Learning Profile

1) The themes in the book, are very good topics concerning college life and what to expect. Reading this book has been very helpful in properly introducing my lifestyle to adjust to the common college life. The first topic is engage. This chapter simply answers questions like, "Why am I here?" and "What am I expected to get done and how, here at Butler?". The second chapter is called persist. Persistence is very important in college. This involves all issues from your grades to managing money while you stay here. Thirdly, prioritize, is the next chapter. This is a very important chapter involving how you must spend your time in college. It discusses many issues that students face here at Butler. Read is titled in the next chapter. Here, the book simply talks about how important improving your comprehension skills are and how to properly develop those skills. Next, the chapter learn talks about how to establish your own learning style and maximize it's potential. Along with learning, recording is another important aspect. Properly taking notes and listening to instructors is crucial in your education. With these two, also comes the remembering part of college. You receive a lot of information throughout the day, and are literally expected to regurgitate that information on a test later. To properly take these tests and give yourself the best chance, you must asses yourself and develop good test-taking techniques that work for you. The next chapter is called think. Going through college with an open mind will allow you to think clearer and overall absorb more information in your experiences. With all of these ideas, the final message is labeled prosper. With everything learned, use this knowledge to prosper and follow your dreams.

2) I think that throughout my life as a learner, I have many strengths and weaknesses. I try to focus on my strengths but at the same time, I try to identify the weaknesses and make them into strengths. Some of my strengths include: good note-taking, good listener in class, and I enjoy acquiring interesting knowledge about certain subjects. Some activities that come easy to me include activities done outwardly to the class. A lot of these include group activities. I like to talk aloud with other students and get their ideas as well. Another helpful activity is one similar to one we had done in this class. The teacher had asked us certain questions and we had responded. She then wrote down the answers on a board and we discussed them in class together. I think that the two classes I enjoyed the most this semester here at Butler, would have to be Calculus and Psychology class. I think that in this class, it is a give and take relationship; you get out of it as much as you can give to it...

3) Acknowledging ones weaknesses can be a very difficult thing to do. You have to fully examine yourself and dissect all that you do. As a learner, I have many distinct weaknesses that I wish I would not posses. I think that a major one would have to be my study habits. I find it very difficult to sit down and study a subject freely. If I do this, I am most likely being forced to do so. I wish I was a better studier habits and had more determination in more subjects to actual try harder. Though most of the time I fill that time with practicing baseball, lifting weights, or hanging out with the guys. Obviously, studying for tests is almost a never in my world. When I go on to another college (hopefully) I hope I will have established some sort of studying habits.

4) Throughout this class this semester I feel I have learned many things that I did not know before. I feel I have grown as a student by taking this class. I wish I would have taken this class in the first part of the semester, so I could have used some of this knowledge to help me begin my college career. I know that when I had begun the class I did not know many people in it. I know that I have met many new people and have grown to understand their ideas. In class, we talked about many issues throughout the world and how we could try and change the outcomes of some of those topics. I grew an understanding for some major issues facing the world today. I know that the activity we had done on the computers was a difficult assignment for me. The assignment was to successfully complete a speed reading program so that we may improve our reading speed and comprehension at the same time. I am not a very fast reader, so it took me a while to finally pass all of the tests. I think that this program had really helped me on my reading. I enjoyed that part of the class, throughout the semester.

5) In this course I recognized and related to many topics talked about. The book did a good job of presenting these ideas and talking about them. I think that the ideas about school and learning how to apply one’s self in college were very helpful. I especially liked the chapters talking about your study habits and taking notes. I found that I could relate my personal problems with these chapters. One of my biggest weaknesses in school is staying focused and getting my work finished. Also, in class we would talk about world problems and controversial issues. I think that this really opened my eyes to a new light. I saw how much other people really cared about these issues and wanted to actually change them. I did not think that a lot of kids, my age, were very active on those issues.

