Success; the accomplishment of an aim or purpose(Oxford Dictionary). This is the general overview of what Success is to people internationally as said by the Oxford Dictionary. In my personal opinion, the definition of success should be more along the lines of “completing the list of steps needed to reach a goal, task or dream” because, while i do agree on success is an accomplishment, the steps that lead up to it are what ends up bringing you to success.
For example, in the On Course© book, they give you a list of eight total “Student success principles” that represent qualities of good learners. These principles are the following: Self-Responsibility, Self-Motivation, Self-Management, Interdependence, Self-Awareness, Life-Long Learning, Emotional Intelligence, and Self-Esteem.
Success may seem hard to achieve but with these steps, you can always be ready to have success in mind as an end goal. Three of these topics that I think would help me and possibly anyone else that needs it is Self-Motivation, Life-Long Learning, and Emotional Intelligence and here is the reason why.
People who are successful Self-Motivation according to the On Course© book will be able to create inner motivation, design a compelling life plan and commit to their goals and dreams. Let’s start with creating inner motivation, this is easy, you just have to find something that motivates you so you can get what you need to do, done.
For Example; when I need the motivation to continue on with what i’m doing I usually put on music or remind myself of the benefit I will receive by completing what I need to finish thus giving me inner motivation to continue on with what I’m doing. Anything can be the source of motivation you just need to learn to harness it for yourself so that way things don’t go south.
Lack of Inner motivation can lead to not doing school work and skipping classes which we want to avoid. Designing a compelling life plan: this can be a little bit harder if you don’t know where your life is headed towards or if you are struggling to be interested in anything in particular.
This life plan should be comprised of both short term and long term goals they should have a date for when you want them done by, they should be achievable, personal, positive and specific for whatever you have in mind as a short or long term goal. A good goal for this would be the goal I put up on the wall at the beginning of the year which is “I want to get an 85 or higher by the end of the semester in this class”.
It is dateable, achievable, personal, positive and specific meaning it maintains the criteria to be a goal. Don’t forget to have an overall dream of where these short term and long term goals would eventually conspire into, even if you might not know what that dream is, don’t be afraid to change it more than once until you are happy with the result but, stay committed until you do decide to change your dream and goals.
Life-Long learning is a skill that you can use in an everyday setting, from seeking new learning experiences, learning your preferred way of learning and finally using critical thinking these things all put together what it means to use Life-Long learning. Things that may divert you from being able to use Life-Long learning are avoiding new learning experiences, like for example if someone has an opportunity to study abroad they wouldn’t take it because they don’t think they have the ability to do so because they think their intelligence is fixed, while successful students will do the complete opposite, they will use all of their resources to be able to get the best experience possible and believe they need to keep doing new things to gain more knowledge.
The next part of this is how you learn, in which there are four categories that show who you are as a learner; these categories are the following: Thinker, Doer, Feeler, and Innovating. Thinking learners are more the person who wants a logical response to things and ask questions what usually with “what?”.
Doers are usually the people who enjoy taking action in projects, benefit from just diving right in and doing the work and usually ask questions that involve “how?”. Feeler’s are usually enjoy personal connections with a professor and a supportive environment to surround them, they usually ask questions involving “why” or “who”. Lastly, innovating learning styles enjoy imagining new areas in their imagination and making unexpected connections and ask questions of “what if?”.
The last step of Life-Long learning is employing logical thinking which to summarize is basically like being able to make logical reasoning for yourself without going off the ideal of others. Like for example if you ask some who had issues with a teacher if they like the class, they will obviously say no. It’s our job as people to figure it out for ourselves or using other peoples past judgments as only a slim percentage of our overall ideals. This step is the last thing in life-long learning which in my opinion is probably one of the most important things I learned.
The last step for success is emotional intelligence which comes in many various forms. Emotional intelligence is a lot different from what you learn from taking a class in high school. Emotional intelligence is basically how your emotions control you and make you effective on your day to day life.
