Final Blog Post

These wordle's are being generated from James Paul Gee’s article, “Good Video Games and Good Learning”, the academic article of,” The transition to college: Diverse students, diverse stories “, and from my family's thoughts on what they think success is and how you can achieve it. Words from my family are in the first wordle, and the words inside vary from "winning" to "creating a family and watching them grow".  One thought that really sticks out to me is "Conquering your fears", because I believe in life that if you have fear in regards of anything that it could possibly hold you back from the best experiences you can make. Fear of heights could hold you back from seeing the mountain top view in the Grand Canon. Fear of flying can hold you back from visiting your dream getaway. My whole life I loved heights and jumping off of rocks into the water at lakes, but one thing I never said I was going to do was going bungee jumping. I have always been scared of the rope snapping or coming back up to the bridge. While I was in Costa Rica over the summer I had the opportunity to go, and I knew it was one I couldn't pass up. The scenery was beautiful, the weather was perfect, and I knew it was a great chance to get over my fear. Standing on the ledge was terrifying, but once I jumped out and let myself free fall, I knew it was worth it. I loved every second of it, and conquering my fear felt amazing. To this day it is one of the best successes in my life, and I'm so happy I decided to do it. Risk taking to me means that you try new things, and find new avenues in life that can lead you in different directions. Every risk and decision you make in your life can greatly affect you or can lead to a small change, either way it’s something different that what you’re use to (Gee).

Success to me is very interesting, because I view it in many different ways. Each day we have small successes that potentially lead to large ones. Completing homework may be a small success that leads to an A in calculus. In my case, every time I get an A on a quiz I realize that it is one step closer to an A in the class, which is very important because I need to pass it for my major. Also it's such a huge deal to me because I am horrible at math, and earning an A in calculus has been my goal since day 1, and if I achieve it I will be so proud of myself. Referring back to Gee’s thoughts about how good video games challenge one’s mind and teaches them in a different context, it helps me put success in a different light then I have before. When he says,

“I failed many times and had to engage in a virtual research project via the Internet to learn some of the things that I needed to know. All of my Baby-Boomer ways of learning and thinking did not work, and I felt myself using learning muscles that had not had this much of a workout since my graduate school days in theoretical linguistics” (Gee 34).

Even though he had failed many times before, he realized that if he kept trying at the game, he would eventually get it.  He went against the saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, he proved them wrong and succeed at the game, but only by using his beneficial advice, which leads to success in learning. His point, “Explore, think Laterally, Rethink Goals”, really makes me question achievement. When I think of achievement, I typically think of a ladder going up, but he makes it look like a train track. He says, “They encourage players to explore thoroughly before moving on; to think later- ally, not just linearly…”(Gee 36).  I feel as if our generation wants everything to be done in a rush, but we need to stop and evaluate what we’ve just created and really think if it’s our best. Instead of rushing I would rather have the job done right but slower, rather than fast and incomplete. Finally the last point I feel that is very crucial to your success is your identity. How Gee puts it really makes it set in, he says, “No deep learning takes place unless learners make an extended commitment of self” (Gee 34). In my personal case, I can connect to this idea because my junior year of high school I really wanted to try to learn how to dive. At first I had passion for the sport, but as the season grew deeper, I lost focus and passion so my willingness to want to learn decreased as well. You have to have interest in something to make a connection with it and want to keep striving to be better at it. Once you have the identity within you then you are ready to reach the goals you set for yourself. Now going to article that describes an experiment about the focus on the transition from high school to college. Looking at the wordle above you'll see different words like effort, outcomes, skill, and development (Terenzini). Each word represents a subcategory about success to me. Effort will only make you become closer to reaching your goals. My old soccer coach always said to me "what you'll get out of it is what you are willing to put into it". -Coach Flavius. Practice doesn't always make perfection. Perfect Practice makes Perfection, and I personally believe effort and skill will are great ways of getting there. And your outcomes will depend on your development, skill, and effort. So these words Terenzini and the other authors use to describe this transition is powerful because they are telling you how to become successful in how to transition from one life chapter to the next. 

So what I've come to the conclusion of is that you make up your own success. It's different for everyone. Learning from my sisters, my family, and the different articles I've read is that we all have different types of dreams, different kinds of goals, different aspirations, but the one thing we all have in common is wanting to finally reach our success. The other thing that I've come to the conclusion of also while I was writing this blog post is that I have no idea what I want to succeed in life, and yes that scares me but it also gives me hope. Hope to learn a little about a lot; hope to make changes; hope to make mistakes; and hope to finally make a difference. That's all I know, I just know I want to make a difference in someone's life, so if I did that during this blog post, great! If not, well, that means I still have work to do!

Works Cited:

Gee, James Paul. "Learning by Design: Good Video Games as Learning Machines." E-Learning 2.1 (2005): 5. Print

Terenzini,, Patrick T., Laura I. Rendon, M. Lee Upcraft, Susan B. Millar, Kevin W. Allison, Patricia L. Gregg, and Romero Jalomo. "The Transition to College: Diverse Students, Diverse Stories - Springer." The Transition to College: Diverse Students, Diverse Stories - Springer. Kluwer Academic Publishers-Human Sciences Press, 24 Apr. 1994. Web. 24 Apr. 2013. 

A Pep Talk from Kid President to You

I spent hours on trying to figure out how to connect this to iMovie, and simply couldn't figure it out... So I'm just posting this video here so you all can watch it and I'm putting the next video up tomorrow that explains everything and how it connects to my inquiry project about success! Sorry about the mixup and confusion!

