Time Strategies

Checklists: An important Time-Management strategy

I took a good amount of time preparing for this semester by meticulously planning my schedule to work with all of my courses in mind as this was especially important as it is my final semester. Since this means I am currently doing my Capstone Project I accounted for this by not having any classes scheduled Friday nor do I have classes on Thursdays unless an emergency meeting is needed. Nevertheless this leaves an extended weekend for me to complete my assignments in my other courses as reflected in my previously-submitted schedule that puts all of the hours towards the weekend. As for specific strategies I related with the article on checklists as I began keeping many different checklists from notes on my desk at home to the notes app on my phone I constantly keep them as they provide me with simple, quick instruction on my next task with recurring "accomplishment." I have long since overcome my time-management struggles and I like to think this semester will be no different.

Technology

Required Add-Ons for this course

While I am familiar with many different Google Extension and Add-Ons I have not personally used any of the ones listed in the assignment, but I do already have most of the preferences already in place such as spell check and word count. The online environment definitely requires a decent knowledge of online tools as many thing are needed for a class that can't meet in-person than Microsoft Word documents. The web skill I want to work on the most is getting the best out of using my browser via all of the tweaks and the add-ons this class has already lead me to as they help with typing my initial engineering lab report already. The only extension I could recommend is getting the word count by Spian Labs as it is the one and only word counter I have downloaded.

Assignments

Wikipedia Trails

The assignment that I am most intrigued by for this course would be the storytelling for multiple reasons. The idea of retelling a story as an open-ended concept is enticing as it allows for a range of approaches and the imagination to run wild. After reading several if these retold stories for a previous post I look forward to creating my own story recreation. The one aspect that makes this class unlike the many engineering courses I have taken is how much of the content is up to my own interpretation as it can be done however I please as long as it completes the assignments requirements. As for extra credit assignments that jump out to me, the Wikipedia Trails assignment seems interesting as I already enjoy surfing around on the internet when looking things up.

Growth Mindset

Carol Dweck's idea of a growth mindset is an important one in today's scholastic landscape. When I was in middle school, I had little to nothing to do as the curriculum was in no way challenging as the school was the old high school and it was a big time of transition for our school district with fewer teachers and a hour after lunch for "studying." Because of this, I went into high school with no preparation as my time-management skills were lacking tremendously leading to a much harder than necessary first semester. The whole time I was going through this I was wondering how different things would have been had I been pushed harder in my three years of middle school. The idea of the "Not Yet," that Dweck proposed for grading would be a perfect balance to pushing students to maximize their learning. The "Not Yet," grade would not crush students but encourage them to work harder through the more difficult curriculum.

My old middle school - Alton Middle School 

Introduction (BrandonBurklund)

Hi everyone, my name is Brandon Burklund and I am beginning my last semester as a senior here at the University of Oklahoma. My major is Mechanical Engineering, which I plan to utilize in the field either through design or more of a lab setting. I am originally from Godfrey, Illinois, which is a small suburb north of Saint Louis.

Downtown of my hometown (Godfrey/Alton, IL)

I first gained interest in the University of Oklahoma when I was a junior in high school, as I was roughly nine hours from the campus, when my older cousin initially came here as a Mechanical Engineer on scholarship. Despite having multiple, more northern schools on my radar such as the University of Illinois and the University of Wisconsin, I came down to Norman sometime in April my senior year to finally visit the campus. You would think the nine hour car ride through a less than scenic Missouri and Oklahoma alone would turn me off to the idea of coming here on top of going somewhere where I did not know anyone outside of a single family member, but it took all of about five minutes into my tour when walking on the South Oval that I knew I had found my home for the next four years. Coming onto campus that fall of my freshman year was daunting to say the least as I was on my own for the first time and quickly realized all of the things you take for granted when in your own home/hometown. Fast forward now to my senior year and it feels like its been the fastest seven semesters of my life, but each so full of countless memories that I wouldn't change for the world. Being in a complete different part of the United States has helped me grow into the person I am today and I wouldn't change it for the world. I even plan on moving to Texas as opposed to my recurring childhood desire to one day move up to Chicago. As I sit and think about how I have reached the beginning of the end of my time on campus I realize how lucky I was to go to such a great university and look forward to spending my last semester in this class as well as meeting the rest of you soon.

Storybook Favorites

https://sites.google.com/site/constantlychangeling/winter-1

The first story that I would say is one of my favorites from the storybooks is the short story "Changeling of the Seasons," for a few reasons. It utilized each of the four seasons to outline the history and customs of a mythical race of creatures known as the changelings who switched places with humans by using each season as a starting point for each of their four different stories. The piece then ended in winter with an open ending where the Queen of the Changelings asked the reader to join her and instead fight the creator with explicit instructions on how to contact her.

https://sites.google.com/view/urban-legends-of-texas/introduction

The next story that I would add to my list of favorites is the "Urban Legends of Texas," as it outlined three separate urban legends from Texas all of which I had not heard of as I am from Illinois, which is a long way from Texas. As someone who finds urban legends extremely interesting from Mothman in New Jersey to the old story of the hook on the car door campfire story I heard growing up. The Donkey Lady I found especially chilling as it closely mirrors a story I had heard from my youth in which a man was disfigured and said to haunt the large wooded park at the back of my childhood neighborhood hiding in brush along the sides of the trails.

Camp Warren Levis ("Boy Scout Park") from my hometown
https://aboutstlouis.com/local/communities/godfrey-illinois

https://sites.google.com/view/greekcommonapp/intro

This next story I found to be much lighter than the previous read as it was titled "Common App," where it followed the application process for college for three different Greek deities: Apollo, Artemis, and Atlas. Each of the deities was given an essay prompt that played into their backstory thus making for a fun game of seeing how they each answered these prompts as well as show their previously-established personalities.

Week 1: Alton, IL...My Favorite Place

Bluffs of the Mississippi River in my hometown of Alton, IL