5V Agency

Agency: refers to the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices.

The term Agency relates to the time study assignment we did in Inquiry. Making our time study schedules showed us how we spend our free time. I learned that during my free time I like to relax so I have to start spending my free time wisely. Agency also relates to my Inquiry class in general. Inquiry is a class to help us prepare for college. In Inquiry we are supposed to take action and be engaged in class.  I think that everyone has a different Agency. Everyone makes their own choices and acts they way they want.

New Vocabulary:

In my English class I learned two new vocabulary words:

• Communal Relevance: relating or teaching something you believe in to others.

In class we are writing a paper about one of our beliefs. My teacher wants us to talk about how other can relate to our story.

• Narrative: a spoken or written account of connected events; a story.

In our paper we have to talk about an event that made us have this belief.

5I A Day in New Haven

A few weeks ago me and my friends took the bus into downtown New Haven. We thought it would be fun to walk around town, shop, and get some lunch.  Before we took the bus we went to the Wintergreen building to get our free Upasses. We took the bus a bus around 11:40 and got into town around 12.  While we walked around we went into some stores and shopped for a little.  Yale University is right by the city so we noticed a lot of Yale students walking around while we shopped. After we were done shopping we wanted to stop to grab some lunch. Someone recommended that we went to a place called Bar Pizza. Bar pizza was located on Crown Street. They had so many different topping for the pizza. These toppings included, pepperoni, sausage, bacon, chicken, shrimp, clam and many others. My favorite was probably the bacon pizza. The pizza was awesome! and I would definitely recommend it to anyone. Spending the day in downtown New Haven was very fun and I am sure I will be spending many more days hanging out with my friends downtown.

5B Are you using your time wisely?

This week in Inquiry we had a time study assignment which was very beneficial to me. I had to make a weekly schedule of what I did each hour of the day. Such as sleeping, eating, socializing, doing homework, etc. This assignment was supposed to help us manage our time and show us if we are spending our time wisely.  Overall I think I am being productive and spending enough time doing my homework. 

All together I spent 25 hours doing homework which is pretty good but I think I should try to get at least 30 hours of homework in during the week. On the other hand I had a total of 35 hours of socializing and relaxing which might be a little to much. In order to get 30 hours of homework done I think I should do a little less relaxing and a little more homework. So when I have an hour or two in between my classes I am going to start getting as much homework as I can done during this time. I also think when it comes closer to friday and my work isn't due until the next week I start to procrastinate. When friday comes around I usually say to myself "Oh this is due monday so that means I can just do it on Sunday night." And then when sunday comes around I have all this work to do and I get mad at myself for saving all of it for sunday.


Since I am an athlete I am pretty busy during the week with practice and it can be overwhelming at times.  With practice starting at 3 everyday I usually don't have much time to do homework after my classes and before practice.  Then when practice is over I am usually too tired to do all of my work. So I came up with the idea to start getting up at 8 in the morning when I don't have class until 9:30 to get some of my homework done. Although I am not a morning person, I think it will be a good idea to start doing this so I won't have to stay up late at night to do all of my homework. 

5A The Next Chapter

It's crazy to think that I have been in college for a month already.  Coming into college I knew I had to learn how to use my time wisely.  Managing your time is not the easiest thing to do, especially when your playing a sport.  In high school I worked hard and got the grades I wanted to and I knew in college I was going to have to work a lot harder if i wanted good grades.  So far I think I am doing pretty well with managing my time but their is definitely some things I need to change.  For example when I have time in between my classes I usually just lay in my bed and relax. Instead of doing this, I think I should try to start doing work during my free time in between classes so I am not cramming all of my homework in at night. But other than that I am pretty content with the way I am managing my time.

Everyone knew that college work is more challenging than high school work. Even though I did know this coming into college, the first couple weeks were very stressful with all of the work.  All of the work wasn't necessarily hard it was just a lot of reading and taking notes.  My problem is that sometimes I read what I have to read and then I don't comprehend what I ready. So every time I read I have to take notes which takes awhile but it is the only way I will comprehend my reading.  I think that having to go to study hall because I play a sport is really helping me. Not only is is helping me do my work but it also helps me manage my time.  I get most of my homework done during study hours and then whatever work I still have to finish I come back to my dorm and finish it up before I go to bed. Now that I am in my fifth week of classes I am comfortable with all of my classes and everything is going very well.