Make sure you watch the pep talk first!! 

Mini Project 2

Tonight I talked to a couple of my sorority sisters, and asked them to sum up what they view success as. First I talked to Bre, who is our President and also leads our Chi Omega Bible Study. She viewed success as following Jesus, and staying on his path he had created for you. She also said He is the only one who knows what our successes will become, so we should embrace it and the the ultimate success she sees is eternity with Him. Second I talked to Lexi, who saw success as helping others. She is really involved with our sorority, and is the newest pledge mom, which is the sister who helps the new members learn our history and everything else dealing with Chi Omega. She sees success as being helpful to others. Next I talked to Nicole, and she was torn between happiness and reaching your goals to what her success meant. But after thinking about it for a while she chose happiness because once you reach your goals, that brings you happiness. So in the long run, if she is truly happy, she knows shes successful. Lastly I sat down with Tori and asked her what she thought the image of success is. She viewed it as college, simply because college was a huge accomplishment in her life and wouldn't be where she is today without setting the goals to reach her end goal of going to college. These are only a couple girl in my sorority who I talked to about success, and each of them have their own success stories. Not many are the same, each of us come from somewhere different, and each of us have our own baggage to how we got where we are. 

Even in the academic conversation people have different success stories. In the article, "The transition to college: Diverse students, diverse stories" it talks about how different and diverse students transition into college from high school, and how each of them aren't the same. Different people, different stories, different successes.  It's normal, because if everyone wanted to have the same type of success then living life wouldn't be as fun, because then we would all have our heads blinded to that one thought, and it's the part of life that's fun when we take our blinders off and see what else is out there. That's why this topic matters to me, because without different types of success, the world wouldn't go around the same. The creative kind of people wouldn't want to have their painting hanging in a museum, or the businessmen and women wouldn't want to become a CEO, and those are the types of dreams people have and think of to become successful. Without diversity, we would all want the same thing, and that's no fun. 

P.S.- Sorry we look gross, it's airband season.

Wallflower Analysis

 

The book I'm reading for class is called "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", and I was curious of the stereotype of a wallflower. I Google-d it and from reading the book the main character Charlie is a perfect example of a Wallflower... hence the name.. makes sense! I just finished the book recently and am ahead of my reading schedule, but the book was so good I couldn't put it down. But throughout the book it gives concrete examples as to how Charlie proves he lives up to it. Throughout his journal entries he tells us how he's so quiet and shut off from the world until he meets his two best friends that helps him survive high school and accepts him into their social group. And during one of their Christmas parties, all of his friends agree on how he is the most interesting person and how cool he really is. I tried to compare myself to the stereotype and I am just too involved in clubs or sports that I can't be a wallflower. But I definitely want to meet a wallflower one day.

Mini Project 1

Definition of Success- Accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

These words are my family's thoughts on success. They vary from "winning" to "creating a family and watching them grow".  One thought that really sticks out to me is "Conquering your fears", because I believe in life that if you have fear in regards of anything that it could possibly hold you back from the best experiences you can make. Fear of heights could hold you back from seeing the mountain top view in the Grand Canon. Fear of flying can hold you back from visiting your dream getaway. My whole life I loved heights and jumping off of rocks into the water at lakes, but one thing I never said I was going to do was going bungee jumping. I have always been scared of the rope snapping or coming back up to the bridge. While I was in Costa Rica over the summer I had the opportunity to go, and I knew it was one I couldn't pass up. The scenery was beautiful, the weather was perfect, and I knew it was a great chance to get over my fear. Standing on the ledge was terrifying, but once I jumped out and let myself free fall, I knew it was worth it. I loved every second of it, and conquering my fear felt amazing. To this day it is one of the best successes in my life, and I'm so happy I decided to do it.

Success to me is very interesting, because I view it in many different ways. Each day we have small successes that potentially lead to large ones. Completing homework may be a small success that leads to an A in calculus. In my case, every time I get an A on a quiz I realize that it is one step closer to an A in the class, which is very important because I need to pass it for my major. Also it's such a huge deal to me because I am horrible at math, and earning an A in calculus has been my goal since day 1, and if I achieve it I will be so proud of myself.  

When I was trying to decide what to do my mini project on, I couldn't chose if I wanted to keep my idea of success on a broader note, or single it out on just academics. But from personal experience I have tons more of achievements in sport related events rather than academic. That's why I want to keep the idea of success to either academic or sports because I feel that can connect to more people. And my decision also makes it easier to find sources. Or it can go the other way. Finding sources that is related to just success can be problematic because of how wide or broad the subject might be. The conversation about success varies and there are tons of people who love to talk about the idea because it is something we all look forward to. 

Happiness

Sorry that you cant read this very well.. I dropped my phone and my camera isn't working very well anymore..whooooops. Anyway what it says is, "To improve life one must improve the quality of experience. No one, or thing determines your life happiness." This is what I wrote as an interpretation from one of the quotes of the article Lacy had us read. What I got out of it was you are what determines your happiness. You make the choices in your life, and who you surround yourself with. People do influence your happiness, but ultimately you are the one who lets it affect you. Your past and present experiences are the core foundations of how you are going to live the rest of your life, and you can decide how it pans out. There are so many ideas and paths you could go down in life, but you determine which one. Don't let your friends tell you how to live, or even your parents. Even though they say they know best, if you have a dream and truly love it, go for it. If they tell you that its not practical or unrealistic you are the only one who can determine that. Don't let them take away your happiness, but fight through it and prove them wrong.