What I Learned

In today's presentation given by Keara, I learned how serious plagiarism actually is taken in here in Michigan Tech. If the offence is serious enough, it could even get you expelled from Michigan Tech permenantly! It's pretty insane actually when you think about it, because it prbably happens everyday. Which leads me to what really surprised me about the presentation; how many students actually admitted to cheating. This shows how many people actually get away with it and why it can be so punishable.

Jounral Entry: 29

All my life, it seems that everyday I would get emotionally de-railed by some random occurence. It appeared inevitable that a basic everyday event that I really should just be able to brush off, such as poping a bike tire or getting in a fight with my parents, would basically ruin my day, or week for that matter. I guess you could kind of say I'm sensitive. Not in any other area, however, am I more sensitive than the area of academics.

When I was in high school, I strived to be the best, and if I ever got anything lower than a B, I would just be disgusted with myself. Sometimes, even B's got me kind of mad, because I know I could have done so much better than that. If I know my potential, which for the most part I do, and I don't seem to meet it, I just beat myself up over and over. Since I got to college, my personal standard has seemed to greatly lower, that is, mostly after the first semester. This was definately the most depressing thing I have felt in a long time. I truly felt like a loser, and that all of my drive and dreams were crushed. I still feel this; the feeling that I'll never be the same ambitious kid I was in high school and that I just won't be able to meet the expectations I had set for myself.

I did many things to cope with these extremely depressive times. Most of them just dealt with doing things that made me happy, such as skateboarding, hanging out with my friends, etc. I also did some academic changes that actually made me become a better college student, which also not only made me feel better about myself, but also boosted my confidence as well. Everytime I do bad on a test/homework, or if anything gets me down for that matter, I can always count on skateboarding, my friends, etc. to make me happy. There still are times when I know I could be doing better in a class and end up getting down on myself, and I will actually recognize that I should be able to do better. I end up pushing myself to doing better in the class, which honestly is the best feeling ever.

I'm still on the road to getting back to the same ambitious kid I was back in high school, and am actually really determined to, but the way things have been just sets me back 2 steps when I try to move forward 1. It doesn't feel like I'm even close, or if I'll ever be. I just want that same "I can do this!" attitude and confidence I used to have...

1. This semester I would have to say that the Chemistry course I'm in would be the hardest, for sure. Almost every other course seems to be just fine, but cheimistry just doesn't really click with me. It just seems like it takes so much more effort to understand, which I suppose I really hacen't been putting forth much of...

After doing the preferred learning style questions, I found that I scored the highest in thinking and innovation. And that, for the most part, is true. All my life science and math have always been my favorite subjects and I have always loved thinking about a problem and solving it. For some reason, however, chemistry seems so much harder. Becuase it has given me so much trouble, every time I think about it or trying out a problem, I just get bitter feelings towards chemistry.

Really though, when it boils down to it, I know that I have the ability to take on this course. As I've said before the way I'm living and just my situation in general has seemed to hindered my overall performance. Another problem worthy of addressing that I probably should have a long time ago but am simply too stubborn to admit to is that I really should/should have seeked extra help. The problem is that am a very independent person amd like to do things myself. I just get such a better sense of accomplishment out of knowing I was able to do it un-aided and I just feel that's how it should be. When ask for help or get an answer from someone else I feel like I cheat myself, which actually makes me feel horrible. It's kind of hard to describe, but I guess you could say that I'd feel better about being wrong about something that I worked out myself than to be right about something I was helped with or just given the answer to. This is what I've found to be one of the worst traits about myself, which I cannot seem to help.

2. The main problem that I've had with this course, as stated earlier, is that I just can't seem to get the extra help I need and to thoroughly grasp the main ideas. I feel that I could understand the material, it's just a matter of how much I am able to apply myself. Sure, I can go to class, listen and learn the material presented and feel fine about it. However the next class I go and learn something new, which sort of makes me forget what i learned aboiut the previous class. Chemistry, which I found the hard way, applies everything you learn into, sometimes, just one problem. All of these rules and formulas are really easy for me to forget, which is ultimately the reason why I struggle with chemistry along with any other class I take.

