You'll thank me later

Dear Mrs. B,

Let’s take a moment to reflect on why class should be canceled on Friday. Think of it this way. You are our teacher and on top of that a student just like us. You have your own work to do as well as worrying about planning the next class for your students. It can be a bit stressful at times when you have multiple responsibilities or tasks to complete.  If you were to cancel class Friday, you could focus on your own schoolwork completely and not get frustrated with your little sour patch kids for not doing an assignment or slacking off in class.

Think of all work you could get done for your own classes with no boring English 103 on Friday.  You would not have to worry about planning another class period and giving another powerpoint or presentation on outlines or bibliographies until next week. You could get ahead in your courses and not feel stressed out. You would be able to sit in a comfortable Java City with nothing but your upcoming thesis assignment and a tall cup of coffee. If you do not have a lot of work to do, then use it as a relaxation day. You can actually procrastinate. Sleep in until noon or just relax at your home with not a worry in the world. It’s Friday and the beginning of a long fun filled weekend which includes your brother’s 18^th birthday.

We care way too much about you to let you suffer on a Friday when we knew it could have been avoided. Even though your class is awesome and by far my favorite to go to, I can suck it up and miss one day as long as I know you will be happy. The idea may seem a little farfetched at first, but you will thank me later when you are at home ahead of your classes and not a worry in the world. So, cancel class Friday and live the good life.

Do it for the Children

Do not cancel class on Friday for our sake.  Do it for yours.  You work way too hard not to get a day off every once in a while.  You probably wake up around nine  everyday after a long night of grading papers and eating sour patch kids.  It would be so refreshing to be able to wake up at one or even two in the afternoon.  This is an opportunity to turn off your alarm and just avoid the hassle of getting up.  You would not have to bother preparing for another day of classes or even thinking about class.  We are offering you the opportunity to avoid all that stress.  Think about all the work you could avoid doing by sleeping in really late. 

If procrastinating is not your thing just think about all the extra work you could get done in the time when you don't have class.  It would be exciting to go sit in Starbucks with your laptop, your coffee, and your bag of sour patch kids and just work on your thesis.  Think of how much work you could get done with the caffeine/sugar rush and an hour of free time.  You would not be able to enjoy that wonderfully hyperactive rush if you had to sit in class and babysit us for an hour.

Think of this as a birthday present from us, your sour patch kids.  We care way too much about you to let you wallow in the hardships class brings you.  Even though your class is by far our favorite we would be willing to miss it on Friday for your sake.  So now that you know how much your health and happiness mean to us, surely you must accept this wonderful gift we are giving you and cancel class on Friday.  And don't worry about thanking us, your happiness is more than thanks enough (although the brownies were really appreciated).  You are welcome!

The Five Year Old Syndrome

College students do not ask for much and get very few rewards.  They study as hard as possible to please professors, parents and impress their peers with near perfect grades.  They go to the end of the earth to do this by sleep depriving themselves as well as ridding their lives of as much fun as humanly possible.  The life of the typical college student revolves around studying, sleeping and eating (in that order of importance).  As well-oiled as the college student are there is a major flaw in the brain of a college student.  The thought process of a college student is similar to that of a five year old. 

When a five year-old hears the possibility of a reward such as ice cream (assume said five year-old loves ice cream).  The five year-old becomes obsessed with the possibility of ice cream.  It disrupts there thought process and good behavior until they receive the reward of ice cream. And if the reward is never received the five year old becomes angry and difficult to deal with.  When five year-olds become difficult to deal with spankings are used (if you believe in disciplining a five year-old with spankings that is).  No one wants to spank a five year old because society will frown upon it.

Now a similar effect happens with the hard working college student when a reward is dangled in front of them and is not achieved.  It disrupts their thought process until they know for a fact the reward is achieved.  In this case lets say the thought of a canceled class is presented to a class of college freshmen.  All these hopeful freshmen in their minds already have it planned out in their heads how they will spend the extra hour they get from a canceled class.  If their plans are unable to happen then this causes the hard working and much deserving college student to go into a state of depression.  If said college student goes into a depression then the possibilities are endless of the negative things that might happen.  No one wants to cause the hard working college student unneeded stress from getting there hopes up just have them smashed and taken away.

