The Final BLOG!!

It’s finally here the last one. The project is now over, everything has been turned in, and the presentation has been given. I was up to midnight last night putting the final touches on the project. I am pleased on how the group came together at the end to finish. Despite not ever meeting as a full group through the semester everything came together. I can’t believe it’s over, now what am I going to do with the extra hours of my life.

            All the group members pulled through with the project. Surprisingly it was the earliest we got a project done this semester and I didn’t need to go find people for not doing their work.

            Looking back at the semester I feel that I have put forth my best effort, I have continually done my best in order to get a good grade. I tried to make the tasks easier on my group by finding what they were good at. I think I have figured out everybody’s strengths and weaknesses.

            Sara is a reasonably good writer her problem is that she worries to much. Carly is a very good writer, her problem is she sometimes waits to long to write papers and doesn’t “interpret” the directions well. Cathy, is not a strong writer I have frequently gone over her sections and sentences would be missing half the words they needed to the point where they had no meaning. She is however a great person. Steven, has an authority problem, and doesn’t want to do work, however he is a very strong writer. If he didn’t wait until the last minute to write his papers he would do very well. I have my downsides, I have a hard time getting my ideas to people verbally, which is the reason I send emails, with the emails I am able to express what I need to and I have the time to think about what I need to say.  

            Over the past semester I have learned a lot of how to lead a group, I hope however that the next time I am a group leader, I have a group that works well together. 

Number 9

Only one left to go! I’m so excited that the project is almost over in the words of Rebecca Black “We-we-we so excited. We so excited.” I can’t wait! This project has taken a lot of time I spent more time this semester for this class then any others I have taken. Which is a lot of time spent working for one class?

            Project 4 is moving, I think we are all supposed to meet on Monday, if that happens I doubt it we never seem to do well with meeting deadlines we set. Surprisingly though writing the things for project four was not hard at all, I sat down and within an hour had a wrought draft of my papers written. As of now I still have to edit them, which is the least favorite part of the entire writing process. I hate having to go back and re-read a paper multiple times. I try to avoid it as much as possible by editing after each paragraph.

            I never realized how much my high school prepared me for college; they seemed to make everything harder in high school English so that when I got here, writing papers is not as hard as it was in the past. Dealing with people is still hard however especially when they don’t hold up their end of the work.

             

            I’m not too worried about giving the presentation in front of the class. I shouldn’t get to nerves in front of the class. I’ve given many presentations before, including one that decided if I would graduate high school. (That was lots of fun, I went first and set the bar very high). I find it funny that I am not worried about giving presentations I don’t like being the center of attention. I kind of have a view on life that if it needs to get done I should just do it and not worry.

            Luckily the course is almost over. I can’t wait for summer it will be a much needed rest from the work I have been doing. (Not really a full time job isn’t that relaxing.)

Blog 8

So, Project 3 has now been turned in. I am a little bit disappointed with my group they waited to the last minute to put it together, after I set multiple deadlines the deadlines came and went. I am proud that it got done, and after just reviewing the directions we wrote we have met almost every criteria. I hate being group leader but there is only a week and a half left of it to go. Which really gets me worrying a week and a half is a really short time. Weeks here go very fast.

            Project 4 shouldn’t be that bad to complete and I have set a deadline for Tuesday to be done the group paper. Which luckily enough, should take no more than 15 minutes to write each section. The only thing I am worrying about now is compiling the papers; I want to do it correctly, since others are relying on it. I avoid at all costs doing things that affect other people in that way I cannot be blamed when something goes wrong.

            Looking back at the semester, there are a few things I would want to do differently. I should have never joined a group trying to solve dorm issues, not because of the people, but because solving a dorm problem having to do with bathrooms isn’t going to get fixed mostly because of the massive amounts of alcohol consumed by the student body. We have to face the facts that a lot of college students don’t want to give up there alcohol.

            I want to make note that being under the age of twenty-one I do not consume alcohol, and I do not have a problem with students drinking “responsibly” but when students get so drunk they can’t stand every weekend something is wrong. I have had drunken students fall into my door and wake me up in the middle of the night. Things are terribly wrong! They need to be changed and I hope that after this project something does change. On the good side I only have two blogs left to write.

Blog 7 MOTIVATION

Project 3 is moving. Slowly, but slow and steady wins the race. I have been working on my part of the ten page paper writing about positive reinforcement and motivation. I should but it out that I have a hatred for psychology (personal reasons) and the part I am writing has to do with psychology. I will do the paper to the best of my ability though. It is taking me a while to write the paper, mostly because I don’t have any motivation. Ironic isn’t it writing about motivation and not being motivated. It may also be because I have gotten very little sleep this weekend, which puts me on the energy level of a ‘normal’ person.  

