Last Weekly Blog

I cannot believe this semester has come to an end already. I remember the first day in January where it was 12 degrees outside. I was worried about my classes because it was the first time being in school in a year, and I was very anxious. The semester has passed very smoothly, school wise, not outside of school at all. Outside of school I have had many hurdles thrown at me, but I am glad even when things got really tough outside of school, I was able to focus on my work and my grades did not suffer. This was an easy semester, so I am going to have to be really on my game for summer sessions and fall. Time management, as always, is going to be crucial to keeping my stress level low. Another skill I am going to have to continue is keeping ahead of my work. It has been really helpful to get my assignments done a few days before they are due. I want to make sure I keep that habit up. With exams next week I’m done with 90% of my assignments to turn in, but I need to make sure to get a head start studying for exams! I have confidence that they will go well because I feel very prepared by what we learned in class.

Weekly Blog Update

It’s the end of the semester, and things are getting pretty hectic. I have a lot of work to do for all my classes. Both my Geography based Liberal Studies class, and my Statistics class have tests next week, then the week after they have exams. I don’t like that the teachers pushed the material to the end. Sometimes I think teachers forget that we, just like they teach, take more than one class. It’s not just a math test next week; it’s also a geography test and assignments due in my other classes. I know I don’t forget that teachers teach more than one class, therefore they have a tough amount of grading to do. I think learning the material for the first time and doing the class is a little harder than grading. I am glad I learned some time management skills in my high school and in my first year of college, because I am going to need them these next two weeks!

Math Blog

This week has been an alright week at school. Nothing great or disastrous has happened, so I would describe it as “meh.” The most interesting thing I have going on is my Statistics 1220 class, Business Statistics. This is one of my favorite math classes I’ve ever taken. It goes at a very quick pace, so if you miss a day or don’t pay attention in class, then you really need to read the whole chapter sections on what you missed and make sure you have full understanding of it. What we are doing now is interesting because it is formulas and equations I know I will use farther along in business classes. I feel bad for my teacher sometimes though. I would guess about half the class is doing really poorly in the class right now and not putting in as much effort as they could. The teacher gets really upset when people don’t answer his questions in class, and I feel bad for him because he wants all the students to try as hard as they can. It would be really hard to be a teacher and have about half the class not really care about the grade or what you’re teaching. I know that I am doing all I can to get the most out of his class, and it saddens me that other students aren’t.

Reflection on my Interview

     I just finished transcribing a 15 minute long interview I had recorded with my sister for English class about her experience being 200 feet away from the bombs that went off at the Boston Marathon last year. I was worried it would take hours on end to write down everything we said. Once I found a system, it flowed and only took about an hour. I slowed down the recording to half the speed, so I could type along, word-for-word, the interview. It ended up being 8 pages long.

     That is the most recent homework I have had in English here at UNCC, but I can say that it was some of the most enjoyable homework I’ve ever done. I discussed the interview on a couple of different blog posts here before, but I didn’t go into detail about it, and I hadn’t interviewed her yet.

I had such an amazing time doing the interview with her. I actually learned so much about it and about her feelings and what happened. As I stated in another blog post, I hadn’t ever really talked to her about it because at the time of the bombings, I had some really huge changes going on in my life so once I knew she was okay and safe and that everything was going to be alright- we didn’t really discuss it again. But after the interview, I learned about what happened at that time, what it felt like being in that situation, and even a little more about who my sister is as a person. I never knew that she tried to go in to help the people close to the bomb. I was thrilled to learn how she felt about whether or not it changed her, “I mean- I think it was a really traumatic experience, but I also think that letting it affect my perception of going into group events, and not going to sporting events, and not doing this or that, would be essentially letting them win. And I definitely wouldn’t do that. I mean, I would volunteer at the same place. I’d run it. I’d do anything.” That is something that makes me so proud to call her my sister.

     I went into the interview project with low expectations and thinking it would be very boring, but I am so happy that I think it semi-changed my life. Who knew a project for class could have that big of an impact on you? I sure didn’t.

Response to in Class Peer Review

1) What did I gain from the response I received from my reader?

2) What did I change as a result of the feedback I received? Explain. 

3) How did having someone else read my writing give me a different perspective on my writing?

4) What surprised me in having someone else read this essay? 

5) Add any thoughts you had during and after the peer response.

      I gained a better understanding of how my essay came across after our peer reflection session in class. I found little details that I forgot to put in because my belief and my story are so familiar to me. It was helpful to see what the reader wanted to learn more about and anywhere I confused her. I added in those missing details for Draft 2. I also changed around a few things to direct the story more where I wanted it to go. As I stated before, having someone else read my draft was helpful because it showed me what parts of the story she really picked up on and what she was confused about. The Velcro words and some of the questions surprised me because they were things that were so normal to me, but not the reader. It was interesting that I was paired with someone who I had been paired with for my Personal Memoir. I used a story in this essay that is under the same topic that I wrote my memoir about, so I felt like she already knew some of the information. Even though my reader was really helpful and thoughtful, it might have been better to either get paired up with someone who didn’t know my belief already or written about a different belief.

English Class Update

This is the first of many weekly blogs to come. I will be keeping you updated on my different classes here at UNCC. I will discuss English this week because it is my only class that has anything interesting going on. We are working on a couple of different projects right now. The first is a memoir. I am really happy with my memoir and am excited on getting feedback from the professor. The next assignment we are working on is our interview. I chose to interview my sister who was about 100 feet away from the bombings this past April during the Boston Marathon. It should be an interesting interview seeing as I have never discussed it with her. I am looking forward to the actual interview and whatever project we will do that goes along with it. The most recent assignment we are working on is our “This I believe” essays. I am worried I won’t be able to pick a topic that is specific enough, but I think some clustering and free writing will help me to decide on a topic. And simultaneously along all these assignments we are keeping up our blog and starting our ePortfolio. There is a lot to do in this class! I am looking forward to it all though.

My favorite thing about this class is how we are allowed to write about subjects we like especially our beliefs and ourselves. The last English class I took, I wrote research papers and papers about motifs in books. The thing I hated the most about it is that I had to write about what the teacher wanted. If I took a different viewpoint on her, even if there was sufficient evidence and solid writing, she would not like the paper. This happened to myself and many other students. But in this class we are writing about things that interest us. Our memoir? About a section of our own lives. Our interview? We get to choose the person and topic. Our personal essays? We get to write about something we believe in and why. I love this approach to an English class.