What's your major?

QW: What do you think is the best thing about college?  The hardest thing?

Interview two people who went to college using this worksheet.

Then write a 2-3 paragraph summary of what you learned from the interviews.  Focus specifically on anything you found interesting or surprising.

Thinking about Majors

QW: What would you study if you didn't have to worry about making money or getting a job?

When you think about what you want to major in in college, what comes to mind?  Do you have a subject you are passionate about and excited to start studying?  Or does the idea of choosing a course of study fill you with panic?  Or maybe a little of each?

Are you thinking of putting off the decision of what to study, and drifting for awhile?

Read this blog post  on choosing a major.  Now take a piece of paper and fold it in half.

For the left side, choose a major based on the idea of having a good job.  What major would you choose?  Why?  Write this at the top of the left column. Close your eyes and imagine yourself in this career.  Below where you've written the major, write a brief description of how you imagine a day in your life after you've graduated and gotten this "good job". How does this make you feel?  Excited? Nervous? Below your description, create a list of work-based experiences (e.g. internships or volunteer experiences) that would help you figure out if you would really enjoy this career.

For the right half of the paper, think of a major you might want to study just because it's interesting, without thinking about job prospects, and write the name of the major at the top of the right column.  Below the name of the major, explain why this is interesting to you. Do a Google search of "jobs with a _________ degree" and write down what you find.  Finally, create a list of some technical skills you could add to your studies to increase your job prospects if you were to choose this major.

Below what you've written in each column, draw a picture that captures your feelings about this major.

On the back of the paper, based on the above blog post and your experience in examining both choices, which do you think is the best course of action?  Create a list of possible majors, and identify the benefits and drawbacks of each.  Turn this paper in to your EF.

Career Exploration Part I

QW: What are some things that interest you?

Go to the website cacareerzone.org. First, under "Make Money Choices", click "Choose your Lifestyle."  Work through the questions, then make a note of the minimum salary needed to support your lifestyle.  You will need to multiply by 12 to get your minimum annual salary.  Enter the salary on this Google Doc.

Next, under "Assess Yourself", click "Begin Assessment" and choose the Interest Profiler.  After completing the interest profiler, click "explore occupations." Set the income range to include the value you calculated to support your lifestyle.  Then set the "job zone" scale at the top to job zone 1.  Then expand to job zones 1-2, then job zones 1-3, then 1-4 and finally 1-5.  What happens?

Job Zone 1 includes jobs that require little or no training.  Jobs in zone 2 require at least a high school diploma and some training, jobs in zone 3 require more training and possibly a certificate or associate's degree (from a community college, jobs in zone 4 generally require at least a 4-year bachelor's degree, and jobs in zone 5 require an advanced degree (master's, PhD, or professional degree).

Choose 4 or 5 careers you might be interested in (if you can't find 4 or 5 on that list, explore the rest of the site - you can search by job family, or explore all occupations). List the occupations you chose on the Google Doc, along with the job zone for each.

Choose two of the careers you listed above.  For each career, fill in the information on the Google Doc.  Then list at least 3 schools or programs where you can get the education or training you would need.  To search for colleges, use the college search tool on the College Board website.

Turn in the Google Doc to your EF.

Intellectual Curiosity

QW: What is something you are curious about?

Intellectual curiosity is very important for academic success.  If you’re not at all interested in learning new stuff, it can be very difficult to do so.  Communication of what you know and/or what you’ve learned is also important.  So for this CSS activity, we will combine intellectual curiosity and communication skills.

First, watch this TED talk by Stephen Robinson:

Reflect: What, if anything, did you find helpful from this talk about how to learn a new skill?  If you did not find the talk useful, I'm sorry; come up with your own list of steps to learn something new.

Act: Now it's time to learn something new.  You have between now and when you next meet with your EF. 

Some ideas for what you might want to learn: How to juggle, how to knit socks, what it takes to play sports in college, a new sport or game, a magic trick, how to play an instrument, how to identify edible wild plants, or anything else you’re curious about and don’t already know how to do.

