It’s not the end; it’s just a good-bye!

LAST TECH ASSIGNMENT! L

I’m feeling a little nostalgic at the moment. I’ve been having so much fun in my CLS 105 class doing the journal, new strategies, TECH assignment, and the projects that I didn’t notice just how time flew by. I feel like I just got here for the first day of class. I remember I was so nervous and now I feel so at home here in this class and at SU. I can’t believe I’m almost done with my first semester as a freshman. Time does fly by when you’re having fun!

This feels so surreal. I’m happy but at the same time kind of sad because I don’t want to leave yet. But I really can’t wait to get home to my mother and sisters. I miss them so much! Especially my dog Gallego. And the beautiful sunny days in Puerto Rico. Such an amazing island!

If you ever get the chance to go visit Puerto Rico…GO FOR IT! You won’t regret it!

Now, going back to our last TECH assignment. I can’t believe this is our last one. I’m going to miss working on my blog.

We’re almost over and one thing I’ve noticed that I’ve used since the very beginning of classes was the D’s Due and Do! I love this strategy because it organizes all my work and at the same time writing all exams, projects, and papers that are due releases my stress. Because I am able to see when everything is due for all of my courses, then I can organize when will I do each assignment which in turn takes away some of my stress away because I am more organized.

When I am organized I always feel less stressed!

Here you can see an example of my D’s Due and Do:

As you can see I drew a line in the middle and then on one side (it can whichever side you want) I wrote down Do and on the other side I wrote down Due. On the Due side I wrote down when all my homework, readings, papers, or projects were due for PSC 121, WRT 105, CLS 105, SPA 202, and ETS 107. Then on the Do side I wrote down when I will be writing a paper, studying for an exam, or reading.

Follow this and I guarantee you will feel so organized and less stressed!

Another strategy I’ve been using since the beginning is the Building Blocks to Finish Graph/Chart! I say this because it looks both like a graph and chart. But that’s beside the point, this graph/chart you can draw it, make it in Excel, or in Word under the Tables tab. I do it in Word and use a lot of bright colors.

If I can explain how to create it you won’t understands so here is my example so you can follow.

Course	Wed. Nov. 30	Thurs. Dec. 1	Fri. Dec. 2	Sat. Dec. 3	Sun. Dec. 4	Mon. Dec. 5	Tue. Dec. 6
PSC 121	QUIZ! Readings: Voting, Elections (ch. 15)	Study for final!!!! Read and answer questions on syllabus!	Look at past exams and quizzes! Start a review!	Keep on working on review!
SPA 202	Activity A & B p. 74 and 125	Examen: Cap. 9&10 Exam I missed: Cap. 10	Work on final paper!!!!	Work on final paper!!!			Bring 1st draft of final paper!!!
CLS 105	Building Blocks to Finish!	Work on Major/Exploration Project.	Do last TECH!			Major/Exploration Project Due!
ETS 107	Q&A		Write a question down for next Q&A!
WRT 105		Work on final paper!!!!	Continue writing final paper!!!!	REVISE PAPER!!!	Have final paper done!!!!	FINAL PAPER DUE!!!!!

Remember LAME????

LAME LAME LAME LAME LAME LAME LAME LAME LAME

DOES IT RING A BELL?!

Learner- Describe your type of learner and learning preferences.

Action- Explain the strategy you chose and show your example of it.

Materials- Describe how the strategy helped you achieve something in the class you tried it for.

Evaluation- Reflect on what went really well when the strategy was put to action and think about what didn’t go so well. Then explain what would you change about it or how would you adapt it so that it works.

I am a visual learner. This means that I learn and comprehend better when the material is visual. Something visual would be color-coding, graphic organizers, pictures, drawings, graphs or charts. That is why I chose D’s Due and Do and Building Blocks to Finish. You can see the examples above. These strategies helped me finish my work on time and if I forgot I what I had to do I would go immediately to my planner or graph/chart to check. It went well using these strategies but sometimes I wouldn’t follow everything that said on the planner or graph/chart. Next time I would have to organize it in a way that I know I will follow.

