Famous Last Words: Not Much Longer

This week was a nice change of pace for this class. It felt like we got a break from the constant reading and writing and it was nice to reflect what we have worked on so far in this course. The reflecting made me proud of myself as I have put in a lot of time trying to work on the extra credit so that way I can finish this course earlier than usual. I really have about 2 more weeks from the way I add things up and plan on doing the work for this class. This is kind of why the review week we had was nice because I could see how far I have came since I started writing and reading the Indian Epic stories. It is crazy how one can truly learn a skill in a short time if they just repeatedly practice. I have been doing well in school overall this semester as I have truly tried to focus up and work ahead of schedule on my classes. I am trying to finish my last semester strong and would love if I could end with a 4.0 but I know that this will be tough for my Neurobiology class is something I have never had to tackle in terms of learning style yet in my college career. I plan on only getting better though and taking all the steps needed to set myself up though. It is weird to think I might only have two more of these Famous Last Words posts for I enjoy after doing the work in this class reflecting on the events that occurred or how I plan to prepare for the next week.

Speaking of next week I have no tests for the first time in ever so it will be nice to just focus on DAT studying before we enter spring break!

I found this image on Wikimedia Commons to represent the review week.

Tech Tip: Text to Voice

I personally couldn't think of any use for the text to speech option of Google Chrome but that doesn't mean I dislike it. I just am more of a visual person than an auditory person in terms of learning so I don't think hearing it unless I'm reading along with it in my head would truly help me. I do like audiobooks but I feel that this is different because audiobooks tell a story and I wouldn't use this application for my note necessarily. I don't normally use a voice to text application but sometimes if I am driving I will use my phone's Siri to send a text out by saying it aloud. This is useful in this sense because it is quick and easy without distracting me, but in terms of school work I can't ever see this being useful for me.

Learning Challenge: Sleep techniques

10 proven ways teachers can improve their sleep

One thing I knew that this article talks about is the caffeine before bed part. I am one of those people who is very effected by caffeine and it truly makes me stay up late at night if I have any type of caffeine hours before I even go to bed, so I have to make sure that I am smart with my choice of drinks. One thing that I learned was that clutter in one's room can make them not sleep as well. I personally have never cared about the cleanliness of my room. I normally have clothes and other items all around the floor, I hate making my bed, and I wouldn't say my mattress is the most comfortable as I notice how hard it is sometimes. I haven't been sleeping very well at all lately and I notice I struggle with falling asleep so I want to try and keep the clutter out of my room and maybe even making the bed in the morning. This is a laziness and not caring issue so it shouldn't be that hard for me to fix and I will see if I see any better results with falling asleep. 

I chose this image because it is a bed that is made and I want to try and start making my bed in the mornings. I found this image on Flickr.

Growth Mindset: Beyond School

When thinking about Growth mindset beyond my academic school life I can't think of anything I have really put as much effort into other than working out. I recently have tried to lose weight as I was really into working out all through high school and played multiple sports. As I came to college I completely stopped working out and started eating a lot more as well and it eventually caught up to me. The past few months I have been on a mission to eat better and work out in order to lose weight. I believe this is the aspect of my life currently that I show the most growth mindset because I have done research and try to keep it in my mind consciously how I can lose weight each day. I know this isn't the most learning but as I've started to do this, I have become more confident and had a better outlook of things so I think it is a direct correlation. If anything it just makes me think more positively and even gives me more energy to work on other things so I think that if I were to apply the mindset of constant betterment like I do here, I would be able to do better in constantly learning for school as well. Maybe I should try to set goals each day for studying like I do for the amount of calories I want to lose in a day or how many miles I want to run. I think that this will be a continuous learning for me as I want to make myself be challenged.

I found this image on Pixabay.

Wikipedia Trail: From Ottoman Empire to Augustus Caesar

Ottoman Empire

So I started here because I had no idea where I wanted to start my trail off this week so I looked at the Twitter feed and saw that #ottoman was on one of the posts. I thought why not start off my trail with something I have absolutely zero knowledge about so here we are. Although I have heard of this empire I truly don't know anything about it so to start off with the first thing I learned was that it started in 1299 which is such a long time ago. I learned that the main sports that were played in this empire were Turkish wrestling, hunting, arm wrestling, and more. I also learned that carpet weaving is a main form of decorative art that is cherished in this empire. I also learned that slavery was a big deal but not as much agriculture slavery as America had.

Hunting

I have never been hunting other than for frogs in the creek behind my house so I thought why not try to learn about the subject since the ottoman's loved it so much. One thing that I learned was the fishing is a separate thing from hunting which I guess makes sense but I figured it would be grouped together since they both involve capturing an animal. One thing that I found quite interesting on this page was that people will use ferrets to help them hunt. I also learned on this page that a Safari was actually a hunt as I thought it just meant it was an adventure through a wild area in Africa.

Ferrets

So one time my neighbors paid me to watch their ferrets while they were gone for vacation and one of them was not very nice and bit me very hard.... ever since then we have not had the best relationship which is why I decided to make this the next part of my trail. I learned that the typical ferret lifespan is 7 to 10 years which means that the one that bit me is probably resting in peace. I learned that most ferrets sleep 14-18 hours a day which sounds amazing right now as I'm exhausted and could use that much sleep. The most interesting thing I learned about ferrets is that a group of them is called a business which I find quite comical. I also found it interesting that Caesar Augustus sent ferrets to a place in order to maintain a rabbit plague.

