32Q
Celebration #1:
My first celebration is regarding self reflection, particularly when it comes to my study habits. I have some attention problems, and so I've never been able to study by reading over notes or pages in a book, the information just doesn't stay in my head that way. This year in humanities, we were studying African geography, and to study for it we would go online and take this little practice quiz. They'd ask where a certain country was and we had to click on it on the map. We also used a similar method to study in Spanish class, for learning past tense preterit and imperfect endings. For this we had an online site and it was just a little quiz, that we would do for about five minutes a day. I think I may be able to replicate this study method using flashcards, as I believe that what makes it effective is the instant gratification of knowing whether it was right or wrong.
Evidence: African geography quiz
Celebration #2:
My second celebration is with Spanish language skills. I have a rather unique background with Spanish as my family is Argentinian so I'm a bit more advanced than most of the other people in my grade. Last year, there was only one Spanish course available to freshmen, and that was Spanish one. I was able to talk to Jenny and arange to be put in an independant study program, which didn't end up going very well. I wasn't as effective as I should have been at keeping myself on task, and as a result I finished the semester with a very low C-, and I only managed to pass by begging Jenny for excessive extentions and extra credit. This year however, I am in a Spanish three class that is relatively small. There are only five other kides in my class, which is a very good size for me because there is enough focus on me that I don't fall behind, and also I don't get overwhelmed by noise. This semested, I am finishing with a B+, which would have been an A if I was better at turning in work on time.
Celebration #3:
My last celebration is with my seminar skills. We had a socratic seminar a few weeks ago in humanities, which was about the book we had been reading in class. Last semester, I got a C on our last seminar which I was definitely not happy with. I was able to identify my biggest weaknesses with seminaring, namely connecting to the text and speaking up when I had something to add. This year I was able to work on those weaknesses in our seminar, and the result was a much better grade than I had gotten last time. I connected to the text as much as I could, and spoke up when I had something to stay instead of just when it was quiet, or when I thought someone was going to call on me and make me speak up. I got an A, which is obviously significantly better than a C.
Area for Growth #1:
The main areas for growth that I have found in myself are regrettably much the same as last year. The first one is organization, my school bag, my binders, and notebooks all seem to be perpetually messy. I am a very environmentally influenced person and so this makes me so much more likely to procrastinate. It makes it very difficult for me to find the papers I need to finish my homework, and also once I get home the last thing I want to do is take out my homework, because I know doing so will spill papers all over the place. To combat this I plan to clean out my bookbag once a week, and take the time to put papers into my binders after class as opposed to cramming them into the computer sleeve of my bag. Another idea I had had was to put a folder in my book bag, open and facing up so that if I'm feeling rushed I can slip my papers into the folder and that was they won't get lost or wrinkled.
Area for Growth #2:
My second area for growth is with missing work. I have an unfortunate tendency to get very overwhelmed and just try to pretend my responsibilities don’t exist and hope they go away. This is obviously not very effective and is the cause of most of my lower grades if not all, as I do well on almost all of the assignments that I actually turn in. I have a job at a restaurant in town, and I babysit as well which means I am always very stressed and overtired, and I don't have a lot of free time outside of school. And when I do, I usually end up wasting it as I am horrible at focusing in non-school environments. I had anticipated this at the beginning of the semester and so I signed up for a project application period, but it hasn't been as helpful as I had hoped as I can never find a positive, driven environment to work it. To fix this I plan on sitting where the teachers of my classes can view my computer screen to avoid getting distracted, and try to find quiet, focused environments to support my studying, or possibly switch into a different project application that is more monitered.
Question: My question is, what can I be doing to regain control of my brain and my focus, so that it may be a help as opposed to a hinderance in my academic career? This question is very important to me as I know that I can focus, because I do it all the time on things that are interesting to me. Because I know that I have the ability, now I just need to learn how to apply it in the areas of my life where I really need it. I've always had difficulties applying myself to things that aren't fun for me, and that's something I need to grow out of if I want to be successful, in academia and in the rest of my life.
