Chapter 5, Sept. 24-30, Planning Your Career and Education

The chapter for this week is "Planning your Career and Education." It has some useful information as you think about your future career. Choose any topic below. You can choose 2 topics of 100 words each or one topic for 200 words.

Make a comment about how this semester is going for you. Are you facing any challenges or roadblocks? How can you deal with them?

Add your comment to another student's posting.  Can you relate to what they are saying and can you share similar experiences?

What is your generation? Baby Boomer? Generation X? New Millennial? How will your generation affect your future career choices?

Review the employment trends presented in the career chapter. How will these employment trends affect your future career plans?

What tips would you give to a friend before he or she interviewed for a job that was really important?

Go to www.assist.org and explore this site. This site is designed to help you understand the courses needed to transfer to a four year university. Share with the group what you found there.

Go to http://www.cuyamaca.edu/transfer_center and explore this site. This is our Cuyamaca College Transfer site. Share with the group what you found at this site.

Chapter 4, Sept. 17-23, Exploring Interests and Values

Hello Students,

For this week, choose any two topics below.

Comment on a successful decision you have made and how it matched your values.

Comment on an unsuccessful decision you made and how it did not match your values.

Comment on another student's post. Can you add to their comment or raise new questions?

Read the following 2 scenarios and comment on one of them. Based on the individual’s values, give your opinion about what would be the best decision.

Scenario 1: What should be my major?

Shawn is twenty years old and has completed two years of college. He has been trying to decide whether to major in engineering or music. He has completed all of his general education requirements as well as several courses in music, math, and physics. As a child, Shawn was interested in science and dreamed of making new inventions. He always took things apart to see how they worked. Math was always easy for Shawn, and he received awards for achievement in science. He also took part in band throughout his school years and learned to play several instruments. As a teenager, he had a garage band and became so interested in playing the piano that he spent two hours a day practicing. Shawn’s dilemma was that he was becoming stressed out trying to do both majors and
no longer had time to do well in both music and engineering. He also wanted to have time to get a part-time job in order to become more independent. Shawn’s top five values are being independent and living on his own, having a secure future, doing interesting work, achieving something important, and being able to relax. Based on his values, what major should Shawn choose?

Scenario 2: Should Maria continue her education?

Maria is a married mother of two young boys ages five and seven and a part-time college student. Maria and her husband, Juan, are very proud of their Mexican heritage and value their marriage and family. They both think that it is important for Maria to spend time with the children. Maria learned to speak English as a second language and has made sure that her children speak both English and Spanish. While the children are in school, Maria has been attending college part-time with the goal of becoming a teacher’s aide in a class for bilingual children. She has some experience as a teacher’s aide and gets a great deal of satisfaction from helping the children. Juan works in construction, and the family has sacrificed to come up with the money to pay for Maria to attend college. Maria has struggled to earn her associate’s degree and is proud of her accomplishments. She values her education and wants her children to do well in school. Now Maria is considering continuing her education to earn the bachelor’s degree so that she can become a teacher. She would enjoy having her own classroom, loves working with children, and would have a higher income as a teacher than she would as a teacher’s aide. Maria’s husband is concerned that she will spend too much time at college and will not be home for the children. He is also relieved that Maria has finished college and plans to work part-time to supplement the family income while the children are in school. Should Maria continue her education and earn a bachelor’s degree?

Week 4, Sept 10-16, Chapter 3, Learning Style

Remember to make 2 postings of at least 100 words each this week. You can comment on these scenarios using what you have read about learning styles and personality type, reply to other student's comments or write about anything related to college and career success.

1. You have just been assigned a 10 page term paper.
2. You have to study for a challenging math test.
3. You have to write up a lab report for a biology class. It incudes drawing of a frog you have just dissected.
4. You are taking a required course for your major and it is taught by only one professor. You dislike this professor.
5. You are taking a business class and have been assigned a group project to design a small business. It is worth 50% of your grade. One of the group members wants to control the group and the others seem to be rebelling.
6. You have signed up for an economics course and find it difficult to stay awake during the lecture.
7. You signed up for a philosophy course to meet a humanities requirement. The vocabulary in the course is unfamiliar.
8. As part of the final exam, you have to prepare a five minute presenation for your art history class. 

Week 3, Sept 3-9, Chapter 2

Remember to complete two postings of at least 100 words each week. Please read the chapter on personality before commenting on these scenarios. Keep in mind the theory that we are all born with certain personality types and there are no good or bad types. Each type has gifts and talents that can be used to be a successful and happy person. Relate your comments to the concepts in this chapter. Make comments on at least 2 of these scenarios. It is helpful to begin your thinking with identifying the personality types of the people involved.

