Why Exam Week is the Best Thing for a College Freshman

I had an idea pop into my head this past week. I should let you know that I am in the midst of exam week here at UNCC. Here's my idea. Exam week is the best thing that can happen to any freshman college student. Exam week can help the student that has studied hard all semester and is sure to get straight A's, while also being able to help the student that has slacked off during the semester and is uncertain what his/her final grade is going to be. Let me explain.

I'll start off with the extremely studious student. Everyone knows or has known someone like this. I can think of a few off the top of my head. They are the type of student that stays up late most every night of the semester doing homework or studying. They study when they get bored and when they don't have to. This is the student that does the reading, not the night before class, but the week before class, and then also the night before class. This student emails the teacher for extra help even they are the one that need it the least. You probably never see this student because they are usually at the library, but you won't be able to find them because they are always on the top floor where nobody goes. This is the type of person you want to get put with in a group project if you arent interested in doing any work and getting a good grade. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but I'm thinking of extremes here. There are many students out there that have many of these qualities. 

Then I will take the exact opposite of the student above. This is the student you literally see everywhere. You see them at every sporting event, every social event, every time you go to eat, no matter which one of the twenty you have to choose between. This student doesn't do the reading the night before class, and they also don't do it the week before class. They just don't do it. This person might email the teacher the night before the exam and ask if they can have a study guide for the exam. This student has a billion best friends. So many, that you wonder if they ever get any school work done. This student never says no if asked to go out and do something. This is the type of person that you don't want to be put in a group with if you expect each member to do equal work. Again, I am exaggerating, but there are many people out there that have quite a few of these traits. 

So how can exams week help both of these students. Simple, so they can be like the other. The studious student has become too studious and needs to know that everything will be okay if they arent studying 24/7. Exam week should be so easy for them that they should realize that they can cut back on their studying during the week. Since exam week is so easy, it should also send a signal to them to not be so stressed out during the semester because nothing is ever going to be as stressful as exam week is. Exam week should be there to show the studious student that they can actually find out what fun things a college campus has to offer. These students should learn that breaking out of their shell is an okay thing to do. 

The slacker students should get a wake up call from exams week. This is probably the hardest week of their lives. Only getting a few hours of sleep not per night, but in the whole week, should show them that if they had studied during the semester, exam week would not be a living hell. They will probably see the extreme studious students celebrating over their 101 on their exam that had a max score of 100 and think that if they had just studied one more night per week, they too might be getting not a ridiculous 101, but an A or B. Exam week should be there for these freshman students to show them that if they don't get it together, their college career may have a limited time left in it. 

The slacker students should strive to be more like the studious students, while the extreme student should strive to be more like a slacker. The latter sounds crazy, but college is not just about studying, it's about making connections and getting to know people. The slackers are doing a very good job at this, but arent developing the academic skills to further them in life. 

If you were wondering, I fall somewhere in between the slacker and the extremely studious student, but think of myself to be closer to the side of the studious student. This week has shown me that studying course material over a longer period of time will leave more time for large projects and papers due at the end of the semester. 

Hard Decisions are What We Make of Them

Did you know I like numbers? If you know me, then you might be chuckling to yourself because the answer is an obvious yes. One of my football coaches wanted to get me a jersey with the number 3.14. Much to my mothers chagrin, but to me and my fathers delight, many dinner conversations revolved around math. I have a math brain, meaning I want to quantify decisions. I want to make each decision using math and logic. What happens when each choice has nearly the same quantitative score? This is the definition of a tough decision. Each choice is just as good as the other, but which one is the best? 

Making a tough decision is hard. Some major tough decisions include, where to go to college, what to major in, where to live after college, who to marry, to have a family or not. These all have a large influence on what our lives will be like. Naturally, we all want to make the best decision possible. We want to know which choice will lead to a better life. We tend to think that one path will make us happier and more successful. We think there is a right and wrong decision. I think that the rightness or wrongness of the decision is what we make of it. We can ultimately decide whether the decisions we make are good or bad. It is all a mindset.

