Learning Profile

1. Being sick has it's advantages. Since I spent more time than normal resting, I had more time to read through my textbooks. Just for fun. That includes student connect. (Who read their student connect book for fun? Nobody. That's who). So that put me at a significant advantage over other students. I absorbed a little more material. Some themes I learned about were how to engage. Engage isn't necessarily going up and meeting people like I first thought when I started reading the chapter. Engaging actually means getting adjusted to the culture of college. That includes setting goals for myself and developing a strnger passion for academia. I learned how to persist. I learned to prioritize. That chapter especially helped me because I use to get so stressed out over all the stuff I take on. I learned how to better plan my time to reduce that stress factor. My favorite theme was how I learn. I learned what my dominate intelligence, learning style, and personality type meant. I learned how to record using my listening skills and note-taking systems that work for me. I learned way to better remember material, and how to prosper. Assessing and Thinking also provided invaluable tactics. All the themes together form a powerful bond. Anyone that masters those would be the ideal student.

2. Who would've thought there were actual learning styles. I never would have guessed there was a type that fit me best. After taking the multiple intelligences survey I learned that Musical rhythm and interpersonal were my intelligence strengths. Those were followed closely by verbal linguistic and intrapersonal skills. So according to that test, I love to sing, communicate well through language, possess great leadership skills, and am very reflective. Those are what I draw my strengths from. To further learn about my strenghts, I took the Learning Evaluation and Assessment Directory. I found that I'm mostly a visual learner. That means that I'm strongest at visualizing problems and would rather read instructions rather than listen to a lecture. It was weird to find how well these tests describe me. I found that I can read quickly and comprehend accurately. My advice to any student to come to this class: Make it to class. It's the easiest yet most important step. The rest will just fall into place. And work at a steady pace. Don't wait until the night before everything is due to finish your assignments. It sucks. The instructors give you plenty of time. Take advantage of it. Don't be dumb.

3. My biggest weakness would be organizing. I'm terrible at organization. My dorm's a mess, my notes aren't in order, my class notebooks have notes from other classes hidden inside them. I noticed that girls usually stay very organized. I wish I could stay organized like a girl. The tasks that usually take the most time for me are papers. I go through revision after revision. My papers hardly ever correction marks on them when I get them back. These blogs are an exception however. I'm in a hurry. That's another weakness. Time management. Here I am doing all the blogs the night before everything is due. I've had weeks. That was a big big mistake. If I organized like a girl and had time management skills of the president I'd be a master student. I wouldn't put money on that though. I've also got to work on my auditory skills. The textbook says that's my weakest learning style. That's silly though. I'm a good listener. That's another good point I've brought up. Acceptance. That's important. I need to learn to accept my weaknesses and work towards bettering myself rather than denying my faults. Living in denial is not a healthy way to live.

4. I learned that I'm not as great as I thought I was. I really let myself down. I thought I had everything down. I was pretty set with how I was doing things. I learned that there's always a better way out there. You just need to figure it out. You have it in you. I also learned that giving up is taking the stupid way out. Not the easy way, the stupid way. You're cheating yourself when you give up. The things I learned are probably a little different than what the other students learned because I didn't spend as much time in the classroom. I spend much of it in bed reading the book. So I had to teach myself a lot of this stuff. This course is important to me in that it helped me realize where I stand next to others. I'm not so different from anyone in that classroom. The most important skill I learned was how to utilize my strongest intellligence field to enhance studying and learning. I'm really glad I learned that when I did. I'm positive I'll be able to use that in the future. A lot of what I learned were things I believe I already knew, but were afraid to use. Or unsure how to utilize them. This course helped me uncover and sharpen those skills.

5. This one's going be tough. I was absent a lot. So I missed a lot of group discussions and activities. I remember one of the first activities we did was the stand up for what you believe in thing outside. It was a nice way to get to know everyone and what they stand for. I remember the speed reader activity was personally my favorite. I wish I would have gotten that installed on my computer when I had the chance. That program was a great chance to increase my reading and comprehension. I really enjoyed that. I thought the small group discussions were pretty worthless because nobody cared to talk. And when people did talk it was just nonsense stuff. It was never intelligent conversation so I had a hard time staying interested. I think that assigning reading helped me more than discussing topics in class. I formed more creative pictures and theories in my mind. We should have gotten to know each other better. That would've enabled more meaningful conversation. I don't regret anything though. It was an interesting course filled with interesting features. I had a hard time relating much of the material to my own life though.

6. I thought the course was pretty stable. You could tell it was new. Actually the theory behind the course is probably stronger than the course itself. I understand that the college wants to help synergize students into the Butler learning atmosphere. It's a difficult task that I believe was handled as well as it could be. The textbooks definitely should be kept. I learned the most from the book. Ice breaker activities were nice. It gave the students a chance to befriend each other. Group discussions were terrible. It may have just been my group, but I had a hard time participating in those. The daily logs were a good idea. It kept students on track. That's something they can use in the future. I think that the blog thing is a dumb idea. It just seemed sort of trivial to voice my opinion on subjects like academic honesty. We all know about that stuff. It was just dumb. I believe that in order to be successful in the future, you should design the course around the class you are given. Every class has their strong points. Take advantage of that. My group struggled with group conversations, so either teach us to do that better, or just drop it. Student Connect would be a fun class to teach because you have a lot of freedom. I would just have fun with the class. And grade the students on their effort and attitude. And maybe throw a couple papers in. You've always gotta have a few papers.

7. My advice to incoming students would be to keep an open-mind. I came in thinking "Man, this really sucks. Why am I here? I have better things to do with my time." I'm sure that was a pretty common theme among students. I lost motivation and interest early on and I only have myself to blame. I would tell students to give it a chance. Work with the instructor. They're trying their best to make the course interesting for you. As worthless as the class seemed when it started, it definitely surprised me. You learn more about yourself in this class than any other class you'll take at butler-probably. That's because the class isn't really specific to any one thing. You have the chance to observe so many different things. Try to participate in discussions. It's boring to sit there and listen to people 'try' to make conversation. Try to stay passionate about you're talking about and you won't get bored. And got to class. Seriously, go to class. And work at a steady pace. I fell behind early. It really stinks trying to catch up last minute.

8. I honestly believe that I will be more successful in the future because of this class. I was a nonbeliever when the course started, and now I believe. I really didn't think it would happen. I learned how to maintain healthy habits. When you keep yourself healthy, everything around you will benefit: relationships, grades, goals. This course has strengthened my self-confidence. I came in strong and left stronger. I appreciate Mrs. Milbourn and everything she did. She was very understanding and easy to get along with. She was a lot of fun. I learned to accept others the way they are. And not to judge. Everyone has something they're good at. We should celebrate that in each other. I learned that the future starts now. I shouldn't just hang around and hope stuff works out. I need to start planning and working towards goals. Small ones at first, gradually working towards the big ones. And that as long as you stay positive, you can only move forward. I also figured that it's best to absorb as much as you can about everything. And that I should always stay in the pursuit of knowledge.