- After going through the four projects, there are two things in particular that make me the most anxious:
- Having enough time to choose and research a topic I can truly connect to.
- Arranging interviews with faculty members, and constructing a set of questions that will be most beneficial in gathering the information I need.
What are you most interested in or excited by in regards to the four major projects?
- Dance is one of my majors, and since I began training around 5, I am more familiar with the current events and mediums of communication in the realm of dance. On the other hand, I am less familiar with the happenings in the world of neuroscinece and I feel these projects will get me better acquainted with this field. However, I am excited about being able to delve deeper into both of my areas of interest. I'm also ready to take on the challenge of constructing an argument. I love finding logical reasons and evidence that support my stance because, like most humans, I love to be "right."
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| Anonymous, "Tiny Face Mitt." 2014 via imgur. |
- It happens to be that the elements I am most nervous about are the ones that take the most time and planning. For me, it's making sure I create enough time to find and research a topic I can resonate with. In terms of the interviews, planning them involves doing additional research on the faculty you are choosing, and then creating a series of questions that will be the most effective in terms of gathering the information you require. The final self-reflection project will also require planning in advance. As we talked about in class, it would be ideal to jot down some notes along the way so that you can reference what was difficult for you, how you tackled these difficulties, and perhaps even useful ideas or constructive criticism from classmates.
- In terms of my time management skills, I think they will be pushed a little more than usual in order to accommodate the hours required to complete successful projects for this class. I am carrying 21 credit hours this semester (I keep telling myself that I can't get too overwhelmed because others take 25 credits), so I will most likely need to map out a day-by-day map for completing each project task. This also means lots of sticky notes. Lots and lots of sticky notes.
How has your past English coursework in high school or college prepared you for the challenges of this course? What skills will you bring into the course with you?
- I feel that my assignments in my high school English classes have done a relatively good job in preparing me for this course, especially in terms of writing an essay. Contrary to many, I greatly enjoy writing essays (I know! What's wrong with me?!). However, my English class never had me present my material in the form of podcasts, or video essays, so in that sense I would say that my English classes did NOT prepare me well.
- For 109H, I believe I will be able to bring my strong attention to detail, and willingness to participate and openly discuss and debate with my classmates.
- I can't think of any additional questions...as of now.
Reflection
After reading many peoples' blog posts it is comforting to know that we all seem to be mildly worried about these projects (mostly about the genre choices not as much the kind of project). It also seems like people have a lot of different time management/study strategies, so perhaps this will be good opportunity try out some new approaches.
Oh, and I commented on Julia's and PJ's blog posts!
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ReplyDeleteHello Michaela! I loved your blog post. I think it's interesting how you can combine your love of dance with neuroscience. I agree that the interview will be challenging to arrange, but I think it might help establish links between us and people in our respective fields. I can relate to having a lot of credit hours, but I think your idea of coming up with an individual plan every day would be very useful. Good luck
ReplyDeleteI think it is so cool that you learned a lot of things through dance that will help you in the course! I never would have guessed.
ReplyDeleteI agree that arranging interviews for the Rhetorical Investigation will be nerve racking and time consuming. I have no trouble when I am the one being interviewed, but I've never been the interviewer.
I had to write a lot of essays in high school as well, and I enjoy writing them too when I am interested in the topic (so you're not alone)! I really identified with you in this blogpost in almost every regard, so I'm around if you ever want to run ideas past each other!
Hi Michaela!
ReplyDeleteI'm also most nervous about Project 2. I doubt you'll have any problems securing interviews, though. Faculty who don't like to work with students are probably assholes that you wouldn't want to interview, anyway. Asking the right questions is going to be pretty stressful, though. We only get one shot for each interview so we have to do it right the first time!
I'm also in the too-many-credits boat with 23 this semester (20 right now because of two separate accelerated courses.) Remembering that 17 credits of pure science can be harder than the load I'm carrying right now helps me keep things in perspective, though. We're all struggling and we should try to support each other instead of playing the "who has it worse" competition. Hopefully this class will be a positive environment that's open to collaboration.
Hey Leah!
DeleteI totally agree with your last paragraph! I'm pretty sure that everyone in our class will be supportive and helpful. :)
See you in class on Tuesday. :)
Note on conventions of the blog post genre: Revisit Step 1.5 from "Deadline 1" to re-familiarize yourself with the conventions of blogging. You're missing one item on the bulleted list of conventions there.
ReplyDelete