Final Blog

I was not able to blog on my completion of my project due to a lack of time so I thought I would touch breifly on the final process now. I originally expected to complete my project on Friday without any problems, but as there was an issue with scheduling I was forced to complete my project by Wednesday instead. I knew this was going to be difficult but I welcomed the challange. I spent from six to ten in the library printing, cutting things out, and putting some pages together. I then went back to my room and worked until one in the morning. I was suprised with my focus and I can honestly say I did not take any breaks in bewteen because I knew I had so much work to do. Assembling a scrapbook took longer then I could have ever imagined, and even after I was done putting all the pages together I still had to decorate all of them with stickers which took a decent amount of time as well. I have never been so happy to complete something like I was when I finished my scrapbook. I think all my hard work paid off and I was pleased with the end result.

I did not get the time I had planned or wanted to prepare my presentation, but I had a free before class that I had a little time to put together what I would discuss. I came into class nervous that I was ill prepared for my presentation, but as I was presenting I was suprised at how naturally it came to me. I was unsure that I was going to be able to talk for the whole fifteen minutes but as I was wrapping up I realized I could have easily talked for another ten minutes. I enjoyed sharing the scrapbook I had put so much effort in with the class. I also suprised myself with how much I enjoyed reading my work. I read a few stories to the class and they reacted very positively and laughed at  some of them which made me feel good. I wasn't nervous speaking in front of the class, and I have definately come a long way from my first presentation in front of the class at the beggining of the year. I improved upon my speaking skills by gaining cofidence in my public speaking due to the fact we had to do two presentations on our projects. I ended up enjoying these presentations which I did not think was going to be possible. I was also able toimprove my speaking and listening skills by conducting interviews with the eleven people included in my scrapbook. I was forced to be serious when talking to them, which was a little bit of a change of pace. I do not think my project tested my listening skills as much as it could have, but I am not too worried about this considering I think I have made huge improvement on my listening skills this year in class. Mr. Igoe has taught me it is important to not only listen to your peers, but to also respond to what they are saying.

As for my other skills, I think I was able to become a better reader by setting myself deadlines. I knew when I wanted to finish reading the poetry books by, and I gave myself a reading goal for everyday. I also enjoy reading poetry so this made things a little easier. I beleive my writing improved during this project as well because I started off nervous to write true stories. At first my stories started out factual and boring but once I realized how to make them more descriptive and intresting they got more fun to read. I also loved writing poetry for my project. My thought process was constanly being testing during this whole process, and it was challanged the most editing my stories and making them better.

I think for me one of the most helpful things about this project was the logs. I did not love to write logs because sometimes they can be tedious and slightly annoying, but in the end I think they really helped me. I always procrastinate so I thought this would be the case on my senior seminar project, but it did not turn out happening. I was pleased with myself that up until the last minute schedule change I was able to manage my time appropriately.

This final project was a great oppurtunity to delve into an area we really enjoy rather then doing something that is required of us. I think this was a chance to provide an outlet to our creativity and I liked doing this project. I am glad I picked my project because now I can look back on how I spent my senior spring, as well as my time at LA as a whole, doing things I enjoy doing. I am happy I made a scrapbook because I will have it forever and it is a fun peice I can show my family and friends. I had a fun time doing this project and I think the seniors next year will share this feeling.

This weekend I spent a large portion of time doing my scrapbook page for Becca, Liv, Molly, Vail, and Cyn. I had so many pictures that I had to split them into two pages. During class today I spent the whole period starting my page for Mariah, Morgan, and Caroline. I then spent the two hours of study hall finishing this page as well as the page on my first day at Lawrence.I have noticed that recently I have remained extremely focused because I know its important to get this project done. As of right now I am just getting down the pictures and the writing and I am going to come back at the end and put decorations on all of the pages. I really enjoy making the scrapbook; it brings out an artistic side of me I did not know I had. I am about half way through with completing my scrapbook, so I do not know if I will meet my goal of finishing by Wednesday, but it will definitely be done by Friday. I think it looks pretty good so far and I am happy with the work I have done.

