9I.20: Sonia Sotomayor's Visit

Going to Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s lecture was definitely serious business. There was security at the entrances and they held bag checks to assure her maximum safety. I was very excited just to know I was going to be in the same room as someone of such high importance. Regardless of her social status Sonia seemed very humble and friendly. I enjoyed listening to her advice and I liked how some of the things she mentioned about failure, success, and perseverance tied directly into what we have previously discussed in class. It helped to emphasize the things that are vital in completing college and achieving our dreams. Sonia’s experience is very inspirational because it shows an extreme example of how it’s possible to accomplish incredible things in spite the presence of many hardships and disadvantages. I am glad that I was fortunate enough to attend this event, and I hope that some of Sonia’s success could rub off on me.

9V: Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is the action of analyzing the deeper meanings and explanations behind things rather than just accepting the information introduced to you with no questions asked. It’s often excluded because sometimes people rather avoid the effort and just go along with the opinions offered by others.

One of the new words I encountered this week is ambivalent. It means to have mixed feelings on an issue or to be doubtful or uncertain. This can relate to critical thinking because if you have doubts about something then you can further investigate it so that you can make a well informed decision.

  Another word I learned this week is gregarious. It means to be very social, outgoing and friendly.

9A: Think...Thinking...Thought

We finally reach college and all of a sudden there seems to be a similar instruction coming from most of our educators. They keep telling us we need to become critical thinkers. I had heard this term in the past but I never really gave it much thought…how ironic. This was probably due to the fact that in high school teachers weren’t concerned with things unless they were strictly directed from the given text. Our purpose was to memorize that material and then repeat what we remembered on the tests. Since we solely focused on the facts that’s what would be considered “literal thinking”. Now more is expected of us and we have a greater purpose.

College wants us to get in the habit of using “critical thinking”. It is the concept of not only absorbing information but of evaluating it and developing our own explanation and perspective. It requires us to look for deeper meanings in the information we encounter and to interact in engaged discussions instead of just being comfortable with what we are exposed to on the surface. This reminds me of little children and their tremendous curiosity, they don’t just always want to know the WHAT but they also want to know the WHY, WHERE, and HOW.

 
A critical thinker uses logic and reason in order to determine what is true, make decisions, and solve problems. It’s important for us to learn how to think in such a way because unlike other skills that can be easily learned on the job, the ability to think critically is developed with intelligence and time and can be used in all aspects of life. That’s why it is beneficial for us to focus on improving our critical thinking now and learning how it can tie into different subjects and matters. A course in which I could apply critical thinking to is my history class. The professor always gives us his opinion and the information from the book and tells us to use those for test purposes. However, he constantly encourages us to come up with our own theories and opinions in order to make discussions and keep things interesting. This also goes to show that although college puts a bigger emphasis on critical thinking it doesn’t mean that it completely ignores factual/literal thinking.

9B: A -ddiction

Wow! The weeks just keep flying by. After completing our first eight weeks of college we were faced with one of our first moments of truth…Midterm grades. I can’t say that I’m disappointed with my grades but I’m never fully satisfied with them either because I know that they could potentially be better if I could just manage to eliminate some of my careless mistakes. However, that being said I am proud of my achievements in my courses thus far and I hope that I can continue doing well.

Getting to see my grades was very reassuring for me because it showed me that my hard work is paying off. I was able to stay within my desired grade range and even exceed my expectations in some courses. The class that I did the best in was Sociology, this surprised me because it is my critical thinking course and I wasn’t even familiar with anything relating to this subject before college. It turns out I’ve actually become very interested in this class and I always look forward to the discussions that we have in it. I am glad of where I stand with my grades right now. I am fortunate enough to say that I am doing better in some classes than others and yet not doing badly in any.

Like I previously mentioned before, regardless of the fact that my grades are good I always still feel the need to improve. I want to work harder on my study skills so that I could avoid making simple mistakes on tests and I also want to learn how to formulate better responses to open ended questions. The goals that I have for the second half of the semester are the same as the ones I had for the first one which are to do all of my homework and to try to keep at least a 90 average in all of my classes. Getting good grades can be addicting because once you know they’re possible you just want to keep improving and doing your best so that you can get more of them. I know Carol Dweck mentioned that people shouldn’t care so much about their grades but even though I worry about my grades it doesn’t change the fact that I have a growth mindset and constantly believe in expanding my intelligence.

midterm video final draft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6anWtnkTRUY&feature=youtu.be

8I.19: Majors Expo

On Wednesday, October 16^th there was a Majors Expo in the Adanti Student Center Ballroom. Even though I am adamant about my decision on being a Nursing Major I still found it very interesting to see all the different opportunities offered here at Southern. I noticed that there really is a taste for everything and people can choose to major in things ranging from Schools of Arts and Sciences, Business, Health and Human Services, and Education. I realized that the program I want to get into is one of the most competitive. If I don’t make it in I’ll have to face one of my biggest fears and possibly have to switch Majors. One of the back-up Majors I looked into at the Expo was Public Health because some of the requirements are similar to the ones I’m doing for Nursing. It’s not what I’m hoping for but it’s always good to have an idea of what to do in case your original plan fails. All in all it was a fun event to attend because they had free water and cookies and everyone was very friendly and informative.