A note of caution before you start: This will be much more fun and interesting for you (and everybody else) if you really open your mind up to be curious – find something you really want to know about instead of just approaching this as another crazy assignment from Alana.

Here’s what to do:

1. Find something interesting to learn about.  Once you’ve picked a broad topic, you will research the topic and present a short (1-2 min) presentation on what you learned.  For your learning resources, you can use websites, books, videos, anything that is appropriate.
2. Document your progress on this progress.  At a minimum, include a summary of your topic, what resources you used to learn it, and some notes about your progress along the way (e.g. successes and failures, how you felt during the process, what new things you're curious about, etc.) Bring these notes with you to step 3:
3. Prepare a short 1-2 minute presentation to share this exciting knowledge with your EF and possibly others.  It will be helpful if you incorporate visual aids (actual objects, or a poster or Powerpoint).  You can video tape this presentation.
4. Write a reflection of the learning process.  This should be 1/2 to 1 page on what you learned, how you learned it, how you feel about having learned it, and if you plan on pursuing learning more about this topic.

Good luck!

College Application Essays

QW: When completing a college or scholarship application essay, what is one thing you want to make sure the reader knows about you?

The college application process usually involves an online application, where you enter information about yourself and the classes you've taken, along with activities you participate in outside of school and an essay telling a little more about yourself.  Some applications also require letters of recommendation, test scores (SAT or ACT), and sometimes an interview.

Before you sit down to complete the application, think about the picture you want to present to the admission committee.  What is important for them to know about you?  What is unique about you, and what will you contribute to the college community?  Students often overlook some of their best qualities and attributes, because it seems normal - it's just your life, right?  When completing the application, be sure to take some time and think about your activities outside of school and make a list of everything you have done.  It's easy to forget some things, especially activities from freshman year. Keep in mind that what might be just regular old daily life for you could, in fact, be something a college admissions committee would be very interested in.

When it comes time to write the essay, read the prompt carefully and make sure you address the prompt.  However, also remember that the underlying question in every application essay prompt is "Who are you and what would make you a good addition to our campus community?"  What that means is, if the prompt asks you to tell about an influential person in your life, they don't actually want to know about your grandma (or your pastor, or your favorite teacher, or your mom or dad, or whoever that person is).  What they want to know is how has this person influenced you and helped you become the person you are - and what kind of person are you anyway?  If they ask about an event, it's not the event that's important; again, it's how it has affected you and how you've learned and grown from that event.  So whatever the question is asking, address the prompt, but also make sure the reader learns more about who you are, what's important to you, and how you interact in the world. They should know a lot more about you after reading your essay.  And I really do mean about YOU, not the soccer camp you attended in junior high.

Before starting this exercise, do the following (in order, one step at a time):

• make a list of at least 10 adjectives that describe you
• go back over the list, and change any adjectives with a negative connotation to more positive adjectives.  For example, instead of "stubborn", try "determined" or "committed to my values", or "persistent".
• next, group any similar adjectives together.  For example: outgoing, adventurous, risk-taker, active might be collected together in a group.
• then, choose one of these groupings of adjectives, and brainstorm ideas of examples you can give to show how you personify these traits. Using the example above, you might think of a time when you and some friends went backpacking, and you were the group leader.  When you are writing your essay and trying to make sure you get these qualities across to the reader, you don't just want to say "I'm very adventurous", you want to give them examples of when you've done adventurous things.
• finally, look over the list of essay questions and complete two essays following the directions on the list.

Now, complete two of the essays, using the prompts on this list, taking into account everything discussed in this post.  Again, using the adventurous example, if the prompt asks you to talk about an influential person in your life, and the idea you want to get across is that you're adventurous, you might talk about how your grandpa used to take you camping and backpacking (or traveling, or whatever) when you were young and how that helped you develop a love for the outdoors and a commitment to protecting the environment.  Of course, you wouldn't write it like that, but you would give examples and details that get this idea across.

Stress Effects on the Brain

QW: What do you do when you're stressed out?