Last night I had multiple people read over my stories in the library to make sure I did not miss any grammatical errors. After I checked them over myself again I printed all of them and cut them out. I spent the last hour of study hall doing this. Today during my two frees I began making my first page for my friends from home, and in class I finished it. Making one page took longer then I thought it would, so I have a good amount of work cut out for me in this next week. I have a lot of time this weekend that I am hoping to dedicate to my scrapbook so I won't be as pressed for time and stressed out next week. I really enjoy designing the scrapbook, and although it was hard trying to figure where to put what at first, once I finished the first page it became easier. I am presenting Friday, but I hope to be done by Wednesday so I can prepare my presentation. 

Last night I spent the second hour of study hall at my desk and finished up all of the typing for my project. I also added more pictures to Julia's page and cut them all out. Tonight I am going to try to start putting pages together. Tommorrow I have two frees so I think this will be a helpful chunk of time to get my work done. I am excited to present my final project and I think I will just show every page of my scrapbook and read a few stories and a poem that I have not previosuly shared with the class. I am going to rehearse what I have to read a few times so I get it down so I am not nervous during my presentation.

Last night I spent all of studyhall working on my project in the library. I have finished all of my editing but I had to type up many of my finished stories. I did this last night and only have my Atlantis page and Vail, Devin, and Ty's interview to still type on the computer. I adjusted the size of all of my photoes for my friends from home and my page on Liv, Molly, Becca, Cyn, and Vail, as well as printed them out and cut them. This is simple work but it is time consuming. I also interviewed Conor again on some of his favorite memories because he only gave me one last time. It was funny to see that a lot of our favorite memories are the same. He talked about one of his favorite memories being when he took me to a Red Sox game because I had never been to one, and this is a memory I mentioned in my poem for his page. I spent my free today putting my pictures together for Julia's page. Tonight I am going to finish all the typing for my project and I hope to put together, print, and cut as many pictures as possible. I have started to lay out the pages I already have, which has actually been suprisgly fun although I am not very artistic.

I spent my time this weekend as well as today during class finishing the writing and editing portion of my project. I did not find it very intresting, but it needed to be completed. It is a relief to finally be done with all of my writing. I also bought all of my scrapbooking supplies this weekend. I was suprised at how many scrapbooking items there were at the store, and I am really excited to start making my scrapbook. Today I spent my two frees in my room at my desk choosing pictures to put in my scrapbook. I finished finding pictures for Lucy, Sonia, Julia, and Sam's page as well as Molly, Olivia, Cyn, Becca, and Vail's page. I am happy I have finished finding pictures for my friends from home because I knew that would be the most time consuming of all the pages because we have so many pictures together.

Yesderday I spent time in and out of class writing my poem for Mariah, Caroline, and Morgan's page. I made it ryhme unlike Conor's poem. I find that ryhming poems are usually easier to write but for the most part I like poems that do not ryhme better. I chose to make my two friendship poems rhyming because I feel like that lightens the mood of the poem and makes it more fun to read, which correspondes with the relationships the poems describe. Tonight before studyhall I worked at my desk for about forty minutes on finalizing my poem and making edits. This weekend I hope to gather the supplies for my scrapbook so I can start working on actually making it.

Today I spent the whole class period writing my poem for Conor's page. I finally got an idea I liked and went with it. I spent the first forty minutes of study hall tonight editing my poem and fixing it up. Throughout this process I have realized that I can't force poetry out of myself. If I am not having any good ideas or am not able to think of any material, there is no point in wasting my time trying. I have seen that I must leave my work alone and come back to it later if I want to be successful. Going into this project I knew my biggest obstacle was going to be time management because I have a very bad habit of procrastinating. I have found that the resolution for this problem is figuring out my time frame and setting a goal for each day. This way I know when I get off track or if I need to work particularly hard on a given night. Procrastination has not been a big problem for me so far on this project. I have also learned that this self-discipline has allowed me to produce better work.

