Activity 1

Activity 1

1.       Ever since I can remember, school has always been the place for me to gain confidence and motivation. I have always possessed the curiosity in learning and was left always wanting to further my knowledge. For instance, I can perfectly remember coming home from pre-school and asked whoever was home to read a book to me. My reading skills developed early because of this and was the starting point to my motivation. Throughout middle school, high school, and especially my first semester of college, I have been interested in really seeing how far I can push myself and therefore determine my capabilities. The positive feedback and results I have gotten have really helped to shape my academic habits and continuously increase expectations for myself.  

2.       Approaching high school and college, I would initially ask, “what were the best ways for me to achieve success?” and also, “how can apply the strategies and knowledge I already have obtained into my future learning?” So far, I have developed pretty good study habits in college and I am sure they stem from the strong foundation created in high school. Another question I frequently ask is, “what are my strengths and weaknesses?” and from this determine how I will attack the weaknesses so that I do my best to not hinder my learning.

3.       As with anything, questions will become more in depth and specific as you learn more about something. When I first began ballet in kindergarten, my questions would sound more like, “Where do I stand? How do I place my feet?” and as I grew older, I would question specific techniques and ways to improve a certain action, such as a pirouette. I have a strong background in English and writing, but this course will reiterate what is expected in college writing and ways to improve what I already know. Before class this week, my question was, “What are the academic habits of mind?”, and after class I now would question how I am going to utilize these habits in my writing from now on.

4.       My favorite way of finding out questions to my answers would be to ask different people. I like to see what different perspectives each individual has to offer, and also how professors go about answering my questions. Through this, I have developed the habit of civility because I now understand that everyone has different backgrounds and different perspectives so it has definitely been beneficial. I would consider myself an aural and visual learner and therefore this helps me get the most out of answering the questions I have.  Other questions, however, require to just use materials provided such as reading a text book or practicing what I have learned.

5.       As I mentioned before, I have always been a curious learner so each time I figure out an answer to a question, I want to push ahead and find connections between all of the things I have learned. The inquiry class I took last semester definitely helped me to really pinpoint what questions I should be asking and what makes a good question, especially when completing college level work. Also in this class, we were required to read various articles and I found myself reading and then looking up other articles or videos pertaining to them and was my further research.