I encountered the first, tough decision that would greatly affect my future this past May. Where to college. I had the decision narrowed down to four choices. Clemson, Appalachian State, UNC-Asheville, and UNC-Charlotte. Clemson was my first choice because I had been a huge fan since I was a kid. Clemson offered my preferred majors in Engineering and Mathematics. The only downside was that I didn't know anyone going, and the total out of state cost was around $40,000 per year. App state only offered Mathematics, but I knew many people going. App state was also located in a small town that resembled the one I grew up in. Asheville also only offered Math, but was located 30 minutes from home meaning I could attend and potentially help coach the high school football team that I love and played for. I also received a large scholarship to attend Asheville. Charlotte offered Engineering and Math. I also had the potential to room with two good friends that I grew up with and went to church with. No matter which school I decided to attend, the decision would have been a good one. This is what makes hard decisions so tough to make. There is no one choice that is better than the others. 

As you can see, I decided to attend to Charlotte. I thought I had made the wrong decision at first. I missed home, friends, and playing football. I sat in my dorm wishing I was throwing a football. The football team at Charlotte was unexciting, while the team at Clemson was vying for a national championship. There wasn't any mountains in Charlotte, while App state and Asheville were both located in the mountains. I spent a lot time dwelling on what Charlotte didn't have and what the other places had. Only when I realized what Charlotte had to offer did I realize that I had made a good decision. Charlotte has a wonderful engineering program that I love. There is someone new to meet every day. I lived only a few miles from every restaurant imaginable. There was actually a lot of people at Charlotte that were like me. Football games were still fun to attend to hang out with friends. The point is that Charlotte didn't change at all to make my experience better. Charlotte had been offering the same things all year. The same people had been at Charlotte the whole time. What did change was mindset towards Charlotte. I decided that Charlotte was a great place and searched for the great things. I became a part of great and fun things, and what do you know, I'm loving every second of Charlotte. I put myself behind a decision. I decided that Charlotte was the best option. I created ways to make it great.

Yes, my life would have been much different If I had decided to attend a different college over Charlotte. But would it have been a better different? No one knows. I also would have been a different person. But a better different person? Again, no one knows. Life would have been what I made it. 

I have the right to make tough decisions. I am the one that ultimately decides what I can and cannot do in life. I can decide what to major in, where to live, who to marry, or to have a family. I could decide to hate the amount of work that engineering has. I could decide to live in Charlotte and focus on only the fact that there aren't any mountains. I could decide to marry a beautiful girl, but only focus on the things I don't like about her. I could decide to have kids and wish I had more time to watch football. I decide to do the opposite. I decided to focus on the amazing people and wonderful opportunities that engineering has. I will decide to live in Charlotte and focus on the fact that Charlotte has an endless amount of opportunities. I will decide to marry a beautiful girl and focus on the things that make her beautiful. I will decide to have kids and be thankful for the opportunity to teach them the game of football. 

Hard decisions are what we make of them. We should be thankful that we have the right to make hard decisions. We should be thankful that we can make our life what we want it to be. 

Climbing Mountains

What a beautiful view. I took this picture during a particularly warm spell in the middle of March, 2015. The view is from the top of the mountain that I live on, Miami Mountain, and overlooks the town that I grew up in, Black Mountain, NC. To the left, I-40 West heads into Asheville, while I-40 heads out east towards Old Fort to the right.

This photo means a lot to me. It is taken on top of the mountain that I grew up on. I explored and learned this mountain like the back of my hand for ten years. I spent many peaceful days blazing my own trails, countless difficult days building survival shelters, multiple exciting days exploring with friends, but never doing anything bad, and numerous relaxing days sleeping in a hammock. All of this on my mountain. An endless amount of memories come to mind when thinking of my mountain. Some great, such as the times that my dad and I would take my dog for a walk on a mile loop around the mountain. Others not so great, like the time I ran screaming down the mountain after my dog sniffed a yellow jackets nest with me standing right beside it. The memories could go on and on. Whenever I needed to get away I could walk to the top of the mountain with my Camelbak backpack on my back, loaded with water, a hammock, hammock straps, and two Fiber One Oats and Chocolate granola bars. I would spend hours just laying in my hammock de-stressing and thinking about how blessed I was to be living the life I lived. This mountain was the part of my childhood that I called home.