One thing that I do want to start doing is going to the library.  I usually do most of my work in study hall and in my dorm room but I think the library is also a nice place to do your work.  Sometimes when I am doing work in my room I get distracted by my roommate and then I end up taking forever to do my work because of all the distractions. If I start doing my work in the library, it will always be nice and quiet and I wont be distracted by anything.  When some of my big tests start coming up I will definitely start to spend most of my time in the library studying.

4I Day of Service

Today I participated in the SCSU Day of Service with my lacrosse team. We met at the student center at 9am to sign in and eat breakfast. Then we went outside to wait to find out where to go. We took a bus to the park and had to spread mulch all over the patches of dirt. I believe we started around 11 and finished around 1.

When I found out that we were participating in the Day of Service I didn't really know what to except. I figured we were just going to go to a park and clean up garbage. When we arrived at the park I saw piles and piles of mulch and a bunch of rakes. So immediately I was like great this is not what I was expecting. But it turned out to be really fun helping out with the community. The guys that we were helping with the mulch were so happy we were there and so appreciative. It was also nice bonding with my team during this experience. I will definitely participate in something like this again because it felt great knowing I was helping out the community.

4V Can you Resist the Temptation 

Delayed Gratification: the ability to wait in order to obtain something that one wants.

In inquiry this week we read articles and watched videos on "The Marshmallow test." This is tested on four years olds to see if they can delay their gratification. For this test you simply place one marshmallow in front of the kid and you say, "if you can sit here for fifteen minutes and not eat the marshmallow then I will give you a second marshmallow but if when I come back into the room and the marshmallow is gone then you don't get the marshmallow." Most of the children did not wait and just ate the marshmallow. I think at such a young age you don't really understand the concept of delayed gratification. Even if you put a candy in front of a kid that doesn't really like candy I think they would still just eat it. As you get older you learn to be more patient and start to understand the concept of delayed gratification. 


New Vocabulary: 

Scarcity: basic economic problem that arises because people have unlimited wants but resources are limited.

In my economics class we are learning that scarcity refers to unlimited resources. These resources are the inputs of production.

Identification: A state of agreement that exists with another when we share a similar way of viewing the world.

In my media class we are learning about how persuaders try to persuade audiences into believing their ideas and some audiences agree with the persuaders.

4B Inquiry Questions

1. If someone knows that they procrastinate when it comes to doing their homework, what can they do fix this problem?

One of my biggest problems with school is that I always procrastinate. Sometimes I don't even realize that I am doing it until someone asks "Hey did you do your english paper?" Many college students have this problem and it is something that I believe is curable. Coming into college I told myself that I was going to fix my problem with procrastinating and so far I have been pretty good with not waiting until the last minute to do everything. What I have been doing was cutting myself off from doing anything until I finish my homework. For example on the weekends I like to watch football so on sundays I don't let myself watch football until I get most of my homework done. So if you are having problems with procrastinating you have to tell yourself that you can't go anywhere or do anything until you get your homework done. I know it doesn't sound too easy but once you start to get the hang of it you will always get your homework done and you will feel accomplished.

       2.  How does one build their self-control?

Self control is the ability to discipline the actions you take during your everyday life. Having self-control over a decision you make or an action you take is not an easy thing to do. I find that being on a diet and having the self-control to not eat any junk food can be difficult. One way to solve this problem is to think of the positives and negatives of eating whatever junk food you may be craving. For example when you are in the dining hall and you see a plate of cookies and a plate of apples, which one do you go for? The positives of eating a cookie are that they are probably a lot more tastier than an apple. But the negatives are that eating a cookie is more calories and you may regret it after you eat it. So after coming up with the positives and negatives of eating the cookie you might decide to be healthy and eat the apple. Self-control is not something that comes easy to everyone but when you put your mind to it you will be able to turn down the cookie!

"The power to resist temptation — to pass up dessert, to endure an unpleasant experience, to defer satisfaction — is our 'greatest human strength,'"(Resistance Training For Your 'Willpower' Muscles)