So in conclusion college students must have a reward when the idea of said reward is spoken of.  Because as it stands all a college student has to look forward to is more work.  The possibility of a canceled class is too great in a college students mind to leave unfilled.

The dining hall theory

When entering college as a freshman, one usually gets a meal plan. They go to these dining halls usually from two to three times a day. In other words, one is eating a lot of food from these places. The dining halls are a buffet style dining where one can go up to a line and grab or ask a person what they want from that section. The problem with these dining halls is that they serve the same type of food everyday. When students go there, they are most likely eating pizza, pasta, salad, sub-par stir-fry, or sometimes a chicken sandwich. During the first few weeks of college, this is an exciting thing. One can get food whenever they want and have a selection to chose as they please. But as school progresses, students start to crave other foods. They get tired of the same stuff everyday. Also, the food at the dining halls is not the best. Even though some things might taste good, there are usually unwanted consequences of eating these items. After a while, kids will not want to eat at these dining halls. This will cause them to do either two things. They will either stop eating at these dining halls and be really hungry, or they will go out to eat at restaurants. If they choose to go hungry, they will not be able to focus on school very well. This will result in a lowering of grades. If they choose to go to restaurants, they will start to spend all their money and will not have any for various essentials such as books and other school-related items. 

If we were allowed to go home a day early, it would mean something that every college kid wishes they had every day. They could get one, possibly two more home-cooked meals. This would result in an increase in morality, which would cause students to feel better and be able to focus on school more. Their grades would start to increase and would have more confidence with a higher GPA. If students have a higher GPA, their opportunity for success in life will be much greater. Therefore, by letting us miss class on Friday, we potentially have the opportunity to get a better job and live a happy life. 

The Best Way to Learn

The only way to truly learn the material covered in class and retain that information is through active cognitive processing. Active cognitive processing is when the student is engaged in the learning process by listening carefully, watching demonstrations, actively asking questions, making connections with previous knowledge, and by repeating the material in order to comprehend the information. There are many ways to increase active cognitive processing to insure certain ideas have been learned.

One of the ways to increase active cognitive processing is by getting good night’s sleep. Having a complete sleep cycle is one of the most important parts of the day. There are many advantages to maintaining a full sleep cycle like, stress levels are reduced, muscle tension is reduced, hand-eye coordination improves, and depth perception become more clear. The brain's cognitive processing is also enhanced and rejuvenated because the brain reprocesses everything the body did and learned and stores the information in the temporal lobe. By getting a good night’s sleep the brain is more capable of active cognitive processing and will not "zone out" and not attain or not process information.

Another way to increase active cognitive processing is through reinforcement. When new material is learned the brain creates a pathway for the information to be accessed through again. A brain never "forgets" anything, but merely cannot follow the pathway or cross the synapses to retrieve the information. By repeating the information, the brain uses the pathway more and becomes more efficient at attaining the information. Essentially, this process depends on the individuals study habits including the use of flashcards, rereading the material, games, and quizzes. By utilizing different ways to retrieve the information and repeating the information the brain can actively process the information.

Although there are many more influential methods to increase active cognitive processing, one of the main ways is through discontinuity. This process allows the brain to process and assess the information already attained, more commonly referred to as a study break. The brain is consistently learning new information every day, and does not have enough time in the day to completely organize the information. (Sleep does help reorganize some of the information, but sleep is mainly for maintenance of the cognitive processes.) This study break allows to organize information making it easier to attain and making more room for more information. The break also depends on length, if the break is too long the information is not being reinforced enough and some might be lost, but if the break is short the information can still be unorganized and less new information will be stored. By issuing a break between studying the brain can organize and process already learned information and make room for more information making the learning cycle continuous.

The active cognitive processing cycle is continuous and very fragile. Many factors can disrupt learning including sleep deprivation, not studying, stress levels, psychological dysfunctions (disruption in relationships), and overloading information without a chance to organize. All of these things can cause an individual to be incapable of learning and retaining information. As Issac Asimov explained it, "the day you stop living, is the day you start decaying." Therefore, in order to continue successfully learning through active cognitive processing class should not be held so that the learning cycle will not be disrupted.

