Inquiry 101

V) By definition, Inquiry means the act of seeking out information by asking questions. This is a first year learning experience class, where we have a professor and a student mentor who guide us throughout our first semester of college. The purpose of the class is to show first year students the “ropes” to college. We are encouraged to make the most out of this experience as we can, and to become active members of Southern's community. I personally enjoy the class because we are able to get advice from a professor’s point of view of our first year experience, and our peer mentors, who was just previously a freshman at Southern. In my own words, inquiry means to gather outside information from advisors by asking question and listening to lecture. We are taught things that we are unaware of about college, and we learn the basics of being a college student. This class is important because it is our guide to help us through our first year at college. One new important vocabulary word that I have learned is standard deviation. I came across this word in my MAT 107 statistics class on our first class on Wednesday, September 28th.  By definition, it means a quantity calculated to indicate the extent of deviation for a group as a whole. In other words, it measures how far values vary from the mean, which is the average of given data. This is related to my class because this is our first topic of study for statistics and is something I never learned before. Another new word I have learned is hindsight. I learned this word from my psychology class and it’s the perception of the significance and nature of events, only after they have occurred. This is related to my study because it’s a common phenomenon and is also known as “I knew it all along” effect, which is something we are faced with on a day-to-day basis.

Questions & Answers with professor Richard Stirling!

I) Recently, I met with my English 110-09 professor after a class. My professor’s name is Richard Stirling, and he is also from my hometown. Mr. Stirling is extremely passionate about his job and cares about the well being of his students in and out of the classroom. You can contact him through his email at stirling_rb@yahoo.com and has office hours on Wednesday from nine to ten o’clock in the morning.  My first question for him was what I can do to obtain the best grade possible in this class? He first responded to me saying I have to show him that I am trying my hardest and that I am willing to learn new things and to participate in class discussions. He also included that everything needed to be handed in on time and had to meet all his requirements. Lastly he reminded me that a lot of it comes from outside the classroom and what I do on my own, that will help reflect on me inside the classroom. My second question for Mr. Stirling was what are we going to learn during the duration of this semester? I could tell by his facial expressions he was excited to answer this question. He replied by saying we would learn how to read and analyze text using a multi-stage reading process. He proceeded to say we would learn how to create an argument and learn that it is a process of persuading and informing your audience. Lastly, Mr. Stirling explained that we would learn about fundamental elements, that when combined, will create an argument. The fundamental elements are rhetorical strategies, your thesis or claim, supporting evidence, and grammatical proficiency. He ended it by saying at the end of the semester I will be able to identify the fundamental elements of an argument confidently both inside and out of the classroom.

what's a blog?

1b) Before this class, I have never made or ever really knew what a blog was. The only blog that I ever heard was of a social network sight called Tumblr. After some research, I found out that a blog can be a personal website or a webpage where individuals can state their opinions or share pictures and so forth. Also, you can read and comment on other bloggers post, and communicate to others through such means. As I furthered my research onto other websites, I have noticed people tend to use it as almost an online person diary. One thing that I did not like about some of the blogging sites was how they were all open to the public. Personally, I would not want to tell my life story for other people to read and comment on. On the other hand, I like the fact that people are free to talk about any topics that they desire. For my blog, I would like it to be a personal account where I can interact with other freshman who are also attending Southern Connecticut State University. We could discuss ways we could have fun on campus and ways to get people involved in activities inside and out of the classroom. Also, it’s a way for us to keep everyone updated with what is happening on campus. In making this new step into blogging, I hope to meet many influential bloggers whose advice can help me with problems I may be faced with in the future. Also, I think it is a good way to meet a lot of new people, and some who may also share the same opinions as you. Ways I can make the writing in my blogs useful to myself, and interesting to other, is staying honest about every topic and express my own opinions on how I feel about certain things. Also, I need to be open to other people’s opinion as they may differ than mine.

I'm an owl, i love it!

1a) I love being apart of Southern Connecticut State University. I was always an individual learner, and I find that to be very helpful in this new process of learning. In my own words, college is a place of freedom, where your success solely relies on you and what you make out of your time here. I believe that going to college will help you pursue your dreams and get you to where you ultimately want to be in the future. In order to do so though, you have to be willing to push yourself and be willing to take more time outside of the classroom than in, to further your understanding on a topic. Before the start of year, I was so nervous to make this change from a high school graduate to a college student. After orientation, I felt ready for this change. Everyone here at Southern makes you feel very welcomed and they’re willing to do all they can to help you be where you want to be with your academic success. As a freshman, I’m learning that one of the main things we need to learn is how to manage our time wisely. We only attend class for about fifteen hours per week, but each class requires multiple hours outside the classroom for homework and so forth. In high school, I just skated by from class to class; instead of absorbing all the information my teachers were giving me. One of my goals is to actually pay attention and focus more on my schoolwork and bettering myself than anything else. I have made a lot of changes over the summer, and I think I'm prepared for this next step. Another goal that I have is trying to get straight A’s for a semester and to not miss any homework or turn in any late work.