This mountain also overlooks the town that I love and grew up in. The town of Black Mountain is not much bigger than what you can see in the picture. It's small and that's the way I like it. I attended primary school just a mile east of the town, elementary school across the street from the primary school, middle school a few miles west down US Highway 70, and high school a mile from the middle school. All I knew about the town in primary school was that my friends and I lived and played little league baseball in it. I learned in elementary school that Super Bowl MVP winning quarterback, Brad Johnson, used to live in it. My fellow football teammates and I took the town by storm my 8th grade by going undefeated and winning the conference championship for the first time in 10 years. By the time high school rolled around I knew everyone and their mommas, where they lived, and who they dated. The same team that went undefeated in the 8th grade, had conference championship expectations and state title aspirations going into our senior year. Being in my third year of starting quarterback, I could not walk out the door without seeing someone I knew, or someone knowing who I was. I answered many questions before and during the season about how good our team could be. Turns out we were pretty darn good. We finished 12-1 as conference champions, beating our bigger crosstown rival whom we hadn't beaten in eight years. I was sad to graduate high school and leave my hometown because it had treated me so well for so long, but excited to explore new opportunities.

So here I sit. A 19 year old at a large college in a city without any mountains. In a week and a half I will be back home, just having completed my first semester of college. How do I want to feel on the drive home? Awake, to say the least. Exams week is not a week to catch up on any sleep. My destination will be a mountain, but I hope to already be on a mountain. I view each semester in college as climbing a mountain. Starting at the base of the mountain and staring up, and the beginning of a long semester, can both be daunting tasks. But as long as you stay on the trail, you will eventually find the top. It is very easy in both college and hiking a mountain to veer off course. If a hiker veers off the trail too far, he may not be able to find the trail again, ultimately becoming lost. However, it is good to explore a short distance off the trail to make the hike interesting. College also provides many distractions for students. It is good to get away from school and have fun, but fall too far behind in work, and it may be impossible to catch up and finish the semester. Right now, I am rounding the bend and have the top of the mountain in sight. Relaxation and a sense of accomplishment are only a few steps away. Final exams are this upcoming week. I ultimately hope to feel like I am on top of my mountain when I fill in my last bubble. I hope to be able to look down the mountain and into the valley and be proud of what I have accomplished. I hope to be able to look on the mountain and remember all of the memories, good and bad, that I experienced this semester. I've almost completed my hike and I cannot wait until I have reached the top. I'm just a small town kid climbing my own mountains in the big city.

The Path to Success is NOT Easy

Success. Everyone wants it. Not all have the work ethic to get it. Students often define success as graduating from school and receiving a piece of paper. All of these diplomas representing,"success", look the same except for the name. Many distinguish these diplomas from one another with the GPA associated with them. The higher the GPA associated with the diploma, the more successful that person was. This is an easy and fair way to compare diplomas. However, a better indicator of success lies in the the time and effort spent to receive that diploma. A GPA shows how successful a student WAS in school, while the time and effort spent to receive the diploma shows how successful WILL be in the future.

Some students can put forth very little effort and earn an A, while some students can study and work extremely hard and only earn a B. The, "smarter", students often score the highest on final exams. They are rewarded with pretty stickers and candy for good grades. Their parents and relatives smile and say how proud of them they are. The school system rewards the, "smart", students with special events, certificates, or by printing their name in the newspaper. These naturally smart students go through school without having to work all that hard. Good grades come naturally to them. Both the students born with God given ability and the students who have to work hard to earn the grade can graduate from high school and college, yet the students whom have worked their tails off for the past seventeen years have the advantage in the workplace. They have the perseverance and hard work ethic that the students who had their back rubbed all the way through school don't have.

There must be some way to instill a good work ethic in the students with God given ability. The North Carolina education system uses the AIG program to help the, "smart", students.
AIG, academically or intellectually gifted, is a program in the North Carolina public school system. Starting in the third grade students with exceptionally high End Of Grade test scores are given an IQ test to see how "smart" they are. If a student scores high enough, they will be admitted in to the AIG program. AIG students receive extra, more advanced, instruction outside of their normal classroom instruction. The AIG teacher pulls students from their normal classes once a week and teaches them advanced material on every subject. The program is supposed to give students that get bored easily in their normal classes a chance to work harder and learn at a faster pace.

This system should work perfectly for the naturally gifted students. Yet, many AIG students drop out of college after the first semester. The math program in North Carolina is a prime reason for this. The program lays out every single dad gum thing that each and every student should know at each grade level. Teachers receive a textbook that tells them what they have to teach each year and how they are supposed to teach it. It seems a little robotic to me. My dad, as an AIG teacher, is supposed to be there to teach extra, more exciting and challenging, math material. Ah, but it is a catch 22. Students must show their work on how they came to an answer. Sounds fair enough. But if there is an easier more efficient way of getting to this answer, their work is counted, "wrong", even though they got the right answer. My dad teaches his students these easier, more efficient ways to solve problems, but when his students go back to their normal classes they are not allowed to use their new and improved method. Yes, these new and improved methods that my dad teaches his students do not always explicitly show why the answer is what it is. But, most AIG students are able to understand why an answer is what it is rather quickly. The real world is about efficiency. Yet, we are teaching students that efficiency is not highly valued.

