Learning Profile

Dear Sonja,
You have made a wonderful impact on my life. I feel very comfortable and confident around campus now and also as a person. You’ve helped me improve as a learner as well. The stories, activities and open communication where all part in this and would like to share the reasons behind them with you.

The reading material touched my heart. At first it was just another sad story but now they are stories of success. These life lesson stories start out with a problem but always seem to find some type of happiness at the end. So how is this success? Well, the authors shared these stories so maybe just maybe someone else doesn’t go through the same thing they did. They are sharing there troubles and mistakes so we can learn from them. And that’s their success.

My strengths as a learner are my ability to communicate. I know that might seem weird, but I was able to voice my opinion in this class and I learn more from classes that let me voice my opinion. Example: I never ever talk in math class and surprisingly it was my worst subject. Therefore, I feel new students should feel more open and comfortable in this class from the beginning. The more open I feel the better I communicate making the learning process easier.

You’ve made it easy to analyze my strengths and weaknesses as a learner. My weakness as a learner is my attendance. I don’t have much time for school having a full time job and two people to take care of. But the ‘time management’ assignment helped me become a little more organized with my priorities. And education is very important to me. A quality as a learner that I wish I had is the ability to multitask. Some people in this class seem to possess this ability and do a great job at it. One thing that was difficult and time consuming were the writing assignments. It’s difficult for me to put my thoughts into words at the right moment. That all kind of leads back to time management.

This class has taught me more about ‘real life’ (when you realize you’re an adult now, real life) then I knew. For example: I didn’t realize how much time could be on your side. Before, it seemed like I was always working against time. And the coping with change assignment opened my eyes to different ways to cope. The academic plan assignment is now playing a part in my degree decision. And my favorite assignment (butler resources) was amazing!!!! I had no idea there was any other way of searching then Google. So, you can only imagine the surprise of find an online library with all the fixing and tools you need. I have to admit that this class wasn’t needed but now I know butler reason behind it. See, you know how it feels like you know everything just after graduating. Then, a short time later, you find yourself confused upon entering college. This class helps eliminate that lost feeling. It just seems to make life easy to deal with. And without the skills taught to me in this class, instead of being a college student second semester, I could have been a drop out. Now, I understand why this class is required for college freshman.

Not to talk about assignments again, but did you find yourself relating with them, like me? They really hit home with almost all things I wondered about. Learning from other people’s problems and mistake to finding your self a career path is what I learned from this class. Seems pretty important right? Well it is.

The course worked for me, from my perspective of the content we covered, I feel that nothing should be dropped. I also feel that the ‘Butler Resources’ assignment should be kept at all cost, and maybe adding another assignment tied to that one would help. Activities on the other hand, everything should be kept as is. I don’t feel a change would help. Okay, maybe more activities. But then you would have to assign the reading to be done at home and allow more time for completion of assignments in class. Nope, you should just leave activities alone. My most important advice I would give you on how to design, conduct, and evaluate this course next time would be “……………..” I can not seem to think of any.

The experience I’ve this class have made me a better person. I say better person, because the experiences in this class have and still are affecting my life and my career path. I know have an education on education and without it I might have graduated with a degree I wouldn’t want. That means I would have to attend college again. Hoping to receive another degree in a career I would enjoy. Now, that’s not a bad idea, but it’s also not what I would call, fun.


Love Jen

Academic Honesty

One issue surrounding academic honesty is plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined as the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work. Plagiarism is wrong. Everyone knows it's dishonest but they all still seem to think that it's not that big of a deal. Well taking someone elses words and using them as yours is a big deal. It's actually a huge deal. If you write an article, letter, or even an essay would you want someone else you don't even know using your ideas as theirs. You can avoid this by citing all the information in your paper that is found during research on that topic.

Love Jen

Academic Plan

My purpose for going to college is to be educated beyond high school. I do plan on graduating from Butler with a degree. Now, what kind of a degree is unknown. I feel so many careers fit me but picking just one is going to take some time.