            I am kind of disappointed at my group. I may not be the strongest leader, but when they do not tell me anything on what they have been doing and then ask where are project stands, I get angry. We all agree on a date where something is needed to be done, yet there is always one person who never makes the deadline. EVEN WITH A WEEKS NOTICE. It’s not the same person every time, and I make sure as the group leader I always have my part done. I can’t take much more of this. Good thing there is only 3 weeks left. At this point I still believe there is enough time to finish the project. So I am in a good mood.

            I have yet to hear if our proposal was approved in Detrick, and since it was denied in Berks we may have a failed program. We will still put all the effort into the program if it doesn’t get approved and created something that can be put into effect at a later time. But it would be a major motivational downer if it doesn’t get approved. Motivation, that’s been coming up a lot in this blog post. I guess the reason I am not motivated is because summer is almost here, I can’t wait much longer for it. Until next time stay motivated. If you can’t try rewarding yourself with every small accomplishment.

Number 6

So, I got the paper done. It took a few hours to write, which isn’t bad. I also had a lot of help editing from friends. They help me a lot with editing (not one of my strongpoints). Which is funny since when I went to class for peer editing I was requested to edit a fellow classmates paper. I guess it seemed that since there was a lot of writing on the first classmate’s paper I edited, which was because they made the same mistakes over and over again. I am not an editor I can help with content, and a few mistakes. The most common mistake in the 2.5 papers I edited was that they used the article writer’s first name to refer to them. I learned a while ago not to unless you know them personally, which in this case I would bet a lot of money that they did not know the author personally.

            I made the corrections that I was suggested to me by my fellow classmates. There was not a lot of them however Dr. Morris looked over my last paragraph and gave me suggestions on where I could expand. I took her advice and added where she thought it would be a good idea.

            This was my first big paper since I started here at Kutztown University. The sad fact is that my high school papers were harder to write I don’t know if it was because I was constantly monitored and wasn’t just let free to write like I am here, or if it was because I am so use to writing papers that it is easier to write them now.

            The semester is almost over and there is still a lot to do on the project. We are in the final stretch on a close race, the project will get done, but how well it is done is still up in the air. We meet for project three soon and that may be the deciding factor on this whole thing. For now I have my part turned in and just need to wait for a grade. 

HALF WAY THERE

It makes sense that the fifth blog be halfway through the semester. It also makes sense that I catch you the reader up with what is going on with the project. Well Project one is DONE, yes I said it, it is DONE. It was hell. It was finished a few hours before it was due and luckily everyone in the group did their part at the end.

            I forgot to mention, we redid the entire project. I cannot believe I didn’t write about this. It was not fun. We needed to redo the project after all the flaws were pointed out. We sat down and figured out a more tangible way of combating the project. The new plan is to have a competition between wings of the building for the cleanest bathrooms.

            I am not too worried about project two since I don’t have to work with anyone else when I write my paper. I can sit down and within one weekend have the entire first draft of the paper done. It should not be that hard to write. All I need to do for the project is follow the directions and get it done. The directions seem fairly concrete no abstract thinking here. This is good to hear, since I hate thinking abstractly. I have trouble understanding metaphors I see them as black and white not colors of the rainbow. I never have trouble with stating what is going on but when the paper starts talking about things and implying I am lost. So it is settled this weekend I will sit down and write the paper. I don’t care how long it takes it will get done, to the best of my abilities. I have the sources now I just need to write. This will be the longest paper I have written since high school, which I find to be odd. Also, I think the papers I have been writing in college are a lot easier than my high school papers.

            I got a long weekend ahead of me, and now it is time to get to work.

Number 4

            It turns out we are not as far back as I thought on project one. When we meet in class we had a beginning draft of the proposal. Our ideas are there they just need to be organized them better. It is such a relief to have a draft; even though it needs editing I’m no longer worried as much. When the group met we all read over the proposal and came up with ideas on what we should be doing.

            Professor Morris also took a look at our proposal and told us some things to add. Professor Morris told us to add evidence of the problem that we are trying to solve. That’s not hard to do since we have all weekend to take photos of the restrooms. I don’t think my bathroom is going to be that bad this weekend since we lost toilet paper privileges. Someone had been clogging uncloggable toilets. Sounds funny doesn’t it, well it’s not. Toilet paper is a nice thing to have and some idiots in our building have gotten it taken away from us.

            With every weekend I want this plan to be a success even more. I don’t like being in the bathrooms here.

