Skills Journal #10

This is my last entry for this quarter so I am going to use it as a time to look back at the beginning of the quarter and see how I have improved. I believe that in both Time management and in teamwork I have improved greatly but at the same time I realize that there is still a ton more I could do to try and make myself even more better in these areas.

For Time Management I have improved a lot. I have started to set time aside each day to get work done. This is something that helps a lot when it comes to being ready for tests and also just to be better prepared during class. I also started to write things done more. This has allowed me to get things done on time almost every time. Overall I feel that I have improved greatly in this area but I still believe that I could be even better at this. I still find myself slacking a lot when I have free time. I tend to waste a lot of time still that I know could be used to do something more productive.

For teamwork I also have realized some things. For example I found that I now am way more willing to be in a group. I found that it is still a great way to learn things from different angles and it also allows more variety in the final work. I still think that I could improve a lot however in trying to create a truly productive team environment. I think that if I was able to be more of a leading type person that overall I could help future groups I am in to be more productive.

Skills Journal #9

This last week was one that I found to be both good and bad. I found myself improving in some areas but at the same time I was doing pretty bad in others.

Teamwork was the one area where everything started to fail. My group was doing everything really good until it came to the last three days before it was due. Me and one of the other group members got all of our stuff done but everyone else did absolutely nothing. This lead to me pretty much doing all of the work and when it came down to it almost all of this group essay was written by me. I found that this was one thing showing that their is still a good amount of things I need to do in order to be a even better team player. In part I don't think that it was really my fault but maybe if I tried harder to lead my group everything might have gone along smoother.

This was a good example of how even when times are bad I was able to improve my Time management skills. I was able to get everything done and still be able to have enough time to finish up what my group mates did not. This also taught me a good lesson. It taught me that I should try to care more about myself over others. I used to try and help people as much as I could but I find that the only way that others will do good is if they try for themselves.

Skills Journal #8

Yet again we were assigned a new essay and guess what? Another group project, but this time it was to be in a group of four. This made me a little uneasy. Because at one stage I was now more open to group work and ready to see what kind of new things could come from this project, but at the same time I was not sure what new problems might occur.

So once my group got together the first time we started to talk about everything that had to be done and we actually planned out what we thought times we wanted these things done. We all pretty much agreed on everything and I found that everything seemed to be going greatly. I was happy to see that our communication was going great and it made me think that this project might be one that might actually go smoothly with no problems at all.

As for Time management I found that I was doing pretty good. I still had a few days when I would completely slack off but overall I was getting my things done and so far everything was going pretty good.

Skills Journal #7

This last week not many new things have happened. I found that it was a good chance for me to look back and try and see how I have advanced in certain areas. I think that I truly have began to adapt to the college environment in a good way.

One problem I did face however was forgetting about a assignment. I almost completely forgot about a computer science project that was due. I was lucky however and able to remember a few days before it was due. I was able to start it right when I remembered and when it was due it was of good quality. It did teach me however that I needed to try and make sure I remember all assignments that are assigned. I began to write things down in my planner finally which was something that I believe will help me a lot in the future.

This week there was not really a time for me to use teamwork. I found that for the first time it was a good chance to take a break and be happy that I didn't have to be quite as responsible for not just my own work. 

Skills Journal #6

Since last week many problems have occurred while writing my Loyalists verses Patriots essay. I found that these problems were a chance for me to learn and advance in my skills however. I was able to learn a good deal from these problems and feel that I was able to make problems into ways to learn and advance myself.

One of the major problems was one that had to do with my groups teamwork. I found that my original thoughts of my partner were wrong. It ended up that she was a major slacker. We made up days in which we would have things due and she never had her things done on time. This lead me to be very mad and wanting to yell at my partner. But I was able to control myself and talk to her calmly. We had a talk in which she agreed to get her things done or else she would receive a lower grade. Setting rules like this is something that I found is very useful when it comes to working in groups. I think this is one skill that will come in handy with any other group projects that might come up in the future.

After about another week of writing this essay i found that I again was getting all of my things done in a timely manner. All of the due dates were met ahead of schedule and I found that it gave me extra time to study more into this subject. I found that with getting my things done so much sooner things like studying happen more often. Overall I feel like this extra studying time lets me be learn a lot more about history then I would by just quickly reading the text.

Skills Journal #5

This last week we were assigned a new combined essay to write about Loyalists verses Patriots. This essay however is one in which is written in pairs. I was assigned a partner and we must now write this essay together. This happening was just another chance for me to try and improve my teamwork skill. Also since it is a big project for both history and writing I know that I am going to have to use time management skills to try and get it done on time with being of good quality as well.