 

 

Self Centered Ramblings of a Sleep Deprived Coed- A Love Story

Notice: This post will make me seem like a sorry excuse for a: student/rule follower (note the 500+ word count)/human being/Ellen Degeneres wannabe.

            As you know, I have chosen to write my research paper on the negative effects of sleep deprivation. The process has been equal parts interesting and eye opening (not to mention ironic as I sit here at 2:20 am with no signs of stopping). Growing up, my mother was a firm believer in bedtimes, providing my friends with some excellent ammunition to tease me with I might add but I digress. Because of this, the ability to go to sleep when I’m actually tired has completely thrown off my circadian rhythm considerably. As we have discussed (and discussed and discussed…) I am an extremely anxious person, and although adjusting to college was not immediately a difficult task, it didn’t take long for my waking hours to be fraught with worry, but let me explain.

            As a communication major I pride myself, in fact I am completely dependent upon, my ability to talk to people. It is arguably my sole existing skill. I’ve had the pleasure of encountering countless first impressions in my new environment, but with rush week and meeting the countless people in my classes, residence hall, sorority and on campus one would think that I’d be all talked out by now. I’m inclined to agree- at least halfway. Yes, I am fully aware that I chose (and paid…) for this to be my life here, and while it does curtail the number of complaints I voice, it doesn’t make me any less exhausted. What’s worse, living in this newfound state of semi-consciousness has left me feeling like part of me is missing.

Typically, I pride myself on three things: 1. Self-confidence 2. Being a varied and interesting* conversationalist and 3. Possessing a sharp* wit. In recent days, I feel as though I have lost touch with all of these capabilities. Am I wrong to suggest that it is near impossible to feel confident when you are the embodiment of the phrase “you look so comfortable!”? Everyone knows that ‘comfortable’ is just a polite woman’s synonym for ‘crappy’. And how can my conversations be interesting if the only thing on my mind is why my pillow isn’t? But if we’re being honest, I miss my wit the most.

So scratch what I said about my only skill, I am privileged to include cleverness on the shortlist of two.

In high school it was the only reason teachers liked me, the only reason most other students knew I existed. For someone cursed with unruly, uncooperative, curly hair and a broken nose, it has been the closest thing to beauty I have ever known. It should come as no surprise that I desperately want it back. If convincing you to cancel class is what it takes to be reunited with the comfort of my long-lost friend then so be it. My life’s one, lonely, tremendously vague, ambition is to someday have a career in comedy, so it is imperative that I maintain the wit that I have become so attached to.

I would like to leave you with one poignant, over dramatic and unnecessarily accusatory question: Could you, in good conscience, prevent the dreams of one bright-eyed hopeful from becoming a reality? COULD YOU?

*term used loosely

Help the Dog Catch the Car!

Many of the traits that college students possess are very similar to traits dogs possess. Both enjoy sleeping and eating a lot and both tend to focus on one thing at a time. While a dog can be occupied with a toy for hours a college student can sit in a library and study for hours on end. In addition both dogs and students can work for hours and end up exhausted passing out on a couch for the entire day. Another interesting similarity is that dogs chase cars without ever being able to catch them while students chase the dream of getting out of class a day early without any success. In the progress of science though it would be beneficial to cancel class on Friday see these dreams become a reality as the effects may be beneficial to explain what would happen if a dog caught a car.

By cancelling class, the effects of a lifelong dream would be seen. No longer would there be any doubt as to what would happen if college students got out a day early. The change in the emotional, physical, and mental status of a student would be seen. Based on how students react when they get out for regular break, getting out a day early should indicate an increase in mental, physical and emotional health. By having an extra day to rest and regain their thoughts, college students would be more prepared for the oncoming challenges facing them. This only an assumption as it cannot truly be determined unless students get class cancelled on Friday.

An additional benefit to canceling class is that it would provide insight as to what would happen if a dog caught a car. Since college students and dogs are so similar the student’s response to fulfilling a lifelong dream may be similar to the dog’s response to fulfilling a lifelong dream. This would offer new insight into what would happen if a dog actually caught a car. While there are many predictions on the matter, the student’s response would give evidence into what the dog would do.

Cancelling class on Friday would benefit students and help explain a dogs reaction to fulfilling a dream. This information can be used to answer an age long question in addition to helping out college students by giving them a chance to rest.