(12.06.16) UNIT 3: Final Draft + Reflection

https://prezi.com/j3iv4vaj9zab/how-to-study-smarter-not-harder/




REFLECTION:

This was probably my favorite unit project out of the three we have done. It was full of creativity and personalization. I love how I was able to choose a topic that I felt was most going to be not only beneficial and fun but also appealing to the audience  as well. I genuinely do feel that working on this project helped me gain knowledge on the tips and tricks of learning to study better as well. While I was working on my project, I decided to research up information to know some statistical facts regarding studying tips, and also asked a couple of my friends' opinions and thoughts on their top studying tips. I felt that this not only expand the connection between the readers and my blog, but also augment my own credibility for this project. Using actual students' opinions and such can help concrete the validity for some of the tips that I mentioned because it proves that there are other students who are currently having the exact same studying habits as the readers are.

In the beginning, my original idea was to have a discussion on how to take good notes. As I was writing my rough draft for that concept, I realized that it was too narrow and specific. Rather than completely throwing that idea away and replacing with a new idea, I decided to simply use a more broad topic: how to study smarter, not harder. A few of the tips within that would include the tips I originally wrote for my previous topic.

During the peer review we had during class, I asked my classmates for some feedback for my project. Some suggestions I heard was to mention the benefits of study groups, flashcards, and using the examples given from professors and their notes. I personally don’t find study groups beneficial, only because everyone gets distracted easily at one point. Therefore, I mentioned all their helpful tips except for that one in particular. I’m a strong believer in people studying successfully when focusing alone. I really liked how we had this open peer review session during class, because it gave me the opportunity to interact with my classmates and hear their honest feedback. In the end, I decided to have a total of 10 tips on how to study efficiently and effectively. I also chose to present my Prezi with an introduction, so my readers know what the content is going to be touching base with.
Some important tips that I thought you were super important were to use a planner, putting your phone on a mode, and having an automated playlist. Those three are probably the top 3 tips that personally help me study much better. Part of the reason being is because I am the type of person to get distracted very easily. However, it bothers me if my phone isn't near a close proximity to where I am at, therefore putting it in "Do Not Disturb" mode definitely helps me out. After writing down all the tips and giving a detailed explanation for each, I realized that my project seemed too simple and not very appealing. As I thought about it, I also came into a realization that I lack credibility. In order to bolster that, I asked a few of my friends to give me their opinion on their favorite tip from my "How-To" guide. I feel that presenting their opinions really does enhance my project into standing out for the audience to enjoy and read.

(11.17.16) UNIT 3: Draft

(11.10.16) UNIT 3: letters to mi casa y familia!! :)

REFLECTION:

This letter assignment we did was actually not as bad and weird as I expected it to be. I actually really didn’t mind working on it, because it allowed me to just open up and speak my mind into the letter, while being able to update my family back home on how I’ve been doing here at Syracuse. This type of writing genre was definitely different than the ones we previously worked on. It’s different mainly because of the writing style; I was able to write not as formally as other genres. In the letter, I basically wrote how I would normally speak, because it was a letter for my family, not the president or some sort. This really allowed me to be more genuine and personal with my audience, which only caught the reader's’ attentions even more. I felt that I most likely made a stronger connection with my audience because they were my family members who are familiar with my personal life and struggles. I personally enjoy writing freely, without having any constraints or limitations to what I can express towards whoever are reading my writings. So, writing this letter to my family wasn’t a struggle for me and like I said previously - it wasn’t a bother writing it at all. It felt more so as if I was writing a typical journal entry.

Quite frankly, this assignment actually helped with me with ideas for my current unit assignment because it promoted the different discourses that I have such as my group in work, friends, and school. It helped me gain ideas on what I should base my assignment topic on.

