Time Strategies

Time management is something I really want to work on this semester. I want to be able to have a good work/fun balance since it is my last year here at OU and I want to leave of memories that outside of me working in the Biz.

The two articles I read were:

How Checklists Train Your Brain to Be More Productive and Goal-Orientated

3 Steps to Recapture Time

The reason I chose the checklist one was because checklists are how I frequently make my to-do list. It reminded me to always make it obtainable and small, so I can check more stuff off and feel more productive while getting things done. I like the 3 Steps to Recapture Time because there's so many times when it feels like you waste your time when you could be productive. I liked how it talked about how you can say no to things you don't have the time for or don't want to do. It's a good reminder I think everyone needs.

I think my biggest challenge will just be staying on top of things and making sure that nothing I need to get done gets pushed aside until it's too close to ignore any longer.

Procrastination Quote from Flickr Images

Technology

While I'm not familiar with blogging and slowly getting used to that, I did have to create a class website in the past and am hopefully that I will be able to do that with ease this time around. I've also had to make graphics and think there's a lot of websites that make graphics easy and fun to make, so that's exciting as well. As for the other technology, I've used Canvas and Google Docs a lot in the past so I should be able to do very well with those. Overall, I think I will be able to very quickly learn everything and am excited to become more computer literate. I think all the technology for the class will keep it interesting and make it more fun to work on assignments.

Enter Key from Flickr Images

Assignments

Looking at the assignments, I think I'm most excited about the semester long project. Right now the portfolio is probably what I'm leaning towards doing, though that might change as the semester goes on. I think it would be really cool to keep editing and revising something and just getting to make it the best that I can. I haven't taken a lot of online classes, but I really like the setup of the class. I like how I can go at my own pace while still having deadlines that mean I don't end up scrambling at the end of the semester. I also like the points system meaning once I get to the number of points for the grade I'm comfortable with, I can stop. It's been a while since I've done a creative class so I'm excited for that aspect too.  As for the extra credit, I think the Wikipedia Trails assignment interests me the most because I think it'll be a fun way to learn about a lot of new information and see how related topics can be.

Paper and Pen from Flickr Images

Growth Mindsets

I hadn't heard anything about growth mindsets until watching the videos but I am really curious about them. I am most interested in how much change there has been in the groups of students they have tested and how improved they are. If I'm being honest, being in engineering has been really hard on my views of myself academically. Classes get tough fast and it's hard to see low grades and to think you're doing poorly, even if you are far beyond the class average. I think the growth mindset would help students see failure in a more positive light and make them more willing to learn and grow. I think the article by Dave Paunesku was interesting because it talked about just changing student's mindsets and seeing what their motivation is for their education. I think with classes it's easy to just stay focused on trying to get an A in the class or just doing as well as you can in the class and you end up losing sight of what of fact you're trying to learn something to benefit you in the future. It's been a while since I took a step back and thought about what this degree is actually about and what I'm trying to do with my education. I have several classes that are going to be tough this year, so I think the growth mindset will make it so that I just stay focused on the learning, rather than the grades behind what I'm learning.

Growth Mindset from Teaching with Simplify Blog

An Introduction to a Civil Engineer

Hello all! My name is Jessica Zalenski and I'm currently a senior Civil Engineering student. The coolest thing about my major is probably the labs. We have to take a lot of classes for the different building materials so that means that our labs include things like breaking concrete and bending steel. The best class I took last semester included going through all the different Materials civil engineering uses and we got to have a lab for each of those materials (wood, concrete, steel). I transferred to OU as a sophomore and have been so glad I've done so ever since. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do after graduation and am hoping to get a job with an engineering firm and get to start designing different buildings. My favorite thing about OU is probably game days and I'm really excited for this years football season. My summer break wasn't too exciting, I mostly worked and had an internship, but I did get to spend one day of Padre Island so that's really nice. My internship was with the company Austin Bridge & Road and I got to help them out with the expansion of the Sam Rayburn Tollway in the Dallas, TX area. I learned a lot from the internship and am excited to see where else my career takes me. I'm from Frisco, TX and got to go home for the summer so that was nice as well. The best movie I've seen recently was probably Rocketman. I just thought it was really well done and it made me realize how little I knew about Elton John's life. I also really like his music so it was cool to have a lot of his songs incorporated into the film. My favorite album that got released recently has to be the Jonas Brothers' Happiness Begins album. Their music was the perfect thing to play when I got to lounge around the pool this summer. I have one Shit-Tzu named Nala. She's an old sole who just likes to sleep all day and is very grumpy but I love her with my whole heart.

Nala (taken by my sister)

My favorite food is probably either fried rice or pizza. I could eat either for the rest of my life and be very happy about it. If I have an extra day to do something, I typically like to go out and do something. I love getting to go to new places and exploring more things and hope that when I'm older I'll be able to travel a ton. I'm really excited to see where this semester goes.

Storybook Favorites

First Storybook: When Trees Talk

I liked When Trees Talk because it took a significant tree in Indian culture and then wrote a story about it. The stories were very creative, taking a myth that mentioned the trees and then made it focus on it more. What I liked that most about this blog was the author's notes, because you got to see the thought process behind each of the stories and how they got there. The set up of the website was really well organized and helped a lot with navigation. I don't know much about Indian myths so it was interesting to get to read about them.

Second Storybook: Gods and Goddesses

Gods and Goddesses was really cool and I like how they formatted the stories. I like how in the introduction it set it up not by each god, but by the description of how the god acts. I thought that was a really unique set up and worked out very well for describing the god. I think the layout was good, even though I wasn't a huge fan of the dropdown list that was used for each of the story, it just was difficult to use every now and again. The titles really helped with what it was about and since I didn't know anything about the Indian gods or their stories.


Third Storybook: Looney Tunes Goes To India

Looney Tunes Goes to India caught my attention because it was so different than the other ones. The organization of this one was really good and every story was really cool. I liked how they took the same myths and just changed character names to make them a little more familiar to people like me who don't know much about Indian epics. I also liked how the author's notes included how they changed things. The design was good and I liked how you could tell the student had fun with creating their storybook.

Indian Mural from Flickr Images

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My Favorite Place

My favorite place to be is at the beach. I love just relaxing on the sand, listening to the waves crash against the shore and reading whatever book I've brought with me. I grew up around beaches and they are where I always feel the most relaxed.

Beach from Flickr Images

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