14B

Being Thankful

This semester, I am thankful that I learned who my true friends are. I came here with one of my "best" friends from high school, only to discover that she is not the nice, thoughtful person I thought she was or knew her to be. To make matters worse, she killed my fish. I am thankful to have made amazing, true new friends that truly care and respect me. I have met some of the most amazing people I know here. I am also thankful for my boyfriend who, even though he lives an hour away, can still make my day better and help me through any problems I have to face. It is nice to know that there is someone at home who I can talk to everyday and keeps me grounded. I am thankful that everyone in my life is not terminally ill and that they are in good health. 

I am also thankful that I am not failing any of my classes. I was never worried that I would, but it is still something to be thankful for. I am most thankful that I am not failing math, as that was more of a possibility than any other class. 

14A

Relaxing

This week, I am definitely going to focus on relaxing in preparation for upcoming finals. My workload for classes is starting to calm down, so I can avert my attention from homework and busy work and focus more on preparing for finals, both mentally and scholarly. 

I am going to Pennsylvania to visit family over break and have Thanksgiving at my grandmothers house. Being with family, mostly my cousins, will help me relax and become less stressed about finals. My friends are also coming home for break, so I will finally be able to see them after these past three months.

In order to prepare for finals, I am going to look at the schedule and decide when each one is. Then, I will plan my studying to it. I am going to go over notes, quizzes and tests to make sure I remember the material. I am also, especially for math, going to use the practice books and do different problems. If I set a study day for each class, I am sure that I will be able to study enough to do well on my final exams. 

In these last weeks, my professors have been giving out lots of last minute projects and tests. It is a very stressful time, especially with finals quickly approaching. I have decided that these weeks must be filled strictly with school- no more nights out, movie nights, or 2 hour Conn runs. These are the last chances to bring my grades up, and I intend to do as well as I can on them.

13B

Final Video- Being Creative

In order to be creative in my video project, I am going to film part of the trail that is part of Southern as an example of what you can do on campus during the weekend. I am relating people who leave campus on the weekend to my topic of adjusting to living on your own in college. I want to show how Southerns campus does not necessarily fit the typical college life, as the majority of students leave for home during the weekends. This is not allowing yourself to fully enjoy the college of experience of living away from home. Even though I am one of these, when I transfer at the end of sophomore year I will experience that.

For my skit, I am going to use my friends help and explain what the typical college experience is, and then show how it is different at Southern. I am going to have some friends act like they are staying on campus over the weekend and some that are leaving. I am going to show the "average" time spent in each location, and show how staying on campus is better.

13A

Final Video Project- Thinking on a College Level

In my video project, I am going to exhibit a higher level of thinking by not only covering the students who live on campus in dorms, but those who go home every weekend. I am going to try to show the difference between those who stay and those who do not. I feel that many people hear that you live on campus, and they believe that you are cut off from everyone at home. Especially here, that is untrue. Many people leave for the weekend, myself included, and leave the campus dead and boring. In my video, I am going to try to cover what there is to do on weekends so hopefully more people stay. 

For example, I know that there is a trail that students may hike that is not too far from campus. I am going to explore that, and show how it is not only possible to remain active in college, but there are creative ways to spend your weekends and free time. I am also going to interview some of my friends who stay on campus during the weekend and see what their point of view is. I can then relate what they say back to my and my other friends views who leave every weekend. I want to try to focus on addressing the problem of living on your own in college and coming up with solutions and ways people get around it.

13V

Purpose

To me, purpose means having a drive to do something or something that is important. Something may have purpose in your life, or be purposeful to you.

Two words that I came across are apostate and martyr. These were both in my history class. We are learning about the Christian missionaries that came to Japan trying to convert the Buddhists to Christianity. Apostate means to renounce your faith. Martyr means someone who died for their religion. Christian missionaries were being killed as martyrs, so the Japanese tortured them and made them apostates so they died an uncelebrated death. 

13A

Final Video Project- Thinking on a College Level

In my video project, I am going to exhibit a higher level of thinking by not only covering the students who live on campus in dorms, but those who go home every weekend. I am going to try to show the difference between those who stay and those who do not. I feel that many people hear that you live on campus, and they believe that you are cut off from everyone at home. Especially here, that is untrue. Many people leave for the weekend, myself included, and leave the campus dead and boring. In my video, I am going to try to cover what there is to do on weekends so hopefully more people stay. 

For example, I know that there is a trail that students may hike that is not too far from campus. I am going to explore that, and show how it is not only possible to remain active in college, but there are creative ways to spend your weekends and free time. I am also going to interview some of my friends who stay on campus during the weekend and see what their point of view is. I can then relate what they say back to my and my other friends views who leave every weekend. I want to try to focus on addressing the problem of living on your own in college and coming up with solutions and ways people get around it.

13I

Integrity

This week, I went with a friend to a seminar in the Farnham common room. It was about integrity. The seminar made you think about if you were a good person or not behind the scenes when there is nobody watching. I decided that I was, because one time when I was younger I was on a playground, swinging on the swings. I found a wallet, but there was nobody else there. I took it home, opened it, and found a drivers license. I contacted the owner, and brought it back. I could have simply kept the money inside, but that would not have been the right thing to do. 

There were some good points and ideas brought up, but the seminar itself was quite boring. Not many people showed up, and I felt as if it were a waste of my time. There was, however, pizza and soda after. This made up for the 20 wasted minutes. 

12B

Innovation

My question is: "What is the difference between having a 'college ready' education and an 'innovation ready' education?" 

Many high school courses simply prepare you for the basics of college. This means that they have you take basic classes that make you "ready" for your freshman year. These classes, however, simply fill the basic needs. They help you see the problem and come up with the simplest answer as quickly as possible. There are no lessons that teach you to be "innovation ready." 

Having an "innovation ready" class would be one like the critical thinking all college freshman have to take. They help you think more creatively and in depth. This type of learning is more important nowadays than the simple courses in high school that are simply a+b=c. These "innovation ready" courses would not only help with other college courses, but would also prepare students for their careers. Employers are now looking for employees that can problem solve and use deeper thinking rather than simply getting the job done. 

This can be somewhat of a struggle if educational facilities continue to only teach "college ready" courses. High schools should make it mandatory that all seniors take a creative thinking course, or have one every year. This would greatly benefit the students, as they would have a jump start at thinking creatively and would be more likely to obtain a job in the career field that they want.

High schools should start teaching more innovation filled courses that force students to think creatively and not simply producing an answer. These courses should include in depth, deeper thinking. 

12I

Movie Night!

This week, I went to the Student Center Theater to see the movie We're the Millers. It was put on by ProCon, and it was very well produced. There were free snacks along with the movie, so we stocked up on Skittles, Hershey Bars, and Twix. I would highly recommend going to their next movie, which is the Hunger Games. They are putting it on next Tuesday.

11I Bus Trip!

This week, I went on the bus to downtown New Haven for my friends birthday. I had gotten a bus pass from Wintergreen earlier this year, and had never used it before. We waited for the bus under the bridge, and all had to figure out how to use the passes as we boarded. We went to the Shake Shack and Yale. We got a little lost on our way back, and had a hard time finding a bus to take us home. We finally found another bus station, and swiped our passes again. It was a lot of fun, and I would definitely use the bus again to go downtown.

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