Activity:
When you are under stress, some interesting things start to happen in your brain. This is a leftover effect from the days when humans regularly encountered life-threatening situations - like encounters with wild animals that might eat you. When you are under stress, the amygdala (a small, almond-shaped structure in your brain) sends out a signal that you are in danger.  Your endocrine system releases cortisol and adrenalin, your heart rate and breathing rate increase, your digestive and immune systems are suppressed (after all, there's no point in digesting breakfast when you're about to be somebody else's lunch).  Back in the caveman days, this response was helpful; it prepared the body to either run away or fight off the physical threat.  The problem is, the amygdala, and the stress response it sets in motion, does not distinguish between real, physical threats and psychological threats.  For the types of stress modern humans encounter, this response it not very helpful.  In fact, over the long run, it can be extremely detrimental to your health.

Furthermore, in times of stress, the frontal lobe (the part of your brain responsible for critical thinking and reasoning) starts to shut down and does not function properly.  So right at the point where you need it the most, your ability for critical thinking is reduced.

Assignment: Watch the videos below on the stress response, and discuss the content with your EF.  Then answer the questions in the Google doc here. Make a copy of the document for yourself, then you can type in your answers and share it with your EF.

Metacognition

QW: When you want to learn something new, what strategies do you use? What works well for you when you are trying to learn something? What doesn't work?

In last week's post, I discussed neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to grow and change as you learn, and the fact that young people between the ages or 12 and 25 experience a period of increased neuroplasticity. During this period of neuroplasticity, learning something new is easier and more efficient that it is likely to be as you get older.  It turns out there are strategies you can use to make your learning even more efficient during this (and any other) time in your life.

Cognition is "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses"; that is, cognition is the act of thinking. The term "metacognition" refers to thinking about your thinking - analyzing what you are thinking, why, and how you might change your thinking. You can think of it as "driving your brain" - directing how you think about and engage in learning, rather than setting it on autopilot as you move through your learning experiences. Sometimes you might need to back up and look at something again, or take a detour to gather more information about a topic before moving on. You might need to go slower, or faster, to improve your learning efficiency.

In addition to thinking about your thinking, metacognition involves monitoring your thinking and directing your thinking. An example of monitoring your thinking is when you are reading a passage in history, and realize partway through that you are not understanding what you are reading. At this point, you may realize you need to back up and re-read it, you may need to go back to a previous section to fill in some background knowledge, or look up some information. You may decide you need to take notes as you are reading, or stop after each paragraph and summarize for yourself what you just read. This whole process starts with monitoring your thinking and being aware of what you are and are not understanding. An example of directing your thinking is when you realize you are getting distracted by details, and you refocus your thinking on the main idea of what you are reading or hearing. Another example is when you find your mind wandering, and realize you need to stop and refocus your attention.

Activity:
Read the article below about metacognition, and answer the questions that follow:

Metacognition: How Thinking About Thinking Can Help Kids

Questions:

1. In your own words, describe what is meant by metacognition.
2. How can metacognition help you learn better?
3. Specifically, what strategies of metacognition (thinking about thinking, monitoring your thinking, and directing your thinking) can you apply to your learning this week? How will you apply these strategies?
4. Are you driving your brain, or just cruising on autopilot through your learning? What can you do to more effectively focus your thinking and learning?
5. Think about a recent test or assignment (one that you struggled with), and how you approached it. Was your approach effective? What could you have done differently to improve your study or work habits?
6. Think about an assignment or problem you are having right now. What have you tried? What are some other things you could try? How might you approach this problem or assignment differently? 
7. If you are stuck on an assignment, where can you look for help? Identify at least 3 actions you can take to get unstuck.

Mindset

QW: Describe a time you had to do something difficult.  How did you go about it?

Background Information:
Over the past decade or so, our ideas of how the mind works have changed drastically.  Many people used to believe that intelligence was a relatively fixed quantity, something that couldn't change substantially.  People also used to believe that once you achieved adulthood (indeed, shortly after you left your toddler years), you were stuck with the brain you had, and it wouldn't really change much over the course of the rest of your life.

