Is this really our last blog? Well, I am not going to try to get emotional but I just realized that this was one of the better learning experiences in my entire education. I can honestly say that I have learned far more useful things than anything involved in my undergrad. It was not the type of learning that I am used to, however. I can really see how the format of the class can be very impactful and successful in letting students learn about meaningful topics. And, it was as simple as writing blogs on a certain topic and coming in to discuss about them. There are so many viewpoints and it was very refreshing to hear them all from the class as well as hearing the amazing stories from our leader, Sparky. What a great class and I want to thank you Sparky. I also wanted to thank the rest of the class for enlightening me on your personal experiences and opinions. This is a great way to not only learn about the people surrounding you, but the way they feel about the program that your in. We are in the business of developing students and I now have a greater understanding in what it takes to impact the lives of students and specifically college students.
So, what did I learn about in this class? Well, what didn't I learn about in this class? First and foremost, I was introduced to this thing called blogging. This is a great way to express opinions and concerns that an individual is feeling or thinking. I believe that this saved so much time and energy than actually writing a paper every week. Also, this was more of a conversational aspect of learning, which made the atmosphere in the class very comfortable. Again, I want to thank Sparky for letting the class be as low key as possible with the greatest amount of education and learning. We learned about today's college student where I focused my discussion on the motivation of a student actually doing their part to get an education. My experience was somewhat different than most college students as I was blessed to have giving the opportunity to have the full time job of being a student athlete. So in turn, I was very interested in hearing some of the stories from different students. With that, I was amazed with the stories that have developed in Sparky's carreer. With this topic, I really wondered about the motivation that students had for going to class. For me, this was not an option as I was forced to do alot of things. I enjoyed hearing about the freedoms that students had and how they handled it. We then dived into the issue of free speech on campuses. The most interesting thing about this discussion was that aminstrators such as Sparky, are forced into letting certain people or groups have their way in this particular topic. It is something that is very real because it is the law. I went into the technology side of this discussion and wrote about the regulations that website had with students from many different colleges posting about their college or different students on a website. I wrote about the workshops and the overall encouragement for students to stray away from this nasty situation. I wanted to know the limits of free speech and the right to harm others vocally and on the internet.
The next topic really hit home for me as I don't understand how individuals can have a certain mindset and actually want to do something as terrible as shootings in schools. I remember the discussion we had on this matter and it is something that is very real in our society. We talked about prevention methods as well the way these individuals go about doing something like this. I mentioned Columbine High School and how the day of their massecre was described in detail on the internet. The events are described to the minute of that terrible day. How do we prevent something like this from happening and what steps need to be made on informing others what to do if something like this ever happens? The next week, we had a deep discussion on restorative justice and how we are looking to move foward in this process. Honestly, I wasn't aware of this process and was very much enlightened when we discussed about the approaches of going about punishing students in a way that is meaningful for them as well as the victims of their wrong doings. I looked at this topic in an athletic viewpoint and posed the question of when is enough, enough. We looked at student protests where I considered the tuition costs rising in the state of California and more specifically, the University of California. We found that student protests are as successful as the Adminstrators reactions to it. We found that there are certain limitations regarding this issue and is something that needs to be looked at the more our economy goes down.
We then looked at the spiritual side of Universities and talked about faith of many students and the impact of secular campuses. We looked at their challenges as people tend to believe what they want to believe and might not be taught in the college of their choice. I know this was certainly true for me as I went to the same Christian school my entire life and was taught something extremely different in college than what I knew my entire life. This happened as soon as I stepped foot in Geology 101 for my first class, freshman year. I looked at two approaches for professors to go about teaching class in this area. Banishment and Confrontation are the two approaches where a teacher is given the choice of teaching something without regard to certain individuals and their beliefs or if they should let the student have some sort of say so. We then moved into the idea of sex and drugs on campuses. In this blog, I talked mainly on the drugs that we see every day in college and some prevention methods. I talked about how students are very free when they reach this type of atmosphere away from there parents and what they grew up knowing. I gave the many types of drugs and ways of preventing the misuse of them in my opinion, of course. We went to "Greenville" and discussed the many inovations of colleges actually going green. We looked at many different ways that would be the best improvement into letting students know about this situation. Personally, I talked about disadvantages as well as the inovations that I see working. A great learning experience indeed as we are seeing this issue spread very rapidly today. We followed it up with the student unions and how they should be a major part of a college students lives.
So as far as I am concerned, I found out what Sparky thinks about every day of his life. I found this class very useful and meaningful in what I plan on doing with my life. Again, I wanted to thank all of you and especially you, Sparky for making this experience as enjoyable as possible for me with the satisfaction of learning all about the current issues and great events and situations that involve being an adminstrator in the college atmosphere
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