My 40th Reflection May 31st 09

Today wasn't a good day for me at all. I had a lot of computer problems which lead to my downfall. My overall strategy was actually to get a good start on my powerpoint as I had already handed in my essay. The only problem was that my computer wasn't working. The first computer I went on, got frozen and I couldn't do anything for about 10 minutes. I got a little frustrated because we only have this week to actually finish the whole power point presentation. Mr. Sparks then put me in another lab on a different computer so I could work. There was another problem on that computer. It was taking ages to log in. It took 20 minutes for the computer to actually log me in and another 10 minutes to get microsft word open. I only had 20 minutes left to work, so I hurried up a little bit. I think I worked better in the other lab, as I did not have anyone to talk to and nothing to distract me. Next time I think if I do ot sit with my friends, I can work a lot better and faster.

My 39th Reflection May 28th 09

Today, my strategy was to finish my bibliography completely, finish my essay completely and finish checking over my essay. I actually finished all of those this lesson. I rushed a little bit because Mr. Sparks said that if we use the next lesson, we will only have 3 days for the power point presentation to be done. I talked a lot this lesson, mainly because I did not have anything to do as I submitted my essay early in the lesson. After I had done my essay, I looked for images on my 3 characteristics. I found the images I needed, but I think I will need more when I start my power point presentation. I think I worked well today in the end, I talked a lot though which was probably the only thing I did wrong today. It was the last lesson to write up our essays and I submitted it. I think throughout the essay project, I could have improved on my talking at the most part but other than that I think I did everything well.

My 38th Reflection May 26th 09

Today, my objective was to finish my essay completely and print it. I went over my essay twice before I printed it. I though my essay was perfect until Mr. Sparks and Miss. Fletcher said how we had to write the bibliography. I worked effeciently to try and finish my bibliography and in the end I did finish it. I also put my bibliography in alphabetical order. I think one of the things that dragged me down this lesson was the ammount of talking I did. I talked a lot during the lesson and was again surprised that Mr. Sparks did not move me from my place at the beginning of the lesson. I also sometimes dozed off in the middle of the lesson because I thought I was done when I could have still improved my essay. I think if I avoid talking and dozing off next lesson, I can check my essay over and over again to completely make sure that my essay is complete. 

My 37th Reflection May 25th 09

Today I was determined to finish looking over my essay as well as checking for errors. In the beginning of the class, we were a bit delayed because Mr. Sparks had to change our places. I was surprised he did not switch my place because I was talking a lot during the lesson. I did not have many problems during the lesson. I checked over all my work as well as finished my bibliography. I am happy with my work because I fit the limit and also I finished all my work. Tomorrow I will check over my work one final time and then probably print it.

My 36th Reflection May

Today, I was focused on getting my note cards and checking over my information. The only problem was that Mr. Sparks had forgotten where he put our folders, so that delayed me a bit. Even when we got the folders though, I was talking quite a lot. Which actually made me waste valuable time. I could have used the time to actually check over my work a bit more. I still checked over my work, but only twice. I still found errors both times, so next lesson I have got to work harder to check over my work more thoroghly. My strategy next lesson will probably be to check over my work and make some final changes as well as check if the word count is in the limit.

My 35th Reflection May 21st 09

Today, my strategy was to finish typing up my essay, then start editing since I knew I was gonna go over the limit. I took away the word count again, so I would look at how many words I had written. In the end, I did finish writing my essay, the only problem was that I had written over 1700 words. This meant that I had to do some serious editing. I had a bit of trouble actually editing my work. I thought all my information was relevant, so I had a hard time picking the bits which I didn't need. But I did actually finish editing my work and ended up with 1499 words. Which is below the limit so I'm not worried anymore. But now I have to go over my work and check for errors. When I stopped editing, I also started to slack off and started talking to my peers which made me lose valuable time.

My 34th Reflection May 19th 09

Today, my strategy was to keep typing until I finished my essay completely. As I did last lesson, I removed the word count so that I wouldnt look at the words every 5 minutes. I did not really talk much the whole lesson, I just kept on working. My strategy today, was to actually first organize my note cards. I was on my last chracteristic, but I spent about half the lesson actually organizing all of them. I think this was better than just typing it because then my organization grade will get higher. After I had finished orgaznizing my note cards, I worked quickly and started to continue writing my essay. I think that this will probably put me behind schedule as I took a long time organzing my note cards. I kept working, but when I looked at the amount of words I had written, it turned out I had wrtieen over the limit. I had written 1586 words in that time. I still have a few more note cards left to type after this, and will probably hit 1600 words. I think I worked quite well today, since I have most of my essay done and I have finished organzing all my note cards. Next lesson, when I finish typing my essay, I will have to do some editing and erase all of the information not needed.

