I was thinking today about the improvements I have made from the beginning of this course until now. I think that I have opened up a bit more in my work and gained a little bit more confidence in my writing skills now that I have spent the last few months constantly writing something. I’m hoping that I can take the skills that I have learned and apply them in my life moving forward. I only say this because I was thinking about my old job in Germany and I feel like I didn’t take much from what I learned away with me.
I was a video trainer. I created online videos for Microsoft Office 2013 and Windows 8 so that schools and companies could use our product in the same screen of the Microsoft application that is being used. This job was hard for me. I am a very quiet person, I like to keep to myself and don’t really want to be noticed. Being the center of attention and teaching something made me extremely nervous. During this time, I learned how to work in front of a camera, read off a teleprompter and do voice over work. It took me a long time to find a way to be comfortable in this situation and by the end I still wasn’t confident in what I was doing. I think the fear of maybe not teaching something in a way that made sense to everyone made me nervous and would give us negative reviews. Today was the first day that I have ever bothered to look up the reviews for the courses that I have done. To my surprise there wasn’t a negative one out there. I was sure that my courses were not good and a big disappointment to myself. But seeing what people said about how they learned things and liked my style, I am starting to think now that maybe this whole time I was extremely hard on myself. I think I need to take a step back in the things I do and go with my first instinct because that is when I do best. Instead of doubting myself I should realize I have the potential. I’m hoping now I can start to move forward, because this sense of failure I had held me back in some things that I do. Now that I am done with my tangent, I guess what I am trying to say is that this course has helped me gain a bit more confidence in my writing which is big because I was not looking forward to this at the beginning. I am happy that this course ended up in my curriculum.
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Over the past year, on the news and social media, the Police have been getting a lot of negative press because of how they have handled certain situations. And also, because of this, racism has been tied in as well. The men and women that join this field have dedicated their lives to protect us but even I find myself upset with how some events are handled. Maybe the fact that I am older and not oblivious to things anymore plays into that. Or maybe living in different countries and seeing how their system functions plays into my thoughts now? Regardless, I do think that this is an issue in our country and some things need to change. But hey, we now have a President who loves violence, so this most likely will never change. One of the biggest issues that I have with our system is how forceful they are in some cases. There have been countless times where an innocent person was shot dead and that is the main issue I do have. When did it become okay to shoot someone? What about using a Taser or another method that could stun the person instead of ending their life. I also don’t only want to focus on people being killed by our police, but also dogs have been as well. In the video I posted, there are some stats about our system that I think are a bit mind blowing. “Fatal Shots by US Police Since 2013: More than 575 people wielding blades, other weapons but not a gun.” “Fatal Shots by British Police Since 2013: 1 person wielding a knife.” I just think that says a lot. While I was living in Europe, I did notice some things that were different over there that I personally liked. For one, instead of the police pulling you over for speeding, they set up cameras throughout the country and if you are speeding it takes a picture of the car and license plate and you get the ticket in the mail. This saves the police their resources by keeping their cops around for more important issues by having technology take care of this task for them. I don’t understand why we haven’t implemented this more, I was a fan. I did feel like the police were spending time looking out for citizens and I appreciated that. I also think another thing that plays into this issue is that fact that the individuals who are going through training in Europe spend a lot more time in school and out in the field with close supervision and this can take up to two years. Over here it only lasts on average for 19 weeks. At the end of the day, who would you want looking after your community? Someone who was only in training for a few weeks or someone who spent a few years, showing dedication and got a lot more training at the end of it? I know which one I would choose. Maybe, hopefully, one day we can implement some of their ways into our system. If we can learn that violence isn’t the only way to handle a situation, I think it would not only benefit them in the way citizens think of them but maybe people will then ‘follow’ them and hopefully some things can calm down. One of the biggest things to happen within this year is that gay marriage is now legal. This issue has been a hot topic with friends and some family members since this has positively affected their lives. But now, after the election the mood has shifted. What was once happy is now sad because people feel that the progress that was made is going to regress and things will go back to what they used to be. I decided to write about this topic because I was talking to my brother the other day about this and some people in his circle have cut themselves off, due to being upset after the results of the election were read. And ever since that conversation this topic has been on my mind.
