Week 6

Assignment 1: You’ve Got This: Planning for Success

When you leave your first term course, you will enter into your program of study. You want to make sure all necessary variables that impact your future success (including both strengths and weaknesses) are identified and solutions proposed. Planning cannot prevent a tragedy, but it can prevent a single event from snowballing into a disaster. What steps have you taken to make sure that you will have access to the Internet regardless of weather conditions?? Have you reviewed your program of study? Do you know what the add/drop timeline looks like? Have you spoken to your advisor?/p>

Graphic Credit: Microsoft Corporation. (Producer). MC900441310 [Illustration of a green check mark]. Retrieved February 6, 2014 from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/results.aspx?qu=check+mark&ex=1#ai:MC900441310

Make sure that you pay attention to the details when you are first starting out. Students are often proud of multitasking, but when you first start a program online, you need to provide your full attention to the task at hand. Encountering curriculum that is both professionally and personally useful is transformational. Walden University wants to help you discover that school can be an oasis of serenity once you fully engage with the learning process. Knowledge, once applied, is fully yours. Each component of the courses you are taking will be applicable to your professional and personal life in some manner.

It is hard to learn when you are sad, hungry, angry, or exhausted, so it is important to take care of your basic needs as part of your plan for success. Making a space to learn, and creating a ritual around learning can buffer it from the other parts of your life. It is like finding a sunny place for a plant to thrive. You need to be in the zone to learn, and you might have to take some time to think deliberately about what that space would look like.

Being a Walden student can mean learning on the go. Your success plan will follow you throughout your time at Walden. The course materials that you’ve created this term will serve as a reminder for you of the brave steps you are taking to complete your undergraduate degree. You’ve got this, and we’ve got your back the whole way!

In this Assignment you will develop a Personal Success Plan that includes both short-term and long-term goals.

To prepare for this Assignment:

·         Review your Weekly Journal entries, your initial Discussion posts, Assignments submissions, and Self-Assessments.

·         Consider how you have grown or changed your perspective throughout this course.

·         Were you surprised by any of the scores you received? What resources will you use this term to enhance your skills in the areas that you’ve covered?

·         Review the Personal Success Plan Checklist and Worksheet (Word document).

·         Watch the Scholar of Change videos.

Assignment 2: Reflection: Looking Forward: Your Promise to Yourself and to Walden

You are a human in a virtual environment. You are going to learn next to many other students who will bring multiple perspectives to the learning environment. Your Walden community will provide support to you, just as you will provide support and different perspectives to the other students in your classes. Positive social change is a pillar of Walden’s philosophy. An important part of any first term course is reflecting on what the start of your educational journey means while defining your goals and how you plan to achieve them.  Considering the reasons you enrolled in this university, your place in it and in your world, and how you’ll function as a human who will learn in a technological world, are important to your success.

This week is an opportunity to further reflect on the last six weeks by adding onto, revising and proofreading the rough draft you began in Week 4.  Writing is a process, not a one-time event.  Strong writers know that the proofreading and editing involved in revising their work is crucial to producing their best final draft.  You’ll be practicing these skills as you finalize your own draft of the Reflection Assignment.

To prepare for the Assignment:

·         Review the instructions in the Week 4 Assignment 2 area.  Pay particular attention to the four Parts and ensure you have addressed each of these sections: Today I am, I Promise To…, How I Will Become Part of the Walden Community, and Visual Representation.

·         Access the Rough Draft Reflection you submitted in Week 4.

·         Review the comments and feedback your instructor made for your Week 4 Rough draft.

·         Review the Week 6 Reflection Assignment Rubric.

·         Use the Week 6 Reflection: Revision Guidelines document found in this week’s Learning Resources to guide you through the revision process.

Assignment Instructions:

By Day 7

Submit a 3- to 5-page paper that that represents a finalized version of your Reflection Paper Assignment.

Make sure all four sections are included, you have a clear structure with an introduction and conclusion, and that you’ve met all AWE guidelines, as well as any expectations described in the Week 6 Reflection Assignment Rubric.  Include your rough draft either as a separate file or at the end of your final draft to demonstrate the revisions you’ve made.