Final blog post

As the end approaches, I'm weirdly glad we have this assignment so I can look back and reflect on all the work I've done this spring term. I hated almost everything about English spring term but it was nice to explore a topic of interest and learn a lot about myself as a student and also, a person. I think over the pay 6 or so weeks a lot has come clear to me about my learning preferences and that will only help me in the future.1. What are the next steps for continuing to work on the project? Do you think you will keep working on it? Why or why not?It may be bad to say, but I'm really over my project. These last 3 weeks have been like pulling teeth for me. I learned I think enough to settle my curiosity. I got to realize this is the side of nonprofits I no longer want to persue in the future. I always believed not donating all the money was a choice but it almost wasn't an option for most charities. When I saw the vicious cycle it goes through I saw the unloyal charities would have a hard time ever becoming loyal. 2. What was your favorite part of this term’s work?I truly loved the ability to explore something of interest. I don't think I had enough curiosity to explore this topic in my free time. I enjoyed how for a whole term we can focus on something of choice, which is not something we get to do very often. I also liked the schedule and the fact we could set as many restrictions or guidelines as we wanted. Something I struggled in within senior seminar was the fact we rarely got guidance in assignments. It was hard to go into a seminar blind but with this project we had as much guidance as we wanted or not because we were the leaders of our classes each day. 3. What was your least favorite?My least favorite part about the project was the length. 6 weeks is a long time to be work on something for around 100 minutes 5 times a week. I lost interest in my topic after week 3 and wanted to just switch and move on. The struggle was almost finding things to do to keep me "busy" if I finished early one day. The reading was also very dry for me. My two books were strictly discussing financials with no plot, only tips. For me, it seemed dull and boring so it forced me to skim and only pick out what was really necessary. Another one of my least favorite parts was also the independance. I like the idea of the independance and choosing a topic, but I don't like working alone with no direction. It caused me stress and confusion and definitely have me a problem when it came to motivation. Having things to hand in day after day forced me to do everything and I need that. I know I had my own calendar but it's not the same as giving it to someone else so it reaches their expectations. 4. What piece of advice would you give to next year’s Senior Seminar students when they design their spring term projects?A. Take it seriously, although it's senior spring, it's your whole term of work so choose something your interested in not just something that's easy.B. Follow your calendar. I'm someone who does well with deadlines so I never really had a problem with meeting my goals until I had an issue with the charities. It set me back but my calendar helped me to see the bigger picture and replan my scheduling. Also, if your someone who doesn't work with deadlines well, work on it now. 6 weeks goes way faster than you think and you don't want to be throwing something together last minute that you were suppose to be working on all term (because the teaches I'll know).C. Have fun with the freedom! Take advantage of the lack of guidance and direction and explore a median of art you never have before or present your information in a new way. This term is suppose to help you realize who you are as a student, so explore and let yourself try new things.  5.What was the most important “truth” you learned about your own working process?I learned that I work well within guidance. I like having a teacher tell me how long a paper should be and I like knowing exactly what to prepare for. Work blocks alone was almost saddening and I had no desire to do things. Human contact within my education is very important to me as a student. I feel the need to collaborate with others and listen to ideas to inspire some of my own. I learned I should work completely independently, not in a classroom with some of my good friends because my mind won't be on my work, it'll be what I just saw on Facebook and have to tell them after class. I also learned I like the classroom setting. I think I strive in areas where I can ask specific questions and test the water before I have to answer with confidence. By putting my work out over the last term, it was honestly scary. It was a vulnerable move and made us all uncomfortable. I think the best thing about what I learned though was the classroom setting helps me. Next year when I can choose to go into a lecture or seminar, I know seminar would be good because I can collaborate with others. 6.What was the most important “truth” you learned about yourself?The most important truth I learned about myself is that I need a goal. I learned when I see an "end sight" I have all the determination I need to get what I need to get done, done. I know I have always been a hard worker but this term I realized that I have what it takes to make work I'm proud of 100% of the time. I realized with time and effort I can produce something I'm confident in showing my peers and family. I think this was good to realize about myself because it gives me the confidence I will need in the future. Whether it's pitching an idea to a boss or just going in for a job interview, I can say I worked as hard as I possibly good and show up with confidence. Because I have always lacked confidence within every aspect of my life this is exciting for me. I'm ending my spring term with high honors and I basically only had projects. Despite hating the fact I had projects, I set my mind to it and I achieved and I think I needed to do that to show myself what's truly possible for me. Over all, I can say I had a successful senior spring English term and I am a proud student of the work I produced.

