Mastery Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcvahP-cGf8

Event Number 1 - Shakespeare in Hollywood

I went to this play Thursday, October 17 in the Lyman center.  It started off with all the "stars" coming through the red carpet and as the play went on, it followed one star in particular: Reinhart.  He came to hollywood from Germany to fulfill his dream of directing Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".  And a little after Reinhart was approved to have his play, out of no where, the "real" Oberon and Puck appear in hollywood when they were trying to get back home.  They had no intentions on being there and didn't know where they were.  Oberon meets members of the Midsummer Nights Dream and is mistaken for an actor and when reunited with Puck, they explain to each other what this "strange" world is that they traveled to.  Through a turn of events, the true Oberon and Puck get cast in the play, ironically, as themselves.  A little into the composition of the play, Oberon and Puck try to use a love potion so one of the female actresses will fall for him.  It created a huge mess of men falling for the wrong woman and women falling for the wrong man.  All in all, I thought all the actors and actresses did an amazing job.  They kept me interested the entire time and I'm glad I went to see it!

CPB Weekly Post #7

We've recently begun the section on class selection during class and outside of class.  And, in my opinion, this is one of the most exciting times of the semester!  We get to look at all the possible classes out there; math, science, art, psychology, music and just about anything you could possibly think of.  So how do I choose?  I figured I would start with my required classes for this upcoming semester which are going to be pre calculous, general chemistry I and english 112.  In addition to that, I'm going to need at least two more classes.  I was thinking of doing a tier two elective and then also a zoology class but I'm not too sure yet.  There are so many different options for me to choose from that I'm not sure what to take.  I'm sure my meetings with both advisors, that are very soon, will clear things up!

CPB Weekly Post #6

This past week, we just had midterms which is weird for me since I'm used to midterms being in January just like I'm sure everyone else is.  But at the same time, it's a lot nicer already being halfway done with my first semester of college.  I was quite surprised when only two out of my five professors gave me information on what their midterm would consist of.  Did that mean I only had two midterms? Surprisingly, yes. The only two subjects I had to study for were math and communications.  I already got my math midterm back, with a much better grade than I expected, and I believe I will be getting my communications midterm back shortly.  I think I over studied for both of them since I was planning on both of them being at least 10x harder than high school but it turned out they weren't very hard at all.  I'm hoping all my finals go as well as midterms did!  I know I'll have to study but if I'm lucky, some might be projects rather than tests.

Connection To Dweck: Out of My Comfort Zone

When we did our "Out of my Comfort Zone" experiment, I did my experiment on trying to meet and talk to new people.  I am extremely shy and reserved when it comes to meeting new people so this was actually very difficult for me.  I sat in the lobby of Chase with one of my classmates doing homework (so he could do his experiment) and we talked to people who walked by and the people at the front desk.  Now in the two chapters we read from Dweck, he introduced the different types of mindsets to us which were fixed and growth.  Although I do admire the growth mindset and how they are able to work through so many situations, I think I approached this with the fixed mindset.  Not because I was unwilling to try new things but because I was scared of how it would go.  I care too much of what people think and say about me so I was worried if I would actually be able to do this.  After reading chapters one and two, I see the people with the growth take on challenges with a positive attitude thinking even if they don't succeed, they can get better with time.  But people with the fixed mindset just think if they aren't good at it then they never will be and shouldn't bother trying.  Which is how I behaved.  I wish Dweck had incorporated a few tips on how to have the growth mindset in his reading so I could improve myself for next time.

CPB Weekly Post #5

Recently in class we have brought up the topic of registering for classes which, in all honesty, scares me a little.  I'm currently a psychology major which means I've already talked to the people I have to for this major; they've outlined the classes I'll have to take, how long it will be before I graduate, the possible grad schools I could go to and the grades I'll need to accomplish these things.  But the complicated part is I want to switch to a chemistry major.  I know how hard I would have to work for that major, but I really do like the topic.  But there are a few things that worry me going into this:

1. For a bachelor of science degree in chemistry, the first year requirements start off with with precalculus and general chemistry I as courses I would have to be taking now.  But because I am in mat 102 right now, I would be taking precalculus next semester which means starting late therefore I might not graduate within for years.  I would be willing to take summer and winter classes to catch up but since the main classes I will be taking are chemistry, biology and math, I'm not sure if they offer those.  If they do, would I be able to get a good grade in such a hard and fast moving class?
2. After eventually graduating with a chemistry degree, my goal is to move onto veterinary school.  Due to the fact that there are so few schools for that, it is a very hard program to get into and your grades need to be just about perfect.  I do put an immense amount of effort into my school work but that does't always mean I understand the material or come out of a class with a good grade.  What if my GPA isn't high enough?  Could I still get into grad school for a different, less competitive program?  I have looked at different things I could go into and thankfully there are a lot of options.  I could do something with biochemistry or organic chemistry or I could go a completely different path into pharmaceuticals.

I am very excited to start this new unit to see where I can go with everything.

Angela Duckworth and the Research on 'Grit' Response

In going into this reading, I completely agreed with what she had to say in the beginning which was "the students who tried hardest did the best, and the students who didn't try very hard didn't do very well".  I have always thought this was true and it's what has made me work so hard for the things I want.  At least thats what I thought which is why getting a 3.25 on this test kind of surprised me.  I know I tend to loose interest in things if I don't see immediate results so I can see where these results come from but for some reason I expected it to be higher.  I think it might be because I expect a lot from myself.  I can see how this test is correct though, I answered every question honestly and I completely believe they described me well.  

Since grit is a good quality to have I definitely want to improve my score but to do that I will have to accomplish many small tasks first.  I can start by setting small goals for myself and slowly accomplishing them and also in the mean time setting one large goal that will take time to reach.  In doing so, I'll get the satisfaction of achieving the smaller goals all while working towards my main one. This will teach me a new type of patience and hard work but I think it is worth it to be successful. 

CPB Weekly Post #4

As we come to week four of this blog, I am finding it easier and easier to manage myself.  I got through all the struggles of last week (the tests, the papers and the speech) much better than I thought I would.  I got an A on both tests, and although I haven't gotten my paper back yet, I'm extremely proud of what I wrote.  And even though I only got a B on my speech, I'm still proud of that because public speaking has always been my worst quality which is really what I wanted to talk about for this week.  Even though I've always been very confident in myself, I do come across as shy at first which is why I think I struggle so deeply with public speaking.  Whether I'm getting up in front of a group of strangers or people I've known my whole life, I still get too nervous for my own good; sweaty hands, rapid breathing, shaky voice and over all discomfort.  In high school I would do just about anything to get out of making a speech, even if that meant taking an F.  But I feel as though now that I'm in college, I need to mature a little more and handle it with better confidence.  I do get all of my old nervous habits still but because of my COM class, I'm beginning to keep them under control and give a good speech.  I'm getter better with every one and I couldn't be anymore proud of myself.