Week 1

I was not here last week—I just added the class over the weekend, so I can’t speak to any of
the in person activities, unfortunately. However, I did do the assignments. The assignments
were a podcast about adding value, a reading about the people of corn (mayan story of
creation), and two more TED talks on storytelling. I think all of the assignments made me think
and were very interesting, but especially the podcast about mattering. Sometimes I see friends
or people who are very depressed, and do not have motivation to do anything, and they don’t
feel like they matter. After listening to the podcast, I think that they would feel a lot better if they
just did something to make someone else feel good or contribute something to society. Last
week’s content didn’t change how I saw writing very much, but as I said, the podcast about
mattering definitely changed how I viewed that matter. The storytelling talk also aligned with my
past experiences both listening to and telling stories. There wasn’t much that didn’t fit in with my
experience. I think all the assignments went pretty well, although I was pretty confused and
stressed at first since I was catching up. However, going forward I feel like I understand
expectations of the class better, especially after going to class in person today.

Week 2
This week, we did readings on dispositions towards learning, the ladder of abstraction, and the
two kinds of thinking (1st and 2nd order). In class, we did activities on mindfulness, and talked
about an experience that we had learning something difficult. In addition, we made name tents
as well. We also started to brainstorm memories about school. A kind of ‘aha’ moment for me
was seeing the connections between dispositions towards learning and my experience learning
something hard. I was surprised how applicable it was, especially since the experience I talked
about was outside the classroom. I managed to apply the concept of locus of control to my
experience. One assignment that changed the way I saw writing was the reading of the two
kinds of thinking. It made me really see the value of freewriting vs. careful, planned out thinking.
It made me motivated to try freewriting more. There wasn’t anything that challenged my
experiences, so to speak, but I think I had a hard time understanding the ladder of abstraction
and its importance. Overall, my experience this week went well, and I think I am getting better at
taking notes and freewriting. I am definitely going to use freewriting more in the future, starting
with project #1.

Week 3
This week, we did a couple readings. One was on academic mindset from a point of view that
took into account microaggressions, and the other was on how to effectively peer review. We
also expanded on one of our school memories, and also did activities and free writes in class. In
class, we looked at a few samples of project 1, including hearing Dr. Warwick’s personal story
from second grade. One of the free writes we did was to free write about something we were
good at. This kind of opened my eyes, as I am sure it did to other people as well, because I kind
of realized that there are a lot of things I am good at, as I had lots to write about. I think the
reading about peer review changed the way I saw writing. Through reading the examples of
good and bad peer review in it, I realized that my peer review in the past has not been of high
quality. For instance, I often would put short, general, 2-3 word comments like ‘be more
specific’. I now realize that this is not the most helpful, and full sentence suggestions are better.
I think the reading about academic mindset challenged maybe not my experience but when
talking about it in groups I observed that many students had never heard of a microaggression. I
think most things went well but expanding on a school memory was definitely difficult. It wasn’t
easy for me to talk about something personal. I had a hard time thinking of what more I could
say, since the memory was only a single day. Next time, I might use ChatGPT to help me come
up with different ways to expand.I will definitely use what I learned about effective peer review in
the future, including next week in class.

Week 4
This week, we focused on working on project 1, as the teacher draft is due next week
and the peer review takes place this weekend. I finished up my first draft of my project 1 and
submitted it to Eli Review. Other things we did, such as readings, included watching a video
about how to revise. Finally, as I said before, we submitted our first drafts for peer review.
Additionally, we started thinking about Project 2, and filled out a competency matrix to best be
paired with others.
Editing and expanding my first draft was definitely hard. It was hard to find enough words
to say to meet the page requirement, and I had to think of how to expand on my story, For
instance, I came up with the idea of how my story affected my college decisions, which occurred
years later. This gave me something meaningful to talk about.
The video about how to revise definitely challenged the way I used to revise because I
have never deleted my entire writing or started over in the revision process. However, this may
have led to me ending up with lackluster writing that could have been improved with some
heavy revisioning.
Overall, I am happy with my first draft, and am really looking forward to receiving good
feedback from my peers. Next time, I might have given myself some more time to work on it, but
I had two exams this week and it was really hard to find time until now.
When I revise my draft, I will be sure to be open to killing my darlings, or rewriting large
sections for the sake of a better final piece, even if it hurts to do it initially, I know it will pay off in
the end.

Week 5
This week was primarily focused on finishing up Project 1, including doing peer review
and making revisions for the teacher draft. We also did some mindfulness in class and started
up Project 2. We did speed interviews to determine who we wanted to work with, and in the next
class, we found our groups and did a team building exercise.
I really enjoyed the speed interviews because I had never talked to a lot of people in our
class before, but literally everyone was super nice and interesting. So, it was kind of a good way
to just get to know everyone in our class a little, even outside of the project.
Revising my project 1 to be a teacher draft went well, and made me realize the
importance of transitions. Both of my peer reviewers commented on the lack of a transition
between two parts of my story, making my story incohesive. Once I fixed that and made
everything flow smoother, my project 1 was so much more improved.
I met my group for project 2 and I really like everyone in it. I was a little apprehensive
about group work before, but now I am looking forward to writing a really good grant with
everyone.