(11.08.16) UNIT 3: Manifesto

(11.03.16) UNIT 3: A Stranger in Strange Lands

(10.20.16) UNIT 2: Mini Dialogue Assignment

(10.13.16) UNIT 2: Draft + Final Draft + Reflection

Draft

Being a student is not as simple and as fun as some people may think. There’s always a never-ending pile of homework that must be dealt with every night, and arduous athletic training that must be taken on a constant basis as well. There are some discourses between full time student communities versus student athletic communities, because of their different priorities. I remember struggling throughout high school because juggling my exams with my tournaments wasn’t as easy thing. I traveled throughout different states, and skipped several days of school here and there, just so I can attend my tournaments. I always came home at around 10 in the late evening from practice, and then that’s when I had to start on my schoolwork. There were days when I would come home extra late because I had additional training sessions with my team.

But even though I had to sacrifice so many tears, so many sleepless nights, and so many hours of my days, I was never able to give up on either of these communities. Both of them represented who I was as a whole. My academics were to bolster me in achieving my goal of receiving a degree in Health and Exercise Science to become a sports psychologist. My passion for archery motivated me to earn the highest ranks as possible. I knew they were not easy tasks to accomplish, but both were goals that I wanted to achieve in the long run.


Final Draft
Being a student athlete is not as simple and as fun as some people may think. There’s always a never-ending pile of homework that must be dealt with every night, and arduous athletic training that must be taken on a constant basis as well. There are some discourses between full time student communities versus student athletic communities, because of their different priorities. I remember struggling throughout high school because juggling my exams with my tournaments wasn’t as easy thing. I traveled throughout different states, and skipped several days of school here and there, just so I can attend my tournaments. I always came home at around 10 in the late evening from practice, and then that’s when I had to start on my schoolwork. There were days when I would come home extra late because I had additional training sessions with my team.

But even though I had to sacrifice so many tears, so many sleepless nights, and even a previous musical talent of mine, I was never able to give up on either of these two communities. Both of them represented who I was as a whole. My academics were to bolster me in achieving my goal of receiving a degree in Health and Exercise Science to become a sports psychologist. My passion for archery motivated me to earn the highest ranks as possible. I knew they were not easy tasks to accomplish, but both were goals that I wanted to achieve in the long run. There were always tension in between these two groups. As previously mentioned, archery took a lot of my time. For some reason, my testing schedule for finals were always a weekend or two after one of my tournaments. This brought over so many much conflicts for me because it would make me doubt myself in even participating in the tournament; I didn’t want to end up overloading myself with pounds of stress on my shoulders and fail miserably in both my exams and tournaments. Time management eventually became probably the biggest challenge for me as a high school student. As I slowly adjusted to all the workload that was upon me, I resolved this by studying wherever I can, whether it be in the hour long car drive to practice, or a road/plane ride trip to competitions. Moreover, I was also an active choir student throughout my years in high school. My archery training days would sometimes conflict with my choir performance nights, and so I had to sacrifice one for the other. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t attend both events when they occurred at once.

My team was invited to train with South Korea’s Seoul National Sport University’s archery team. We vigorously trained six hours with them to prepare for an international tournament there.

Tension isn’t necessarily always going to be between two people. As you can see, it can be between two whole groups. These tensions will, unfortunately, always require some sort of sacrifice. At one point, I actually had to let go of one of these communities - not because I wanted to, but because I physically wasn’t able to do both:

In April by the end of my spring break, I was to decide which university to attend after I graduated out of my high school. I was very conflicted between a variety of schools: going out of state to either Texas A&M or Syracuse University, or staying in my home state by attending either University of Pacific or one of the top UC schools. Each school had its own pros and cons, but my main dilemma was regarding whether the school had an archery team or not. The amount of financial aid I was to receive was of course an issue too, but I viewed my archery much more highly than anything else. I wanted to attend Syracuse University, but I knew for a fact that there wasn’t an archery club or team. In the end, however, I ended up on taking up a big risk by attending Syracuse. My family and friends knew by heart that meant the ending of my archery career, but I felt that maybe it could be the possibility of something new as well.