Integration
Throughout this first semester in New Century College, I have developed skills in many of the competencies.  During NCLC 110 as well as in NCLC 130, I've had the opportunity to grow in group interaction, critical thinking, and information technology.  In both courses that I've completed so far in New Century College, both required that we have a website.  This is the second part of my New Century College website, and as well as the NCLC 110 website, this website itself is the perfect example of how I have nailed the knowledge of information technology!  Before this first semester at college I never would have known how to construct my very own website.  I've learned how to create webpages, add graphics and music.  In NCLC 110 I had to make an annotated playlist that told some kind of story in my life.
 I had to pick out songs and write a breif "story" of a time in my life and show how it was progressing.  In NCLC 110 I obtained so many group interaction skills because of one particular field trip we took to the Hemlock Forest.  Group work was the only way that you could have made it throughout the day.  Hemlock is a place in the wilderness that has many different obstacles and courses set up that require you to work in a group and use your brain outside of the box.  I remember that my group was required to do many things that necessitated a team effort.  Everyone had to work because each of us brought forth a different strength to whatever obstacle or course we were given.  As far as critical thinking goes, we were required to read many writings from the Arlington Reader as well as the Norton Field Guide to Writing and then asked to write about whatever it was that we read.
                                                                                                                                               
This is an excerpt from my "Hemlock Paper" discussing how I gained more fluency in group interaction.
"When it came to working in a group for a grade I was very nervous at first to work with people that I did not know.  I was nervous because I thought that “I don’t know these people and I don’t know how their work ethic is.”  I was not sure if they would be just as dedicated as I was or if they would be what I feared the most, slackers!  At first the whole group project was not going how I had planned.  We always had at least one member not at the meetings or not responding to any of us.  When we were starting out it was so unorganized and I felt that it was never going to fall into place.  It was very frustrating and when the time came around for our outlines to be graded it was nothing but a huge disaster.  Our professor had told us that we were able to evaluate each other at the end of the course and we would be able to say what we thought each person in our group’s grade should be.  By working in this higher education project group it strengthened my knowledge of group interaction." 

The following isn't an excerpt from my "Hemlock Paper," but it's from another one of my writings called "Competencies" and it gives a brief description of how I gained knowledge in critical thinking in NCLC 110.
"Each assignment was made to either describe to us how to do something (Norton) or it was a story from an author and it was always different from the other (Arlington).  The Norton ranged from different genres and arguing a position to analyzing a text and evaluating different sources.  It was a big help when it came to writing many of my papers because I could always look back on how to do something if I had forgotten.  It was definitely one of my most influential guides to writing, and I referred back to it almost every paper that I wrote during NCLC 110.  All of the reading and writing in NCLC 110 helped me obtain a better sense of grammar mechanics and a wider range of vocabulary.  Also, the readings really made me think and distinguish things among facts, opinions and inferences.  A lot of the readings were difficult to comprehend but this made it all the more challenging.  It made me think harder and when I couldn’t or didn’t understand it would frustrate me.  If I didn’t understand something I would wait to hear another student, or the professor speak the next day in class about the text. "

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