Blog 12

So from April 24th to May 17th, my project schedule is in the hands of everyone else in the class. I put my number on the board in the classroom for people to let me know when it would work best for me to get pictures of their projects. Since everyone is still in the early stages of their internships, this week I won't be doing much. But I'm taking this time to get an idea of what some people are doing, and I'm getting super excited!

Blog 11

I think teachers make students write research papers to expand our knowledge. In this class, our research papers are making an academic connection to our service projects, which is also giving us valued information to use when we are actually in the field.
When it comes to collecting information for the first draft of the paper, I usually hand write all my notes from my sources first. It’s always a huge force but its a lot easier for me to remember and absorb the information enough to spit it back out to write a paper.
Looking back to the classroom portion of this class I guess I’ve learned a little about myself, after doing all of those reflections. Although I feel like the majority of it wasn’t things learned, more just putting a name to my collaborative habits and leadership tactics, and comparing them to others.
Since I’m spending at least a quarter of a year in a nonenglish speaking country with a completely different social etiquette than that in the US communication will definitely be the largest challenge I face… hopefully… So I will definitely keep some of the different leadership and “group interacting” tactics in mind.
My favorite part of this class has definitely been the “okay go do it and get it done” approach from Dr. Bent. We definitely had freedom, but not too much, and since it’s last quarter for seniors, I think it was for the better.

Blog 10

So far I think my biggest frustration has been topic selection for my research paper. Each database has thousands of sources on every topic, so that made pinpointing specific articles and details sort of a challenge. My biggest time waster, besides getting distracted and then unmotivated in class has been the leadership reflection readings we did as weekly assignments. For me it just felt like busy work, with each new reading I honestly felt like I could have used my submission from the week before and answer the same questions. It just seemed repetitive, asking the same questions over and over again. Stress-wise I’ve shockingly been dealing pretty well, the fact that I only have four classes has to do with this since this is the only one I have a decent amount of work in ever.  The largest stressor I’ve had so far is the research paper that’s due on Thursday… research papers have never exactly been my thing, considering that I just turned a thesis paper in from last semester in today. But, I’m going to manage my time this week the best I can.. Aiming to turn it in on time. For the most part, I’ve stayed ahead of all my work, but I wish I had more notes on articles and a solid idea of exactly what I’m writing about. To prevent this I could have maybe been less distracted in class, but honestly, I’m not complaining about the amount of prep I’ve done for this paper, considering it’s more than what I’d normally have done.