Week 6- Blog 2

I presented Tuesday and I think it went really well. I hopefully got my findings across in the most effective way and people saw my progress over the weeks. I didn't want to do a complete repeat of my mid-term project so I had to think of the same project but in a different way. I did have a variety of different things to share, but its all under the same category which may be boring for my class. I had different things to present but it was all off of my website. Everyone was really impressed from my website and I enjoyed showing off my work.

I also liked listening to other peoples presentations. I've seen my peers work so hard over the past term so I love seeing what they found. Its cool to see all the final products versus just the pieces in work.

Week Six- Blog 1

YAAAYYY. FINAL WEEK!!!!! This is seriously crunch time and i am dedicated the next two classes and two nights of homework to my short video "praising the loyal charities". I am stressing a little but I think I will be feeling a lot better after tonight when I make a huge dent in everything. My website is done except for uploading my documentary which is really really good, it was surprisingly a lot of work and research. I thought the short paragraphs about each charity wouldn't take long but i had to choose the most important elements of each charity. A lot of charities do more than I could ever put into words but it's just hard to summarize it into a couple sentences with a video to capture everything else. Caley and I both made websites so we are going to collaborate with each other and almost edit. Neither of our websites correcting spelling or anything so our attempt is to make it perfect!

Really happy to be done with everything and i'm super nervous to present. Cant wait for it all to be done. I think the presentation will capture my growth across the board. Through my presentation I will make it clear that everything in my education skills have improved. I hope to show strong listening and speaking skills, strong research skills, good reading and writing skills and just a strong project.

Week 5- Blog 3

This is seriously crunch time and I'm not mentally prepared for it. I have a lot of work to do between now and wednesday and I'm confused on when we pass the paper in and all that fun stuff. Don't have time to do the project plus work on the paper. I have 500 projects in all 6 of my classes and its really just a force at times. I've dedicated my weekend to my website. I've made a lot of positive changes and worked really hard for it to be presentable with all the necessary information. I've done so much and I want to present it all in the best way possible.
I have regrets about not following deadlines as closely as I should have. Because of the road block I didn't find alternative things to do while I was confused and stressing, I just kind of stopped. This did not benefit me AT ALL and now I'm stuck stressing (per usual though). I have a lot to do in the next two days but it all has to do with my video. I just have to place the interviews and everything in the most effective way as possible so it will be a lot of trial and error!

Looking forward to the final projects.

Week 5- Blog 2

I'm just going to reminisce on my project right now. It's been quite the journey, i'm ending in a way thats very different from when I began. I have completely changed directions and views of my project and I'm actually happy about that. I'm still just so baffled at the fact NO CHARITY THAT GIVES UNER 50 CENTS WOULD TALK TO ME. That was definitely a road block and like i said in my last blog I'm really happy and relieved about how I turned it around but it was definitely a struggle that costed me about a week of wasted time. I think the biggest downfall of the lack of communication was the time lost. I spent a week strictly in and outside of class just trying to get these people to talk to me. I, now, don't even need those people to talk to me so a whole week was lost. I think that loss of a week effected me by effecting my mood and work ethic. It kind of just sucked the life out of me. I was sad annoyed and frustrated and made me lose all interest in my project. But whatever, i've learned to think on my own and move on so in the end the struggle benefitted me.

Week 4 maybe 5- Blog 1

WELL talk about road blocks. I've had an interesting go of it the past two weeks but I have turned my life around for the better. I am now looking at the positive side of loyal charities and trying to give them praise for what they do. They make tremendous changes in people's lives and thats something that deserves recognition. I don't want to forget about what I learned about the negatives and those are still included in all of my research but my final product is being altered. I'm not looking at the charities and taking the positive parts and putting those in a quick video. I have people talking about give kids the world, my interview from saint jude's and  red cross and so on. I'm excited to shine light on the positives now instead of dwelling on the negatives. This change was almost forced because no bad charity would talk to me but I'm still excited now.

