Time Strategies

Time management "strategies" concern me a bit as I have not really thought about them in a few years. When I worked in an office we accepted and acknowledged that email was a great way to lose hours of your day and built in dedicated time each day just for email. When email time was up, we moved on to other tasks. Things like that are basically how I manage my day to day life and classes. I don't know if I have any overall thoughts or strategies other than know how long it takes you to do things and what distracts you. Get away from your distractions so you can get things done and get some sleep!

(Photo information: "Wibbly wobbly timey wimey" by piX1966 is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

  

Also if you are a procrastinator and just can't stop - triage! Don't go for days without sleep to get multiple papers or projects in on time unless all of them are going to really hurt you points wise. Take stock of where you are in each class, what the class policies are and take a nap. You'll probably think better once you've had some sleep.

Technology

I am already familiar with most of the technology tools we will be using this semester. I have spell check turned on by default almost everywhere on my laptop. I frequently write in Grammerly, or allow the browser extension to check my work. 

  (Photo information: "Technology is stuff that doesn't work yet" by Andrea in Amsterdam is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Twine was new to me and I spent a bit of time exploring that. It's a very interesting tool and I'm interested to possibly play with that as the semester continues. 

Assignments overview

 The assignments for this class seem really fluid. I am excited to read and write something that is not going to require my APA handbook! I can't promise creative genius and the social work will probably still creep in but having a class that allows original thought is a fun change. I am intrigued and worried by the Wikipedia trails. I've lost quite a bit of time doing that before so we'll see what happens!

(Photo information: "Being creative with wax crayons..." by netsnake is licensed under CC BY 2.0)

Some thougths on Growth Mindset

 I was vaguely familiar with Carol Dweck and the concept of a growth mindset prior to this week.  Coming from a social work perspective I do lean slightly more towards the criticism side. While I see the advantages of this, I do worry that it could miss looking at the whole person and what else might be going on in their life and community. 

If using this philosophy in an elementary or high school setting, does the school or district have the resources available to help with other issues a child or family may have? For instance, do students in need have access to a food pantry, laundry, or housing assistance? Or can the school make referrals once it recognizes the need? As long as basic needs are being met when it's possible, I like the idea. Encouraging effort, even if the first, second, and so on, attempts are not quite what you want, is always a great idea.

(Photo information: "Educational Postcard: Feedback and Growth Mindset (1/5)" by Ken Whytock is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0)

Introduction to Eli the Transfer Student

Hi, I'm Eli! I've been working on my degree for some time now. Until this year, I've felt like a perpetual transfer student; I was always accumulating credits but never graduating. In the meantime, I've managed to change my major a few times, get married, and have a kid who is now 11 years old. I've also bought and sold my first house so I could move my whole family back in with my mom to afford this college thing again. I'm finally a senior not only by hours but also in the Social Work program. It has been a long road but the end is in sight!

(Photo information: "the long and winding road #1" by Pierre Metivier is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0)

As I mentioned, my major is Social Work. All of my classes last semester were actually directly related to my major. Still, I think the best one was our Motivational Interviewing class, and I wish it was open to non-majors. Even with the sudden switch to online courses after Spring Break, we still managed to have all our simulations and interviewing practice. Applying the content within fields of social work practice this year in our practicums should be challenging!

I feel like some of the most significant accomplishments last semester actually just relate back to changes due to the pandemic. Most of my classes made the transition to Zoom very quickly since the program uses it frequently to interact with the Tulsa campus. The bigger challenge for me (and my cohort) was finishing out several group projects with some people out of town or out of state.

I have too many favorite books to name - I spend almost all of my free time reading. According to my Kindle app, I have read at least one day out of the last 109 weeks and last year completed 387 titles. Admittedly at least 5 of those titles are textbooks, and I do not keep track of the physical books I read, or anything read through the Metropolitan Library's digital reader. My favorite TV show or movies are often whatever I find that looks interesting on Netflix or another streaming service. Although I do make it a point to keep up with the new seasons of Call the Midwife and Doctor Who.

We are currently a one-dog household, which is exactly the way Bernard likes it. He is a Chihuahua mix that has been so happy most of his people have been home since March. Heated blankets and any of our pillows are his favorite things. 

(Photo information: Personal photo of my dog Bernard, taken August 2020)

Some of my favorite foods I have to make from scratch because I have Celiac disease. This means I cannot eat gluten - wheat, barley, rye, and a few other grains like triticale. So delicious things I used to enjoy, like soft pretzels or deep dish pizza are always homemade! It also means I am very creative with how I make things, and I'm always experimenting with different flour blends. (P.S. If you enjoy making chicken at home and aren't allergic, mix coconut flour into your breading! It's delicious. Also, chickpea flour makes excellent gravy.)

I did list Santa Fe, NM as one of my favorite places. Santa Fe has excellent gluten-free food, and the high desert scenery is beautiful. A favorite place I haven't been to yet because of travel plans cancelled by the pandemic is Italy. Despite being the land of pasta and pizza, or maybe because it is, Italy has many people with Celiac. Because of this, they also have a high number of restaurants where you can easily get Celiac safe gluten-free food. 

(Photo Information: "Florence, Italy" by Lex Kravetski is licensed under CC BY 2.0)

I do have some hobbies besides making allergy-safe food and reading. I also like to sew, which makes my kid happy. Between my sewing and my spouse's metal and woodworking skills, we're basically a fabrication shop. This comes in handy for all the crazy ideas our child has come Halloween or any other time.

Storybook Favorites

I have browsed through many Storybooks created by previous students and found several that I enjoyed. Here are my favorite three, in no particular order. 

The first Storybook I am going to share is called Mount Olympus Gossip. Readers with a vague knowledge of mythology, or Percy Jackson movies, might have a pretty good idea of what this is about based on the title. The introduction for this Storybook feels a bit longer than others, but it does get the point across. The navigation on this one was also slightly different from several others that I saw, but this may be an older project that used different formatting. I did find the style of the webpage for this project a bit clunky to maneuver through.

 

(Photo information: "Sun Rise" by Umair Mohsin is licensed under CC BY 2.0 )

Another Storybook I would like to share is called It's All in Your Head, Alice. This project has an introduction that draws you in and goes by quickly. You are given details to immediately immerse yourself in the world the author is going to create. The type of layout used in this project seems to flow better as there are links within each page for navigation. Additionally, there are static links at the top of the page. This design allows readers to naturally reach the end of a page and move on without hunting for a link. This author also collected all their notes and bibliography information into one page, separate from the story pages. This gives the reader the option to read the notes after each story or stay immersed until the conclusion. 

 

(Photo information: "A bronze sculpture of the dying Buddha as he passes away into paranirvana inside the Mahaparinirvana Temple, Kusinara, India, 1993" by Wonderlane is marked with CC0 1.0)

 

The final Storybook I want to link to is LGBTQ+ The Other Side. This project introduction actually starts off with a bit of a story. The reader is then given an explanation of the content. This type of opening works well with the kind of tales presented by this author. The author has also carried this through to each story in their project. The layout on this Storybook is very similar to It's All in Your Head, Alice; however, here the author's notes are on the individual story pages.

Favorite Place - Santa Fe, NM

One of my favorite places, that is still somewhat accessible in our current travel reality, is Santa Fe, NM. 

This is a photo of the Santa Fe Cathedral by Pedro Szekely.

(image information: Photo "Santa Fe, New Mexico" by szeke is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 from Flickr)