Week 6
This week we got started on the second project, which is a group project working on
writing a proposal for an academic enrichment grant. To get started, we created a SCRUM
tracker, or a progress tracker, to break down tasks and keep track of progress. We picked a
topic and school for our project. We also started looking for relevant articles for our project.
Nothing was particularly an ‘aha’ moment for me, although I was surprised at how useful
the progress tracker turned out to be. This week’s content did not particularly make me see
writing in a different way.
We came up with a lot of ideas and questions while brainstorming for ideas/schools.
Although we eventually settled on something, the process definitely made me think hard about
the disparity between schools and what makes one school so different from another.
Talking to my group mates about their schools that they went to definitely opened my
eyes to the kind of bubble I grew up in. Although I was always aware of that as a fact, really
looking at all the statistics and whatnot as well as directly hearing about it was truly eye
opening. From the school I came from, going to a four year university was practically a non
negotiable, but for others, it was considered an anomaly. I thought that was pretty interesting.
I think picking our school and topic went well, but as we started looking for literature, it
definitely posed a challenge, and I think the language barrier between our group mates could
pose a bit of an obstacle at times. I think the literature review seems like it will be the hardest
part, however, and I like to think the efficiency of communication between our groupmates is
getting better over time.
I have never done a big group project in college before, so this will definitely be a
learning experience, but I am looking forward to it.

Week 7
This week we continued to work on our group projects. We compiled a good amount of
sources for our literature review, picked a school and project, and are beginning to write our
literature reviews.
 In addition, we did mindfulness activities in class as well, which were quite relaxing and
a nice break.
It’s definitely a bit hard getting started on our project. Our group chose to use discord, an
online messaging platform, as our primary mode of communication, however a few people in
our group are not used to it and haven’t been checking it, so we have been unable to coordinate
our project’s efforts. Additionally, the fact that we didn’t meet this week made it so we didn’t get
to set expectations in person.
Next time we meet, I think we need to be a bit harsher, for lack of a better term, with the
expectations of what everyone is to accomplish by the next class. I am admittedly getting
stressed about the project and that we haven’t accomplished anything. This weekend, I might
try emailing everyone to meet up and work on the project.

Week 8
This week was a bit stressful, but I made it through. It was stressful because our group
was not being proactive in their assigned roles. I found myself having to kind of put my foot
down in a firm way, because otherwise nothing was going to get done.
I did not really enjoy it, and I know that people in my group potentially picked me
because I seemed nice or approachable, so I didn’t like the fact that I was potentially ‘letting
them down’ in how they saw me. However, it paid off, and I’m glad I did, because we got a lot
done and I was very pleasantly surprised by how productive people in my group could be, given
they were given some firm direction.
I think I know better about how to choose group members for future projects, though it
might be harsh, next time I would pick based on integrity, proactiveness, and work ethic, not
how nice I think them to be.

Week 9
This week we finished up our draft of our project 2 for peer review. We did some free
writes in class as usual, and did a project memory brainstorm for our project 3.
I would say there were two things that stood out, one being editing my groupmates’ work
and also doing the project 3 memory brainstorm. I think editing one of my groupmate’s work,
Jessica, was a really funny and full circle kind of moment for me because the section she had
written, the introduction, was way too long and we needed to cut it down, so she asked me to,
which I was honored to do. Anyway, she had written so much because she was so passionate
about the topic and had done tons and tons of research, but we had to let some pretty big
chunks go. We laughed about it because it came back to the saying we had learned earlier in
the quarter, “kill your darlings”.
The project 3 brainstorm assignment was also a kind of a full circle moment for me
because it really made me think hard and reflect about what I have learned this quarter. I
realized that I had learned alot about peer reviewing effectively and how useful the drafting
process can be, as well as the value of being vulnerable to connect with your reader in your
writing. Both those things are extremely important skills that will undoubtedly come in handy in
the future.
 So overall, this week went well. I really need to start planning how I’m gonna accomplish
the final portfolio in time because I really want an A in this class! And I also want the portfolio to
reflect my hard work and effort. The skills I have learned in this class will impact my future for
sure, in a good way.

Week 10
This week, we peer reviewed other people’s project 2’s and received feedback on ours
as well. In class, we met with our groups regarding project 2 progress and did informal
presentations on our project 2. We also did some thinking about our top 3 takeaways about
writing and about group work from project 2. We discussed as a class, and discussed the final
portfolio.
I think receiving feedback was super helpful, which has been a common recurring theme
throughout my time in this class. Not only is it good to know if you’re on track, but it’s also
interesting how your work can be interpreted entirely differently from how you thought it would
be. In addition, while sharing our projects in class, it was interesting and quite shocking to me—
one person in our group had only negative comments or critiques after each of us shared our
projects, and it made the experience unpleasant at times. However, the rest of us made up for
it, and were very supportive of each other, giving positive feedback. It was someone that I had
chosen not to work with on the group project, even though they seemed very intelligent, and I
can see that I made the right choice. In a group project, you don’t just want someone to be
smart—you need them to be respectful, kind, and willing to communicate well.
This week’s content made me think about the big picture more. What do I mean by that?
I mean that for instance, although we had done all the required ‘components’ of each section of
our project 2, feedback made us realize that cohesively, the main message was obscured at
times, and we needed to refine some things so that it came through. It made me realize that you
have to remember why you’re writing something in the first place: to accomplish something, to
convey a message—not to list a bunch of facts or a laundry list. This ties into when we talked
about project 3 and the reflections—the purpose of project 3 and the reflections is not just a list,
but to guide your reader through your portfolio and your 109ed experience.
As I said, the experience with the negative individual in our group was a bit jarring, but it
was counteracted by the supportiveness of the rest of our group. For instance, after I presented
our project they made a comment that was like “so you’re just forcing kids into trade school?”
which was obviously not the point, and it was definitely rude, which is not the experience I’ve
had with others in the class, so it was surprising.
I think peer review went well and was very helpful. As I said, the group presentations
could have gone better. I think I have learned a lot about group work from this class. I know the
importance of accountability, trust, and also that being smart is not the most important thing. It’s
willingness to listen, be on top of things, and continuing to improve your part that matters more.