Surveys, interviews, and such

For my paper, I plan on taking surveys from college students and maybe even try to contact kids from my high school and see if there's a difference in the way high school and college kids spend their time. By doing that, hopefully I can see if there's an emotional difference between the two types of schools.

Questions I can ask may be:
How often do you do school work? In doing so, how often is that last minute?
How often would you say you're stressed when doing school work? Why?
Do you find yourself more productive after you've spent time with friends and then doing homework? If so, why?
How often do you find yourself laughing or joking around throughout the day? Would you assume that you produce better work when you're happy?

I also hope to maybe talk to a therapist and maybe see if they see a difference in patients' work and lifestyle when they're happier. Also, maybe even a teacher or professor to see if they can tell by school work whether a student was stressed or upset when they finished an assignment and see if they know that that affected their work or not.

Steven Johnson

Johnson talked about using resources we already have to create machines that we use everyday. For instance, he talks about how the Indonesian city of Meulaboh received eight new incubators after the tsunami to help decline the death rate of new born babies. But, after some odd years, the machines broke and no one knew how to fix them because the manual were in English. So instead of trying to fix them, they all were left there to collect dust. So, instead of creating machines no one knows how to fix and sending them to foreign countries, why don't we use the resources that the country has to create the same machine? That when they decided to use car parts to create incubators. Since they can keep their cars running, they should be able to fix the incubators, too. That's pretty creative in my opinion. So what I was thinking that instead of us buying complicated machines and having to bring them to someone professional to fix it, why don't we also use things that can easily be fixed with some common skills and knowledge. That could also lead to using recycled goods and limiting our waste. But how easy would that be? And, would that even be practical or useful?

Monsters or Heroes?

Philip Zimbardo talks about how people have the ability to become monsters or heroes. The choice is up to each individual. He shows graphic pictures of our own U.S military torturing prisoners and dehumanizing them basically. It's a very touchy subject as we all know because, well, they're our own military. We stand behind them because they fight for our freedom. But that doesn't mean that each one is a hero. He makes that argument by showing those images. They were all each heroes until they went into the basement and humiliated these prisoners and decided to take pictures and record them doing such acts. And the fact that they were all smiling and giving thumbs up next to these prisoners makes it a lot harder to defend them. But when is someone considered a "hero" and what makes someone a "monster"?
That's what Zimbardo explains in his video. Everyone starts off as a normal human until something changes. Either their look, their attitude, or their environment. Same for a hero. A hero, though, has to wait for the perfect opportunity to show themselves to the world and to show everyone that they are a true hero. Anyone can be a hero, one just has to wait for the opportunity to present itself. When it does, though, how will you know what the right choice is?

My Presentation

...about that. I absolutely hate public speaking. I have no idea why, but I think I have some idea. I didn't mind it until I was in 6th grade and my teacher, Mrs. Fells (I still remember that evil woman's name), made us memorize poems each week and say them in front of the class. Well, that was fine and all since I was basically the class clown so whatever I did was just a joke. I decided to memorize the longest poem in the book to impress this woman because I knew she hated me with a passion. Well, I memorized it all fine and dandy. I went up there and she stared at me with these piercing eyes that were like daggers to my face. I immediately froze up and no words would come out of my mouth. She made me sit down and gave me a 0 and then went on to lecture me about how I should've picked an easier poem. I mean, damn, give me some credit for trying or something. And it's funny that she told me I should've done something easier. Shouldn't she be encouraging me to try things that are a bit challenging? Way to go Mrs. Fells. Whatever. That kind of started the whole thing. I've been nervous ever since. But, what I should've done (which I didn't think about AT ALL), was doing a powerpoint. One, I wouldn't have repeated myself a bunch. Two, it would've kept me on track for what I wanted to talk about. And three, I probably would've been a little more comfortable doing that so everyone wasn't just staring at me. They would've had something else to hold their attention. I had so much to say, but once I got up there, it all left my mind and I just rambled on like an idiot. But that's okay. At least I know not to just wing it anymore. I need something to help me stay on track.

Elementary Education

I'm interested in elementary education and I hope to be an elementary school teacher (obviously). It was something that I just started to realize that I wanted to do and I hope that I stick with it because not knowing what I want to do is quite annoying. I never thought about boys and girls learning at a different pace and in a different way. But her thought about how boys feel like it's a girls education they're getting kind of makes sense. I don't know if it's actually true or not because I'm not a boy, but it's interesting to see someone think this way and try to come up with ways to integrate ways that boys will be more interested in learning. I feel that if they did have more things that boys are interested in, then they will be more likely to pay attention. I'm not sure that they don't think they've learned anything, though, when coming out of elementary school because I know a lot of boys who were a lot smarter than me in elementary school. It's a cool concept though to think about.

Study in the Starbucks

http://fergyson.glogster.com/starbucks/

So, I did my library assignment on studying in the Starbucks. Basically, I picked pictures that correlate to studying and to the Starbucks and made them into a poster. I added sketchy blurbs because I felt that they were a little casual and related more to young adults than a straight forward blurb that looked really serious. You will notice that I also added random splotches of black. I did this because honestly, it reminded me of spilled coffee. But that's just me. The poster is pretty chill and casual and I feel that it doesn't make the Starbucks look like a place to just drink coffee and leave. The atmosphere is welcoming and attracts people in with all the tables and accommodations for studying. I personally love the Starbucks in the Hodges Library and I really wish more people would appreciate the space they give students for studying.

Persepolis (after I researched it)

I'm not a history person so doing research on the film was really difficult and boring to me. Go figure! But, I found a lot of interesting information about the Islamic Revolution and the time period. Now, I'm not going to go on to explain what I found since I still don't like history, but it made the film more intersting to me and made me want to watch the rest of the movie. But, the internet wasn't working when I wanted to watch it so I didn't really get too far past where we stopped in class. But from what I did see, it's actually an interesting movie. And with the way Marjane set the tones and moods in the film were without a doubt amazing. In my opinion, the audience could really connect with the emotions in the film. And in the beginning, when she puts the veil on, it really set up the rest of the movie and was a good way (in my opinion) to introduce a flashback. I don't know, I'm not into history or cartoons or anything like that, but I think the movie is actually interesting and is quite informative.