I feel that if I am able to learn to remember things better, I would be all set with chemistry, or any course for that matter, so long as the ambition and drives still remains. I'm just unsure if i'll be able to do that because it's a battle I've been fighting since I was in middle school and it just seems like I'll never win...

Journal Entry #21

Reading through the list of self-defeating habits that my book had listed in Chapter 6 really was, in a way, kind of deppressing. This is because I could check off at least 3/4 of all the different habits, something I can say I'm not very proud of...

Of all the habits listed, however, one that stands out the most to me which I recognize everyday is the "doing more unimportant things" list. When I get home from class, the one thing I want to do is just go out and skateboard, hang out with friends, etc. These unimportant things have, indeed, became some of the most important things in my life and seem that they always will be. No matter how hard I try to sit down to do work/study, I always end up having the unstoppable urge to go out and do something. This ends up in me doing my homework at the last minute and late at night, if I don't end up passing out in my bed from a long day instead, of course.

I feel like this always happens mostly because I hate being alone or not having fun. I am constantly just looking to have fun and that is where my friends, skateboarding and all the other crazy things we do together come together. I also have realized that I do have quite a bad case of nostalgia. I just don't want to grow up and I absoloutely HATED the idea of graduating and going off to growing up. Still living at home and having many friends still in high school really doesn't help this much at all.

I really have thought about it and have realized that moving away from all of these distractions and just being able to grow up would be the absoloute best for me. The problem is that I just can't let go. I love my friends and everything we do together so much that even the thought of moving away makes me depressed. I have lived in the same little town of South Range for over 16 years now and have so many memories of both good times and bad. I just hate the thought of leaving all of it behind. And that's kind of how it is when I drive to class everyday. The same exact place where I would always go to skateboard with my friends back when I was still in highschool and get kicked out of everyday were now where I had to go and actually try my best academicly. All I would want to do is to just get home and get out with my buddies.

I really do have a serious problem here, and I just don't know if I'm able to address it yet. I have had some really big goals set for myself to hopefully become an astronomer working for NASA. Since I was about 10, nothing amazed me more than the night sky and nothing sounded better than achieving that dream. I have always loved learning and having that great feeling of being successful, but am grealty hindered today with many different self-defeating patterns. I'm just not sure if I'm ready to grow up yet and ready to take on those dreams, because if I want to achieve those dreams I would have to give up almost everything and focus on that dream, and that's just something I'm really not ready for yet.

I don't know too much about what I for sure want right now, but I can tell you that I WILL achieve my dreams. It is just a matter of when I feel I'll be ready to take that challenge on.


Extra Credit: Understanding Your Notes As You Write Them

Upon researching this topic, as I am actually fairly interested in it myself, I did find a bit about it which may come in handy.

Before you start taking notes, you'll want to have at least a general idea of what you'll be writing about before you start writing random stuff you don't understand. If you're going to class, reading ahead a bit, or at least understanding the topic that will be discussed in class will help you to understand what your writing as you write it.

Another helpful tip when taking notes is to not write too much or just blindly write down everything the teacher is writing. Try to point out key formulas, ideas, etc. and try to branch of those ideas. This will also help you to understand your notes as you go through them.

One other way that will help you interpret what you're writing as you write it is labeling certain parts of your notes to remind you of important ideas about those bits of information. Although this may seem to just be helpful in the sense of going back into your notes and reading through them, this could also help you understand your notes while you write them, as well. As you write down different peices of information which you may sort of misundertand, labeling them with key ideas could really spark an idea about that topic or give you some extra insight on it as you write it down.

These were just a few quick ways to help in note-taking that I pulled of of the internet here: http://http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/reading-and-researching/notes-from-research
but I am sure that there are plenty of other ways to help achieve greater note-taking abilities.