Metacognition: Clean Up

              For this project, I have decided to completely reorganize my room. Since it's small, it continues to get cluttered every day with more and more papers and items I collect. The build up is unnecessary so I feel that creating a working system of organization, I will be less stressed in my life.
              Before beginning this project, I felt really cluttered and dirty. Having a messy working space never results in a good outcome. For the most part, I find myself working a lot on homework and other projects in my room. This environment is livable and clean, but that's only on the outside. If someone were to step in my room they would think they have entered a space of peace and tranquility. However, taking a look in my closet, under my bed, or in my drawers, they would find a messy and unorganized dark hole.
              At the start of this process, I felt overwhelmed because of the amount that had to be done. It was stressful picking a place to start because I kept thinking about the big picture of what needed to be accomplished. However, I realized that starting on small things would be the best way to approach this. I started with under my desk where over the last year, a huge stack of papers and pamphlets of ACT practice and college info had collected. I normally don't look back on these, but the pile continues to grow larger and larger. Before I began to clear this out and organize it, I decided to go through each of the papers and figure out what the essentials were at this point in the college process. I was very successful with my duty to help the earth because of how much I ended up recycling.
            Once that was complete, I even felt a small weight lift from me. I felt more on top of my college situation after just reviewing all of the clutter. I did similar things with my drawers and closet and found that there were a lot of unnecessary things creating clutter around there. After completing the cleaning process, I felt such relief. I know that my life has just become a lot more organized, even though I do consider myself to be organized already. This just enhances it and makes me feel more confident about the work I can accomplish now that I have taken this big step to having a cleaner room and working space.
            My mind feels so much less stress. The stress did build up at the beginning of the project because of the type of day I was having. I thought a lot about college and after finishing the cleaning, I was able to make a few decisions about that. This project really helped my mind advance and started it off on a clean slate. I think it's important to be able to start each week off with a clean slate. I normally set aside time on my Sunday to clean my room so I won't be stressed when school starts again on Monday. I just took it a step further today and because of this, my mind feels a lot clearer.
             I know now that I can accomplish any big task if I really put my mind to it. It's hard to get the motivation to start a big project, but after the first steps of working on it, it gets easier and easier. I learned that once you accomplish a small task, it's easier to motivate yourself to finish a project or something even bigger. I will remember this the next time I want to finish something that doesn't seem doable.
             

Carry it Forward: Plato's Allegory of the Cave

              In the reading I did the other day for Sophie's World, I read about a philosopher named Plato. His beliefs really struck me as valuable and as an important way to live by. There is certainly a lot of information forced at the reader about philosophy. Honestly, none of which were much of an interest to me because of how obvious all these theories are about life. It does not make any difference to me whether it was Plato, Aristotle, or Socrates who made the discovery or had the idea. However, for some reason, the author chooses to take the idea of philosophy and the history of it and incorporates it into a novel rather than writing a text book which people read who intend to learn about these ancient philosophers.
                Anyways, I actually did get something out of the reading because of how true Plato's ideas are. The cave allegory talked about to how there is something more real and truthful waiting for us outside the cave. It made me think about the movie the Matrix which is actually based on Plato's allegory of the cave because of how clearly this historical example is applied into a present day film. The idea that there is some greater truth out there is an important idea to live by because of how much is stretches an individuals potential to see beyond their comfort.

What If: War Memorial

         In class we watched a documentary of Mia Lin, the designer of the Vietnam memorial and the Civil Rights memorial. This was extremely inspirational because I never realized exactly how much thought is put into each of these war memorials. Going through Mia Lin's life just before visiting the memorial site to plan it, she does months of research and discovers so much about the war itself or the Civil Rights Movement.
       After watching this documentary, I discovered that there is so much more involved in a memorial than a simple statue, wall, or building with names listed on it. When I visited the Vietnam War Memorial 4 years ago I didn't think much effort went into it because of how simple it was. However, if I were informed of the work and thought process behind this wall that came from Maya Lin, I probably would have had a deeper experience. However, being 13 years old, I don't think I would have understood much anyways.
          Watching this really makes me think of the question: What if I were to design a memorial for something? Would I be able to get a good enough understanding of an event such as war to create something this intense. In a way, this is what the 21st century project is challenging us to do: Use our creative side to make a representation of something great. I think that I would be able to make something meaningful, but to be in the same mindset as Maya Lin would be nearly impossible for someone of my level of education because of everything I have yet to experience.