I think this road block has taught me a lot about myself. I've realized (finally) i give up easily, almost too easily. I have no confidence in my own ideas and have almost always relied on Mr. Igoe to point me in the right direction. Not being able to "lean" on him and get information out of him has pushed me to the point of frustration, sadness and basically heart break. But look at me now, still standing in one piece and thinking on my own. So thank you Mr. Igoe for pushing me to think and search for something new, its appreciated (after the annoyance phase). I have come to see around you were just encouraging me to be independent.

Week 4- Blog 3

IM SO ANNOYED. I've gotten hung up on 3 times from the same charity, charities who agreed to answer questions have yet to do so after several emails and phone calls. I'm honestly not sure what to do at this point. I spent a free block all Friday trying to get the answers from Wounded Warriors and I got nothing but rudeness and a lack of sincerity. I'm so upset with how this project is going and I want to give up so bad. I try to be assertive and not take no for an answer but they realize I need them, they don't need me so its hard trying to get answers and connections to people when they have 0 desire to give me what i need. I think this challenge and struggle has been good for me though, I have stayed with most charities for a while now which i am proud of. I considered giving up on most charities a lot but i kept going and although i didnt get the wanted result i was still proud of my determination. These next and final two weeks are going to be intense but I'm ready for them..good luck to all

Week 4- Blog 2

It is now Thursday of week 4 and i'm really annoyed with 90% of the charities I have tried to talk too.  As much as i enjoy hearing the "loyal charities" and how they run everything without using most of the donations, thats almost defeating the point of my project. I need to hear from the "unloyal charities". I need to hear why they have to use donation money for other things and how they feel about that. Kids Wish Network has the only one who has agreed to answer my questions and it was a process. I wanted to use these interviews for my infomercial but i only had to email them the questions, after Igoe emailed them confirming i wasn't a student. It's just frustrating and almost proving my point but its not enough to answer the question of why. I'm hoping the other charities i need to hear from respond to my email, or send me to someone who can answer my questions. Today i go hard on the Wounded Warrior person and they gave me someone to email which was a start. She said she couldn't promise a reply, but its better than nothing. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for my final project now because i don't have enough voices saying what i need them to say, or what i had in mind. I'm honestly getting frustrated and i feel myself giving up. Despite the nice weather and the whole senioritis thing, I'm just almost over this project. Its a lot of work for something I'm no longer interested in. Good luck to me though right haha.

Week 4- Blog 1

This week is hopefully the week i get in contact with charities. By tomorrow I hope to have contact with at least 3. My goal is to get charities from the good and bad. I want to hear everyones perspective and hear about where people want the money to go versus where the money actually goes. I wonder if people care more about money than the cause at hand. Still really not sure what to do if i don't get in touch with anyone... so i should figure that out!

I've realized, lately, i like the reward of crossing something off the calendar and i think thats why i get things done. I literally do things just to say "i can get it off my list". This has helped me this term across the board though. Some may see it as a bad thing but a calendar sets "goals" for me and motivates me to get it done on time. Having the vision instills a little bit of stress and fear in me that i need to get moving.

Sometimes i wish i changed my project. There's stuff about my project, but not much. It's hard to go in one direction with it and come up with an overall discovery. What's out there is out there and i have to make the analysis myself. I feel like something like autisms affect on a family dynamic should have been the way to go. Its not necessarily what i want to do in the future but it definitely interests me and inspires me which is the opposite of what this project is doing. To be completely honest I'm bored with my project and have a lot of regrets.

Week 3- Blog 3

Well, as time is getting closer to the end, i'm starting to stress a lot more. This whole week was planned to talked to people of the charities, but no one has answered my emails. Mr. Igoe recommended calling so I tried each one yesterday just in case anyone was in the office. Tomorrow I hope to make a big dent in calling or scheduling to talk with charities. I'm reading the Give Kids the World book this week to see how they run off of the donations. I'm excited to see how that goes.

