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.