Reflection

I can confidently say that I am concentrated on this blog project and I do seriously complete tasks on every week. Although my writing is not interesting enough, I do think hard on every topic. Also, I try to apply the rules of writing that I learn in the composition class. When I finish my writing, I always check whether the topic sentence is in the paragraph. I try to make the answers of questions into a complete paragraph and not just post the questions and answers on my blog. I attempt to give my writing a different subject rather than using the number of week. Because I manage my blog attentively, the grade I would like to give to myself is 90. I think that I deserve this score due to the effort I have made that mention above. The score I would like to give to my partner is 92. Both of us are doing well on this blog project, but I think my partner’s writing is more profound. I always get some new thoughts after reading her reply. Therefore, I think that she deserves this score.

Class Activity

My favorite classroom activity is hands-on activity. I think that when experiencing something in person we can also think and learn during the process. This kind of classroom activity is more interesting and can make us remember it easily. On the other hand, reading is the instructional format that I like the least. This kind of classroom activity may not motivate students’ interest to learn. If we only read the text book on the class, it will lose the importance of teachers.
The fun class activity that I experienced recently is that I have made an animated cartoon on my English Composition class. One day we had our class in a computer lab; our teacher taught us how to remake an animated cartoon. Our team gave the cartoon some funny lines and our work really made everyone laughs. This class activity is really interesting. I would like to have classes like this next time.
During the process of learning, encountering difficult knowledge is inevitable. I suppose the difficult knowledge here means some profound concept that is hard to understand. When I encounter some kind of difficult knowledge, I will think of some examples in real life to make me understand it easily. I think that we need to have experiences first, and then we can really learn something.
I think that I am the type of learner that need to experience in person, and then I can remember it and understand it easily. I would like to call myself the researching learner. I have the spirit to do research. I am willingly to try new things because I believe that having many different experiences can make one grow and learn something new.

Self Evaluation & Peer Review

After having interaction with my keypal for two months, I think that we are doing well. From 1~10, the score I would like to give to myself is 7. The reason why I give this score to myself is that I do post my opinion about the task of every week on my blog, but I just write something that is related to the topic and do not think deeply and make some interesting insights. I know it is difficult to have some insights that are different from others. However, I still want to struggle to this goal. On the other hand, I give 7 to myself because sometimes I do not post the task on my blog on time and I hope that it will not make any inconvenience to my keypal. In the remaining weeks of the semester, I hope that our interaction on the blog will be more active. I will do my best to check my blog as frequent as I can. That is the improvement that I think will make in the future. I believe that we can make it.

Strawberry Generation

Nowadays, people think that young people is weak and could not stand setbacks. Therefore, they called our generation “strawberry generation.” I think it is not proper to call our generation “strawberry generation.” After all, we are not as weak as they said. Because our life is more comfortable than the past, we do not experience many sufferings. Therefore, our ability to endure frustration is not as good as the elders. Our capability to deal with things is not so well, too. After we start working on society, we will face some difficulties. We may be very sad when we first meet failure, but I do not believe that we will give up after failing one time. The ability to endure frustrations can be trained. We just face these difficulties later than the elders. If we have determination, we can conquer the hard time. The word “strawberry” is used to described those who do not have courage to face setbacks not our whole generation.

Mistake mistakes

I used to see mistake as a serious matter. My definition to mistake is to do something wrong or make wrong decision or do not perform well on the work that I care much. I felt embarrassing and frustrated when I made some mistakes. Getting law grade on exam or assignment would make me feel sad. I feel depressed easily and I do not like myself to be like this. Therefore, I started to read some books that teach me to be optimistic. My mother also encouraged me when I made mistakes. I started to learn to see mistakes in different ways. I told myself do not be afraid of making mistakes. Now, I have improved a lot, but it is inevitable to feel a little bit depressed when I make mistakes. When I feel depressed, I will quickly encourage myself to move on. I realize that making mistakes can give me experiences. After watching the video of Prof. Spausch’s speech, I firmly believe what he said about experience. “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.” He also faced a setback when he was young, but he told us to remember the brick walls are there for reasons. “The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.” he said. I was impressed by what he said. I will keep this thought in mind and never give up to pursuit what I want.

