some self-awareness is going to be a key factor in gaining the ability to focus my attention to school and try to balance school, home life, work and field placement at the same time and not burn out.

Weekly Encourager: God has given each of us certain gifts, talents, and abilities that we must make sure we are being faithful with; using them to honor Him. You must use your abilities and talents that you have been given so that they do not tarnish. Make sure that you are using your gifts diligently to benefit your students, which will, in turn, benefit you!

Reviewing notes and readings just before class seems to be helpful, as before I used to only do the readings assigned as homework and would never review notes. I’ve tried it, and actually retained a lot more of the information. One thing that I might actually try is to get a visual calendar and have things due one day before they are actually due, so that I will not have any late assignments, and the work will be of an “A” quality.

Effective time management is the most crucial requirement to completing at least one semester every six months. Accurate time management lets me get more done in less time by working smarter. Managing my time efficiently let's me shift my focus from work and family obligations to my course work at the end of the day when I schedule my study time. Although it is not always easy having a strict study schedule it is essential to completing my course work within the allotted time frame. Having a strict schedule with fifteen to twenty hours a week of time set aside for studying in a dedicated study space will provide the necessary time to accomplish one semester every six months and

This year with the assignments being due on mainly Sundays it has helped substantially, I am now able to submit the work because my Sundays are not as busy. A reason for this class being harder is because this course was a more time demanding, but I think it may be all English classes. The reason for it being more time consuming is because in my other classes it was mostly just answering multiple choice questions while this course is more breaking down components which takes a lot more thinking which take sup more time. One big advantage of this course for me was that there were no test. I am not a very good test taker because I think too much and sometimes get anxiety. This has affected me in other classes because my bad testing skills results in bad grade on test which leads to the outcome of my grades falling. With there not being any test, the stress that I would get is not there anymore. I am able to write freely and not have anxiety and stress myself out. Another aspect of this course I believe was helpful was the peer

As the semester started, I had set my mind that I was destined to achieve a lot. During the start of the semester, I had several difficulties writing English assignments especially in terms of grammar. During the first week of the semester, I sat down, organized my thoughts and comprehended that throughout the semester, I had to achieve all that I had planned for. As a student of English, I had planned that throughout the semester, I had to improve my skills as a scholar, writer and critical thinker. Now that the semester has ended, I can reflect all the semester activities to depict how my writing skills and critical thinking skills have drastically improved. This paper presents a reflection paper of how this

On Mondays and Wednesdays, I would study from 12-3pm, but on Tuesdays it would be from 1-4pm. On Thursdays, I would study from 12-2pm and on the Weekends and holidays, it can be from 2-6pm. The reasoning for changing my studying is because, in high school I use to cram all the information on the day of the test for 5 minutes and I would usually make higher than an 80 on most tests. In college, studying is a lot different from high school, it’s different because in college, you’ll need 2-3 hours a day to study in order to receive a good grade. The next SMART Goal is getting better focused this semester. I would need to be better focused in college, is I want to succeed. There are ways to accomplishing this goals there are: studying 2 hours a day, asking help when you need it, and also make a calendar that has all the dates that the assignments are due. The major barrier that I will have to overcome is procrastination. When I was in school, I would always procrastinate until the last minute. I usually say that, ‘’ I will this later’’ or I said, ‘’this is

Over the summer, my mom told me that she signed me up for something for summer hours. At the time I did not really care about summer hours and didn't think of what I was going to do for them before, so I. I had heard of the program my mom had put me in before, and all I knew was that it was something for a debate. When I went to the first meeting, they made us introduce ourselves in front of a few people. They analyzed how we talked and presented ourselves, and then put us in groups. The groups were already made because I came late, so the group counselors or mentors had to teach me and another person what the specific group was about. They explained to write notes or your debate speech on a notecard and how long you would need to talk. Every Sunday, they held a meeting with our group and taught us more about how to do our debates, speak clearly, and what our overall theme was or what we were going to debate about. The meeting started in February, and ended in June, so it gave us 3 to 4 months to practice.