Recent research has changed all of this.  Neuroscientists have discovered that in pre-adolescence and adolescence, the brain goes through a period of rapid growth in neural connections, followed by pruning of unused connections, similar to what happens with toddlers (for more information on this, see this article). This makes adolescence an incredibly important time for learning.  The neural connections that are used repeatedly will be kept and strengthened, those that are not used will be lost.  The implications are that this is the most efficient time to learn something - if you want to learn a language or how to play a musical instrument, for example, it will be much harder once this period of growth and pruning is over.

Another recent area of research is concerned with how students think about learning.  Researchers at Stanford have looked at how mindset, or how students think about their ability to learn, affects their academic success.  These attitudes are characterized as fixed mindset or growth mindset.  People with a fixed mindset think that intelligence or ability is something that is more or less pre-determined, and can't be changed much.  Those with a growth mindset, however, believe that through effort and meaningful feedback, people can improve their intelligence and abilities.  Current neurological research strongly supports the second idea - as we learn new things, new connections (called synapses) are actually created in our brains; that is, our brains actually change physically as a result of our learning.

Activity:
Read the following articles on learning and mindset:

Student's View of Intelligence Can Help Grades
Forget Talent: Why Practice is Key to Most Prodigies' Success

Then answer the questions on this Google Doc: Growth Mindset Reading Questions

You can learn more about the idea of a growth mindset here or here, and a ton of information on how mindset affects performance in math particularly at Jo Boler's Youcubed website.

Structure and Function of the Brain

QW: What do you appreciate most about your brain?

We're going into a new section of the course now, which might seem a little off-topic, but bear with me.  New research shows that the brain is much more adaptable than was previously thought, and that it continues to grow and change throughout your life.  The next few assignments relate to the structure and function of the brain, how the brain reacts to stress, and how mindset is related to student performance and achievement.  The first step is to learn a little about the different parts of the brain, and how they relate to perception, thinking, and emotion.

Activity: Watch the video below from Bozeman Science about the structure and function of the brain.  Using the information from the video, or other online resources, color and label the attached diagram of the brain. For each region you label, include a brief explanation of what that regions does.

Here is the diagram:

Assignment: Choose one of the brain regions you identified in the diagram, and write a thank you letter showing your appreciation for what that part of the brain does for you.  Be sure to include the major functions of the particular brain region and why this is important to you.  Your letter should be roughly a page long.  Turn in your letter to your EF.

Letter From Your Future Self

QW: Take five minutes to describe where you think you will be in 10 years, and what you will be doing. What will your life be like?

Imagine yourself sometime in the future (at least 5-10 years after graduating from high school). By this time, someone has invented a trans-temporal postal service that can deliver mail to the past. As your future self, write a letter to yourself now, describing accomplishments and experiences you've had and sharing any advice for yourself going forward.

Your letter should be about a page long. Turn the letter in to your EF.

Optional: If you want, you can also write an email TO your future self. On the websitehttps://www.futureme.org/, you can write an email to yourself in the future, specify how far in the future you will want to receive this email, and they'll send it at the appropriate time.

What's Important to You?

QW: If you were faced with an imminent emergency (fire, flood, earthquake, etc) and you had one minute to gather the important things and get out of your house, what would you take?

Values sort:
Print out the values cards available here: http://www.icarevalues.org/Value%20Cards%20v4.nd.pdf, and cut them apart.  In the blank ones, you can write in any values that are not already in the set.  Then do the following:

• Sort the values into two piles - those that are important to you, and those that are not so important to you
• Remove the pile of non-important values (that is, not so important to you; keep in mind these may be important values for someone else)
• With the remaining pile, sort the values until you have them in order from most important to least important.  You may have to go through the stack a few times and rearrange the values before you're satisfied with the order

Complete this worksheet.  You can either print it, or make a copy for yourself and complete it in Google Docs.  Turn it in to your EF.

When you start looking into careers, it is important to keep in mind what your core values are.  If you end up in a career that does not match up well with your values (especially the most important ones), you will be miserable every day.  

Take a minute to reflect on why these things are important to you.  Write 1-2 paragraphs describing the people and institutions in your life that have shaped your values.

Finding Your Passion

QW: What was something you loved doing as a kid?

