Learning Profile

As a learner I have realized over time my strengths on how to too be successful in the classroom and in the real world. I felt these strengths when I was at my old community college, I had a class called student success that is a little similar to student connect but in that class I found out that I’m a physical learner. Like when I get hands on with things I learned it better then someone telling me or showing it to me. So the class activity was more easier to me was “Horizontal Reversal” when we had the shapes and mirror and had to trace around the objects while looking at it off a mirror and can’t look down. The activity that I think that would help out a student next year that I learned from this class probably would be the community service activity if they are doing it on homelessness because if they research it they would find out a lot of new information about what types of people that are homeless and probably motivate them to take school serious cause everything can change on a flip of a dime and it could happened to anyone.

When I’m in a class I feel like I have a lot of weaknesses and it is amplified because I’m too laid back as a person and is shy to be the only one talking in a class no matter if I had the right answer or not. But one style that I do no I’m not is a Auditory learner, when a professor is up in front of the class speaking I tend to day dream and get distracted from what they might be trying to get us to understand. The task that gave me the most problems was doing the community service blog, when we was in class and Ms. Sonja as trying to talk to use to show us how to do I still isn’t understand and reading the assignment paper made it even more difficult but when I went and seen her after class she helped me get thru the first part of it then I didn’t really have any trouble finishing the Community service blog after that. The skills and capacities that I know I need to work on it to be more interactive in class, bring a tape recorder because there is little I could do about my disability of staying on subject and not getting distracted to anything around me.

Before I stared this class I never typed a blog before, when I had a paper to do I rarely did it in the past and that ended up hurting me in my grades and my self confidence. But when I joined this class I thought it was like a course that would teach and show how to adapt to the college environment. But when I we had class I started to realize that this class is more like a class for answers when u having problems with another class. The thing that I could do know that I couldn’t in the past was putting my thoughts into a assignment, the last time I could of have done that I was in middle school and I did good during those days. I judge this to be particularly important is that with self confidence comes self motivation one thing that had gotten me in trouble getting thru my classes at my last community college especially when there is no one going to presser the student’s to get their work done like in middle and high school. I didn’t really learned any skill that I had dent already heard of but going to this class help me put them to getter in my mind so now they are understood even better.

An reading, presentation, and class activity in class that had a particular relevance in my life is probably the ESPN: Out Side the Line’s Report about the star basketball player of a college, that promoted him as long is still playing for the team, then they didn’t graduate him when all 4 years of his eligibility is over then he was on his own and he couldn’t even understand anything in his classes because they did his test and work pre-hand and all he had to do was write his name on the tests. But he couldn’t graduate, then he couldn’t even get a job that would pay enough to be able to help him survive, so he ended up homeless, but his lowest part of his life is when he was about to commit suicide. This story related to me because a similar situation happened when I was in high school it even happened to me. Like the first time I seen it was my freshman year in high school when I was in school with Stoudemire, Amare I always seen Amare walking around campus chilling out side in gym playing around but never in a class, isn’t no one really cared about it because we all knew he would be going to the NBA. As the top Basketball player in the country we knew he would have colleges try to recruit him. But news around school came out that he was starting to think about going to Louisville to play basketball, but their was a major problem he barley had the grades to graduate from Cypress. When the teachers found out they were wondering, why is he going to college instead of getting drafted. Now this news started to surface during the 4th grading quarter. The whole year they let him do what ever he wanted and just gave his grades to him but now that he was thinking of going to college he couldn’t he only had one choice and that was going to the NBA till this day I don’t even think he even went to see how the school going they had a retirement ceremony for him to retire his number in the gym and he didn’t even bother going to it so they canceled it to this day no one knows if he ever went to see it. But the after effects of that came back to hunt the head basketball coach who also was the assistant principal, and principal. The they promoted our principal to a higher job that has nothing to do with students, and our former head coach/ assistant Principal was be searched for by the police and I never know if they found him but when I was in the football coach’s offices a detective called and the answering machine answered it and they said they were looking for him and that if they knew where he was to contact them. The topic that had no meaning to me has to be “shame” because I learned as a young kid to keep in personal information to my self and people that I trusted since we grew up as little kids. So my parents struggles and would of never had me feeling different in my class.

As my perspective as a learner I think that we should drop none of the assignments we had in the class. The blog’s are a good assignment to open a students mind to look broader to things in life. But of all the activities that we had done during the semester that should be kept at all cost was the online portfolio we ad posted on blog’s. Before I had taken this class I never mad a blog our even knew how to create a blog. It made doing assignments online fun by allowing student’s e creative in how they put pictures, and links on their page and also change the main outlook of their page from background, to text colors, and even the theme of their page. I don’t really know any other activities that should be added, but when I was at my last college we had took a test called a MBTI, the results of the test tells you exactly what type of person you are and what type learning styles would be more beneficial to you. The only advice I have to tell u is too keep doing the same things, like talking to student’s on how they feel about their classes, showing them resources that the school has to help them be successful in college, and using the internet to help keep everyone up to date with all the assignments, by posting the assignments on the class page in pipeline.

