Hello, my name is Nicole and I have a few intentions for the semester. I am most looking forward to learning how to improve my writing. I want to learn how to interpret what I’ve read in a specific text and to be able to expand on a certain topic that I need to write about. Hopefully we will read something interesting, I’m very into mystery and horror.
One obstacle that I know I will encounter is procrastination. I take a long time to get started on my work and I get very distracted easily. I would start doing my work and then get a notification on my phone and stay on social media for an hour before I realize I need to finish an assignment. I get very lazy when it come to big assignments because I know they take time and effort and for me its scary to get into it. Another obstacle I will encounter is staying focused. During middle school and high school, school was very easy for me and not as challenging as I expected. I was able to breeze through classes with high grades without even trying. Once my school realized the potential I had, they moved me to more advanced classes and I wasn’t prepared to be overwhelmed. I realized that the material was harder and that I actually needed to study to get good grades and stay awake during class. I had fallen into bad habits such as sleeping and not paying attention because I didn’t feel the need to since the class was so easy for me. Once I was put in Honors and AP classes it was very hard to break out of those habits and to this day I still struggle, so hopefully I can overcome it with a good planning system. Something the instructor can do to help me excel is giving me more 1 on 1 attention to help with my work or answer my many questions. Hopefully by understanding my writing style quickly, they can help me improve or know where I’m trying to get at when writing.
I plan to manage my time between classes by having a planning system. I have a board in my room and a planner. Before the week starts I write down all the assignments that are due during the week and what homework/tasks I have to do on certain days. I configure that weekly and then I write a To-Do list daily. I write time stamps on my white board and what I have to do during those times. I write what I have to do for the day the night before and check things off as I get them done throughout the day. I hope to gain knowledge on evaluating my papers, revising them and being able to make well constructed arguments that make sense. I also want to make sure all the information I put in my writing backs up my argument. I hope to learn how to research more efficiently and know what sources to use in my papers and how to use them to make my argument stronger. I aim for the best throughout this semester and aspire to excel in all my work.
Hi Nicole! I can relate to your high school experience a lot. The shift from cruising by for your whole life and excelling without trying to getting to high school and AP classes giving you an intense wake-up call sounds all too familiar to me (as does your struggles with procrastination and the inability to remove yourself from social media at critical times). The board in your room sounds like a really good way to keep track of things. Good luck with the semester!
I can definitely relate to the way you described the procrastination habits. I have been procrastinating so many things this summer. ” I get very lazy when it come to big assignments because I know they take time and effort and for me its scary to get into it.” I completely agree. If I know I have a project due, I’ll wait until the last 2 days of the due date. It’s been a habit I’ve been trying to break since middle school. I hope to break it now that I’m pressuring myself to succeed in college.
Hi Nicole,
I, too, can relate to the experience you describe with school initially being too easy, then becoming overwhelming when you were switched into advanced classes. I had the same change from junior high to high school, and it took me most of my freshman year to really develop good study skills. It sounds like you have an effective time management system in place, which is great, so now the hard part will be sticking with it as the semester goes on.
I have made an effort in the schedule to build up to major assignments so that they won’t be too much all at once, and this should alleviate some of that anxiety heading into an essay. But I am also ready to answer any questions you have at any point. The main thing you need to do is stay abreast of deadlines and communicate when something is unclear to you. Best of luck this semester!