Time Strategies

Salvador Dali's "Profile of Time." Source:Wikimedia

For the time strategies assignment, I read two interesting articles on how to better manage my time. Both pieces made me reconsider some of my time-spending habits! This article on overcoming procrastination by Peter Banerjea encouraged readers to ask relevant questions to ourselves about how we're spending our time. The most helpful question for me to read was "What one thing can I do to get started?" This question can serve as a practical tool to help you achieve small goals.
I also read an article on reframing being "busy" by Tim Grahl. The author discussed how thinking of yourself as constantly busy leads to recurring, unhealthy time management decisions. Instead, we should think of how we spend our time as a series of choices and priorities.
These articles were helpful to read and encouraged me to think about procrastination a bit differently. I don't typically have problems with procrastination on class assignments, but the tips found in the articles are applicable to all sorts of tasks. This semester, I hope to use my time in more intentional ways.

Technology Tools!

Image of an old IBM PC. Source: Wikimedia

Using some new websites and computer tricks will be a fun element of this course. I'm somewhat familiar with a lot of the relevant tools, such as bookmarking and image editing. Blogging and creating graphics will be new, useful skills for me to learn while taking this class! This is actually my first online class as a college student, so I've been looking forward to it for a while now. I bet that creating my own website will feel rewarding.

Thoughts on the Assignments

"Assignments" image from the Wikipedia Education Program. Source: Wikimedia

The assignments for this class seem interesting, unique, and fun! I like that there will be a variety of different types of work rather than having students do the same type of assignment repeatedly. I'm especially excited for the reading assignments and eager to begin those. Commenting on other students' blog posts will also be a worthwhile exercise and a neat way to see how others are approaching the assignments. The extra credit options are interesting and quite different from what I've had in previous courses! The "Wikipedia Trails" option sounds like it would be enjoyable.

Growth Mindset Thoughts

Image designed by Islam Abudaoud. Full image can be found here

Found originally via Laura Gibbs's Growth Mindset Memes blog

I really enjoyed learning about the Growth Mindset from Carol Dweck. In particular, the way she explained the Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset in her Ted Talk was fascinating. Teachers shouldn't frame classroom environments around the ideas of failure and intelligence being static; rather, in order to help students achieve, challenges should be embraced and learning growth encouraged. Dweck talks about the importance of using the simple word "yet" to help students grasp this concept. I also found interesting Dave Paunesku's article critiquing the use of Growth Mindset as not enough to solve the achievement gap. He argues that we need to address the systems in place that limit opportunities for certain students rather than attributing the blame for low achievement to the students themselves. I found this article persuasive, perhaps in part because Paunesku's argument strongly relates to one of my favorite subjects, Sociology. 

I had heard of the Growth Mindset concept before, yet hadn't heard of Carol Dweck or looked at any related research. One challenging course I'll be taking this semester is Intensive Intro to Latin, which is a class combining Latin 1 and Latin 2 into one semester. Approaching this course with a growth mindset will be helpful for me in the coming weeks! I often tend to focus on outcomes rather than process, so keeping the Growth Mindset in mind will be a good exercise for me this semester.

Introduction to Derek the Letters Major

Hey! My name is Derek Bixler and I'm a Letters/Constitutional Studies major from Oklahoma City. I'm starting my third year here at OU, and I plan on going to law school after I graduate. My academic interests (other than law!) are religion, political science, and sociology. The best part about being a Letters major is the flexibility to take all sorts of classes in multiple academic departments and still gain credit towards my major. This really fits me, as I like to explore new ideas and am constantly fascinated by new ways of thinking. I like to read, but I typically only read non-fiction books; I'm excited to expand my tastes by reading creative works of fiction for this course! My hobbies include watching OU sports (especially football, of course), volunteering with Generation Citizen, and playing the guitar. I also enjoy going to concerts and could talk all day about my favorite bands. My favorite movie is Goodwill Hunting, and I still can't decide whether my favorite TV show is Parks and Recreation or The Office. Both are classics in my opinion! This past summer I spent six incredible weeks in Virginia as a Mount Vernon Leadership Fellow and learned a ton about the U.S. government and American history. Through the fellowship, I was able to become friends with some amazing college students from other universities across the country and explore Washington D.C. pretty thoroughly. I'm glad to be back in Norman though and ready for the semester to start. I'm hoping to study abroad this upcoming summer, so if anyone has any suggestions on where to go I'd love to hear them! So far I've considered Italy, China, and South Africa. I'm a huge fan of the Enneagram as a way to better understand people and their motivations, and I'm a type 3 with a type 2 wing. That's probably enough about me though! I'm excited to start this course and to read the other introduction posts.

A personal photo of me from the Speaker's Balcony of the U.S. Capitol this past summer

Storybook Favorites

For this post, I've been looking at some of the example storybooks from past students and reading through them! It's been fun to take in different narratives. One that I really liked was a creative retelling of the Peter Pan and Captain Hook story. I enjoyed the ideas behind the author's work and the amount of thought put into it. I've always been a fan of Peter Pan as a character. The introduction served as a good launching pad and helped readers enter into an "interview" scenario with Captain Hook. I enjoyed the author's use of multiple interesting images on the pages and the simple navigation of the storybook.

The Adventures of Merlin was another fantastic storybook to examine. I admired the simple yet elegant use of one beautiful image at the top of each page. Navigating through the storybook was easy, and I enjoyed the descriptive author's notes on the bottom of most of the pages. I have some familiarity with Merlin, and this storybook skilfully uses Merlin as a character. I definitely might use a layout similar to this storybook! It stylistically fits what I typically prefer.

A final storybook that I was impressed with and found interesting was The Nutcracker. The layout kind of reminded me of the Merlin storybook: clean and aesthetically pleasing. The colors were gentle and inviting. The adventure that the protagonist "Mina" goes on is fun and gripping. I found this narrative very readable and accessible even though I have never seen a performance of The Nutcracker. I really enjoyed the ending of this one!

All three storybooks were enjoyable for different reasons! I'm excited to begin crafting my own after getting some cool ideas from looking through these. A solid amount of thought was clearly put into creating all of the storybooks I went through.

This work of art is titled The Dutch Proverbs by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. (I love this painting of multiple proverbial legends and may loosely base my storybook around it!) Source: Wikimedia

Favorite Place: Mount Vernon

My favorite place in the world is probably Mount Vernon, which is President George Washington's Virginia estate! Not only is it beautiful, but I spent six memorable weeks there this past summer as a Mount Vernon Leadership Fellow.

Image of George Washington's Mount Vernon estate.

Source: Wikimedia