Last night I spent the first hour and a half of study hall in the library finishing Friendship Poems and working on my poem for Conor's page. The poems I liked were "Best Society" and "To A False Friend". "Best Society" is a poem about how the speaker always assumed solitude was a given when he was young but as he grew up he learned that this was not the case, and that being alone was not always possible. The speaker also discusses how solitude is usually looked down upon by society. "To A False Friend" is a poem about two friends that will no longer meet and repeats the line "Our hands have join'd but not our hearts." I did not make much progress with the poem for Conor's page last night. I wrote a few versions but I didn't really like any of them and I am experiencing a bit of writer's block when it comes to writing this poem. Hopefully I will be able to overcome this tonight so I can finally finish this poem.

I spent this weekend finishing up my interviews for my Atlantis page. I talked to Lucy, Sam, Julia and Conor. It was interesting to hear a moment that was special to each of them, because everyone's seems to be a little different. I also read to page 160 in Friendship Poems. I enjoyed the poem "Last Words To A Dumb Friend", which was a poem about the memories the speaker had with his dog and how the dog could never be replaced. One of the reasons I enjoyed this poem was because of its interesting rhyme scheme. Another poem I liked was "Hearing That His Friend Was Coming From The War", which discusses the thought process of the speaker awaiting the arrival of his friend from war and how he always goes to his house while he waits for his friend. By tomorrow I will finish this book and be able to focus on finishing  my final writing pieces.

Today I spent both of my free periods finishing the check list, which took more time then I estimated. I had a little time to work on my poem, but I am still not done with it so I will be continuing my work on that. I did this work at my desk in my room.I am going to use my class time today to do some of my reading in Friendship Poems so I can finish the book by Wednesday. This weekend I am also going to finish the listening and speaking aspect of my project. I only have to interview my friends from home as well as Conor about their favorite memory of Atlantis, which will be easy because I am going home this weekend so I will be able to talk to all of them in person besides Conor. I think it will be easy to meet these two deadlines I have set for myself.

Last class I spent the period working on the check list due Friday. Tonight I spent the first hour of study hall in the library writing the poem I will put on Conor's page. I got inspiration from the poem "in Defence of Adultery", which I mentioned in my last post. I wrote a rough version that I am not that happy with so I hope to continue my work on it tomorrow. I also finished the first two pages of the check list, but need to do the last one as well as fill out the calendar. I have two frees tomorrow in which I hope to complete the checklist as well as edit my poem. I feel like I am pretty on track with my project at this point and hopefully I will be able to start actually putting my scrapbook together very soon.

Yesterday I spent the entire class reading Staying Alive. I read all of the poems in the section titled "In and out of love." I enjoyed this book more then the Friendship Poems book because I found the poems easier to understand and relate to.The majority of poems in the Friendship Poems rhyme, but in Staying Alive there is a nice balance. My favorite two poems I read in Staying Alive were "In Defence of Adultery" and "Desire's a Desire." "In Defence of Adultery" is a poem that makes numerous analogies for what falling in love is like; it was very detailed and captivating. "Desire's a Desire" discusses the down falls of desiring someone and how it consumes a person. Out of class I read to page 99 in Friendship Poems. I also talked to Dev, Ty, and my friend Sonia about there favorite memories from Atlantis, which is a page in my scrapbook because it shows how I was able to bring my friends from home and my friends at LA together over spring break. I also interviewed Jake and Vail again because I forgot to ask them their favorite memory during the first time I talked to both of them. I spent about a little more then an hour doing this during study hall last night in the library.