Connection: Issues and Answers

         We're reading Sophie's World in class which I seriously don't think is even a novel. It's more of a history/ philosophy text book disguised as a piece of literature. I think it's fine how the author is trying make this more personal, or so it seems, but I think that this is a pathetic attempt at tricking the reader into thinking that this should be enjoyable for us. However, I see right through this lie. It is nothing but a lesson of philosophy. The parts that the author tries to incorporate Sophie's personal life is just lame because when he does describe her, it is so brief. Such a large percentage of the book consists of the letters written by this 'teacher' of Sophie's which makes me uninterested.
          However, every time I read this, I can't help but connect it to previous classes I have taken. For one, almost every philosophical topic that has been brought up in the book is something that my issues and answers class discussed. The whole topic about Plato and his Allegory of the Cave is something that I know all too much about because of how much time was spent discussing that in my other class. It defiantly helps to understand the philosophical information in Sophie's World but is basically repeating everything I have already discovered. I'm not sure if it is better that I already have looked into most of these questions about the world.   
          It would help if the novel had some type of exhilarating story but unfortunately, I have not yet found the excitement in this novel. Hopefully after reading more, I will learn new information or find something more personal to connect with.

iMedia: That Year

            This work strikes me so much because of how soothing it is. First of all, the artist Brandi Carlile is extremely talented. The song itself is absolutely beautiful and strikes me as a listener to want to know more about it. I looked up the meaning to it and discovered that she lost a great friend of hers when she was in high school to suicide.
            The music video clearly displays this, but it seems a bit too cliche. She is standing letting life pass her by as the seasons change as she talks about how she felt "that year". It's a cute idea, but it seems like there could have been something else more creative to make into a video for that song.
             Sometimes I think that this needs to be displayed in that type of way in order to transfer the message the artist tried to send. It seems that the music video at least was a bit too predictable which seems to be what a lot is made of in the media today. Even though the video is set up in this way, we can put that aside as the viewer and understand something greater about the actual music. What really struck me was that she found a way to incorporate a past experience of hers into something that caught my attention right when I heard it.
             This piece really matters because it shows how different people display their emotions. It needs to be seen that people can still be creative in today's society. However, some might view it as not being creative because of how much the video matches the song. The way that a person views this can say a lot about that person. There is so much to learn from a simple song or music video, and how you or I view this can say a lot about the type of people we are.

Best of the Week: Born in the Brothels

           This week we watched a very uncomfortably truthful film of children born into brothels in India. Just like so many underprivileged children, they grew up in an unloving, dirty environment. Although we are constantly told about underprivileged children and what we can do to make a difference, seeing footage of these very intelligent kids who have no hopes for their future but to work in the brothels like their mothers made me understand the realization of the struggle for so many children. They really are hopeless for their future because no schools will take kids who are from brothels in India. I believe that all people should have the rights to start their life clear of their family's history. To have a burden to carry starting from birth is an unfair truth that these kids face. They truly want an education and this film we watched help me to understand that. It rises awareness of the horrors that are happening right now, and by filming that, hopefully it will cause someone or some group of people to step up and make a difference.

Metacognition: QE Essay

                     Quite honestly, the first part of the QE essay I wrote was very unclear because I had no idea what I was doing. I felt as though the assignment was thrown at us and I was unsure of what type of question would go with what type of response. Upon completion of the first section, I felt no relief because it seemed very confusing.

