Letter to Future GUST Students

Write a letter to future GUST students. Provide words of wisdom (advice) to help them begin next semester strong.

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Learning about Emotional Intelligence

If necessary, review the section of chapter eight that highlights the famous marshmallow experiment of the 1960s. Then, watch this video of children who just can't seem to fight the urge to stay away from the marshmallow:

What can we do to become more emotionally intelligent when things don't go our way? Respond to this question regarding the three examples below:

Example #1

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Example #2

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Example #3

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Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset

Check out this TEDxNorrkoping video:

Provide a new example of what a Growth Mindset is and what a Fixed Mindset is. When have you responded to any type of adversity using the Growth Mindset? When have you responded to any type of adversity using the Fixed Mindset? Dive deep!

Self-Awareness

Knowing who you are and who you want to be are the tipping points to becoming successful. If you want to change something about yourself, you simply have to do it. However, a lot of people talk about wanting to change this or that, but they never make the change. It takes a motivated and dedicated individual to actually make a change. 

Accepting who you are today and deciding if you can improve any aspect of yourself or your environment is the starting point. The textbook shares three rules for success that you can apply to your academic, personal, and professional lives.

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Write about how those three success rules apply to one of the following: your academic life, your personal life, or your professional life.

Interdependence

We are taught from a young age to be independent. We even develop a mantra: "I can do it all by myself!"

After reading chapter five of our textbook, we know that interdependence is the more mature way to live life. 

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Is it easy for you to ask for help, or is it difficult? Dive deep!

Procrastination

What are your thoughts on procrastination? Dive deep! Everyone knows that procrastination adds stress to people's lives, yet procrastination seems to happen in people's academic lives, personal lives, and professional lives.

The Snowball Effect creeps up on people who procrastinate. If someone gets behind on a project or a set of tasks, the overwhelming feeling can cause him or her to have that mental or emotional meltdown, which causes the thought that nothing can be done to get caught up. This happens for many online learners. Again, people know this outcome will arrive if they procrastinate, but they continue to do things later instead of now. (I'll do it tomorrow...)

How can we utilize concepts in chapter four of our textbook to understand the cycle of procrastination, stop falling into the trap of procrastination, and become good managers of our time? 

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Discovering Self-Motivation

We need to discover what motivates us, especially when things get tough. Explain the differences between internal motivation and external motivation. Name one thing from chapter three of our textbook that helped you understand motivation even more. Dive deep.

Accepting Personal Responsibility

We need to accept personal responsibility in our personal lives, our academic lives, and our professional lives. Why? Provide your reasoning here. Name one thing from chapter two of our textbook that helped you understand accepting personal responsibility even more. Dive deep.

Refer to the blog rubric for additional instructions. 

Point of Contact #3

Source

Name the top three most valuable things you discovered from watching the Educational Planning and Counseling video? Number your list. Explain how you can use that information to continue being a successful student?

Add your first name and initial of your last name at the end of your post. (You may want to copy your responses before clicking Publish in case you encounter a publishing error.) Click Anonymous from the drop down menu and click Publish. (You may want to copy your responses before clicking Publish.) Verify that your comments posted.

Point of Contact #2

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Name the three most important pieces of information you discovered while reviewing the Career and Employment Center overview? Number your list. Be sure to include how you can use that information to help you be a successful student; add this to each item.

Add your first name and initial of your last name at the end of your post. (You may want to copy your responses before clicking Publish in case you encounter a publishing error.) Click Anonymous from the drop down menu and click Publish. (You may want to copy your responses before clicking Publish.) Verify that your comments posted.

Point of Contact #1

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1. What was the most valuable thing you learned from the First Year Experience video? How can you use that information to help you be a successful student?

2. What was the most valuable thing you learned from the Student Success Center video? How can you use that information to help you be a successful student?

3. What was the most valuable thing you learned from the Student Life video? How can you use that information to help you be a successful student?

4. What was the most valuable thing you learned from the Types of Financial Aid video? How can you use that information to help you be a successful student?

5. What was the most valuable thing you learned from the Maintaining Financial Aid video? How can you use that information to help you be a successful student?