My 33rd Reflection May 18th 09

Today was our first day back from our WWW. I don't think I worked well today. My overall strategy was to delete the word count so I wouldn't look at it, which actually helped, because I did not look at it for every 5 minutes. The only problem was that I looked halfway through the lesson and it turned out I was writing too much. So I worked on deleting some words from my other section. This will probably put me behind in the class so I have to work hard next lesson. After I deleted some sentences, I kept writing on and on and did not look at my word count. so I have no worries at the moment about how many words I've written. This shows me that my strategy was effective.

My 32nd Reflection May 7th 09

Today, I think I made a lot of progress in my essay. I worked hard on trying to organize me note cards and I also didnt chat much through the lesson. I am having 1 problem throughout the lesson though. I keep looking at the word count every 5 minuted which puts me off. This puts me off because I think I have already written too many words. I am gonna try to find an option on the computer to remove the word count so I wont be looking at so frequently. I am having a bit of trouble with orgaznizing my essay, because I cant just mention what happend after an emperors death, I have to talk about the emperor, that is what I am having trouble with. When I have removed the word count on my screen, I will keep on writing an probably will have to cut off a few words or maybe even full sentences out of my work. I hope that next lesson I will work harder and get more of my essay done.

My 31st Reflection March 5th 09

I was planning to write my essay today, but I was a bit delayed because I had a meeting with Mr. Schwaberow. I was delayed again because my there were no more computers in the multi-media labs, and I had to get a laptop from Mrs. Blackburn. This put me off quite a bit. I think after that I worked very well and hard. I finished organizing my note cards and I also started writing my essay. I worked well while writing the essay, I did not talk and I also did not waste any time. I think if I had not been delayed at the beginning of the lesson, I would have finished a lot more of my essay. I hope I will do better next lesson.

My 30th Reflection May 4th 09

I was still planning on my essay today. I did not work as well as I thought I would , but I did get some work done. I kept talking through the lesson because I was in a sort of hyper mood I guess. I mostly talked when Mr. Sparks was out of the room which made me feel bad at the end of the lesson. Although I was slacking off, I still got quite a bit of work done today. I finished organizing my religion notes as well as my government and law. Now I just need to work on typing the plan on the computer. I worked well when I wasn't talking. I worked faster and more efficiently. Next time I will try to work more efficiently throughout the whole lesson.

My 29th Reflection March 3rd 09

It was time for us to work on our essay now. I think I worked well well today, but I could have worked a lot better. We were planning on how we will structure our essay. I had a bit of problems at the beginning because I was looking for Inspiration file which would help me, but I could not find it. So I used Microsoft Word. I was keen to get on to do the essay, but I was also talking through the class. I think this is because I was sitting between my friends. Next time I will try not to sit with them. I worked well today because I worked hard on trying to organize my note cards. It actually took me a while to organize them because I had quite a lot. It took me almost the whole lesson to just organize the note cards. I will talk less next time and hope I do more. 

My 28th Reflection April 30th 09

It was our last day of research today. I think it was my best lesson , because I was determined to finish 10 note cards also I was keen on getting more information. Mr. Sparks was not here today and Mr. Sweeny was taking his place for this lesson. I had a few bad parts in the lesson, because since Mr. Sparks wan not here I started talking a bit more, but when I realized that I had been talking a lot, I stopped and started to work more and harder. It paid off in the end, I got more information that I did not have before which will be very useful in the essay when we write next week. These 10 note cards give me a total of exactly 100 cards in total! I think when we write the essay I will first work on organizing the note cards. I am pretty satisfied with the information that I have collected, hopefully I should do well.

My 27th Reflection April 28th 09

Today I don't think I worked as well as yesterday. I was slacking off a bit and wasn't very keen to do my work. I think if I was more keen on working, I would have done better. I wasn't really talking much, but I kept starting to daydream for a while during the lesson. It was getting harder to find information on the Internet because I already had a whole load of information. I think the videos on Brain pop really helped me get more information, the only problem was that it took me a little while to write in my own words and not plagiarise the whole speech. This was our 2nd last lesson in the multi-media labs and I don't think I used the time as well as I should have. I wrote 5 note cards today and I hope the next lesson, which will be our last, I will write a lot more.