 

                   These questions that were given to us to write about are very confusing. They require much more thinking than I am used to. Once I started the next section however, I was able to get a better understanding of my question and write my explanation. I think it takes me some mapping out before I really dive into what I'm working with to understand what I am writing about. I was blabbing a bit in the first section, which I was able to revise after completing the other two sections.

                 I think it's harder for me to write in order sometimes because I can never figure out how to open the essay to the reader until I know what I will write about. Often times I will change my mind to take a different direction than what I had originally planned so I like to save my introduction for the end. I would have liked to do the entire essay at one point as opposed to having each section due one at a time. On the contrary though, I think this helped me a lot to stay focused and feel more on top of my work. When I am given long time spans to do my work, I become more stressed out because I have so much of it to do. This did help me in that aspect, but in terms of my writing, I think I work better having everything due together so I can avoid messing up the first part of it when I work on it too soon.

Blogging Around

Spencer explained how the best thing he learned during one week of class was that good things take time. He used great examples from the movie Avatar, and its long process, as well as the Harry Potter series.

My comment on Spencer's Blog:

This is super interesting, ONE... because I didn't know that Avatar took 10 years to make and two, because I couldn't agree more with your discovery of the week.
For a movie to this extreme, of course it took a lot of money like you mentioned. That's one factor that made it so unique and creative.
I totally agree with that. I always knew that good things take time, but I guess I never really paid much attention to how much time can really impact a piece of work.
　
Elyse on the other hand, talked about how she is more productive at night. When she did her first mindbook entry, she waited until late at night before it was due, and realized that her mind is more creative in the evening when she is exhausted.

My comment on Elyse's Blog:

So reading this blog really opened my eyes to how you think and what your mind is really like. I never knew this was how you thought and how you work best. I guess it was also a discovery for you as well. I just read Spencer's blog and he wrote about how good things take time, but now I see the other end of that statement in your blog, I kind of like it. Maybe it's just that having a smaller amount of time will force you to get your mind fully engaged in the project and able to create such beautiful work. It seems that in past experiences of mine, cramming for a test or doing a project late sometimes seems to result in more productivity, or even a higher grade. I'll have to test this out in the near future.

Metacognition: Organization

When I work on an essay or project, I normally come up with my ideas as I am writing or creating the project. I find that I get the most inspiration when I am in the moment and working on the project. Normally brainstorming isn't very helpful.

            Now that I'm actually thinking about the process I go through when I create something, I realize that the way my brain works in kind of funny. I easily become stressed, and one way to avoid that is being organized. I try to keep all my stuff together and avoid becoming overwhelmed.

However, when I am creating, one would think that for an organized person, there would be some organization or planning before a piece of work is completed. But to be honest, even as I'm writing this, I am literally just writing out word for word everything that I am thinking of. In a way I guess that is brainstorming, but it ends up being my final copy. I guess that whatever I write the first time is the complete truth, which is what I want people to see about me. Not some edited, changed work that I can barely consider my own. Sure, I would have made it, but it wouldn't be as truthful to me because I altered it based on what I thought other people would like to hear.

I think whatever I am doing now is working just fine for me. I don't think that I will consider changing the way that I write because then it wouldn't be Becca's writing, it would be Becca's teacher's writing. I don’t want to have my work be conformed into the ‘proper’ way to write. I want it to be unshaped and unchanged from what comes out of my mind. I'm sure that I would be able to get my thoughts more organized if I did a little bit of planning ahead of time, but based on past experiences of experimenting with that, it has just been too stressful and time consuming. I take time in what I write as it is, but the most creative ideas come up when I am in the middle of writing or doing a project.  