6. What have you learned about college this week that can help other students be successful?

Please number your responses. Add your first name and initial of your last name at the end of your post. (You may want to copy your responses before clicking Publish in case you encounter a publishing error.) Click Anonymous from the drop down menu and click Publish. (You may want to copy your responses before clicking Publish.) Verify that your comments posted.

GUST 0305.707 Introductions

Teaching is my passion. This is my calling. I love what I do. I come to work early; I leave late. My hope for you is that you find your passion here at San Jacinto College. If you can do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. Get out there and make your life what you want it to be. Don't let anyone or anything hold you back. It's your time to make things happen. 

Wes Moore gave an inspirational lecture based on his first book. I gave him a collection of essays that my students wrote in response to his book. #fangirl 

This was national sweatpants day for my class!

The best way to relieve stress is to play kickball again with your professor! When's the last time you played kickball during class? 



Born to Teach!



2013-2014 Outstanding Faculty of Central Campus

Please leave a comment in the box below and let us get to know you. Include your first name and initial of your last name in the post. When you are finished with your post, choose the anonymous option in the drop down menu and press publish.

Responding to Think Like a Freak: Chapters 8 & 9

Respond to the following key points that Levitt and Dubner make in chapters eight and nine. Fully develop each response. Respond to two of your peers' assertions.

"Keep the insults to yourself" (Chapter 8).

"...is failure necessarily so terrible?" (Chapter 9).

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Cardboard Boxes are for Moving, Not Thinking

DRAFT

By Tanya Stanley

Many college freshmen define critical thinking as thinking critically, as analyzing, or as thinking outside the box. The issue with each of those definitions lies in the process that follows them. Learners are often quick to recite what they have heard in previous coursework, which is positive in regards to scaffolding, but the underlying issue occurs when students begin to think critically, analyze information, and think outside the box; the transparency of the definitions become apparent in the lack of many students' capabilities to perform the supposed task. Educators can teach students how to think critically after a concrete definition is provided and after the process is taught. Critical thinking is a humanistic ability achieved by complete comprehension of information followed by unbiased and thorough analysis, synthesis of data, and the ability to make connections outside of personal parameters.

Without comprehension of textual information, critical thinking cannot occur. Students who struggle with reading texts and images often misinterpret the information and the context in which the information is provided. Many readers begin reading at the beginning and end at the ending; this is a basic narrative approach to reading, one that basic stories are told. Students often mistake articles, essays, and reports as stories, which begins to explain the error in logic in students' approaches to non-fiction texts. Students also mistake an author for a narrator, again focusing on the text as a story, not as a non-fiction text. Stories help learners make sense of the information, and there is power in storytelling, but students in higher education often struggle with leaving their secondary education behind in order to think like a freak. Authors Stephen D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner continue their economical approach to solving everyday problems in their third book Think Like a Freak. Students most often cite the example of the soccer player who has to decide where the penalty kick should go (Chapter 1). Most players and students are quick to choose a side of the goal, but Levitt and Dubner suggest that data show the center is where the player should kick the ball: “a penalty kicked aimed at the center of the goal is significantly more likely to succeed, only 17 percent of kicks are aimed there” (Chapter 1). Even though data shows a kick to the center of the goal is more likely to succeed, players are not competing against spreadsheets, bar graphs, or authors; players, and more poignantly, people in general, also factor in the communal incentive that team sports build their foundations on (Levitt and Dubner Chapter 1). When a player focuses on his or her fans’ perception of himself or herself, quantitative data resides low on the list of factors, especially when a decision has to be made without much time or consideration; time, or lack thereof, can be a determining factor of a rushed response and a correct response. Along with time, worrying about other people’s perception creates a biased analysis of one’s surroundings. Even if a team reviews countless recordings of their opponents’ previous games, the in-the-moment response, the action one takes, can easily be temporarily forgotten and potentially ignored if the player achieves the desired results. Like a soccer player, comprehension of the text—the rules of the games, the conditions of the field, the opponents’ abilities, and the communal incentive to win the game—is necessary for students to achieve an accurate understanding of course materials. Students also need to ignore what their peers may think of them—communal incentive—in order to thoroughly analyze the text in front of them. Without the aforementioned processes, synthesis of data and the ability to remove the personal connections as the basis for all understanding will not be manageable; therefore, critical thinking will not be achieved.