Xanga

Wow! I had no idea that so many people I know are on Xanga. It turns out my best friend has had a blog since last year and I had no idea! Then from her blog I found a list of all these other people's blogs that I know. It's really quite addictive to read through everybody's entries, especially since I don't see a lot of these people all of the time. Most of them go to schools I used to go to.

Also, my friend recently posted three comments under my last entry (Hi Heather!) so now I feel like we're really connecting through the blogoshpere. I had always heard about people using blogs to communicate with all of their friends, but it never occurred to me that I might be one of those people!

The only weird thing about this situation is that my blog is for a class and my friend's blogs are just for fun. Interestingly all of my friends who are still in high school are always saying "What? You're making a blog for school?" I guess in high school they can't have classes in crazy subjects. An e-portfolio/blog class is a little crazy. :)

Anyway, I'm really excited about discovering all of my friends' blogs. I might even join a few blogrings later...  

My E-Portfolio Project

When I first heard that our e-portfolio was 60% or our grade I thought that the e-portfolio was basically the blog we write in once a week so I was really happy. I mean, how nice would it be to have a final that is already finished by the time final week rolls around? Plus, you can get credit twice for the same work. By the time I realized that a blog is different than an e-portfolio I had forgotten all about the project! I really need a better system for keeping track of assignments I guess.

Anyway, now I really need to get started on the the project. I've been doing a lot of thinking about the project, but I haven't really started. I think my goal is to do something before I write up my "what I've done so far" report. Maybe tomorrow I'll look through all of my Word files with my work on them and put all of the things I want to include in my e-portfolio in one folder. That sounds like a good concrete step towards at least thinking about starting the project.

I'm a little nervous about figuring out the techonological aspects of my e-portfolio, but I think I can do it. Also, the asking professors to comment thing makes me a little nervous. I'm thinking maybe I'll try to include them in ways that don't require them to actually log my e-portfolio and post something if they don't want to. For instance, maybe they can just write something down for me and I can post it for them. Hmmm... I'll have to think more about that. 

Chemistry Concentration

As of late I've been having trouble concentrating on my chemistry for long periods of time. Just last night I was reading my chemistry book and I knew I should keep reading, but my thoughts kept dtifting away. In the past I've been able to read my chemistry book for an hour or more at a time, but lately I have only been able to read my book for about fifteen minutes before I get bored and stop.

Actually, this hasn't turned out to be such a bad arrangement. Instead of reading my book for an hour at a time every other day or so, I have been reading my chemistry for fifteen in the morning and fifteen minutes at night every day. Fifteen minutes is about as long as I can read without getting bored. So, for all the fifteen minutes that I spend reading I'm completely engaged and thinking about chemistry.

The only disadvantage to this system is that it requires me to work up the will to start studying twice a day instead of once every other day. 

Writers Block

Unfortunately I have a limited number of things I can say about blogs, e-portfolios, and education. So, I've decided to make a list of things I do to prevent writers block.

Ideas for Fighting Bloggers Block

*Write thoughts (anything) down on a white piece of computer paper with no lines

*Talk to friends and ask them what they think about blogs and e-portfolios.

*Go into a quiet place and close your eyes. Think about blogs.

*Draw pictures of people learning things.

*Make lists. Something in the list may spark your thoughts.

*Flip through magazines. The Times and Newsweek are good. They all have nice easy-to-digest articles about people friendly issues that are interesting to write about.

*Hum incessantly while rocking back and forth. Occasionally include key words like e-portfolio  and blog while you sing.

*Scribble.

*Make charts. Have the headings say things like engagement, learning, and education. Or maybe make versus headlines like "learning vs. education" or "school vs. learning."

I really didn't mean to make a list twice for my blogs. My brain works really well with lists though. The thing about lists that you can't do with paragraphs is think of short choppy thoughts without having explanations for why you think what you think. And sometimes I have thoughts that don't really need or want long explanations. Well, actually, I don't think thoughts should ever have needs or wants. Um, so, on that note, I'm going to stop writing.    

Commercials

I think it would be really neat if we could program our televisions to play commercials that went with the classes we're taking. Sometimes I feel like I'm memorizing such useless information when I watch commercials. For instance, I know most of the lines from the ditech.com, mancini sleep world, and ionic breeze quadra commercials just from watching tv for a few hours in the evening. I have so many pieces of information that I should be learning for school, but I have to work to remember those facts. The lines from commercials just come naturally.

I would really like it if the commercials would do things like conjugate irregular Spanish verbs for me or remind me about the haber process. Maybe it could solve an example rate problem for me or give me the definition for vocabulary words. If those "commercials" were created anything like regular commercials on television, I would probably remember all of those facts in no time. Companies hire professionals to write up commercials for them in a quick memorable way. If someone would do the same thing for my course material, it would really help me a lot.

Sometimes I like to put up signs around my house with facts I need to memorize. I find that it works in the same way that commercials do. The facts creep into my mind without me even having to try to remember them because they become a part of my daily life. This style doesn't work well with general concepts, because general concepts require more than a quick and simple statement. However, I find that it works really well for vocabulary, definitions, and for memorizing things like common ions.