AIG students will still sit in class, excelling at everything they do because it easy. Few will actually be challenged. Many of my brilliant AIG friends will be come home and not return to college next semester because the work load of college was too much of a shock. The teachers are not at the root of the problem. They teach what they are trained to teach. The individuals that run the education department at the state level are at fault. Doing the same the thing over and over again and expecting better results is foolish. Somebody should tell this to our lawmakers. North Carolina is ranked near the bottom checking at an number 37 and number 47 in total spending on education. These numbers will stay steady unless something changes.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/02/why-writers-are-the-worst-procrastinators/283773/

Buying Happiness

Everyone has heard the saying, "Money can't buy happiness". Kids have heard this from their parents when the parents try to prove the point that salary isn't the reason they should choose a career. Kids are told that relationships and people skills will "buy happiness". Yes, most happy people would say that they have strong and lasting relationships, but this is not the only pathway to happiness. Michael Norton describes in his Ted Talk that money actually can buy happiness. The only problem is that people aren't spending their money in the right way.

When discussing this debate with others, proponents of the idea that money can buy happiness always ask me if I've ever seen an unhappy person on a jet ski, if I've ever seen an unhappy person on a four wheeler, or if I've seen an unhappy person buying a yacht. I respond with the obvious answer of, "No", and the other person thinks they have won the argument. They are not wrong, doing rich things is fun. But I then point out the fact to them that all of these things involve spending money on themselves. The first thought that comes to someone that has come upon a sum of money is what they can spend it on to help them. In other words, they only think about spending money on themselves and not others. They think that spending money on themselves will make them happy. The funny thing is that spending money on others will generally make them happier than if they spend it on themselves. Don't get me wrong, spending money on yourself or others can make one happy, but more happiness comes from spending money on others.

This argument is very prevalent around the time of Christmas. Christmas is the largest shopping time of the year. The shopping season starts on Black Friday for the crazy and motivated ones, and ends on Christmas Eve for myself and a lot of other men in this world. It is a tradition for my dad and me to do a large part of our Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve. The crowds are down and most of the shoppers are people just like us. It's great! Anyways, Christmas is my favorite time of the year not because of all the gifts that I receive, but the joy I get when buying a gift for someone else and watching their reaction when they open it.

 I'm not a picky person when people ask me what I want for a gift. I usually just tell them that anything is good with me. For some odd reason, people really, really do not like it when I tell them this. Personally, I love it when someone tells me that anything will do. Not because I could pick out anything and have them be happy, but because it presents a challenge for me. I have to find a creative gift for that person that will make them smile. It makes me really think about what that person would want and who that person really is. I feel like I get to know them better without even talking to them. I like spending my money on others in a creative way. It is fun and exciting!

Spending money on myself only allows myself to be happy, but spending money on others myself to be happy for the person I bought the gift for, and also for the person receiving the gift to be happy. Christmas should be the season of giving, not the season of receiving.

This story pretty much sums up true happiness.

Once a group of 50 people was attending a seminar. Suddenly the speaker stopped and started giving each one a balloon. Each one was asked to write his/her name on it using a marker pen. Then all the balloons were collected and put in another room. Now these delegates were left in that room and asked to find the balloon which had their name written, within 5 minutes. Everyone was frantically searching for their name, colliding with each other, pushing around others and there was utter chaos. At the end of 5 minutes no one could find their own balloon. Now each one was asked to randomly collect a balloon and give it to the person whose name was written on it. Within minutes everyone had their own balloon.The speaker began— Exactly this is happening in our lives. Everyone is frantically looking for happiness all around, not knowing where it is. Our happiness lies in the happiness of other people. Give them their happiness, you will get your own happiness.

Christmas is quickly approaching. First be thankful for what you have. Thanksgiving is a holiday too and comes BEFORE Christmas. And second, try focusing your energy on giving this year. You may just end up a happier person. 