My 26th Reflection April 27th 09

We were back in the Multi-Media labs today. I was really keen to work today and get information because we were allowed to use the world-wide web. Mr. Sparks said it was our our last week in the labs today, so I decided that I would work my hardest this week. I think pretty well today, I was more than satisfied because I wrote 9 note cards. I did talk a bit during the lesson but only a little bit. I think if I improve on the talking, I will be able to write more note cards.

My 25th Reflection April 26th 09

Today we were in the multi-media labs again. Today I think I worked my hardest. I was keen on working and had lots of information to write. I did not talk at all the whole lesson which is a big improvement from when we first started, because when I first started, I couldnt stop talking. I worked well in finding the websites on the waterworks of ancient civilizations link and did not copy the information at all. I wrote in my own words completely. I think I could have worked better if I had not talked at the beginning of the lesson and at the end as well as losing interest when the bell was about to ring. I wrote 8 note cards this lesson, and I hope to do even more next lesson.

My 24th Reflection April 23rd April

We were in the multi-media labs again today. Today I think it was the best day. I definitely worked well today. I wasn't talking at all today, but when Mr. Sparks left the room I got carried away and started talking. This probably got me to write less cards today. I wrote 8 cards today. I think I could have done better if I had not talked when Mr. Sparks left the room. Other than that I think that I did pretty well today. I hope I will finish more note cards next lesson.

My 23rd Reflection

We were back in the multi-media labs today. I think today was one of my best lessons, as I did my level best and put in my utmost effort. I was more than satisfied with my work as I got a lot of new information today and we got to use different websites. I think these websites will really help. I concentrated more today , was just distracted once or twice. I was more keen and enthusiastic and was also looking forward to the lesson as well as using the new websites. I completed writing 5 note cards today and I hope that I write more next time.

My 22nd Reflection March 20th 09

We were in the multi-media labs again today. Today I don't think I worked well because I was talking quite often. I did not work very hard to find the information I was looking for, I just read through it quickly and noted down a few key points. I only wrote 2 note cards as a result of this. I think I could have worked better if I had not been talking and I would have worked better if I was more keen to do some research.

My 21st reflection April 19th 09

Today we were in the multi-media labs again. I dont think it was a good day, as I thought I would achieve more. I was not distracted, infact I barely talked. The only problem was that I couldn't find any information that I already did'nt have. Everytime I wrote Ancient Rome on Grolier, I got something about Ancient Mesopotamia. I still wrote down 3 note cards, with useful information. I hope I do better next lesson.

My Twentieth Reflection April 17th 09

We were back in the multi-media labs and I was determined to get more information today. I think I worked well this lesson, because I did not talk much the whole lesson. That turned out to be better because I worked harder and with more concentration. I finished writing about 5 note cards today, 1 of the most I have written in this whole project. I think today was one of the best lessons I have had so far.

My Nineteenth Reflection April 14th 09

It was our first day in the multi-media labs today. I was excited to go on the computers to research on some websites. We wern't allowed to use the World Wide Web as yet because we had to use sites that the school suscribes to first. We used Britannica Online and Grogeli online encyclopedias. I think I worked well today, apart from a little talking. I could have done better but I guess I was just a bit excited. I will try and do better next lesson. I wrote 3 note cards , which had information which I did not find in the books earlier. This will help me in the future when I write my essay.

My Eighteenth Reflection April 13th 09

It was our last day in the library today , hence I was motivated to get more information. I was looking for some more books and also looking for more websites at the same time. I was talking often, but I was also doing some work. I don't think I worked my best but I tried to. I think I worked well in trying to get my information, I went up and down the library getting other books. I found some information that I didnt have and it turned out to be very helpful. I have 40 note cards in total and I hope I write more when we get to the computers.

My Seventeenth Reflection 12th April 09

Like every day, we had to go back to the library. First we went to the classroom and took a vote on whether we should go to the library or multi media lab. Most of us opted for the library.So it was decided that we would be spending the next two days in the library. I don't think I worked well , as I was not too keen to go the library today. I thought we would have worked better in the multimedia labs. I was slacking off quite a bit and looking for websites in the books. I was successful in finding 6 websites and some of them hopefully would be very useful. I was talking quite often and kept getting distracted.

My Sixteeth Refelction March 3st 09

Today was one of our last days in the library. Mr. Sparks said that this week will be our last, so I had to get a lot of information. Lucklily I came to the library earlier and and got the encyclopedia I need. I found loads of information on Government & Law which really helped me. I was talking a bit on my table, but I still managed to write up 6 cards today. I have 34 in all, and I hope to write even more. I will try and work my hardest next lesson as it is the last.