This is an image of a Ferret which I found on Wikimedia Commons.

Caesar Augustus

I have decided to end my trail with Augustus for I have always found great rulers to be interesting. I learned that he reigned from 27 BC to 14 AD which is 40 years. I also learned that he was born in September, like me, which is confusing because I would imagine him to be born in August. Later on it actually talks about the month of August and says that the month was called Sextilis before but Augustus changed that and made it 31 days to be as long as Julius Caesar's month (July). I also learned that he lived 75 years which is pretty long for this day and age he was living in.

Week 8 Progress

I think that I am doing very well in this class, as I am pretty far ahead points wise. This is because I have been trying to do a good amount of the extra credit each week, so it has been piling up and hopefully I get to finish this class ahead of time. I would say my weekly routine is normally pretty good however due to the snow days and a busy week of tests the past two weeks have made me adjust but both times I got all of the work I needed to do. The class assignments I enjoy most are the extra credit ones especially the Learning by HEART and Wikipedia Trails. I like these because they are something different and somewhat relaxing to learn about material that makes you think differently or is just fun facts. Other than the extra credit assignments, my favorite is story writing. I think it is fun to write my own story and be creative. Not many classes I have been in allow for such creativity and that is why this assignment is fun to do.

I really can’t think of any changes I would like to make for the second have because I feel that I am performing very well and am actually ahead of schedule. The feedback I have received has been pretty positive as well, so I just don’t see too much reason to make many changes however I fully believe that I can always improve. I might try to change the style of my reading notes into a more bullet point style as I have seen from others in the class, but I do like how much detail I put in my notes, so I would need to find a common ground.

I found this image on Flickr and it reminds me that I must keep working because I am capable of conquering my challenges as I approach the end of this semester. 

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

I would say that the comments that I have received on my stories have been pretty good. I remember last semester for this class thinking that the comments were pretty basic and useless but this time I feel they are more exact. The comments I find the most useful are the ones that say they want more information on a topic. I like the harsher ones because they challenge me to make things better or at least justify why I want to keep things a certain way or not.

I think the feedback out that I am giving could be a little better. I think I could be more specific in what I want to tell people they should consider fixing or changing. I would say I have progressed and became better at feedback over time in this class, but I think it is something that never just ends with needing improvement. The strategy I like most is starting off nice and then gradually becoming harsher in the comment as these are the comments that I enjoy reading. I would say that as I read other people’s stories, I am definitely gaining ideas for my own writing. I think this mainly correlates with style and detail within my writing as I see the different aspects of the stories that I read from others and think “how can I make my writing sound this nice?”.

In terms of blog comments, I would say they are a good way to make this class more personable. I like hearing about how others are feeling about my posts or how we are alike. The introductions have been fun to read, and I would say mine is not the best, but I think it definitely explains a good amount of who I am. I should probably add more pictures though as I love seeing pictures of others and their endeavors.

I think with feedback myself and everyone can always improve on being more precise with what we like and don’t like in a blog post. I think if I see a grammatical error I should say where exactly it is that needs fixed. I would also want people to do this for me as well as it lets me fix what is exactly needed. This is why I mainly make my revisions based off the feedback from the professor.

I found this image here and I chose it because I feel it fits in with my opinion of how criticism is appreciated and needed for precise adjustments of one's writing. I chose this image because the cat is glaring at the other one showing how harshness might be needed.

Overall, I think things are coming along nicely and there isn’t much I can really think about changing as I’m enjoying this class and the work I have done.

Week 8 Reading and Writing

I think that the reading and writing assignments have been working out pretty well for me. I think that I am doing a good job with writing a story based off of the readings, but I will say the readings aren’t the most entertaining for me. I would say that my favorite reading so far though has been Sampati and Jatayu from the Ramayana just in the fact that it resembled Icarus. I also liked it because it was written well in the reflecting perspective. I think it is cool when a story has a character telling the story from the past. In terms of my notes correlating to my writing, I think that I’m doing a great job. Every week when I write my story, I make sure to read my reading notes and take the ideas I wrote down and apply them.

I think my class project is coming along pretty well in terms of story content however I probably could do more editing to the looks of my project. I have been meaning to do so but I bet I end up just changing the format completely once I have my stories added. I want it to be more presentable but I’m wanting to do so in a way that they all go hand in hand with the graphics.

I would say my greatest accomplishments in my writing come from my learned ability to read a story and think about it in an author perspective rather than a reader’s. I now read a story and think about the patterns or styles used or how I could adapt the content of the story for my own use. I think that this has truly made my writing better and I only plan to get better as we keep going. I also think that I have become a faster reader due to this class as well as a better reader in understanding. I have been trying to do the reading out loud technique and it seems to be helping my comprehension.

I can’t think of anything more I can get out of the reading other than the extra credit reading. I started off liking the videos of the stories but recently when doing the extra credit video for reading I feel like I’m taking very little away from it. I think it is because the stories in this seem to drag on for a while so I lose interest but I am not sure how I should approach this.

This picture comes from my story No Clear Winner. I found it on Wikimedia Commons .