This weekend I was not able to reach my the goals I had set for myself prior to the weekend due to the fact I was very busy with my college decision. The work I managed to do was I read 65 pages on my Friendship Poems book. I found a lot of the poems strange and hard to understand but I did enjoy two of them, titled "Relationships" and "Being Her Friend". The two poems touched on the sacredness of friendship and how it can sometimes originate from stronger feelings. "Relationships" focused on the importance of sacrifice in a friendship while "Being Her Friend" emphasizes the speakers feelings of gratitude everyday for being friends with this woman. I also interviewed Mariah this weekend, but decided not to interview Morgan due to the fact I thought of a story that she would be included in. During class today I worked on a very rough draft about the time boys pushed me and Caroline in the pool in Florida and then Morgan just jumped in by herself. Out of class I spent the majority of study hall typing and editing the story I wrote. I did this in a study room in the library. I also interviewed Conor about the first time we met as well as his fondest memory, which was when we went jet skiing in Cape Cod.

Yesterday during class I presented my project. I thought it went pretty well and was surprised at how comfortable I felt in front of the class. This was the first time I have ever been able to speak in front of people without being really nervous, so I was pleased. My classmates seemed engaged in my presentation and asked a few questions when I was finished. Last night I interviewed Mariah in the library. I spent about a half an hour doing this. My goal for tonight is to interview Morgan as well as write a story about both of them. This story will be a rough draft that I will edit later. My friendship poem book has recently arrived so I will begin to read that this weekend as well.

mid term

Today was a pretty productive day for me. During class I spent my time answering the questions for the mid term presentation and managed to finish all of them. I was also given the opportunity to practice what I am weakest at; presenting my work to an audience. My audience today consisted of Cindy and her family. Out of class I worked in the library at a cubicle, which usually allows me to get my work done without distractions. I spent the whole study hall editing the rest of my work. The editing was difficult at times because some of my first drafts were pretty bad and needed a lot of work. This was not exactly fun but I feel better about my work now. I then picked out the poem and story I am going to share with the class tomorrow and timed my presentation to make sure it was okay. I am pleased with myself because I was able to achieve the goal i set for myself a few days ago.  

 Recently I have just been working on editing my work for Thursday's class. I am about half way through it, so I am in pretty good shape. Editing is probably my least favorite part of writing, but I know it is necessary. I usually do all of my editing at my desk in my room because it is one of the only places I can manage to stay focused. My goal for tomorrow's class is to continue my work and complete it by tomorrow night. I am excited to share with the class what I have been working on but I still have to figure out what stories or poems I am going to share with the class so I will do that tomorrow night. 

Today during class I planned to start writing a story about my first encounter with Conor. I acheived this goal and managed to finish the story during class. I wrote about how I thought he was really weird and he creeped me out. I then wrote out what I have left to do for my project so I can stay organized. All of my writing right now is fairly sloppy and needs editing but I am just trying to get the ideas out and taylor them later. Due to the fact I found out today that we are suppose to present our projects' Thursday, I am going to spend the rest of the week typing up what I have written so far and making edits to my first drafts. My goal is that by Thursday I will have editited all that I have and be ready for it to be shown to the class.

Today during my free I acheived my goal of interviewing Ty and Dev. Their favorite memories included the time we were all together and Ty tripped me and I fell face first into the dirt, as well as when Devin came to my house in CT. I spent about thirty minutes talking to both of them. The next period I had another free, so I spent about twenty minutes finishing the edits I had to do on my proposal. In class Mr. Iago informed us that we need to be more specific in our proposals, so I spent the class period doing this. I added the books I am going to read and the books I am going to skim, as well as the amount of people I plan to interview or have already interviewed.

memories

Today we did not have class but I made a goal for myself to interview Julia Kopleman. I did this tonight after study hall for about forty minutes. I did this in our room because we are roommates.We were laughing as we were remembering all the strange things we used to do last year such as order Wok n' Roll almost every night even though it was so gross and made us both sick. We were always dancing together and doing weird things. It was interesting to hear her first impression of me as well because she thought we would never be friends, and I thought the same, and now she is one of my best friends. Tomorrow I have set a goal for myself to interview Ty and Dev during a free that we all share.