The Shadow Scholar

Students pay others thousands of dollars each year to write their papers. Yes, there is a student out there who has paid someone $2,000 to write a 40 page paper for them. The writers all work for an online company that generates tens of thousands of dollars a year. Each writer is capable of producing anywhere from 20 to 40 pages a day in subjects that they don't have a degree in.  I have never heard of this business, but it is very well known and popular business to some students. 

Who in their right mind would pay large amounts of money for another person to write a paper for them? I'm already paying thousands of dollars just to attend college, It wouldn't even cross my mind to pay someone money to write a paper for me. So then what group of people pays for papers? The easiest and most obvious answer are the extremely rich  and lazy students. The other not so obvious answers are the students who don't speak English very well, and the students whose communication skills are sub-par. 

The article makes a point that colleges are failing the students who cannot communicate and the ESL. Yet, colleges are succeeding the lazy rich kids. I totally agree. The lazy rich kids are usually business majors that are destined to run a company. At a company, they will invest their money to better their company. The same idea applies for college where they are investing their money to get a better grade. The communication deficient and the ESL are expected to know English the day they step on campus. They must master English to get a degree, so they see that paying others for their papers is the easiest way to get a degree. In the end, they might get the degree, but won't be prepared for the job that they get out of college. 

These writers are unknown to the world, no one knows who they are. But they are out there, writing essays, lab reports, and even graduate thesis. It's sad to say, but even that new young doctor you just started seeing could have had one of his/hers paper written by someone else. 

You're a Twenty Something, You Are something

Wow. The Ted talk by Dr. Meg Jay below is powerful. Her words should be taken to heart by any twenty something, or even any college student. I turned nineteen years old five days ago. One more year until I will be one of those twenty somethings. Scary huh? It certainly is for me. It also may be scary for those of you who have followed me since I was born. I am about to begin the most defining decade of my life. Boo! That's my Halloween scare for this year.

Jay states three things that all twenty somethings should hear. The first one is that all twenty somethings should gain some identity capital. Twenty somethings should do something that gives them an identity. They should explore their opportunities, but not explore things that aren't productive. Jay is trying to get across to twenty somethings that the decade they are in is not a time waster. The decade they are in should be the decade that define who they are.

The second thing that Jay says all twenty somethings should hear is that weak ties can be the key to something better. According to Jay, 50 percent of twenty somethings are either unemployed or under employed. This can be disheartening for twenty somethings to hear. But the good in this statement is that 50 percent of twenty somethings are employed. It should be a twenty somethings goal to become a part of the employed group. They can do this by exploring their weak ties. A weak tie is a connection to an employer that is not obvious. This could be their friends dads neighbor who works as a boss at a company that employs people with their degree or skill set. If they had a strong tie to an employer, they would most likely already be hired. I believe this idea of exploring ones weak ties goes right along with the first habit to be proactive that Stephen Covey describes in his book "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" . Life will rarely hand you a good life. Twenty somethings have to be proactive to get a job. 

The third and final thing that twenty somethings should hear is that they should pick their family now. I really liked the statement "The best time to work on your marriage is before you have one" that Jay made. Many twenty somethings see their friends getting married and having kids. They want to be married and have kids too so they sometimes try and make it work with the partner they are with at the time, instead of waiting and finding the partner that is right for them. Twenty somethings should instead discover who the right partner is for them and then find that person. This can be difficult for twenty somethings to do when the pressure from their peers to get married and have kids soon is very high. The old saying of being who you really are, and, patience is key, apply very well to this situation.  

Now that I have this knowledge of how to succeed as a twenty something I should be fine right? Lol, no. I am still growing and finding out who I am as a person. I hope to have a family and good paying job someday. But these things do not come easy. It takes hard work and self reflection. I could be the best motivational speaker by just repeating the words that I have heard from other people, but if I don't truly understand these words and their meaning, then a motivational speaker is all I will ever be. I will never actually be motivated. 

Joyas Voladoras - That Heart is a mystical pendulum

0 Heartbeats

Did you know that a heart beats around 2 billion times in a lifetime for every living being? We have 2 billion heart beats to use before our hearts stop beating. So why then do you choose to spend those precious beats reading this post? Go outside and see the world or go and do something memorable, for this world is short lived.

20 Heartbeats

Our hearts are just merely clocks ticking down the time until our deaths.  No, our hearts are something more. Hearts are for feelings, for love, for hate, for joy, for sorrow, for heartbreak, for something we cannot explain. That heart, it is a mystical pendulum.