Best of Week: Let's ace this class

                From now until the end of my schooling carreer, according to Mr. Allen, I will be able to ace all of my classes. What we learned in class this week that really caught my attention was the question of "how do you know if you know something?" Normally when I read an article or a book, I'll go through an entire page before realizing that I didn't understand any of it. In class the other day, we learned to take apart different elements from the work and try to gain some understanding of it. Whenever I come across an unfamiliar word, I'll normally glance over it. Although we all know this in the back of our minds, I finally realized that when you take the time to actually look up the word, it will be much more beneficial in the long run becuase it allows one to understand the article on a deeper level.
                You know that you know something when you can repeat it back in your own words. We started discussing this is class and I thought that just by having awareness of what is going on would help to know something. However, you could be aware of something you are reading and still not understand it.When we can put something in our own words, we will truly be able to understand it. What really helps to do this is by taking unfamiliar words, and learning their definitions.
                This makes me think about what I might be doing wrong when I read an atricle. If I just take the time to read something thouroughly and try to grasp the correct meaning of it, I will probably be able to improve my grades. I'm not a big believer of small things that can drastically change a persons grade because of my past experiences of struggling to improve my grade, but this seems to make a ton of sense. I will deffinatley test out this method throughout the course of this year and see if it helps my grade and understanding.

Connection: Creativity in Work and Music

             The other day we watched a video about a company that does their work a little bit out of the norm. This company used creativity in their work space to create adventurous minds to use to their advantage. When trying to invent something, we noticed from the video that it helps to have a comfortable work space to allow your mind to seek different things that it normally wouldn't. I mean that your mind may have a difficult time thinking super hard when you are in a boring office. By spicing up the work space with some color, odd shapes and abnormal equipment positioning, these people were able to use that to their advantage and create spectacular things.

             I think what really inspires me to create different things is in music. When I am at school, I am surrounded by white walls and quiet space; only hearing the ticking clock, and clicking pens. To me, I can't think of anything in that type of environment. In order to get my brain thinking up to its fullest potential, I need to have some type of music in the back ground. Whenever I'm at home doing homework or writing a paper, I have soft music playing in the background.

Just as the people from that company need their visual workspace to be unique and fun, I need what I hear to be the same way. I think I'm more inspired by music because of how it can make a person feel. Music really has the power to make a person go through a whole roller coaster of emotions. I've laughed, cried, and gotten angry even at so much music. I think that really influences me to create new and exciting things.

Carry it Forward: Vertical Listening

            When I listen to a song, I let it go in one ear and out the other. It acts as the musical soundtrack of my life, playing quietly in the background. Right now I even have a song playing in the background as
I write this. I am only realizing now that I'm not really thinking about what's playing. It's a quiet piece of music called, "Shrinking Coasts" by Vio/Mire. As I listen more intently though, I can hear each instrument; the strumming of the guitar, the low bass plucking, and the soft voice that coats the top of it.
            The other day in class when we listened to "Maple Leaf Rag", I think I finally got to the point where I could take apart what I heard and vertically listen to it. When we walked into the class room, we all heard the jazzy tune playing and probably all let it act as background noise. Nobody took it apart and analyzed what was going on; at least I didn't. After discussing vertical listening, and hearing the song again, I got a better understanding of what we should be listening for in life. Listening again in class to "Maple Leaf Rag", I could pick out the higher notes being played which are the melody, and the lower notes which are there mainly to accompany the top keys of the piano.
            We can vertically listen to anything we want. The suggestion in class was that we try and apply this to other things like movies and people. I think I'll try watching a movie a few times and look for different aspects of it. I think its important to take in what hard work was put into a piece instead of just skimming over the surface of it. If you have ever tried to make a movie or compose a song, you understand how difficult it is to get all the little pieces together. To actually listen to a song probably takes a small fraction of the time it took to listen to it. To really appreciate a piece of art or music, I think as of a week ago, I will try to vertically listen to it. This will allow me to get a deeper understanding of the arts. It is a hard idea to grasp, and requires a lot of concentration for what most people consider a leisure activity, but I think the after effects of it are so much more fulfilling.