Assignments

I had many friends and classmates recommend this class to me. From the start I am interested about learning about a different culture. As a journalism student it will also be great learning experience to see the different writing styles, tools and tricks used in the stories. I haven't taken an online course in the past, so this is a brand new experience for me. The extra credit assignments that caught my eye at first were micro fictions, biographical writing, famous last words and backup/review.

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Technology

I feel like I am about average when it comes to understanding technology among people my age. I can do just about anything I need/want to do on a computer, tv, phone, etc... This is not the first class where I have had to use a blog, but it is the first time I have used blogger. The other  blog for a class was just about getting a certain number of posts out on whatever topic. This class is different as there are some guidelines for how and what we need to write about. The transition to blogger has not been too rough. I think I am getting the hang of it and am understanding all the functions that I will need to use frequently for this class.

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Time Strategies

I will be completely honest. One of my biggest weaknesses is procrastinating. I am already a little behind and I am going to push myself to catch up in the next couple of days. I already have mapped out all of the assignments for this class in my calendar, hopefully that will help me stay on top of my work. The biggest thing for me with procrastinating is that I just need to get going and start my work, once I get going I feel like I can get through assignments fairly fast and effectively. I need to just find more gaps in my schedule where I can work on this classes' work in chunks. I am currently taking around 12-13 hours while volunteering within my major for about 6 hours also and I am working when I can find the time. I hope to break the mold of how I have been doing work in my past classes and be able to stay on top of things or ahead during this course.

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Storybook Favorites

I am not very familiar with Greek or Indian Mythology so I had to read over "Battle Between Horses" a few times. I really enjoyed the word choice and just how descriptive the story was. I was able to picture what was happening in the story as I was reading it from the looks of the characters, the environment around them and the emotions of the characters. My favorite part of the story was when Sahadeva used the explosion as a distraction to end the battle and make the Greeks retreat the battle field. The Author's notes where a huge help as they helped me contextualize the characters and story to be better understand what was happening.

Next was "Motherhood", the introduction immediately caught my attention and held it in place. The poem about the mother was beautiful. It reminded me so much of my mom and how much she has done for me. From birth, taking care of us when we are sick, helping with homework, giving advice and on and on mother's do so much for us. The writer does a great job of describing what every loving mother wants for their children through the poem. 

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Last, but certainly not least was my favorite story that I read in "Looney Tunes Goes to India". I smiled when I saw the title and the story kept a smile on my face through the entire read. I grew up watching all of the Looney Tunes cartoons I could find, so an Inidan story told through familiar characters made it easy to understand and picture. I think the author/writer did a great job of nailing how the characters speak and the word choice that they would use in cartoons. I really hope there are more stories in the archives like this one as it was easy to understand and relate to the source material of the Indian story.

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Growth Mindset

The Growth Mindset in my opinion is a great idea. From my experiences in school when I was younger I definitely did get bored with school at times. Through elementary all the way through graduation I never really had to study or really work exceptionally hard in my classes. I do not say this as a way of bragging, but rather in support of the Growth Mindset. I feel like not being directly challenged when I was younger has caught up to me as in college I really need to study, be organized and give really great effort to do well in my classes. I have had to train myself to study in a really legitimate way, as mentioned earlier growing up I did not spend much time studying and if I did it would be a quick scan of my notes or a review sheet. 

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Having a background in and love for sports I always felt I improved when I challenged myself to do more. The old saying is that iron sharpens iron and I am a big component of that idea. I feel like we all need to be challenged to be better. In school, sports, work, relationships and more I do not believe that any of us are finished products. Th Growth Mindset if implemented into schools I think would infuse better work ethic among students and deter them from giving up as easy as before.

Off the top of my head the only downside I  could think of with the Growth Mindset is when I think about the kids in the past and now who struggle with school as is. Although I do not think the program would be intentionally be leaving some students behind, I know that some subjects are harder to grasp for some students. Obviously it is not a perfect system or else it probably would be implemented at most schools, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. 

Introducing Me

Anyone who knows me knows that I love basketball. I have played for as long as I can remember. Basketball has been my safe haven for most of my life. Still to this day when I want to relieve stress or clear my head I will find the nearest basket and shoot around for a while. Growing up I played in every league that my parents could find.
Basketball was instrumental in how I made friends growing up in school. I switched schools a handful of times and being the new kid is extremely hard. I made friends on teams and on the playground through a common love for the game. My dad is probably the biggest reason for my affinity towards the sport. When I was young my dad would be busy with work and really the only times we would get to spend anytime together is if we were watching basketball or shooting around in the driveway. Still we talk non stop about the NBA and what is going on around the league.

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Going forward after college I still want basketball to be a big part of my life. I am a journalism major with aspirations of one day becoming an NBA analyst, writer or commentator. Last summer I raised money to pay my own way to go out to Las Vegas for the NBA Summer  League. I wanted the chance to network with many of the people who I look up to who are working in the career field that I am striving to get to. Currently I am working with Sooner Vision who televises many of the OU basketball games. I was lucky enough to have my bosses recognize my basketball knowledge and give me the opportunity to work with the main TV commentary team and feed them stats/info during the games.

Cabo, My favorite place

There is nothing more relaxing in my mind than to fall asleep in a comfortable bed at night with all the windows open so that the breeze can go through to rooms as the sound of crashing waves put me to sleep. For around the last 20 years my family has taken an annual vacation to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The weather is perfect and the city is absolutely beautiful! I have so many fond memories that occured there, for example I took my first ever steps as a child during our family's first trip. I could go on and on about all the great things Cabo has to offer from the beaches, hotels, food, music, people and most of all the great moments that will last my family and I for the rest of our lives. I truly am lucky to be able to have so much fun in such a great place.  

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico night view of the marina.

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