Yesterday I had a productive class period. I talked to Mrs. Moore about poetry books I could read for inspiration and she gave me one she thought would be good. I also started a new story about a funny moment I had with Caroline Cort and finished that same story during the class. I am excited about this story because it is really funny; it is about the time I threw Caroline's bra up in a tree and Mr. Wiggins ended up having to get it. I am also excited about this story because I have a picture that captures the struggle that me and Caroline went threw trying to get her bra out of a tree that is perfect for my scrapbook. Last night I interviewed Vail over the phone. I enjoy interviews becuase it it intresting to hear another person's perspective of a time we have both shared. I then spent a short time looking over the book Mrs. Moore gave me and have found some stuff I can work with and get ideas from.

Yesterday in class I began writing a story of my first day at LA. I have recently decided to put in two seperate pages on experiences I have had into my scrapbook because I think they are important peices to my senior year, as well as the fact they tie in with my friends. After class I finished my first story about my first experience in the dorm at Lawrence and then I wrote another story about the preaseaon meeting last year. It was fun to remeber these instances because I look back on them fondly. The next thing I hope to do tonight is interview Vail about a memory of us together.

Today during class I finished my story about Liv Becca and Molly. I also wrote out the layout for my scrapbook and decided all the people I am going to include in it. I have a great deal of work to do but I feel like I am on a good track. After class I interviewed Jake, Will, and Cyn.

This weekend I spent time typing as well as editing the poem and the three stories I have written so far. My goal for class tomorrow is to finish writing my most recent story. My goal for tomorrow night is to interview Cyn so that I am able to conclude my second page of my scrapbook. So far it has been a little difficult for me to write stories because they are all true and I have not had a lot of experience with writing stories like this. As of right now, my favorite aspect of this project has been writing poetry. I also think I will enjoy the interviews I will conduct.

Yesterday we did not have class, but after school I worked on my last story concerning my friends from home. I finished it, so now I am done with the page on my friends from home for right now. I still have to add pictures and quotes but right now I am just going to focus on getting all the writing done and do the quotes and decorating at the end. Next I am going to work on my page about my first friends at LA.

Yesterday in class I wrote a new memory about leaving my friends from home. I then began writing about a different experience I had with my friends during a night in the summer. I also met with Mr. Iago and went over what I was going to be doing this term. I changed my calendar a little bit considering I am now going to group my friends into sections and each page may have more then one friend on it. I also have decided to include my important experiences in my pages with my friends on them, instead of giving the important experiences pages of their own. I am happy because I think while the amount of work I have to do is a lot, it is also managable and I am not in over my head.

Day 2

Today in class I received feedback from Cindy about my poem, which she liked. I then began writing an anecdote about a funny experience that I had with one of my friends from home. I spent all class working on it, and finished it tonight. The next thing I have to do is think of a memory or two that I can write about where all of my friends are included considering the story I have completed is only about one of them. I like to write these stories because it is fun to relive the memories and how I felt during these moments.

The First Day

Today was the first day we worked on our project.During class I tried to write a poem about my friends from home but had a little trouble so I went online and read poems about friendship for inspirtation. This was helpful and I began writing a poem about my four best friends from home and the experinces we have shared together. Out of class I spent about an hour finishing the poem. I made the poem ryhme which was difficult but fun at the same time.

The Proposal

On Friday in class we were given some time to brainstorm for our projects. I have decided to do a scrap book about my time at Lawrence Academy. I am planning on writing anecdotes as well as poems about my experience. I am also going to include pictures and decorations. I bounced ideas off of Cindy who is thinking of doing a similar project about how I can include all of the six skills. Out of class this weekend I spent time completing the Spring Term Project Proposal Worksheet and typing it into a paper. I will spend a few more minutes tonight editing my paper. I learned that in order to complete this project I am going to always keep up with the work and never leave anything until the last minute. It is a lot easier for me to use my time wisely and spread the work out.