So far since I just received my partner I am not quite sure how I am going to use my teamwork skills. All I know is that so far I believe that me and my partner both have personality that work good together. So far just talking with her and going over ideas I feel like we are using teamwork very well. Hopefully things stay this way but we will just have to wait and see.

So far since we received this new essay I have been researching a lot about the topic. I find that I actually have been truly using my time management skills to my full potential. I have been using both extra time in class and also time at home to research information about this subject. I find that I might actually be progressing with this certain skill and it makes me feel a lot better about myself. I find that this is the first time where I actually see myself improving as a student. By feeling this way hopefully more things will start to change for the better.

Skills Journal #4

So after thinking about my skills even more and trying to think about ways in which I can improve these things I have come to new realizations. I find that the most important thing that I need to do is try and truly change myself. I need to completely realize that the only way that I can change these things about myself is if I truly want the change to happen. This means that I need to be willing to be a better person when it comes to teamwork and that I need to want to stop being a procrastinator. By understanding this I feel that I finally can start and actually improve these skills for the better.

When it comes to Teamwork I found that the only way to try and make my wiki group really work is to try and let everyone have a say in every thing we do even the small things. I found that last week was just a week when my group was slacking off and they were making me angry. Since then though people have actually been contributing more. This however does not mean that everything is going perfectly. In fact there is still a huge communication problem. People in my group keep adding and deleting things without actually talking to anyone else before hand. This is a problem that I realized only causes more issues. So in order for me to try and improve the groups overall teamwork I proposed that before anything new is added we have a talk abut it and weather or not we truly need it. This worked a lot and in the end led to a group that communicates a lot better and overall improved the teamwork a lot. By communicating more with a group I found that my teamwork as a whole improved greatly but there were still a lot more improvements I could make to this area.

Time management is something that I have been thinking about a lot lately. I found that by understanding that I need to change my procrastinating habits that now I am more willing to change them. I think that I now have a state of mind in which I now truly am willing to change. Hopefully as this year progresses and we get more assignments I will start to be able to see how I truly have progressed.

Skills Journal #3

After this last week I found that a lot of things have happened to both my Teamwork skills and my Time management skills. I found that my original plans around these skills would not work but after trying them and also just being around situations when I needed to use these skills more that I had a lot more things that I would have to do in order to truly improve these things.

To begin with I found that have a group wiki is something that really bothers me. I found again why I hate groups so much and why teamwork is something that I really lack. The main problem is that my group is very dysfunctional. We have one person who thinks that she should do everything herself and then two people who never even do any work. I found that in order for us to try and get anything done that I had to try and bring order. I tired many times to make people do work and try and share responsibilities but when it came down to it still nobody would listen. So as of right now I am a little lost about how to try and fix this problem. 

Time management was something that also kind of fell apart. I set down my plan to try and do work each night but I found that I just never did any of it. I would still put things off till the last minute and turn in work that I know could have been better. It was so bad that I was up all night until 11:57 writing an essay that was due at 11:59. I found that it is a lot harder to try and change this procrastinating problem of mine then I originally thought it would be. I think that I still have a lot more planning to do if I truly do want to try and improve myself at this skill.

Overall after first planing out how I would improve in these two areas I found that I still have a lot of problems that will need  a lot more planing to fix. I think that I need to think about these things a lot more before I actually do try and improve these skills.

Skills Journal #2

After thinking about how I would improve in my two skills for awhile I came to many conclusion about how to improve myself in both Time management and in Teamwork. For teamwork I find it a little harder to try and improve this skill until I actually am in a environment where I need to use teamwork. We were however assigned a wiki group in which I know I will need to start using my teamwork skills more. For this I think the ways I will start and try to improve this is through trying to listen more to other people's idea and not just thinking my way is always the best way. I hopefully will be able to try and use these skills soon. For Time management I found that there are many factors to consider when it comes to this. I found that for me that to try and create a schedule in which I can put time aside for school work is the best plan. Because I don't really have any out of school activities I believe that it will be very easy to try and just set aside a few hours a day just to work on studying and homework assignments. So what I have decided to do is try and set aside 1 hour each day to just studying and doing homework and then when a test or project is due I will set aside even more time in order to make sure I get my work done in a more timely manner.

Skills Journal #1

Terry assigned us the task of writing this Journal about certain skills that we think we need to improve in. After looking over the list I decided to choose two of these skills that I feel would help benefit me the most in my life. These two skills are Time management and Teamwork. I picked time management because it has always been a problem for me. I find that I am a great student when it comes to studying and paying attention in class but when it comes to turning in assignments I find that I am a complete procrastinator. The other skill I chose to try and improve was teamwork. This is a problem that I have always had throughout my life as a student. I found that it has always been easier to do everything by myself because I find that it is usually better. I realize that teamwork is something that is very important not only in school but in all of life. That is why I chose to try and improve this about myself.