Week 15 Review

For this weeks review I watched the video on the announcement page.  This video is a song "Fly to Paradise."  I picked this because first off it talks about paradise and there is nothing I wouldn't do to fly to my own personal paradise right now (aka the beach of course!).  Second off I love music. I was in the band for over 10 years and found a love for instruments and the different ways they can be produced.  Music is awesome because you can always find different songs for the mood you are in.  I had never heard this song before, but I really enjoyed it.  The vocals were awesome, and I love the way it was produced with the making of the pretty voice but also adding in a nice background beat to bring it all together.

Fly to Paradise by Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

(Source: Youtube) 

Famous Last Words Week 15

This is the last week for this class so I though I would reflect on my work from the semester.  I definitely could have done better in the class, but I was too distracted by my other classes.  I am taking 18 hours this semester so it was hard to balance everything plus work.  I also was very busy with my major and research and that took a lot of my time.  None of this acts as excuses but as I talk it out I realize how much I had on my plate.  I still am pulling A's in both of my online classes so I see it as a success.  I also I am very proud to look back at all the work I put into this class.  I wish that I would have spent more time and gotten more creative with my blog.  I also would have liked to add more stories to my portfolio.

    

(Photo Source) 

Tech Tip- Google Timer

For my last tech tip I thought I would check out the Google timer.  I never realized that google actually had a timer until I saw checked out this tech tip.  This Google Timer would be useful in many ways. I could have used it for my learning challenge with the Comodoro Resource Learning Challenge, or to time project presentations for class.

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Learning Challenges - Comodoro Technique

This week for my learning challenge I watched the video about the pomodoro technique.  This was a pretty interesting technique to watch since I'm the biggest procrastinator that I know.  I hate that I procrastinate things because it sometimes never makes me feel accomplished, or I have to rush through something and then I don't get a good grade.  I tend to beat myself up after I wait so long to get an assignment done.   I tried this out with one of my assignments and it really sorta worked.  I only tool a 3-5 minute break but that really was all the time  I needed. I feel like if I took a longer break I would have gotten distracted.  After my break I was ready to get back to my work and finish it.  I think that this method works well with me because the worst part of an assignment is getting it started.  But if I know that I am going to get a break within 25 min that might motivate met o go ahead and just start.

(Tomato Timer) 

Growth Mindset-You are Capable

For this last Growth Mindset assignment I decided to talk about how capable you are.  With finals and big life decisions college can be very stressful.  This stress sometimes causes us to think that we can't do it, or that thing get to hard.  Well I'm here to tell you that you can do it!  The more you tell yourself you can do it, you will succeed.  I truly believe that we can do anything we set our minds to.

(Photo Source) 

SO next time you find yourself stress and felling down your confidence remember everyone goes through hard times and you just gotta find a way to fight through it. 

Reading Evaluation

What readings did you like best?
-My favorite readings came from all the different nursery rhymes.  I think my favorite nursery rhymes came from the Grimm Brothers.  I have always been obsessed with fairy tale type stories.    

What reading diary strategies were most effective for you? 
-The best reading strategies for me is reading out loud. I have dyslexia and reading out loud helps me see where I have misspelled words.  Reading out loud also helps see where I have put extra words.  

What did you think of the overall balance between reading - writing - commenting in the class assignments?
-Once I got the schedule down of reading, and moving on to story tell, and then leaving feedback it was easy to balance.  Also with going to comment on others stories helped me in my story writing.  I believe that they all go hand in hand together.  

As you look back from the end of the semester, what advice about the reading do you have for students who will be getting started next semester? 
-The best advise I would give is to go into readings with an open mind.  I never expected to read some of these stories and truly start to like them.  If you aren't familiar with reading these type of stories it can be overwhelming at first. 

Reflections Post

When I first signed up for this class I read through different reviews over the course.  I read a lot of comments like "such a fun class" and "super interesting."  It was those comments that convinced me to take these courses.  Over Christmas break I was talking to one of my good friends and he told me that he had taken this class and that he really enjoyed it, so I was excited to get the course started.  I can't believe that the time has come and the course is already over.  This semester I realized that there are many more legends and stories to read out in the world than I thought.  My favorite stories were probably all the different nursery rhymes that I read over the semester.  They were my favorite because they usually always found a way to incorporate an important life lesson to learn.  I found that I was a lot more creative than I thought I could be.  Storytelling was interesting once I realized that I could literally talk about anything.  Not only was it interesting but it was fun! The creation ass all in my control.  I think the most valuable take away would be the respect I have for other people’s cultures and stories.  I find it very cool that these types of stories are made by people who have a passion for storytelling.  One of the other things my friend told me about this course is that the instructor is great.  I couldn’t agree more, Dr. Gibbs was always so kind and very quick to respond to a question about an assignment.