In the future student’s that enroll in this class should know a few things that would help them survive and flourish in student connect. The three most important that you should make sure you do to keep your sanity in class is to open up, by getting involve in class discussions if they some how relate to you, getting involve in the discussion would make it seem that time is going by fast, another is to be motivated to get up and go to class because you really just don’t know if there is going to be a guest in class to show something new that you probably heard of but don’t know anything about. Another way is to just suck it up and live with it its only a 1 credit class it would be done half way thru the semester, and almost everything in the class u most likely would us it during the same semester for another class. These should be some motivated things that would help u get thru the class, I didn’t have any problems with my class, every time I’m I attend class I come out with a broader thinking in life that would help me later in my life decisions.

I think as a learner going to this class help clarifying all the information I have known about but didn’t really know how to us it to my advantage. The one thing that I would take from this class was the community service assignment that showed me that homelessness can happened to any one from families that work but still homeless, even people that was making money straight out of high school that ended up being successful but it took just one situation to turn a person’s life upside down, from a disaster to medical payments. When I found out about this it was a surprise to me because I never know that any one could end up homeless for other reasons other then drugs. I learned to take advantage of being in college even though I might know everything that I need to know for what I am going to do in the future it wont mean anything to corporations because I don’t have a college degree stating that I officially know the material I went to school for. I also learned to open up to people where ever I go and not stay silent thinking that everyone around me know what I am thinking about.

Academic Plan

As a young man I didn’t really know why I was being forced to go to college. Specially the first community college that I was at and left from to go to Butler County Community College, dashed my enthusiasm that I had when I graduated from Cypress Creek High in Orlando, Fl. I just wanted to go to college just to have control of my own life by doing stuff that I wanted to do with out an older adult telling me what I have to do, how to dress, what time I have to be on campus and est. I don’t really know weather or not if I’m going to stay at Butler long enough to graduate with an AA in Mass Communication. I am planning on studying mass communication to be able to work in a radio station, or for a television company witch ever one that has the opening, but I want to work for a radio station so I can DJ. When I have the required amount of credits and GPA (grade point average) I want to transfer back to Florida and probably go to University of South Florida, Florida State University, or University of Miami. If I had to go to a college out of Florida I am interested in going to Clemson, University of Georgia, and Kentucky. I mostly pick those schools because I also play football and those are the schools I grew up watching their football teams on ESPN.

Butler Resources/ Online Databases

The Butler online database is a wonderful resource to find specific subject for any assignment, especially 4 this assignment it was very easy to get a story on drinking alcohol using opposing viewpoints. The story was only a few clicks on the mouse away. The tough part was going thru all the stories and picking just one, it took me only 5 minutes to get to the stories and a few minutes to pick a story. It also made my time easy because we had a guest come to our class that had showed us everything on the online database. To get to the online database by going to your pipeline account, then click on the library database tab on the top of your pipeline account, then you could find plenty of databases to get what you are looking for, you can even get a printed version of your work cited by choosing the citation machine, then just need the article or book you was looking at to get the information to type into the places where they are asking for. It is an easy process to get an assignment work cited and all you have to do is just print it out, it works for books, articles, and online books. If we didn’t have our guest come in and show us about these resources and how to us it I would have had a hard time to do reports for my other classes, even though I came from another college that had similar database but it was more complicated and their was no one to show how to use it to our advantage.

Academic Honesty

Plagiarism is the act of using someone’s words or work as your own with out citing the original author.
There are plenty of reasons students resort to academic dishonesty, a one reason is academic pressure to be successful in school. When u see your parents they probably talking to you on how your younger siblings or relatives are doing in school, like they talk to u saying how some one has all A’s and they proud of them for it making u feel like you’re a failure. Another reason is time, if you have poor time management is a reason for academic dishonesty, putting of work to do other activities and going out having fun without remembering about a test or assignment until one of your classmates remind u about the assignment a few hours before the class leaving you not enough time to work on the assignment leaving u with another option on how to get it done by copying someone else’s work. Pressure is the most powerful reason that leads people to cheat or plagiarism on an assignment, when you feel like the whole world is on your shoulder to perform to everyone’s expectations.
There are plenty of ways a student can maintain academic integrity and avoid dishonesty issues. A student could go to the teacher and ask questions about the assignment if they don’t understand it, they also could manage their time by breaking up the assignment that you have to turn in by the day you are given the work by the day it is due. Another way is to have a study partner that would help u understand the material, knowing the material would lead to the student not having to cheat. Here are some ways on not to plagiarize.