            We now all have jobs to do. We need to make the signs to get approved for posting, gather evidence in the form of pictures of the restrooms, and we need to right a conclusion and abstract for our proposal. There is documentation of incidents but they are confidential and we do not have access to them. There is lots of work ahead for us to do all this week. The plan is for everyone to do their part by Tuesday and then put the whole thing together by Thursday so that we get it done before it is due.

            Seeing how far we have come on our project has lifted a big burden off of my shoulders. I am more relaxed now that I have seen what is going on. I only hope that everyone got there parts done so I don’t have to start worrying more. 

Trouble Number 3

            I’m really worried about the project; I don’t know why I know it will get done. The group has yet to meet outside of class and that is worrying me. I can tell that we as a group have a lot of ideas but we all need to get together and find a way to organize the ideas. I went to meet with Professor Morris to explain to her my problem with what our group is doing. She agrees with me. We are far back from where we should be.

            In our group we have yet to develop a leader. Although it seems that Sara and I are heading towards that position. I would much rather her have the job of delegating duties to us. I don’t like to be the person in charge of things.

            That’s a lie; I like to be in charge when it’s a topic I am strong in. When I know I am not strong in an area I prefer to let others take the lead. Writing is not my strong suite and if this project was science based I would gladly take the position of group leader.

            Professor Morris said that someone needs to step up and be a leader. Come tomorrow and we are still lost I will be ready to do so; I plan to have a list of jobs and ideas ready to get what we need done. Its crunch time for the proposal it should not take more than a few days to write and we need to get it done now. 

            I also need to contact everyone in the group and set up a time outside of class to meet and work on the project. This project is beginning to be a pain and I need to get it done so that I can go on with my life. I am really worried about what is going on with this project. I spend a lot of time going into panic attack over this project. By the way, way to go unprotected sack group I saw your sign outside south.

Numba 2

I met with the group in class and we have our basic ideas ready we know we want to somehow improve the cleanliness of the dorms. They are disgusting, especially, Thursday nights and weekends when my fellow students come back drunk. They always manage to miss the toilet when they are vomiting.  I will say they are fun to watch staggering in, and they sometimes are very funny. Unfortunately they make a mess.

            It was so bad one weekend that every men’s toilet on the first floor was taped off and a custodian had to be called in to clean them it took the guy over two hours. I used the bathroom on the second floor.  We are working on ways to improve the cleanliness and getting the fellow students to help.

            I like to think of myself as an optimist, but as of now I don’t see how we are going to fix this problem. Students at KU love to get drunk, I don’t drink but I understand why KU students do. Look around there is nothing in KU. To the north of campus there is corn (or dirt in the winter). West there is a graveyard then corn. South there is corn, and east there is a small town and then corn. There is nothing for the students to do but go out and party

            Maybe what we should talk about is getting activities on the weekend that will attract students and keep them from drinking. That would solve the problem of vomit on the toilet.

            The second problem is much harder to deal with. There are two types of people; they are morning and night people. Morning people are not a problem they are quieter when people are sleeping. Night people are very loud at night it is not uncommon to be woken up by people yelling multiple times a night my group is currently working on a way to solve this problem. I have my way but it only will work for me not everyone. I’m beginning to worry that our group is not meeting outside of class. 

Welcome to my Blog

First off, welcome to my blog. This blog exists to tell the story of my experience through English 023. This class is going to be challenging to me but I know I will get through it.

The major project for this course is a group project where the group will create a way to solve a local problem. Unfortunately I am not a big fan of group projects. I have a hard time like most people relying on people to pull their weight in a group. I am use to doing all if not most of the work when it comes to working in groups. I don’t want to do that anymore and I for this project I hope to not have to step up to the leader role.

The good news is that I got to choose what topic I wanted to work on. At the beginning of class topics that we told Professor Morris what topic we wanted to do. Originally I wanted to work on saving the theater department. I wanted that because I have a few theater major friends who will not be returning to KU and I didn’t want them to leave. Since not many people wanted to work on that topic, I switched to the dorm issues group. I am fine with that there are a lot of things that I would like to change.

I did realize that I had to be careful with how I attack the issues, I am employed by Housing and Residential Life Office (the people who run the dorms aka HARLO) so I have to be careful with what I do. If I do this correctly I won’t get in trouble with my employer, but our plan isn’t to attack HARLO it is to get the support of students in keeping the bathrooms clean and to lessen the screaming at two in the morning.

As of now I am very excited to work with my group they seem like a bunch of good people. I hope this project goes well. I also hope that I my employer won’t take this the wrong way.