Week 11 Journal

Lauren is a really good teacher; she's had experience teaching before, but besides the given experience, she has a natural talent for teaching others. I have so far really enjoyed her teaching because she is always thorough and willing to answer any questions I may have. I've learned a lot from her in terms of different art techniques, and also the spiritual/emotional connection between an artist and his/her art. Go Lauren! :D

Week 11 - Task 1

My results were pretty much what I expected. I'm very polite when I use my cell phone, trying to speak at a normal volume and putting my phone on silent when I'm at school or doing something that requires my utmost attention. I know how it feels to be annoyed by people on their cell phones, so it's easy for me to be nice about it myself.

Week Ten Journal

This week we started doing collages, which are a lot more fun that I thought. The point of them was to cut out tons of pictures (well, maybe not tons...) and then to later sort through them all and find the ones that appeal to me the most, then put them all in a big collage. It was really cool because I learned a lot about myself through it. Not only did I learn what colors appeal to me the most, but I learned that I yearn to travel to really exotic and beautiful places all over the world. Overall I really had fun with it, especially adding in little tiny text in random places on the picture. :D

Week Ten - Task Two

I think I have excellent communication skills, with a few flaws of course. My best talent in communicating would definitely be making and playing music.

I'm really good at speaking publically, but I do tend to get nervous, which makes my voice a little shaky and makes me talk quickly if I'm not careful.

When speaking with everyday people, I do sometimes speak too quickly or run my words together, but with practice I'm learning to get over that. Also, I'm very good at making it clear what my intentions are or how I'm feeling.

:D

So, the only thing I really need to improve on is learning to speak more slowly and more articulately.

Week Ten - Task One

Three forms of communication:

1. Written - e-mail, books, notes/letters
2. Verbal - speaking, lecturing, commercial
3. Non-verbal - Facial expression, body language, eye contact

Problems associated with each:

1. Written - You can't really hear how the writer intended the text to sound, so a point may be lost.
2. A lot of times, people can have naturally angry expressions on their faces, but that doesn't mean that what they're saying is intended to be cruel. Also, someone who has a speech impediment may not be very well understood through verbal communication.
3. If someone is really shy, they may not be very good at effective communication because of their lack of eye contact, etc.

How these problems could be resolved:

With all of them, I believe practice and research could enable each to be extremely effective. Such as, learning to write in a way to convince people of a certain feeling, or to learn to be an effective communicator, overcoming shyness or fear of speaking in public.

Week Nine - Task Three

A lot of people have influenced my attitude. One of them would be my mom, who has taught me to express my feelings as they come and to keep a positive outlook even on seemingly negative things. My minster has taught me to represent my highest self in all situations and to see the good things in everything. My teachers have taught me that you can be happy even in a bad situation, and in dealing with customers, how to keep them happy even if they're being difficult.

Week Nine - Task Two

I usually am really cheerful at my service learning. I try to be positive and happy because having a crappy attitude in service learning can make everyone else feel crappy too. At Jittery Joe's I have a pretty positive attitude also. It's very important to be cheerful when working with customers, so that you can maintain a good customer-worker relationship. Also because "the customer is always right."

Week Nine - Task One

My attitude fluctuates, as I'm sure everyone else's does. I highly agree with the poem in the respect that things that are happening to me are 10% and the way I react is 90%. What I don't agree with, however, is that someone should be happy 100% of the time, because that would mean hiding their true feelings, such as if they're just not feeling too well. This relates in my life because I am the kind of person who believes in expressing how I feel at the time. That doesn't mean that if I'm angry I'm going to yell at everyone. There's a fine line between expressing emotion in a healthy way and expressing emotion in an unhealthy way.

Overall, though, I think I have a really great attitude toward my life and my life events. I try to look at everything in a positive way, even if it seems absolutely dreadful, and I try to see the good in all situations.

Week Eight Journal

For week eight, we did a fairly bigger project that involved finding a picture from a magazine and drawing it onto a poster board that's about 24 by 15. I found this project to be particularly difficult, because of what I was drawing, which was a picture of some chocolates that had great detail in the simple shapes of the chocolates. I found it difficult because of the simplicity in the shapes and shading and trying to keep everything on my drawing consistant, like shading and tones, was pretty hard. All in all though, I've learned that I have the patience to finish projects like these even though I didn't think I could. I also learned that if I just sit down and try, I can get a lot done.