The Collaborative Research Model

The picture shows the circulation of how students do research based on this model. They are in an invitational communication climate, so they are encouraged to exchange their own opinion. They also have chance to learn to construct knowledge for their paper by solving and discussing the problems together. They can learn many skills of doing research in coursework. My favorite part of this model is “learning through reflection.” We always think in a way that we think is the best. However, if we watch or listen others’ reflection, we will find some new discoveries and learn to think in a different way. I think this is very important when we are leaning or doing research.
When it comes to working with others, the part of teamwork that always bothers me is that my teammates do not say their own opinion and agree with everything. I do not believe that they are agree with everything. They must have their own thought but they do not want to share. I think there is no difference between a person and a team if the teammates do not speak their own opinion. I really hate that someone do not talk their own opinion with the team but talk the drawbacks of the work when finished it. I think communication is very important in teamwork.

Learning strategy

After I saw a video about how American college students learn, I was really impressed by their way of study. I do not study in a similar way. I always learn things from the books. The students in the video use many sources on the Internet to learn. They can get information from everywhere around the world and share their opinion with someone who study the same topic through the Internet. I think that is the reason why they are called Networked Students. They are all connected with each other by the Internet.
I think it is a good change, because learning from the books can limit one’s horizon. Books are not always right. Theories can be overthrown. Using the Internet to study can update the information about things that we are learning and can have some new discoveries. I have a computer which is connected to the Internet, so why I do not study in this way but keep chatting online and doing other boring things. I should try to learn in this way right away.

The world under the spotlight

I do not like Britney Spears very much. Although I like some of her songs, her misbehavior really makes me have a bad impression on her. And now she is back again, I not quite believe of her change. In my opinion, the world of entertainers is very untruthful. Sometimes the truth is not what we see on the news; they can do this way in front of the public, but do the other way behind the spotlight. I think of them in this way is because I have seen too much scandals of singers and actors. Moreover, they lie to the public in order to protect their reputation. I was disappointed about them and couldn’t believe them anymore. Anyway, I would like to give advice to those who are always under the spotlight. Be responsible to your own behavior.

My parents always worry too much

I always think about things in a positive way. Every time I share something I like with my parents, they always said some drawbacks about the person or things I share with them. One time, when the semester started, I told my dad that I think my new teacher will be great because she looks so kind and speaks tenderly. Then my dad said “Maybe she just looks kind, but actually she is very strict.” I was so mad about what he said because I still believed that she was the teacher who I thought to be. During the dinner, my mom said the same thing again. I was angry and couldn’t understand why they kept saying something bad on what I think to be good. I didn’t want the response like this. I want them to be glad about the thing I like to share with them. After feeling unhappy for few minutes, my sister told me that my parents were trying to protect me. Because things all have two aspects, one is good and one is bad, I should not only think of the good side but also consider the bad side. My parents worry that I will get hurt if I teach the bad side of what I think to be good. I know that they say this is for my own good, but I still think that they worry too much. However, I still should be thankful about what they do for me and try to accept their warming in a polite way. By the way, my parents are right. My teacher is really strict.

Be a successful university student

I want to be a successful student, so I do not want to leave any bad record during my four years in university. If someone laughs at me for never skipping classes, I will say that I want to be special. I believe that never skipping classes during the whole four years in university will be a mission impossible. I want to take this as a challenge. I want to be special. I heard a lot of people said that university equals playing four years. Well, I do not want to be the one who only play and learn little thing during four years. I want to be active and I want to experience many things that I never have. I also want to learn to think independently. It doesn’t mean not to be influenced by others but to learn to tell what is right and what is wrong. I will always notice the latest news around the world in order to connect with this world and broaden my horizon. I will try my best to achieve this goal. Can you feel my determination?