I plan on studying medicine for now but after that I have a long list of careers that interest me. A part of me wants to be an EMT or RN in the ER. Or I could be a counselor. Even better, how about a business major? I tend to bounce back and forth with those choices personally. They all sound so great, so which one?

I wouldn’t want to transfer schools , but Butler doesn’t offer everything. There are other great colleges but the thought of transferring is a though of ‘restarting.’

If this sounds like you check out the sites listed below. They are all places you might want to look at so, check them out.

Places to find a career choice:
http://careerplanning.about.com
http://www.courseadvisor.com
www.CareerDegreeSource.com

Places I look:
http://www.counseling.org/CareerCenter/
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/medicaled.html

Love Jen

Butler Resources

Navigation is the key when finding information. The faster I find information, right information, the better the experience. That's why Butler's online database is wonderful.

I logged into my pipeline, clicked on 'Library Databases' and everything I could ever need was there. Maybe not everything but from there I can access a search engine, articles, books, and information on citations. And the categories continue to break down from there. They also have an 'Ask the Librarian' message board, which comes in handy. How about taking a trip there now, just click on the attached link. http://www.butlercc.edu/nixon_library/databasesoffcampus.cfm

What Butler has to offer is amazing. I'm a 'Google' freak, so now knowing there is a different and more effective way of searching is fantastic. Not only is it effective but efficient as well. The 'Online Database' is something that everyone should know how to with. I even feel it's better than 'Google.'

Time Management

Time affects you everyday all day long. Sometimes days fly by and other days they just seem to fly by. How do you manage time? If you’re like me you just go with the flow, but a schedule seems to do good.

See I’ve never had enough time in a day to get everything accomplished I wanted to. When there might be free time it always seems like something else comes up. I’ve tried a schedule but it doesn’t fit my lifestyle , between work, school and my own life time doesn’t go slow enough.

I did find an incredible site that offers information on time management. Just click on the link below.
http://www.studygs.net/timman.htm

Love Jen

Community Service

Community Service is what you and other people benefit from. I wish I had more time for a community service project. I was first exposed to community service when I entered high school. Now, I did participate in little ways before that but I didn’t understand the meaning until then. There are so many benefits that come from service projects and the meaning behind it is touching. Community service ranges from donating old coats and jacks to revamping a park or cleaning up a neighborhood.

Some issues that trouble me are;

Abuse-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abuse
Unemployment- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abuse
War-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War

There are many things you can do to help in your area. So lets get started.
START HERE:http://charityguide.org/

Coping with Change

Let's start off with saying that "change is hard to deal with."

After I graduated I thought the hardest part was over but later I realized that it had only began. If you knew me back then you would have known that I was engaged. Yes I did say engaged. It wasn't a mistake but it was the wrong choice. We had planned moving into our first house together and we even had a shared banking account. So when we broke things off in May of '07 I just couldn’t stand staying in El Dorado and that's when I left. I ended up moving to Houston, Texas. Talk about change right.

See there was this guy name "Owen." Owen and I had met through a couple of friends and ended up friends our self. And the more time we spent together the more I felt a connection. We never discussed a relationship because I had a boyfriend and he had a girlfriend. Therefore we went our separate ways, but the thought of him would race through my mind all the time. About a year with out speaking was all I could take. It was then I felt a miracle unravel. A week later his Grandmother came into my work and after a couple minutes of speaking with her I realized who it was. I immediately exchanged phone numbers with her and a couple days later I was speaking with Owen again. It couldn't have been at a worse time because that's when my engagement was on the rocks and eventually ended a couple days after.

That's why I went to Texas. See he had left for school and I went down there to spend sometime with him and get away from El Dorado. We'll I had all the same feelings for him I did two years before, upon arrival. So I made the decision to make Houston home. We stayed there till he graduated college then moved back. But the time spent with him was time spent with my best friend. Even if it was the worst emotional roller coaster, which it was it didn't matter because everything seemed perfect when we were together.

Change can come bad or good but no matter what kind of change it is it's going to effect you in everyway possible. Just remember "things happen for a reason."

A site you should vist to help you cope with change: http://womentodaymagazine.com/relationships/coping.html


Love Jen