45 Heartbeats

Think back to your first love, that first someone that captured your heart. Think of what you were feeling the first time you realized you were in love. Think of the joy that person brought to your life. Remember how easy life was with them at the moment? Now think of how that love may have ended. Think of the heartbreak that you were feeling. Think of how hurt and lost you felt. Remember how you thought that life could not go on? That heart, it is a mystical pendulum

85 Heartbeats

The cycle of love and heartbreak may have happened many times in your life. Maybe you were one of the lucky ones that found true love on the first go around, if so, I am envious of you. If you weren't one of the lucky ones, did you find it harder to love after each cycle? Did you find yourself building up a wall around your heart so that it would not be broken again? Have you had that wall torn down by something or someone so quickly and easily that you did not realize it? That heart, it is a mystical pendulum.

125 Heartbeats

We humans want to love, we want to be loved. We do not want to build up walls around our hearts. Yet, we build them anyways. They can take days, weeks, months, and even years to build. But, then in an instant, they can come crumbling down. According to Doyle, the demolition crew could be a memory of the sound of a fathers voice, the phrase "I have something to tell you", or a dying animal. We cannot help but feel emotional because of these things. We want try to control our emotions by building up walls around our hearts. We can try to protect our heart, but the heart will never wear a bulletproof vest. The heart can always be penetrated. That heart, it is a mystical pendulum.

200 Heartbeats

Students Should be Allowed to Graduate on Their Terms

One of my fifth grade teachers introduced me to Edward de Bono and his 6 thinking hats. The 6 thinking hats is a tool that describes individual thinking. The only hat that I remember now is the green hat which stands for creativity. It was, and still is, my favorite hat, although I find that the green hat is often left on the rack these days.

I was always thinking of new and creative things to do as a kid. I created a slingshot that could launch a golf ball 150 yards out of an exercise band and a few pieces of wood for fun. I invented a product that could organize my pens and pencils out of paper and tape for fun. I built a simple model of a house of paper and tape for fun. I was a creative child that liked to create things. I find this to be different now.

I created all of these things before high school. Before high school I was encouraged to do new creative things. School was all about learning and joy. Then high school came and told me that all I needed to do was to get a good grade and good test scores. Life was all about reaching certain objectives and earning certain letter grades. The days of learning and creating were a thing of the past. Yes, creating things was still cool and fun, but I would not receive any extra credit by being creative. It would not help me to obtain my "goal" of graduating high school and going to college.

Ken Robinson tells a story of a little girl that was a "trouble" child in class. She could not sit still and could not do her work. Turns out she was a "trouble" child because she loved to dance and move around. She learned better by dancing. She would later go on to become a very well known dancer.
The education system was telling her to sit still and do what everyone else was doing. With some help and potentially some medication she may have been able to sit still and be like everyone else, but what good would that have done? The girl would have never discovered her true passion and love in life.

The education system is trying to mold students to fit one certain mold. Every student is supposed to get good grades, take high level classes, and score highly on standardized tests. The education system does not promote learning new things, or learning things for enjoyment. It is not looked down upon to be creative, but it is not encouraged. Students should be able to take classes that intrigue them. They should be able to find their true passion in life and pursue it. I am not saying that students should not have a goal to graduate from high school, but rather they should have a goal to graduate from high school by taking classes that intrigue them and that they want to.

Without creativity this world would be nothing but a string of numbers.

We Write Together

Every college student is bound to hear the words, "compose a research paper", come from their professors mouths while in college. Writing is a requirement to graduate. The papers that we write may discuss sports, politics, space, or just about anything that a student thinks of. Our papers may vary greatly, but there is one thing that all of our papers should have in common; they were all edited and reviewed by our peers.

Personally, I go about the task of writing a paper by writing the first draft without any help. I have found that this is the only way that I can express all of my thoughts in a way that I want them to be expressed. Only after I have written down, or typed down in this day and age, every single thought about my topic, do I find it beneficial to receive outside help. This ensures that the material being edited are all my ideas. While writing, I often go back and read what I have already written to try and get a better sense of what I want to say. I find it harder to express my own thoughts if I am reading an already edited piece. 

I do believe that peer review is beneficial. Our minds think faster than our hands can type or write. This means that many times we accidentally omit words, or even sentences, without realizing it. Then, when rereading what we have written, our minds read what they wanted to say, rather than what is written on the paper. Peers can also give us feedback on how to better our writing. Some students may be better at creative writing, while some may be better at writing formal research papers. All of our peers can usually help our writing in at least some way. 