Time Management

Poor time management make me feel angry, when I have a assignment that I could get an excellent grade on that I put off till a day before it’s due. Doing that causes me to get a lower grade then I could of gotten if I would of done the assignment they same day I got the information on it. Due to that I would have to cram and rush to get the assignment done after I push it off to have fun instead.
When my time is managed I feel like more of my concentration was put to the assignment and not on distractions. A step that I picked up in managing my time well is to write the assignment on a planner or day book. Then start the ground work for the assignment like find sources, information, and materials. Then when I gather the information for the assignment I should start work on it, instead of waiting till the night before. This way I can make corrections on it and I could take my time working on it so that it could be proofed before I turn it in.
Now that I am in College my time managing had gotten poor compared to when I was in High school, but after being in college for a few semesters reality started hitting me, time don’t wait for no one. I’m starting to see progress in my time management now that I have no friends around me to o out with and away from my family y main source of my distraction. I feel that I have matured when it comes down to making judgments in my life.

Community Service

Homelessness is a major problem in society in America and in the world.
The National Coalition for the Homeless had three panelist who once was and one still is homeless to talk to a group on how they ended up to be homeless, they showed that not everyone who is homeless is homeless because they do drugs, one of the panelist ran away from an abusive relationship an decided to take a bus to get away from her pain and then she be came homeless learning how to survive from other homeless people A quote from Francine Triplett” Being homeless is no joke." Another panelist John Harrison’s story on how he be came homeless and still is homeless is a cautionary story that just having a job that pays you just enough to buy a house and survive is nothing if u don’t have a higher education. As John Harrison told the group anything can happened an they could be homeless like him, getting layed off from his job after it was bought by another company, his house cough on fire and burned down and with out a higher education he was un employable and out on the streets homeless without friends to help him on his time of need because he lived a solitary life. John was quoted telling the group that this gave him a “rude awakening.” The third panelist
Willie Woods he spoke of "growing up too fast" was a young teen when he wanted his independence and left home after going to reform school he didn’t want to return home and ended up on the streets learning nothing better but drugs, and alcohol abuse. As a young teen his future was bleak with out a high school diploma. His mother helped him get into the Marine corp. bet in his own words “screwed up” he spent 12 more years on the streets stealing and doing what ever he needed to get thru. He started connecting with people to help him survive and got his GED through a shelter and got married to a preacher and now he is in college at the age of 54.

These people all have one thing in common when they was homeless. They where treated like they didn’t exists. They felt like when they was on the street they say “hello” and never get a response back, and that was the one thing they said over money and shelter that they would of like that people would of acknowledge that they are their and they are human beings. Michael O'Neill from the National Coalition for the Homeless says an easy ways for a person to help. "You don't have to give money. Just say hello." He also talked about a plan to help the homeless called CAVE-ing (Contribute, Advocate, Volunteer, and Educate). Any one can help the homeless by donating money, blankets to shelters, donating canned foods to food banks, and also volunteer time at a shelter helping out. Even children can help out homeless buy donating their toys and clothes they don’t used to homeless children, and also ask their parents to help at a homeless shelter by go make friends with homeless children and go play with them because being homeless is a stressful experience. Besides you don’t know why they are homeless it could be from a natural disaster, to lack of affordable healthcare, domestic violence, and lack of affordable housing. Plus just a small number of homeless people chosen to be homeless.

Coping with Change

Over the past year I had to go thru a few changes in my life from how I spend my days to friends that I lost due to tragedy. These changes were tough on me but I had to put it in the back of mind due to the fact that my most difficult change was coming way to El Dorado to go school at Butler CC. This transaction was tough on my parents also they are so used of having me around to help them and do things for them. Coming all the way out here to Butler was hard on me due to the fact that I’m at a place that I never been too and don’t have no relatives in the state of Kansas. The reason that this change was necessary is that I’m an adult and my parents depend on me to help them on everyday activities and improvements to the house. It’s also necessary that I go out of my usual routine, and meet and get to know new people out side of the usual places I go to. The difference from High school to college that I noticed was that motivation must come from us. Teachers are not going to baby student’s to get their work done. The other difference’s would be the way the schedule set that everyone must fallow in high school, and in college have their own time and upon the professor different class rooms that suite their curriculum. My major change that I had to go thru was living on campus and not at home with all the other distractions that I go thru. Before coming to Butler I was rarely the person to initiate change unless it’s for the best for everyone else. When I do initiate change every one is reluctant to join me until I convince them on why it is important to change activities. While being at Butler I only had to go thru some emotional reactions due to the fact that every one that I spend everyday with and friends with I knew them since we were in elementary school and also this is the first time I ever been a way from my young brother that is Handicapped, we always watched out for each other now that I’m up in El Dorado its hard on me not knowing how he is doing. The changed that caused me the most anxiety would be coming out here leaving all my love ones and very close friends back in Orlando. Attitudes that would hinder or stop change would be not trying to improve your everyday activities, and everyday life, and not taking risks.