Thursday, June 17, 2010

Semester Reflection Part 1

Choose at least three (3) of the following and answer them in depth. I will quote from your answers in your report card comments, so please take time to edit & revise your writing, ensuring that it is ready for public consumption. For each answer, be sure to use specific evidence & examples.

1. What project was most valuable to you, and what have you gained from it?
2. Describe one valuable mistake you made this year.
3. What challenges do you face as a student in a project-based learning environment?

1. Ampersand. Because ampersand really showed me a lot about the real world. I wrote my article about my internship. While writing about and reflecting back to internship through ampersand it really showed me a lot in the real world about being with the athletic director in for the HTHV. This gave me experience with working with an adult that knows what he is doing and is passionate about it.

2. One valuable mistake that i made this year was asking for help. My grades for math, humanities, and engineering reflect on how i did not ask for help. For example in the 4 engineering quizzes we had i got F on all of them. Not asking for help really brought my grade down in engineering, humanities and math class.

3. Staying on task was my biggest challenge. Because when we are assigned a project we have a lot of freedom from when the project starts to when it ends. For example the Slaughter House 5 project that we just finished. We had a lot of freedom on the project which made me slack on starting and finishing the project to my fullest ability.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Writing Reflection

Please answer both of the following with substantial, thorough, thoughtful, well-revised, multi-paragraph pieces of writing that feature direct evidence, specific examples, and a high degree of honest self-reflection.

  • Explain one or more specific aspects of your writing that have improved this year. In this explanation, you must directly refer to at least two specific pieces of writing that you produced for this class. You may use any assignment, project, writing sample, draft, blog entry, etc. You should discuss the writing tips & strategies we studied, the processes & methods we used, the critiques & drafts we employed and the products we created (feel free to use these specific key terms to keep your reflection focused).
Putting my own view into the story. In the 1st and last paragraph i put a little thing about how i just traded my shift away for work so i was able to connect with the reader a little bit. Because of this i was able to connect with the reader more and show my side of the story. Like in the WW2 letters near the end i used honey a lot to represent love. It might now flow with the letter as well and not look like it was back form WW2 but i put my own like view into the letter.

  • Describe one specific goal for your future writing. Your explanation of your goal(s) must include some or all of the following: writing samples from this year, writing strategies you have used in the past, writing strategies or techniques you would like to develop, examples from authors you respect, etc.
One goal that i have for my future writing is structure. I struggle with making sure that all my paragraphs make sense when it is in one piece. for example in my final draft of ampersand my 4th paragraph has to do with history. I think it was too deep into the story and was kind of out of place. Also the structure of my information kind of bounces around. I will use concerts not pancakes to help me with this so that the story will be interesting while being laid out correctly.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Historical Reflections

1. Describe specifically how you would interact with this person—is he/she a professor at your university? a fellow student? a leader? visiting campus?
2. Include specific quotes from the actual person—you can creatively use these as you wish, though. For example, you might love to have Martin Luther King, Jr. as a professor, and you might use a quote from his famous letter from a Birmingham jail as a quote he might say in class one day.
3. Explain why you have chosen this person.
4. Cite at least three relevant primary sources for your quotes. If you are unsure what a primary source is, please check with me!

I would choose Franklin D. Roosevelt as a roommate. He was the president of the United States of America and created the New Deal that eventually got the USA out of the Great Depression. Just this alone he would be a good roommate to have because he would be able to help me out with not only school but with developing my self as a person. The Social Security program adjusted the child labor laws so children couldn't work long hours and only when they did not have school. I could see him as more of a leader but i think he would be a great roommate to have in college.

Literary Reflections

If you could bring one character from any one book that we have read this year with you when you go to college, who would bring? Why?

I would have to choose Jay Gatsby as a roommate for many reasons. He has a lot of money, gets all the girls, really smart and has lots of parties. Since Gatsby is really smart he would be able to help me out not just with all of my college classes but just life in general. Sometimes people that come to his parties don't know who he is which is kind of a downfall, but that creates more friend relationships which is always good. Since he has a lot of money he would be throwing a lot of parties bringing in all the women from out of the city and country. Daisy was a big part of his life, and without Daisy he would be the perfect roommate no more crying, complaining about his problems that he is having anymore. Having the amount of parties that Gatsby has would be great because college is always good with parties. And since he has a lot of money parties would happen a lot through the 4 years i would be with him.