Final Assessment:
Thinking back to the first day of class, I was very skeptical about what this class would be about. As weeks past I cam to realize that our Inquiry class was to help us, freshmen, adjust to the college life. Overall I thought our class was a success, we had a lot of great and intellectual discussions about the articles we were assigned. In the beginning we were a little slow on learning what a good inquiry question is or what a professor looks for in a response. We were taught how to use higher level of thinking, how to manage our time properly, and new technology techniques.
Each class we usually had a few selected articles that we needed to read. At first I just read through each article on the computer and tried to remember as much as I could for each class. As time went on I learned that the best way to retain this information was to print out each article and highlight all the main points. This helped me participate in class discussions. It also helped me realize that in my other classes the key to retaining as much as I could was to take notes and highlight anything that was important to that topic. These tips helped me in most of my classes to get the grades I was reaching for.
In our class we had the privilege of having a peer mentor, Lee Tripler. Lee participated in our discussions; we were all amazed after she would give her opinion because we were able to differentiate between a senior and a freshman. I was eager to learn and open my mind so I could respond to a certain topic in that way. I was able to experience what is needed to fully answer a question or give my opinion on something. In the beginning of the year my responses would have been short and sweet. However, now I would feel pretty comfortable answering a question and responding in a college level.
It was very difficult for me to transition from high school to college life. In high school I lived at home with my parents and had rules and set time for schoolwork and my social life. When coming to college all of that changed. I was living with two people I have never met before and had no rules to abide by. I was independent and had to set a schedule for myself. This class has helped me with my time management immensely. When we were given the videos to work on I had to space out my time, because there was no way I could do it the night before. I took weeks to work on my videos, I would work on them a little bit each day, and in no time they were finished to perfection! Now I have a grasp on what I need to do to manage my time.
This class was based off of technology that I have never used before. At first I was intimidated by all the online articles, blogs, and videos we were exposed to. When we first started the blog I was very confused on how it worked. I did not really know how to set it up, and was not given much direction. This helped me tremendously because I had to learn to figure this out on my own and helped me become more familiar with my computer. Now I have set up my own personal blog, for my own enjoyment. I post pictures and stories about my day. It is nice to have something to just express my feelings and myself.
I had just gotten my computer before school started, and have never really used a Mac before. Not only did I never use iMovie before, I have never made a movie. Making these two movies was a new experience for me. Although, by making the videos I had the chance to explore my computer and learn the different techniques to use in making a movie.
Overall my first semester experience as a freshman at Southern Connecticut State University has been a successful one. I have learned many new things not only in my Inquiry class, but all of my other classes. I was challenged to do things I have never done and think about things in a different manner. I expect to have a great future here at Southern and will continue to use what I have learned in my everyday life.
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