This includes being empathetic, how you react to certain situations and it even can deal with relationships. If you have poor emotional intelligence it can be the result of how you were raised to be. Another part of emotional intelligence is reducing stress in your life, which means how you deal with stress, for example, if you punch a wall you are not dealing with stress an appropriate way. You should deal with stress in a manner that doesn’t hurt yourself or anyone around you. If stress is bad enough it can even lead to heart problems and possibly death, Dealing with stress in a more mindful manner can lead to healthier relationships, better emotional intelligence and even be good for your mental health.
The last part of emotional interdependence is creating a flow which basically means your skill level needs to be equal or slightly below your challenge level to be able to not create boredom or anxiety. Having a flow can make us feel better because of its right at our challenge level.
For example, if you give a Harvard scholar a third graders multiplication times table they are going to be bored; while if you flip the scenario it causes the third grader’s anxiety doing a Harvard scholars math homework. This is the last thing of emotional intelligence, I think this is important for the reason that everyone struggles with this in this era that learning how to control it might be the way to solving it.
Overall, in my opinion on these three strategies for success is that these could help me and anyone else to succeed in college and in life for the fact that these hit the important categories of emotional intelligence, how to stay motivated, and how to use Life-Long Learning in a long term and short term aspect.
The On Course© book does a really good of showing you how to be successful in life while putting it into perspective of how you can better yourself but, if you had to only pick three categories to help you get through college and life, these would be the three to pick and hopefully other people would think so as well for the reason that these three alone could change your life.
My Personal & Professional Philosophy
Choosing Nursing as a occupation for me will not only a job, but the greatest calling that I have, it drives me to be a better person every day. My desire to help someone in need is something that defines who I am, it is a need that I feel drawn to and I believe it to be an honorable career, it will not be just a paycheck. For everyday I as nurse may hold someone else’s life in my hands, it is not only a profession that I attend to the patients basic needs, but a moral mission within myself to proudly deliver a nonjudgmental care to every person regardless of their race, lifestyle choice, disability, financial standing, and spiritual beliefs.
A philosophy that will define me as a nurse; I will hold the responsibility to provide a safe, holistic, patient centered care, be being empathetic to all their needs. Remembering that the patient I care for is a I precious being that is trusting me in their time of need, they are not just a number nor a medical condition, but an unique individual that deserves the proper individualized considerate attention and care.
Being a nurse is about having discipline of knowledge, by acquiring both through formal education and through life experiences; with this I will utilize my education to use a clinical judgment, and use the Code of Ethics for nursing (American Nurses Association,2015), in my care to attain the goals and needs of my patient.
I understand that I will be an advocate for my patient(s), and encourage them not only to be active in their own cares, but empower them by setting mutual and realistic goals for the patient and the health team. While doing so I must remember to include the family, and educate both patient(s) and their loved ones on their treatment, disease(s), and a healthy lifestyle to best improve their well-being, all while maintaining their personal information confidential.
I know that nursing is hard work is, but I am proactive, a self-starter, a team player, accountable worker, leadership focused, goal driven, committed to personal growth and development, empathetic, considerate and respectful of peoples heritage, beliefs, and faith, a GREAT communicator, resident/client and service orientated, performance driven and many more. I am always looking how to best improve myself, finding new techniques and skills that will only enhance the care I provide others. Taking the proper training and keeping up to date of my education.
Being a Russian Greek Orthodox, and having this cultural background I understand it may affect how I can give my patient(s) care. I will do my best to remain respectful and understanding to my all patient(s). By doing so; I would start by building a rapport with my patient(s) how to best suit their needs, preferences, personal belief, restrictions, and learning as much as I could about them, so that I may best individualize their care.
Concordia University-Portland
One of the main roles as an Educational Field Agent is to provide intervention and build strong, meaningful relationships with the students. Listening to the children speak of their own lives and their struggles are something that one could expect to do daily. There are times that educators may focus on the struggles instead of embracing the positive. Students are not their trauma, that is only part of their story.