Scenario 1 (Sensing, Intuitive): Julie is a pre-school teacher. She assigns her class to draw a picture of a bicycle. Students share their pictures with the class. One of the students has drawn a bicycle with wings. Another student laughs at the drawing and says, "Bicycles don't have wings!" How should the teacher handle this situation?

Scenario 2 (Thinking, Feeling): John has the almost perfect girlfriend. She is beautiful, intelligent and fun to be with. She only has one flaw. John thinks that she is too emotional and wishes she could be a little more rational. When his girlfriend tries to talk to him about emotional issues, he analyzes her problems and proposes a logical solution. His girlfriend doesn't like the solutions that John proposes. Should John find a new girlfriend?

Scenario 3 (Introvert, Extravert): Mary is the mother of 2 children ages 5 (daughter) and 8 (son). The five-year old is very social and especially enjoys birthday parties. At the last party she invited 24 girls and they all showed up at the party. Everyone had a great time. The 8 year old is very quiet and spends his time reading, doing art work, building models and hanging out with his one best friend. Mary is concerned that her son does not have very many friends. She decides to have a birthday party for her son also. The only problem is that he cannot come up with a list of children to invite to the party. What should Mary do?

Scenario 4 (Judging, Perceptive): Jerry and Jennifer have just been married and they love each other very much. Jennifer likes to keep the house neat and orderly and likes to plan out activities so that there are no surprises. Jerry likes creative disorder. He leaves his things all over the house. He often comes up with creative ideas for having fun. How can Jerry and Jennifer keep their good relationship going?

Week 2, August 27-September 2

Hello Students,

It was great meeting you on the blog last week and learning about your educational journeys. We have a great variety of students in the class and many different educational backgrounds. This diversity makes for interesting discussion and sharing of ideas. For this week, share your ideas on motivation with other students in this course.

Please read Chapter 1 in CollegeScope before commenting on any of these questions. You can also write or ask questions about anything related to college and career success or comment on others students' postings.Remember to make 2 postings of 100 words minimum for each posting to get the full 20 points for the blog this week. Postings for this week are due before 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, September 2.

1. How do you motivate yourself to be successful?
2. Are there some new ideas on motivation in Chapter 1 that you find interesting or helpful?
3. If you are thinking about dropping this class or dropping out of college, how can you motivate yourself to continue?
4. What are some roadblocks to your success and how can you overcome them?
5. Read comments posted by other students. Are any of their ideas useful to you?

You can also write anything about your experience in starting college or beginning this course.

Hello students and welcome to Counseling 120, College and Career Success!  Take a look at my video introduction above. Please introduce yourself by telling us about your interests, hobbies and what is important in your life and maybe share a photo or video of yourself as one of your postings this week. As your second posting, tell us about your educational journey, why you are taking this class and your goals and dreams for the future and include comments about other students' postings.

This class is especially useful for those of you who want to understand yourself better and choose a major and career that matches your gifts and talents. The class also meets a general education requirement for transfer to state universities. If this is your first class in college, you are off to a good start. If you are a continuing student, there are some great benefits. You will become familiar with some new learning tools that will make your future education easier.

Since the course is online, you can do the work anytime or any place during the week. For best results, be sure to set aside time for working on this class each week and not wait unitl the last minute to do the work. I look forward to working with all of you this semester.

Marsha Fralick’s Introduction

Here is an example of a 100 word introduction:

I am your professor for Counseling 120. I retired from Cuyamaca College where I worked from 1978-2007 as a counselor and instructor for this course. I play many roles in life. I am a Grandmother with 2 young granddaughters. I enjoy taking care of them frequently and watching them grow. My own children are grown up and have their own careers and homes. I have my own business and work with colleges across the country in training faculty to teach college success courses. In my leisure time I enjoy traveling and being active. I just got back from a trip to Hawaii and Alaska. It was great!

Marsha Fralick’s Educational Journey

Here is an example of a 100 word posting.

I attended a small country high school in New Mexico and was a good student. When I went to the University of New Mexico, I found that it was a whole new world and I was not prepared for it. I struggled to be successful in college and had to learn how to listen to lectures, take notes and prepare for exams. I also had uncertain career goals. When I started working at a college, I remembered those years that I struggled and decided to invent a course that would help students to be successful. It has been a fun and rewarding adventure for the last 33 years.