All papers should be reviewed and edited by someone, but the when and how they are edited can vary greatly from student to student. A student should figure out what works best for them and run with it.

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Laptops: Productive for Some, A Distraction for Others

Our grandparents had little to none knowledge of what a computer was. Our parents would give the university a look of confusion and curiosity if they had been required to own a laptop. It was uncommon for a college student to own and bring a laptop to college only fifteen years ago. Now, in 2015, most, if not all college students own or have access to a laptop. This has resulted in a dramatic shift in how students learn, while also resulting in a shift in how teachers teach. Teachers can now have what they are writing and doing projected onto a screen large enough for anyone to see in a large lecture hall. Most assignments in college are submitted online while also checked for plagiarism. Students can now access visual and audial lectures to better understand or to review the material. With all of the great things that have come from the relative instant implementation of the laptop in the classroom, it begs the question of why so many professors are against students using a laptop in class. The answer is simple, distractions.

A consequence of a interconnected world is that there are an infinite number of things to distract people while online. Advertisements can be found on almost every website, games can be played with the click of a button, and social media sites are often used as the default startup page. Teachers are outlawing laptops in their classroom because students will ultimately get bored at some point during class and will then get distracted by social media, games, or email. It can also be easy for the students sitting behind the student who is distracted to get distracted by what that student is doing too. This is understandable and I believe that laptops should only be used for taking notes or working on classwork during class.

Laptops will never be completely outlawed in the classroom due to the simple fact that many professors assign work to be done in class that requires a laptop to complete. Many writing classes have students bring their laptops to class with them to write papers. Computer science classes would just be science classes without computers in the classroom. The same can be said for programming classes. There are too many classes that require a laptop to do in class work for the laptop to be banned university wide.

Personally, I bring my laptop with me to all five of my classes, but I only use it frequently in three of the five. I own a 2-in-1 touchscreen laptop that also functions as a tablet. I can rotate the screen all the way back so that the keyboard cannot be seen. I also own a stylus that I use to take notes with. I have found it easier and a paper saver to use an app I downloaded called "Drawboard PDF". This app allows me to upload PDF files and write on them on my screen. I can also choose to write on a blank screen. This prevents me from having to print out numerous sheets of paper for class each day. I can also save and print out what I have written if need be. This method is much different than typing notes on a computer. This way does not give the student the tactile learning that is needed for many students to learn. Taking notes on a computer works very well for me.

Ultimately, if a student isn't serious about using a laptop for notes and doesn't have a good system to take notes with, I would say to leave the laptop in the backpack during class. The negatives far outweigh the potential positives that can come from using a laptop during class. Besides, the old fashioned way of paper and pencil has worked ever since the cavemen began making drawings of how to build a fire.

Accomplishing vs. Learning

We should go to school to learn, not to get good grades. I highly agree with the statement that grades have become more important than learning and that grades can reduce a students interest in learning.

In today's high schools, students and teachers could be replaced by robots. Students go to school to get a good grade, while teachers are there to give the student every opportunity to get that good grade. Many teachers are told what to teach each day and how to teach it. This has taken the creativity out of teaching and learning. It's no wonder that students are only focused in getting the grade when teachers have stopped being creative in the way that they teach the material. 

Throughout my high school career I was constantly told that I had to be better than 90% of my graduating class, I needed to take certain classes, and that I needed to get a certain score on a test. I rarely was told that I needed to learn as much as I could about things that I was interested about. I guess that is saved for college where I am allowed to choose a major. I believe college is way better than high school in large part due to the fact that students are allowed to learn what they are interested in rather than what they have to take to get into college. In college we learn certain things for our future job. In high school we get certain grades to get into college. In college we learn "soft skills" to impress employers. In high school we learn how to gossip. 

School Should Not Be About Grades, But Rather An Education

Grades vs. Education

The video above should be taken to heart by anyone and everyone. Receiving a high school diploma from the North Carolina education system has only strengthened my opinions on why grades have become too relevant and learning too irrelevant. 

I began kindergarten at Black Mountain Primary School at the ripe age of 5 in 2002. I was classmates with my best friend and neighbor Matt Begley. We spent every second of our time together whether that be in school or out of school. We would play football, baseball, hockey, basketball, video games, go hiking, and pretty much anything that five year old boys would do, together. During this time, we competed our butts off. Both of us always wanted to be the better player, better gamer, faster hiker, stronger hitter, and better shooter. This competitive spirit carried over to school. 