Week Eight - Task Two

I learned from the article on foodborne disease that it is a danger to have perishable food around, simply because if it is left out and gets bad, you could serve someone bad food and they'd get sick. It is extremely important to keep perishable foods like dairy products refridgerated at a certain temperature. Otherwise, you could have spoiled food that could make people very sick, including yourself if you happened to have some.

Keeping food covered/refridgerated is also important to keep bugs from swarming, which is against health code and is just gross in the first place. So, food preservation is a very important thing in business, otherwise you won't get any customers!

Week Eight - Task One

Well, since there aren't many dangers involved in my service learning, I'll just list a few things and then I'll use Jittery Joe's. For the art service learning, it may seem like there is no danger, but actually there could be. I could, for instance, be allergic to a type of marker or paint that I've got on my skin and get a rash or infection. Or, I could somehow (somehow being the keyword here) swallow some kind of toxic art medium... Other than that, nothing really bad can happen.

At Jittery Joe's, there are a lot more dangers. For instance, the milk steamer is extremely hot and could easily give someone a serious burn. Another thing is if there is something spilled on the floor that doesn't get cleaned up, someone could slip and get hurt. Washing the blenders is actually slightly dangerous too because you could cut your hand on the blender blades. There is a little danger in moving around the drink cases in the stock room because first of all they're heavy and second of all they could drop onto your foot or something and hurt you. Another burning issue is with coffee. If coffee ever spills on you, it can burn pretty bad.

Week Seven - Task Three

What skills do you possess that are unique to you? What experiences in work or the community equip you to follow a career path you would like to pursue? What will you continue to do in your daily life to add valuable skills to your resume?

I taught myself to play piano, and I also have a natural talent for music making. As for more business-like skills, I can talk to people really well and serve customers efficiently and appropriately. I am also very good at brainstorming for ideas and leading a group. Volunteering at different charities was the best way for me to gain my customer service skills. The same goes for public speaking, being in a band, and/or selling my art at an auction. I will definitely continue to participate in these kinds of events in order to obtain new and useful abilities as well as personal confidence.

Week Six - Task Two and Three

Time Log for the Mornings:

I definitely know that it takes me quite a while to get ready in the morning if I let myself wander around or get distracted by things like pets, books, computer, etc.

My Morning Routine:

Get up (I often sleep for an extra 10-20 minutes)
Take shower (10-30 mins. depending on if I hurry)
Get dressed (5-10 mins. depending on if I don't know what to wear or not)
Eat breakfast (10-20 mins. depending on if I have time or not)
Pack a Lunch (5-10 mins. depending on if I have ready-to-eat food or not)
Get things together and go (5-10 mins. depending on if I have everything together and whether or not I get distracted by something)

I already know what I could do to save a lot of time:
-Get clothes ready the night before
-Get lunch packed the night before
-Pack up everything the night before

Then I'll have more time to eat and take a shower and it will only take me roughly 40 minutes to be ready in the morning, rather than an hour+.

Daily Time Management:

In my daily life, one thing I could really do to save time is to get things that need to be done finished right when I get home/after dinner so that I won't have to stay up later that night to get things done or be late in the morning getting them completed.

Other than that, I am actually very good with my time management. I multitask often, and I also switch tasks regularly so that I don't become frustrated doing one thing for too long. :D

Week Five Journal Entry

For week five we worked on a still life, which was pretty cool. I had trouble placing the objects on the paper in a way that made it seem 3D, but in the end it turned out all right. I really liked the advice Lauren gave me for drawing, such as trying to draw the shape you see rather than the object you think of. Like if I were to draw a paintbrush, I might try and draw a typical looking paintbrush, but in order to draw the one in front of my I could draw the shape that I see. Another really helpful piece of advice she gave me was to look at the negative space between obects, to learn how to space them evenly. :)

Week Four Journal Entry

Week Four was pretty cool. We got into our artistic mindset by looking through different fonts, business logos, etc, and got ideas to do our own. The purpose was to think about how different logos can make you feel or what they induce you to think.