In a previous post, you watched a video by Larry Smith, in which he explained why you will fail to have a great career.  His argument was that either you won't find your passion, or you will be too afraid to follow it.  The basic underlying message is that to be truly fulfilled in life, you need to pursue your passion, regardless of what other people think of your journey.

I recently read a blog post by Mark Manson in which he argued that you probably already know what your passion is, you're just ignoring it because either you don't think you can earn money doing it, or you're afraid it's not good enough.  The ideal career path, and individual passion, is a very personal thing.  Your path is for you alone, and it is not for anyone else to say you should or shouldn't follow that path - the decision is entirely yours.

Sometimes, however, it takes a while to find your true passion.  You need to be open to trying new things; you may discover a hidden passion somewhere you never thought to look.  As children, we naturally gravitate towards new experiences, and we have no trouble finding things that interest us.  As we get older, we tend to overthink, to over-analyze our decisions and put too much stake on what others think of what we're doing, and not enough weight on how we ourselves feel about it.  To help in exploring various interests and activities, read the following article: Find Your Passion With These 8 Thought-Provoking Questions.

Then answer the following questions:

1. What is your tennis ball?
2. What is something you believe that almost nobody agrees with you on?
3. What are your superpowers?
4. What did you enjoy doing as a child?
5. What are you willing (or eager) to try now?
6. Looking back on your life, 30 years from now, what do you want to say you have accomplished?
7. What are you doing when you feel most alive?
8. What is one sentence that sums up who you are, who you want to be, and what you want to accomplish?

Turn in the answers to these questions to your EF.

Why You will Fail to Have a Great Career

QW: What is something you are passionate about?

Activity: Watch the video by Larry Smith on why you will fail to have a great career:

Then answer the response questions on this worksheet.

Optional: Write a speech or make a video giving a rebuttal to Larry Smith - why will you succeed in having a great career?

Success

QW: Describe a person who you feel is successful.

Part I: Review some quotes on success at this website.  Choose one of the quotes on the website, or create your own success quote and create a poster (with a visual image) of that quote.

Part II: What Does Success Mean to You?  Write three paragraphs about success:

The first paragraph should explain what you mean by the term "success".  You could start with one of the following statements:

• "I consider myself successful when...."
• "My definition of success is...."
• "I think a successful person is one who......"

Then explain why.

In the second paragraph, describe someone who you consider to be successful.  This could be someone you know personally, or someone famous.  It can also be a historical figure (but it must be a real person).  Explain why you think this person is or was successful.

In the third paragraph, describe what you hope your life will be like in the future.  Think (and write) about how this description of your life lines up with the ideas of success you described in the first paragraph.

My Education is My Responsibility

QW: What does education mean to you?

Video: Watch the video "My Education is My Responsibility" by Aadil Malik.

In this short video, Aadil makes the following statement: "I didn't care much for school until I realized my education was what I made it to be, my education was my responsibility." Applying that idea to your own education, write a response (at least 2 paragraphs) or create and record your own video describing what you plan to make of your education this year at GECS.  What do you hope to gain this year that will help you become the person you are going to be 5 or 10 years from now?

This Year at GECS

QW (5 min): What are you looking forward to this year? What are you hoping to accomplish?

Assignment: Create a mini-book for this school year at GECS.  Directions for making a mini-book can be found in this video:

Create a cover for the book (a title and/or picture, and make sure you put your name on it).  On each page, you will draw a picture and write something.

• Page 1: Something that makes you special
• Page 2: Something you're looking forward to this year
• Page 3: Something you're worried or nervous about this year.
• Page 4: An academic (school-related) goal for this year
• Page 5: A personal goal for this year

Use colored pencils, markers, crayons, natural dyes, yarn, beads, whatever represents your personal style, but make it colorful and creative!

Turn in your completed project to your EF.

Tell me about yourself

QW (5 min): What is something that makes you special?

Assignment: create a product to tell me a little about yourself.  This could be a short essay, a video, a collage; whatever you think represents who you are.  Be sure to include information about what makes you special, and what you hope to get out of your education this year at GECS.  Give or email your project to your EF.