It’s funny to me how America is the land of the free, unless you are gay, or I should say up until recently. Gays were always judged for who they are and there were restrictions on what they could do with their lives. I just can’t fathom how we, ‘the people’, had the right to dictate what others did with their lives? I would just be heartbroken if someone told me I couldn’t marry who I loved. I just had this conversation the other day with my boyfriend. In my mind, what is so wrong with marrying someone of the same sex? If they make you happy at the end of the day who am I to judge? If I am allowed to get married to any guy I wanted, whether they are good or bad, how is it fair that I get this choice when others don’t? I don’t get the mindset of others if they think differently from me. I think that for most people, it is a quest in life to find your soul mate and sure some never find theirs. But once you do, whether they are a different race, nationality or the same sex, you should never let it go. Sure, some people think that marriage is just a piece of paper and they don’t see the reason for going through with it but everyone has their own opinions. To some, it means a lot to them, the thought of commitment is enough in itself. This just gets me thinking about how any of these laws that we have today came into play. How did a couple of men or women get to have so much power that it took over the country and had others people follow their beliefs. I love how when you are growing up, people are always teaching you to think for yourself but then you have things like this: not allowing gay marriage for example. Why can’t we just think for ourselves and live our lives the way we want to? At the end of the day, if you aren’t hurting anyone and if you are happy that should be the end of the story. I’m more than happy that same sex marriage is now, I can’t believe I am even going to use this word, but I can’t believe how it is now ‘accepted’ and ‘allowed’. But now that it is, I may be starting to think that people are starting to evolve and heading in the right direction. At least that is what most people thought up until recently. I guess now the only thing to do is to wait and see what happens… For my academic mindset project, I did not have anyone work with me on it. Honestly, I think this was a good approach because this is more of a personal paper since it is based off of my opinions and thoughts on these different readings and videos. The most difficult part of writing this assignment would be condensing my thoughts because I had a lot to say I guess. I had to spend a lot of time editing this paper, a lot of time…
I started working on this Monday after class since it got my mind moving. This was good for me since I had a few days to really take my time on my work. I ended up writing the paper at a client’s house that I pet sit for and this worked out quite well since it is a different environment. I wrote about the topic I chose for two reasons: one that was part of the assignment and two I wanted to add some personal things to it. Like how I felt during SAT prep. I do feel like my writing process is improving but hopefully I will continue to grow throughout this course and maybe I will develop new ideas/thoughts to add to the Academic Mindset Writing. After I read the section in the text, "Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners [...] (Chicago University)", I found that the mindset that fit into my life the best was number three, I can succeed at this (Self-efficacy). I say this because I guess after thinking about it, I have only ever really gravitated towards things in life that I am good at. Like working with animals for example. But, in my academic career, the mindset that is the most important for me to help achieve my academic success is the growth mindset. I really do feel like that if I put all of my effort into my work, I can improve in this course and others that are down the road. Sometimes all you need is that little push, or have someone explain something to you in a way that you understand and I think that is what I was given. I must say, that since I started this course I have been able to see some changes in the way I think and do things. Remember, “If you don’t succeed once, try, try again”.
In the readings, “Teachers, Parents Often Misuse Growth Mindset Research, Carol Dweck Says” and “The perils of “Growth Mindset” education: Why we’re trying to fix our kids when we should be fixing the system”, Dweck and Kohn both believe that the mind is a powerful thing. I can certainly agree with them. They focus on the two mindsets, growth and fixed, that individuals use during their day to day lives, whether it’s for their work or academic careers. A fixed mindset is when a person feels like they have limited potential in certain areas. A growth mindset is when someone feels like there is always room for improvements. Let’s say someone might think that they can never paint since they are terrible at it but at the same time have done nothing to improve this skill, what would this be an example of? This is a fixed mindset. The individual has essentially accepted that fact that they can’t paint and won’t do anything to improve on it. I believe that if you are someone who leans towards the growth mindset, it says a lot about yourself. I think this because many people do not really think they need to fix on things in their life but if you can see your weakness and improve on them, you are a strong person and are going to get far in life.
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