6) The content we covered in this class, like I have said earlier, was very beneficial and I think was a very good criteria to talk about. Mostly, I think the book did the most for me. With each chapter I feel I could really relate myself and apply myself to each. One thing that could maybe be dropped would be when we talked about how to improve our reading skills. It was nice to have been shown that program in class, but I felt that a lot of the people did not take it that seriously. If it was a grade, then I think people would have gotten more out of the assignment. There were many different methods used in class to help us apply ourselves better. Some of these, on the other hand, were not very beneficial and did not seem to work as well as others. An example would be when we had group assignments. I think that, while in groups, I had absorbed more information and applied myself better. I felt I could relate to others ideas and grew learning them as well. I would not change many aspects of this course. I think that the class was fun and it was a good mixture of different learning strategies.

7) Honestly, this course is not very difficult if you do what you are told and manage your time correctly. This course, I think, was mainly about doing the reading assignments and completing all of the reflections on time. The class can be very difficult if you fail to do both of these things. You may catch yourself doing the assignments late and not having time to finish them all. I am a perfect example of that mistake. I waited till the last minute to type up most of my information - including the biggest assignment that is worth the most points. A very important mind set to come into this class with is one I have mentioned before in my previous paragraphs. If a student taking this course does not put much effort and time into the assignments, he or she might not get a positive response from the class. Like I have said earlier, you get as much out of this class as you can put in. Being open to growth can be a very powerful attribute and can lead to receiving a better education throughout your years.

8) Over the second half of this semester I felt I have grown as a college student - in many aspects. Through reading the book, I feel I have been properly introduced on how to manage my time carefully in the college life. With each chapter, a new topic was introduced and I learned something different. I especially liked the topics about having to cope with changes and learning to adapt to different classes. I think that the one thing I need to work on the most, is my time management. Also, I think I met a lot of new people in the class. I think that meeting new people is a fun thing to do. I probably have met about 3-4 new people and I actually recognize them around campus and I say hello. I think that meeting people is very important in my growth as a college student. Completing my assignments have helped me as well. I think that learning how to manage my time correctly and completing my assignments on time has taught me that I needed to do my work in college. Lastly, my teacher has been that best part of this whole experience. I really enjoyed taking this class with Sonja as my teacher. I do not think I would have gotten the same response out of this course if I did not have her as my teacher.

Butler Resources

In case study number 4 (Failing Classes), Damon seems to have many problems and doesn't know how to correctly solve and go through with them. Obviously he knows that he is being lazy but still cannot find any motivation to help him become successful in school. As mentioned, something that was bothering him was whether or not he was writing down the right notes in class. I understand what he means and it is a very difficult issue - especially in college. Something that could help him with this would be to ask the teacher for some help. He can get tips from her that can help him to determine if the notes he is taking are important. Another thing he could do is visit this website and look up how to take proper notes in the most affective way possible. There are many resources he could use, but it still comes down to him being lazy and not taking the initiative to do it. A way Damon could help himself concerning his roommate would be to visit the library and find a quite place to accurately complete and finish his work. To me, Damon has the potential to do well in school. His only problem is the distractions of college life. Another website he can visit shows how to cleverly spend ones' time in college.

Academic Plan

Going through college can be a very confusing and challenging time in someone’s life. People go to college so that they may choose a specific major. Their major will decide what they want to do with the rest of their life. Therefore, your academic plan during college is a very serious issue. I chose Butler mainly because I was recruited by the baseball program. I took a visit to the school last December and I liked the campus. More importantly, I liked the coaches and the program. Honestly, I never thought about the academics until I had already signed with Butler. My overall goal is to go as far as I can in baseball. I love playing and I will never grow sick of it. Though, my chances of actually making it to the major leagues are slim to none; therefore my academic plan is something I must figure out soon – if I want to be successful in my life. While playing baseball I can use it as a road to a bigger university. I can use my baseball ability, to hopefully earn a scholarship to a bigger university and get it paid for. I know my parents would be very happy if I was to reach this goal. Right now my major is engineering. I do not know yet specifically what type but I do know that I would like this type of profession. I know that math is my strongest subject, so I thought I might choose something that comes easy to me.