Also, we learned that good logos not only look good, but they look good in any size, tiny for a newspaper or large for a bilboard. That thought helped me make mine a little less complicated. At first I had some crazy idea that involved a music note, swirling piano keys, and a black "D" with blue highlights. I settled for a plain black square with a D in the middle, small piano keys lined up at the bottom, and a nice blue background. :D

Service Learning Journal - Week Two

This week was pretty good in my service learning class. It's still a little hard getting used to doing art projects again. Week two we drew a little and mostly listened to Lauren and looked through some books she gave us to introduce us to different art styles.
I'm pretty excited about this service learning so far. I really love art, and it's great to have an opportunity to be back in the artsy world again. I'm a little hesitant to do still lifes, but they're not too bad. Besides, practice makes perfect.

My Life in 10 Years

I. Where do I want to be in ten years?


1. I would like to have a really big house somewhere nice and isolated from city craze.


2. I would like to have a husband and maybe kids. If I have kids, I'd love to have twins!


3. I would like to be involved somehow with animal rescue.


4. I would like to be a known musician/artist/writer and have that be my source of income.


5. I would like to be emotionally and physically stable.


6. I would like to teach workshops at my church.


7. I would like to have a Honda Civic.


8. I would like to still be in touch with my friends and have many more friends that I can invite over.


9. I would like to still be silly and crazy!


10. I would like to live somewhere where it is warm most of the time and in the winter it snows.


II. What can I do now to get there?


1. Saving money!!


2. Keep dating and learn through relationships.


3. Volunteer at the cat shelter and keep rescuing animals like I already do.


4. Keep practicing music, writing, and singing.


5. Keep learning through experience on how to better myself.


6. Keep being involved with my church.


7. Save money!


8. Stay in touch with friends.


9. Keep being crazy and silly!


10. Research places to live






III. Upload an image/picture that represents at least one aspect of what you want your life to look like ten years from now.

Week Three

Task #1:

I suppose I need to work on all the listed study skills, but there are a few that I need to work on most:

1- Get Started: If I'm tired or have little motivation one day, it is very difficult for me to get started on work. Even getting started on this was hard today!

2- Take Good Notes: Now, I take excellent notes, but I could save a lot of time by using abbreviations and not trying to make everything perfect.

Procrastinating: I tend to do that a lot.


Task #2:

a. Taking Notes

1. Before Class
-Review Notes
-Bring supplies

2. During Class
-Listen for key words
-Abbreviate and use symbols

3. After Class
-Complete any incomplete areas in notes
-Review notes for the next day

Five things I can do to take better notes:
-Ignore/eliminate distractions
-Write abbrs. for words
-Review notes each night!!!
-Make sure I have plently of paper and a good pen
-No panicking!

b. Procrastination

-Main reasons for it are:
*Difficulty concentrating
*Litte motivation
*Confusion/Too difficult
*Perfectionism

Preventing Procrastination:
-Just get started without worrying or thinking
-Stay focused
-Rewarding once completion
-Breaking down tasks into smaller pieces
-Taking breaks when needed
-Making a schedule
-Realizing that once you get started it won't be as hard as you thought

5 Things For Me to Prevent Procrastination:
-Know that things aren't as difficult as I tend to make them out to be
-Staying focused and ignoring random urges to do other tasks
-Rewarding myself when I've done a task
-Just going for it and getting started without hesitation
-Believing in myself!

Task #3:

Well, the art thing (as I call it) is going very well for me. I realized that not only do I procrastinate with my assignments at school, but I do the same for art. If I don't feel like starting/finishing an art project, I'll just leave it and ignore it, telling myself it's too hard to finish. However, I know that I am a good artist and I do have the potential to complete what I start. I hope to include the things I've learned about procrastination into my art service learning. :)

Week One Task

Task One: In which of these areas do you need to make the most improvement to become a more successful student? Even if you feel as though you are already successful, you could still make strides in one of these areas? Which is it?

I suppose I would need to improve on numbers 2 and 3. 2 because I don't always study as much as I would like to and don't do as well on tests because of that. And 3 because I sometimes have trouble motivating myself to work harder or even do my homework. :P

Task Two: What did we miss? Can you think of anything you might add to this list? Come up with one or two more habits you believe positive students have. Explain why you think your additions to this list would be important for every student at Classic City High School.

I think you should add something to the list that has to do with keeping your eyes on the future, as in keeping in mind the major goal while you're doing little "chores" that feel useless but really help to feed your future goals.

Another thing is maybe staying positive through thick and thin, and to ask for help when you need it! I know from personal experience that asking someone for help when you don't understand something can be a tough thing. Students at Classic City shouldn't be afraid to ask questions! :)