During Kindergarten, our teacher gave us a set of words to learn. After we could successfully say all of the words in the set, we would receive another, more advanced, set. Just as soon as one of us finished a set of words, the other would finish the same set the next day. This competitiveness held tight between the two of us until middle school when we no longer had the same exact classes. From grades Kindergarten to 5th grade, our school lives were all about competing and learning. Yes, we cared if we got good grades, but what we really cared about was learning and becoming more educated than the other.

 I began middle school in 2008, which was also the year I noticed my education starting to change. Teachers began teaching to a test. Students were all about getting the A, moving on, and having fun. This was an extreme opposite of what I was used to in elementary school where teachers taught to teach, to teach for fun, and most students tried to soak up as much knowledge as they could.

 This trend continued as I went through high school. Students competed to be in the top of their class. A higher GPA and test scores meant a higher chance of getting into a prestigious university. Teachers pushed to get test scores up so that they could keep their jobs. Teachers were evaluated on how high their students performed on just one test. Administrators made sure teachers were teaching what they were supposed to be so that their school would pass their annual school report card given to them from the state. Every single minority and majority group of students needed to score a high average test score. All of these goals that the students, teachers, and administrators had had one thing in common. All needed good grades and good test scores. Nowhere in the goals of the three was the goal of learning and soaking up as much knowledge as they could. 

My dad just so happens to be a middle school teacher. He is the AIG teacher, which stands for "Academically and Intellectually Gifted". He was the teacher that the really smart kids came to for extra, more difficult instruction. He loves his job because he gets to teach what he wants to, he doesn't have to teach to a test, and he doesn't have to teach what the state tells him to. He has seen the shift from learning being the main focus, to high grades and test scores being the main focus. It was not an overnight transition, but a relatively quick transition. He has gotten in trouble for teaching 6th graders the Pythagorean Theorem because the Pythagorean Theorem wasn't supposed to be taught until 8th grade. The state didn't have it in the curriculum until 8th grade. He has also seen things become very standardized. Everyone now has to "learn" the same thing no matter if you already know the material, or are still trying to "learn" the material that was supposed to be "taught" in the previous grade. It feels like teachers could be replaced by robots. Teachers have books that tell them what to do each and every day. They tell you what to say and when to say it. Even better, the book tells a teacher what to say to potential questions that a student might have. The fun has been taken out of teaching. No wonder students don't want to learn anymore. Learning isn't fun anymore, and the creative spirit has been stripped from amazing and very intellectual teachers. 

I believe this picture sums up our education system perfectly.

Shitty First Drafts

"Shitty First Drafts" was an interesting selection. I believe everything in the piece is true and should be taken to heart for anyone who writes, yet I have spent 10 minutes writing these first two sentences. My perception of writers before reading this piece was that all writers were inspired every day and would write from dawn to dusk. If my memory is correct, J.K. Rowling was inspired to write the first Harry Potter book while riding a train. I then assumed that every writer had an "aha" moment and then cranked out page after page until the masterpiece was completed. After reading Shitty First Drafts, I realize that my assumption was completely wrong. Some writers do have "aha" moments, but very few can wake up and write from dawn to dusk.

The second part of the selection focused more on Anne Lamott's experiences of writing food reviews. She would experience agonizing stress over writing a good review. The cycle of eat the food, take notes, attempt to write a review, almost die, take a deep breath, and then write everything on her mind, would happen each month. I can relate to some of her cycle. First, I do love to eat, but not in order to write reviews. Second, I almost always try to sit down and write a perfect paper whenever I start. I'm a big math guy and writing one draft versus three drafts seems much more efficient. Lastly, after trying to write a perfect draft, I do end up writing what is on my mind. This is largely influenced by my mom who would always say, "Just get something down on the paper and then we can talk". She is a very good editor, but needed something to work with. I think that many wonderful thoughts and ideas are lost from intelligent people who can think faster than they can write or type. Their mind is on line twenty six, but the paper is still on line five. It would make life so much easier if a machine was invented that would write out what someone was thinking. The amount of data coming from the machine would be ginormous, and some things quite funny, but it would allow for great ideas to be saved that otherwise would have been lost in the mind.