Transmitting Live

While working alone most of the time on our own individual learning plans, I really like that we attempted to break out of our bubbles with commenting on each other's learning plans. Getting feedback from my partner about every other day would have been really helpful except that communication on both ends was a bit lacking. I only commented on my partner's learning plan a few times but when I didn't get any feedback, I became a little disheartened and stopped commenting all together. I felt that if I hasd gotten feedback, I would have been able to been more motivated to finish my work and I would have also caught the little errors that I usually skip over. A second head looking can catch many errors that the first one can miss the first time.

Feedback on my work is really important to me, whether its from the teacher or from another student. If I can get a second opinion on my work, I feel that I can do a better, more complete job. If we do this activity with partners again, I will try to work harder to keep the communication between my partner and I going and I will bug them until it starts up again. Both partners need to contribute in order for the partnership to work successfully. I feel that I learn more when I get feedback from other people so if there is someway that I could get more feedback than what I've gotten so far, then I am all for it.

A State of Mind

I feel like I've learned a lot since starting. I know how to pick texts. I know how to complete standards. I know how this thing goes. But there is one thing that is missing. One missing ingredient that can make the whole recipe blow up in my face if it's missing. And that's concentration.

I know that I've already blogged about this, but with summer coming up, I've got a bad case of senioritis. I can't seem to focus. I need to get my work done in a timely matter and stop making up excuses. The calender planning method seemed to work well last time so I am going to try it again. I keep piling on excuses and that has go to stop too.

But I should get around to the main point of this post before signing off. Agatha Christie writes a beautiful mystery. People go to such lengths to hide information about themselves that they think others will find incriminating. I love the slather of crime shows on prime-time as much as the next guy, but it can get so easy to guess the the character who acts more suspicious than the others. But in Christie's novels, I have no idea who did it. It amazes me how well she was able to capture her characters and how more life-like they were than any TV counterpart could be. I've come to realize how much more powerful books can be than movies. Sure it's easier to sit in front of the screen and watch your favorite characters and the plot unfold. But reading it in book form puts you in front of the action. It's something I've probably always known, but just came to fully realize it now.

Don't touch that bookmark
E

Something UNexpected

As I worked my way through the end of the 19th century unit, I made a discovery that I had never planned on making. I thought that I had already planned out the theme that I wanted to focus on for this unit, but as I finished up all of my texts, I found a new connecting thread between all of them. I discovered how women characters played an important role in all of my texts. I had already known that the Victorian Era was quite restrictive in terms of behavior, but the women in my texts were action stars and in charge of their own destiny.  I had originally tried to focus on how stories were told and how that made them effective mediums for telling stories, but this important role of women was too important to forget about.

From this discovery, I have learned to not always expect what I initially think to be true. I think I will be better off trying to find a unifying theme for my unit after I have read a few of the texts that I chose so as not to jump the gun and make incomplete discoveries about the time period before I have finished my work. Next time I need to be a little more careful and be willing to change my ideas. But even if I don't, I might have a Eureka! moment like I did in this unit and find something I hadn't been looking for but found anyway.

Onward explorers!
E

Due Date

Oh no!
Oh dear!
I'm in such a big, big hurry!
I've got no time to dilly-dally!
I've gotten so past due!

So I've gone a little overboard from reading some Lewis Carroll. So what? I'm a big kid. I can control myself. Usually.

This time I want to talk about something that I'm pretty sure everyone has struggled with in their lives at least once. Or maybe a bazillion times like me. Putting things off for to long and waiting to do them right before they are due. Sure it's happened to the best of us, but to succeed and actually get things completed on time, I learned that some prep work has to be done.

I had fallen behind in completing my lesson plan and the deadline was slowly looming. I became panicked and frustrated, thinking that there was no way that I would be able to finish it on time. But then I realized I could get all of my work done, I just had to take it in more manageable chunks. Instead of seeing the work I still had to do as one large project, I broke it down into groups of about two sections. I could see myself completing one of these smaller groups. So with my work divided up, I took out my calender. I planned to finish a mini-unit everyday. Once I had it all written down, I felt more compelled to stick to my plan rather than if I had kept it all in my head. It's pretty hard to lie about something written in pen.

I am super happy with my results! I feel that I have been more motivated to complete my work. But besides getting things done more quickly, I feel more interested in the work that I am doing as I am not stressed out by the amount of time I have left. I still need to work on my procrastinating skills, but I feel that planning out when I need to complete certain activities by really helped me get more work done. I am going to try to use this calendar method of planning for the next unit so I don't fall behind again!

Over and Out!
Emilie

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