Hope everyone understood and enjoyed my explanations and pictures! Please try this out! It will guide your way into high school or college! I’m sure even an adult could use these strategies for work!

This is my good-bye! I had a blast using this blog! Thank you my TECH assignment friends for everything and all the beautiful comments! I will miss you all!

Again Janine thank you for all the help, motivational speeches, and the great friendship you have given me! I will miss our Friday sessions!

Have a great Merry Christmas with much love and affection,

Gilmarie

Ranking Priorities- Finals addition!

Hey everyone! I hope everyone is surviving the last week of classes! I know this week and next can be VERY stressful, so I ranked priorities and then created a schedule for today to help me get everything accomplished! I’ve done ranking priorities twice before and that shows how much I value it! As a visual leaner, I LOVE creating lists and being able to visually see what needs to be accomplished. The first step of ranking priorities, is writing down everything that needs to be completed. Then, you put them in order of importance (either by date or by project size/length it will take you). My list is ranked by how big of a task it is. For example, even though I have homework due before my psych test, studying for psych takes much more time and effort, so I need to start planning and studying before starting the homework.  A means that it is a crucial task; B means that it is an important task, but doesn’t need to be accomplished right away; C means that it is an optional task.

A 1 Finish Psych Study Guide 12/6

A 2 CLS Tech 12/4

A 3 WRT Paper 12/7

A 4 Study psych 12/6

A 5 Spanish hw 12/5

A 6 Psych Essay- Due 12/9

A 7 Spanish Oral 12/6

B 1 Psych movie/paper 12/6

C 1 Pack!

Because I have such a complicated schedule next week with it seems like never-ending work, after I ranked priorities, I created a study schedule to keep myself on task with everything. It’s so great having a plan and knowing that everything can be finished!! It’s definitely a de-stressor. I included some breaks because it’s not healthy for your brain to continuously do work for hours on end! That’s why going to the gym is such a great way to take a break because your mind takes a break while your heart gets a work out! It also feels great to exert some of that stress onto the machines! 

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!! I’m sure you will do splendidly on those finals!

-Hannah :) 

P.S. This is the last TECH!! :( I just want to thank my group for doing such a great job blogging! Another thank you to the best TA ever, Janine!!

Stay strong, stay motivated!

The semester is coming to an end and I’m not sure how you feel but I think personally, my brain wants to explode. We just got back from Thanksgiving break but I cannot wait until the next two weeks are over and have a LONG break of NO schoolwork! It’s beginning to get really tough to stay motivated and complete all of my work, but I know I have to stay focused and end this semester strong and successful. So, in order to do so I picked a strategy called Exploring Rewards, it is a strategy to finding rewards that are powerful enough to improve your motivation, and let me tell you now, after doing this, it got me so pumped if I am able to fulfill my highest-cost reward!! My sister is a senior in college and is a traveling maniac, everywhere she has traveled and studied has been somewhere that speaks Spanish, so therefore she is now an expert in Spanish. Currently she is studying in Peru and I am going to visit her in January. Could be such a good feeling to go there and surprise her with all this great Spanish I’ve learned in just one semester! That is a reward that doesn’t have real cost, just a personal feeling cost to me. The big high-cost reward for me in finishing out this semester strong would be receiving an A in Spanish, which yes, is a 4 credit class! That would boost my GPA up, which can help me out in so many different directions! I know that it is a hard last two weeks but I’m telling you, do this for each of your classes (I did it for all of mine!) and it will help motivate and hype you up to wanting to kick butt and end the semester strong!! Just follow my directions to do so and you can look off of my example from Spanish to help you get through it as well!

Make a chart like mine, I like to use colors because I am a visual learner and it helps me stay more organized! So first with one class, write the no-cost rewards, second write the low-cost reward(s), that are things that are rewarding but not enough for motivation, and the last box write the HIGH-COST REWARD!! It should feel good writing that last box because it is an accomplishment and a reward! I did this in a way of being reminded to not give up, so if you have somewhere, hang that chart up in your room for the next two weeks of school, and when that last day comes, you should be able to take that/those charts down with a smile of success!!

GOOD LUCK ON YOUR FINALS EVERYONE!!!!!! Happy almost Winter Break!