I've really been finding myself getting stressed lately but also its my fault. I find myself not utilizing my time as well as I used too. As much as its nice being into college I'm scared I'm starting to take advantage of the freeness. I'm doing all I say I should be doing and i'm following my calendar but i keep finding myself doing the bare minimum. I'm usually a strong student that goes beyond what she says because she knows it'll benefit her later, as of now, I am not that student. Since I made this realization, I'm hoping these next 2 weeks ill really try to pull my weight and do as much as I can to make this project as strong as I hoped it would be.

I'm really enjoying looking at the different angles of this question of loyalty within charities. I hope the actual foundations answer my calls. I'm not sure what I will do if they don't... the documentary as of now is in the process of just watching some to see if thats the route i want to take. Elise recommended the hunting ground, so I'm watching that to see how people go about a documentary. I was thinking more of a 3 minute, almost infomerical like, video may be more beneficial. I can post statistics with quotes in the background and it'll be more informative and quick than a long documentary. But who knows, we'll see where this week takes us!!!

Week 3- Blog 2

Today was a long block, first block, and although its a rainy Tuesday and I had no desire to do anything, the look at the calendar got me going. Today I came to the realization of only 20 academic days, and only 2 weeks until we present. That got me to stress because I'm not sure how i want to do my documentary still. Although my website is coming along really well and i'm really proud of it, I feel like it's just not enough. People still aren't answering my email's from charities so I'm not sure how many more of those I should send before I get annoying and ahhh i'm stressed. Hopefully once we get through this week it'll be calming and I'll be reassured I have the ability to get everything done. But at this moment in time, I am stressed and unsure where to go from here. I think the heads holiday really pushed everything back a day because although I probably should have worked 50 minutes like an english class and then homework yesterday, I didn't. I did some work but definitely not as much as I should have. I think i have figured out the key to success for me, is doing the work when I say I will. The debate of "eh I can do it later, versus lets do it now" is going to be crucial for me the next couple weeks because once i procrastinate once, it becomes a habit. I also have realized I'm a lot lazier than i thought I was. When independent, and not having the daily assignments from a teacher, I think I can slack off and almost half as$ it.  I need to work on being independent for myself, not just the grade. This senior slide is really getting to me and I have to work on staying determined and active in my work.

Week 3- Blog 1

Here are 3 advertisements from one of the charities I am looking at. Wounded warrior is an organization that is heavily advertised but only gives 11 cents out of one dollar. The advertisements send out positive, happy, uplifting messages yet they aren't doing all what they say they are. These ads make one want to donate not only money, but their time as well to do everything they can to help. There is no where in the advertisements to say where the money goes.. this week my question will be.. Do the people think this is false advertising?

Week 2- Blog 2

I'm not sure where my blog for Saturday went so i'll try to do my best to remember what i said... Saturday i finalized my first editorial. Personally, i really like this writing style. I have no desire to go into journalism or anything like that but it was a fun, new way to write. I got to give my personal opinion through a formal way. I used facts not fiction and proved a point, but through my own voice. I made an analysis but it didn't sound so stiff and formal, it was my voice coming through. I wasn't sure on the length one has to be but i like how i went about the process. I collected all my information, on draft paper wrote what i thought. Then put it into an editorial piece in my website. can't wait to show you all my progress.

Week 2- Journal 3

Over the course of the two weeks a lot of progress has been made. My website is looking very good and I'm proud of the dent I have made in all my work. Today was a lazy rainy Sunday so I took it upon myself to make a big dent in my first book and start my second. Not everything in the first book applied to what I am working with. I decided to cut out what I really needed and work from there. With the heads holiday, I found myself not wanting to do any home work. Tomorrow was going to be a big start to week 3 and I was going to work with the chosen advertisements in class and start my second survey that was only going to select people. I realized today I needed to read as much as I could to really get going. I'm so happy with the way my first editorial turned out! Between my survey and interviews I had a good variety of things to show of results. I added all my findings from the survey below the editorial adding a visual to the reader as well. Looking forward to week 3... Advertisements versus people!