Progress...

My college blog is coming along quite nicely so far but I still have A LOT of work to get done. I am just at the beginning. I hope to be done by Wednesday of this coming week because I need time to also plan out how to present it to the class and other students outside of the AP Class.I am setting time aside everyday to do at least some small changes or adding something new to my college blog, I'm slowly progressing.

As of right now, I don't have a set plan as to how I will present my project to the class but I'm thinking of basically showing my college blog to the class and as I go through posts, explain them. I was also thinking of making a PowerPoint and taking snapshots of my college blog and putting in bullet points with information. I want to grab everyone's attention and let the students know that I really tried and planned out my blog.

I believe that I am not making enough progress right now becaus of everything else going on with graduation slowly creeping in on us seniors. I am excited and passionate about my college blog and will spend a lot of weekend time with it!

My Progress...

1. What I've done so far.

- So far I have created my college blog and started working on the design of it. I wrote a short description of what the blog is about and a little about myself as well. I would like to make the descriptions a little more descriptive though. I have got in contact with the groups that are good with website designing because I want my blog to be attractive to all people. Another accomplishment that I am pretty proud of is my list that I have made of all the things I want to get on my college blog before the end of the year. It helps me stay on track and organized.

2. What I still need to accomplish in the two weeks I have left.

- In the two weeks I have left I have quite a bit to accomplish. I still need to finish developing the design of my blog. I am not happy with what I have on it because it is too simple compared to what I have pictured in my mind for it to look like in the end of the whole process. I think the biggest part of making my blog will be the actual information I put on it. My plan is to have school admission requirements, what I did during my high school life to get in, and some posts on snapshots of what UC Merced looks like and things it has to offer that I know about it so far. PROMOTION!!! I need to get my college blog out there to students and all others who have desire in exploring colleges.

3. How my work will benefit me and others.

- My work will benefit me by allowing to take time to reflect on the school I will be attending this fall as well as the benefit of making relationships with others interested in UC Merced. I am really anxious about meeting new future students of Merced or talking to other college students who can relate to work I will be doing in college. It will benefit others by giving them a chance to easily preview UC Merced from their devices. It will also allow those interested in the school to have some one on one conversations with a student (me) actually attending the school. Overall, it will be a learning experience for me and all others who view my college blog. 

NEW COLLEGE BLOG

I just started my college blog and I am already really excited about it. It is barely getting designed so there is not much to look at yet. Please go check it out and let me know what you think I should start adding to it! (:

Link: http://ucmerced2016.blogspot.com/

Feat of Wisdom: Writing as Spectator Sport

I challenged Edith to "Stop, drop and write" the intro to an essay as well as the prewrite. She decided to take the full class period and write the entire essay. I challenged her inside of our NOISY Avid classroom and as you can see, everything was a distraction.

My Plan for my College Blog

My Goals

• to create a college blog well enough organized for anyone to be able to easily go through
• college blog will be completely focused on UC Merced and any further education I receive 
• to get a neat looking blog full of color and attractive to look at (draw attention)
• well explained presentation to colleagues

Things Required:

• new blog page
• better web design skills 
• go to UC Merced website and obtain information needed for entry in their university
• possibly interview some already present day students from UC Merced

Timeline:

• get help from web design group (tune in for some lessons)
• inform myself about the college off their website and other college sources
• make appointment to interview students 
• get reviews/opinions on school - ratings
• create new blog page (VERY FIRST STEP)
• write out what I did through out high school to get into UC Merced (partially done)

Presentation:

• present with use of college blog
• explain the different things I took into consideration while making blog
• show the difference between my design decisions
• make posts and link my college blog to them on social networking sites to try and get people outside the AP class to look at it and also spread the word

AP Exam Study Journal: Day 3

Today we went over the multiple choice questions we had difficulty with in class. I think that everyone agreed that vocabulary is difficult to get past because many of the words in the AP exam make us say to ourselves, "Where did this come from?" I learned that sometimes it is best to skip the ones we don't know right away because it will take up time and we are timed on the real thing.

I took note of the fact that Preston is really trying his best to get us ready for the things we are having difficulty with and the in class lectures so far are making the process of taking practice tests easier and faster. Right now I am very unhappy with my attention span still and have tried actually timing myself now while doing multiple choice questions. If it is taking me an hour to answer 20 multiple choice questions then there will be time conflict when the real AP exam comes this Thursday.

I plan on once again timing myself right now when completing my 20 multiple choice questions and I will write at the top of my paper how long it takes me to answer them and which ones gave me the most difficulty. Tomorrow I will be analyze my own work and put work on my timing if needed or way of thinking.

AP Exam Study Journal: Day 2

This weekend has been very stressful and I do not understand a lot of the multiple choice questions. I am having trouble staying concentrated more than anything because it all makes me so sleepy, especially the long passages we have to read before answering the questions.

I am having the most difficulty answering questions with difficult vocabulary that looks all the same to me. I am having a very easy time answering the multiple choice questions where the answers can be found within the text with no extra thinking. If any of you have any ideas on how to better master the vocabulary questions PLEASE comment!!!

So far the essay writing has been write enjoyable. I can write essays a lot faster now and they actually make sense. I feel that the need in a more formal and wide range of vocabulary is necessary though because I rely on the same words over and over again. When I am writing, i concentrate on getting my thoughts out so quickly that diction does not really pass through my head.

The easiest essay prompts to answer have been the Prose and the hardest have been the Poetry because I am not very good t analyzing poetry. When writing my essays earlier today, I looked up analysis of the poems and  went over the poem multiple times.