Their trauma is part of the reason they have become resilient and full of passion to be better. Through the strong foundation of positive relationships, students will begin to feel heard and understood. Listening to our students’ stories makes clear not only the many ways they have been victimized and abused, but also the many ways they have struggled and are resilient, full of intelligence, determination, and creativity. And so, we must be compassionate listeners, good at attending to, and learning from and with our students. (Goodman, 2018, pg. 130).
Although the school climate is not as intense as those in Goodman’s text, there is a unique dynamic at schools that greatly differs from the rest of the community. The trauma that the children face daily is greater than those from around the community. Most struggle with poverty, hunger, and homelessness.
Most of the families reside in neighborhoods, apartments, and mobile home parks. Unfortunately, the children all live so close together, that it is hard to hide your trauma and toxic stress from the rest of the community. For example, if there was a domestic violence incident at one child’s home, this information will spread around the community and everyone will soon know what happened.
The child is not only dealing with the trauma firsthand but also dealing with the judgment that comes from what happened. Although it is highly likely that the child cannot control the environment around them, they are still victim to the aftermath of the incident.
When considering an action to take to ensure that the school climate is trauma-sensitive and healing, one must consider the ultimate stakeholder, which is the students. The strategic plan that is being developed to implement will focus on the children and there are two parts to it. The first part will focus on the entire school. The second part will be promoted with inclusive groups in order to “build healing and solidarity as students see they are not alone,” (Goodman, 2018, pg. 130).
The first part of the strategic plan involves implementing a monthly statewide assembly. This assembly will take place in two different sections. The first one being catered to students in kindergarten through fifth grade, and the other will cater to students in sixth through twelfth grade. During these assemblies, leadership will focus their efforts on character education, community outreach, and resiliency. Each school will be responsible for teaching to the group a character trait through some sort of performance. It could be a play, a song, a poem, a game show, etc.
The community outreach portion will be led by the leadership team to inform and promote events that they are volunteering at that would be easy for the rest of the student body to attend. The third portion of the assembly will be focused around resiliency and how one can overcome their struggles and use that as motivation to succeed. School leadership will bring in individuals from the community to speak on behalf of their own stories and struggles. Students need to connect their lives to their learning across the school day. Seeing and hearing from other students who may look like them and have experiences like theirs inspire our students to reflect on their lives and tell their own stories. (Goodman, 2018, pg. 130).
Once the community member was able to speak, students will be preselected to ask questions to the interviewee. Teachers and students will work together to come up with questions that will foster a deeper understanding of trauma and toxic stress and how it can impact one’s life. After the assembly is over, students will return to their classrooms for reflection. Teachers can promote this through verbal discussions or journaling. Not everyone will want to share their feelings aloud, however, there may be some who are having strong feelings about the interview and would like to record their thinking on paper.
The second part of this action plan is the implementation of two inclusive support groups. One is for boys that are called HIKE and the other group is catered for girls that are called Girls on the Run. Both groups focus on building character through meaningful lessons, community involvement, and physical activity. This is done by creating a safe environment for students to share their life experiences and to give their own thoughts and opinions on life topics. This gives the children a chance to be listened to and understood amongst their peers (YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit, 2019).
Over the course of ten weeks, students will engage in activities that promote self-reflection, determination, and character education. At the end of those ten weeks, students will participate in running a 2k. This embodies the concept of never giving up, and when things get too hard, one must push through and persevere.
With the guidance of coaches and encouragement of one’s peers, students will begin to feel successful and they will get a taste of what it feels like to overcome challenges. They will also gain a sense of worth and purpose through the volunteer opportunities within the community. No matter how big or small, they will get a first-hand look at success and that they can make a difference (Goodman, 2018).
One must understand that by implementing this strategic plan to better the lives of students, it does not take away the pain and trauma that may continue to manifest in the child’s life. The focus must be on what one can control. This mindset goes for the child as well. Children will participate in these activities while gaining the understanding that there are things that may happen to them that is out of their control, but it is important to understand how to overcome those struggles and become stronger from it.