Final Blog Post

So we are coming to the end of the school year and this means a lot to this class. There is the fact that it is almost over and that we are all completing our final exams and projects, getting ready for summer, but it also means something even more. For the past 15 weeks, I have been looking at this idea of college readiness and so with the completion of this school year, it also marks the completion to the adaptation or transition into college. At this point in my college career, I know that I have successfully transitioned into college. There were many different aspects that had to be done in order to get me to this point. I am going to try and summarize all of my research about college readiness from my research in the three mini projects and then attempt to create an alternative way of preparing students for college.

From my first mini project, I created a prezi that was supposed to give a generalized plan about the transition into college. http://prezi.com/gnzfdlxtyb9z/college-readiness/?kw=view-gnzfdlxtyb9z&rc=ref-11701747. This was based around my research from looking at websites such as College Board, and looking at the studies of "College Readiness." There are many different companies who try to create different plans to prepare students for college; however, they do not work to help the student as much as to help themselves. They all base the information around helping them make money or look good as an organization. What I summarized from this point was that there was no "plan" that was able to help student be prepared for college. So this got me thinking, how do students prepare for college. My first thought was to write about my experiences transitioning into college; however, it all happened so fast, it was hard for me to remember what worked and what didn't. That is where I came up with the idea of interviewing a Senior in high school and a Sophomore in college. Here are the links to the interview if you would like to take a look at them again.

High School Student - http://michaelsmind1102.blogspot.com/2013/04/mini-project-3.html
College Student - http://michaelsmind1102.blogspot.com/2013/04/mini-project-2.html

As this project is coming to its final part, I began to study what others are saying as well. I took a look at Ted Talks and listened to some very powerful speeches. One speech really stuck out to me and that was (Hrabowski). Look at the video around the eight minute mark and watch on. The speech is conducted by Mr. Hrabowski and he talks about the foundation of preparing yourself for the next part in your life. He says that school's have "weed-out" classes to get people who are not prepared for the next class, out of the program. This idea really made me thing. When I conducted my interview with the Senior in High School, I learned that there is no program that is going to get you prepared for college. Everyone handles change differently and because of that, there is no "(Insert Number Here) Step Process" that will help students be prepared for college. If you can create classes that can prepare students for the next level in life, why can you not create a class that will help student be prepared for college which is such a huge change in their life. Last time I checked, school was supposed to prepare us for the real world, no prepare us for a test. When we have such a huge change in our lives, school has failed us. School will prepare you for the next class, but why cant school help prepare you for life skills such as studing, living on your own and even coping with stress? Why cant school be a place where we can get answers that will make our lives easier. School acts as if doing something the easy way is wrong. Everything is supposed to have structure and everyone is supposed to learn the same way and in the mind of college readiness, that does not work. Some people will have no problem being dropped into a completely new situation and they will hit the group running, but for a lot of people, they will fall and have to work to get back up. Some people are not prepared for this metephorical drop becuase nobody told them what to expect. For the last part of this project, I am proposing an idea, something that will help students, something that will prepare students for the next part of their lives.

I found college to be a very difficult transition because of the classes and being on my own. I became homesick and that made it harder for me to figure out how to study. I feel that if the school system worked to prepare me in high school, my first-year college experience would have been very different. From the first ted talk (12:30 Minutes into Video), Mr. Hrabowski talks about how in college, you don't learn from just putting you face in a book and studding, you learn from hand on approaches and the interaction with others. This reminds me a lot about the study of HOMAGO (Ito) Learning from the beginning of the year. This also reminded me about "Geeking Out". When I was in high school, I was always told that technology was bad. You did not want to use technology becuase it would give you unreliable information and distract you from  learning "correctly". This made me think about how much we use technology here at UNCC and how successful it is. I feel that technology can be used in a very effective way, but only if the school promotes it as such. I thought about how we can learn in different ways other than studying from books. I have used this a lot in this class. A lot of my information has come from interviewing people and listening to public speakers. In high school that would have been unacceptable, but in college, that is perfectly fine.

By conducting these interviews, performing research, and looking at my own experiences in my transition into college, I have concluded that there are three different things that students need to adapt to. The first is living on your own for the first time in your life. The second is difference in class, teaching style and independent learning of college, and the third is becoming an adult. Like a said before, I feel that there is no way that someone can be completely prepared for college, but I feel that the school system can do more to prepare students. When students are seniors, they are already disengaging from high school with the anticipation for college. Commonly known as "Senioritous," this is the point when studies say, I'm finished with high school and now I just have to wait until I get to college. This is the perfect time to prepare students for college. The school system is set up so there is no transition. You finish high school and go to college, that's it. About half a year of high school is wasted when you disengage from school in preparation for college, so why not make that year a dedication for preparation. Set up a system where seniors take classes that are structured like college classes. This will help to get them prepared for the differences in teaching style, class schedule and the independence of learning. Steps one and two listed above work to get to fulfill steps three. So, by completing step two a year before step one, that will give seniors the head start to prepare them for the next year.

I feel that school systems should have a transition grade. This would not only help to get students to do better their first year, but it would also relieve some of the stress caused by the shock of such a new environment in their lives. Since the High School year is a count down the clock situation, i feel that this would be the best time to start preparing students becuase they can adapt in a stress free, no risk environment. In one last Ted Talk (Powell), Colin Powell talks about how to be successful. This was not in terms of school, but in life in general. He says that "Kids Need Structure". He says in order to be successful, you need to have the gift of a good start. To wrap up this "Rant" for lack of a better word, I want to say, Schools are supposed to prepare us for the next class; I feel that they should prepare us for the next part in our lives. This does not only includes class, but it also includes the transition in our lives. If we don't have that good start that Mr. Powell is talking about, it can be harder to succeed. So, give students that good start. Give them the tools they need to succeed an then maybe the dropout rate of college and the rate of major change will go down becuase students were prepared to be successful.


References
Hrabowski, Freeman, perf. 4 pillars of college success in science. TED Talk, 2013. Web. 22
     Apr 2013 <http://www.ted.com/talks/freeman_hrabowski_4_pillars_of_college_success_in_science.html>.
Powell, Colin, prod. Kids Need Structure. TED Talk, 2012. Web. 22 Apr 2013.
     <http://www.ted.com/talks/colin_powell_kids_need_structure.html>.
Ito, M. (n.d.). Hanging out, messing around, geeking out. Retrieved from
     <https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwM_mqgmQbt3bmpOTExkeG96NVk/edit>