Academic Honesty

Academic integrity in school’s today is a very real issue. I know that a lot of students in school cheat and get away with it. This is true because it honestly is very easy to do. I remember in high school, if someone needed to do some homework they would ask around to people who had done it and ask if they copy – and they would get it done. The teacher would have no clue that the student had done this. This would happen a lot and still does, if not more in college. People have their own dorm rooms and live right down the hall from each other. This just makes it that much easier to cheat. Though some kids do get caught, the punishment rate is not high enough to frighten students into not doing it. Plagiarism can be discussed on all sorts of levels. In English class this can be argued to be an issue as well. This is because many students don't use the proper MLA formatting techniques needed to properly cite your sources. If students would truly recognize and respect these "writing laws", there would be no problems on this issue. Mainly a reason why students cheat and are dishonest about it is through laziness. Our society has changed drastically into one which relies on computers and machines to do most of their work for them. Also, kids are preoccupied with everything they see. Whether it be video games or even drugs, kids today are much lazier than a long time ago. I think that teachers should monitor more carefully and make harsher consequences regarding this issue.

Community Service

Community service, I think, is essential and should be demanded of all students at any school. Since the seventh grade, I have had been forced to participate in community service. In seventh and eighth grade, i was required to turn in 15 hours of community service per year. As I had graduated and went off to Rockhurst High School the requirements became more demanding and challenging. My freshman through junior years I was required 15 hours of service per each first semester of school. The second semester required 20 hours of service. This was very challenging and related a lot to time management as well. If you had a weekend free, you had to find a place to work. This was especially hard if you played 3 sports throughout high school. I played football, basketball, and baseball until I was a senior. This made it very difficult to find time to go out and help others. Although my senior year was very different than the past three years. My senior year of high school truly defines my participation in community service. I feel I have never grown as much in my life. We were assigned a senior service project. We were supposed to go out and find a school, daycare center, nursing home, etc. and make an appointment to talk about working for their organization throughout the month of January. We had been assigned hours where and when to be and we had to give this information to our school. Teachers would check us everyday to make sure that we showed up at our appropriate locations. I volunteered at a daycare center in a highly Hispanic area. They were very impoverished and didn't have much. The experience I had with these kids was one that I will never forget.

Time Management

Throughout college it is very important to manage your time correctly. If you are able to manage your time thriftily, you can find yourself with more time on your hands. This is a major issue in the college environment because of the absence of parents. A lot of freshman that are in college had parents that did a lot of the daily chores for them. When you get to college, all of those responsibilities are now on your shoulders. Another important part of managing your time relates to your extra curricular activities and your involvement in them. A lot of students at Butler participate in some kind of activity throughout the school. Whether it be playing a sport or being involved in plays and dance. This part of your college life is important because these activities are hobbies and should have extra time put into them. Everything you do requires practice to be good at it. Also, quite often you might have to do extra work -outside of practice so you can get better. I know that with many sports, you don't just practice and play during the season - instead it involves work and commitment throughout the entire year. This can play a major role in how you spend your time and what you decide to do with it. I play baseball and the biggest amount of time we have off is Christmas break. Though, our coach is still going to give us a workout schedule that we must follow in order to stay in shape.

Coping With Change

Coping with change is a very important aspect in many people’s lives. If others do not learn to cope with their changes, it can be very disastrous. A change that I experienced and had to cope with recently was adjusting between the high school and college atmospheres. High school is very different from college. The main changes in between the two are the responsibilities one has as a student. You are no longer under parental supervision and you have to do things on your own. This can include anything from waking up in the morning, to feeding yourself and keeping a healthy diet. Along with the basic necessities of life and what is expected you to do, you also have to keep your school work a priority. With school every day, and if you play a sport, life can be somewhat stressful. I play baseball. So, as a result, I have to be very thrifty with my time. With being an athlete comes even more responsibilities. You have to eat 3-4 times a day. You have to pay attention to the weather, so that you do not catch yourself getting sick. If you have an injury, you have to schedule appointments to help make yourself better. All of these things, one must master and achieve to be successful.
So, coping with change is a very important of your life. I feel that I have done well coping with the transfer from high school to college. Though, I do feel that I can do better.