My first celebration is regarding self reflection, particularly when it comes to my study habits. I have some attention problems, and so I've never been able to study by reading over notes or pages in a book, the information just doesn't stay in my head that way. This year in humanities, we were studying African geography, and to study for it we would go online and take this little practice quiz. They'd ask where a certain country was and we had to click on it on the map. We also used a similar method to study in Spanish class, for learning past tense preterit and imperfect endings. For this we had an online site and it was just a little quiz, that we would do for about five minutes a day. I think I may be able to replicate this study method using flashcards, as I believe that what makes it effective is the instant gratification of knowing whether it was right or wrong.
Evidence: African geography quiz
Celebration #2:
My second celebration is with Spanish language skills. I have a rather unique background with Spanish as my family is Argentinian so I'm a bit more advanced than most of the other people in my grade. Last year, there was only one Spanish course available to freshmen, and that was Spanish one. I was able to talk to Jenny and arange to be put in an independant study program, which didn't end up going very well. I wasn't as effective as I should have been at keeping myself on task, and as a result I finished the semester with a very low C-, and I only managed to pass by begging Jenny for excessive extentions and extra credit. This year however, I am in a Spanish three class that is relatively small. There are only five other kides in my class, which is a very good size for me because there is enough focus on me that I don't fall behind, and also I don't get overwhelmed by noise. This semested, I am finishing with a B+, which would have been an A if I was better at turning in work on time.
Celebration #3:
My last celebration is with my seminar skills. We had a socratic seminar a few weeks ago in humanities, which was about the book we had been reading in class. Last semester, I got a C on our last seminar which I was definitely not happy with. I was able to identify my biggest weaknesses with seminaring, namely connecting to the text and speaking up when I had something to add. This year I was able to work on those weaknesses in our seminar, and the result was a much better grade than I had gotten last time. I connected to the text as much as I could, and spoke up when I had something to stay instead of just when it was quiet, or when I thought someone was going to call on me and make me speak up. I got an A, which is obviously significantly better than a C.
Area for Growth #1:
The main areas for growth that I have found in myself are regrettably much the same as last year. The first one is organization, my school bag, my binders, and notebooks all seem to be perpetually messy. I am a very environmentally influenced person and so this makes me so much more likely to procrastinate. It makes it very difficult for me to find the papers I need to finish my homework, and also once I get home the last thing I want to do is take out my homework, because I know doing so will spill papers all over the place. To combat this I plan to clean out my bookbag once a week, and take the time to put papers into my binders after class as opposed to cramming them into the computer sleeve of my bag. Another idea I had had was to put a folder in my book bag, open and facing up so that if I'm feeling rushed I can slip my papers into the folder and that was they won't get lost or wrinkled.
Area for Growth #2:
My second area for growth is with missing work. I have an unfortunate tendency to get very overwhelmed and just try to pretend my responsibilities don’t exist and hope they go away. This is obviously not very effective and is the cause of most of my lower grades if not all, as I do well on almost all of the assignments that I actually turn in. I have a job at a restaurant in town, and I babysit as well which means I am always very stressed and overtired, and I don't have a lot of free time outside of school. And when I do, I usually end up wasting it as I am horrible at focusing in non-school environments. I had anticipated this at the beginning of the semester and so I signed up for a project application period, but it hasn't been as helpful as I had hoped as I can never find a positive, driven environment to work it. To fix this I plan on sitting where the teachers of my classes can view my computer screen to avoid getting distracted, and try to find quiet, focused environments to support my studying, or possibly switch into a different project application that is more monitered.
Question: My question is, what can I be doing to regain control of my brain and my focus, so that it may be a help as opposed to a hinderance in my academic career? This question is very important to me as I know that I can focus, because I do it all the time on things that are interesting to me. Because I know that I have the ability, now I just need to learn how to apply it in the areas of my life where I really need it. I've always had difficulties applying myself to things that aren't fun for me, and that's something I need to grow out of if I want to be successful, in academia and in the rest of my life.