My Fifteenth Reflection March 30th 09

Today we went back to the library to do some more research. Mr. Sparks said that today would be one of the last days that we had to work on in the library so I tried to do more. The encyclopedias really helped this time, because I found out about more Religion, Government & Law and Education. I wrote down 1 note card for each one of those characteristics. I talked a bit at the beginning of the lesson but I still was satisfied with my work.

My Fourteenth Reflection March 29th 09

Today we went back to the library to do some more research. I have used most of the books except the encyclopedias. There are 4 sections to the encyclopedia, I need to write about Government and Law, unfortunately the books with those two in them were being used. I think I worked well today, apart from the talking. I finished 3 note cards today and hope to do more next lesson.

My Thirteenth Reflection March 26th 09

Today, we went back to the library to do some research again. I used an encyclopedia today, it had loads of information that I didnt have before. It had 4 volumes, I looked through the first 3, it has a lot of information. I finally got a lot of information on the government and also more on education. I finished writing 3 note cards today. I talked a bit today, this put me off. Next time I hope to write more. But overall I was satisfied with my work.

My Twelfth Reflection March 24th 09

Today, we went back to the library for some research. I went to the library earlier in break because I though I had gone through every book about Ancient Rome. Fortunately I found 2 that I had not read. They had heaps of information, mostly about Education but it really helped. I found out a few new facts about schooling in Rome as well. I worked well today and didn't talk that much. I completed 3 note cards. At the end of the lesson I found 4 encyclopedias on Rome, I will use them tommorow and hopefully get more information.

My Eleventh Reflection March 23rd 09

Today, we went back to the library to do some research. Today I made progress, I found 2 books I had not used before and they had some information I had not yet read. Our group was talking a bit but we still managed to do some work. I finished writing 3 note cards today. I think I need to work on talking less so I can make some more note cards. The only problem now is that I think I've used every book on the Romans!

My Tenth Reflection March 22nd 09

Today, we went on with the research. I wanted to get more on Education today because I only had 2 cards on that characteristic. In the first place where we were sitting, we were forced to move by Mr. Sparks because we were talking, this was not a good start. After we went to a different table. I worked efficiently. I had 4 note cards, 1 about Government and 3 about Education. I could have worked better if I had not talked in the beginning. Next time I will work more efficiently.

My Ninth Reflection March 19th 09

Today we did some more research in the library. I had a little trouble today because: The place where we were seated at first, senior students came and started talking so loudly that we had to move. This put me off a bit ,as I wanted to concentrate more . After we moved, I searched for a book that had information about Government and Law as I did not have much about that. I had found a book and I wrote 3 note cards about it. I could have worked better today, but we were talking occasionally on our table and other people kept coming to our table.

My Eighth Reflection March 17th 09

Today we went straight to the library and we started on our research. I found some new books on Romans and I was determined to get some more information. I first started looking for Government and Law, because I only had 1 note card about it. I found a book with loads of information which really helped me. I worked better today, because I finished writing 5 note cards today. I hope to do even better next lesson.

My Seventh Reflection March 16th 09

Today we went back to the library to do some research. Today I sat next to someone I would not talk to as much as yesterday because I needed to do some work. I did not talk much this lesson which was an improvement. I used new books to get my research done and wrote 3 and 1/2 note cards about religion, government & Law and Education. I could have improved this lesson if I had read faster and hadn't taken so much time choosing the book with the right information.

My Sixth Reflection 15th March 09

Today, we went to the library and we started out research on the Ancient Civilization we were going to do. I had chosen Ancient Rome instead of the Ancient Indus Valley Civilization because there was more to write about. First off, I did not start well because I was talking with my friends. After we got separated, I worked better. I finished writing 2 note cards about Religion and Education. I could have done better if I hadn't talked at the beginning.

My Fifth Reflection 12th March 09

Today we went to Multi Media Lab 4 and we created this blog. In this blog we have to write our reflections. We also created a new link on our class wiki, so we can link it to out blog. I used time wisely here because I finished creating the link in the wiki and I created the blog, as well as writing the first 2 refelctions on the blog in class.

My Fourth Reflection 10th March 09

Mr. Sparks was back today. Today we learned on how to summarize out work. First we read an example then we read the summary and bullet point for our Power Point Presentation. Then we had o read a script ourselves and summarize it. I used this time well as I finished my summary and I finished writing my bullet points.

My Third Refelction 9th March 09

Today, I got my Process Journal. In the Process Journal we had to stick 6 little folders and write titles on them. We had to write: Introduction, Religion, Education, Government & Law, Conclusion and Bibliography. Then we had to write down our questions on the little folder that said the characteristic. I used this time well as I wrote all my questions and wrote my name in the front of the book.

My Second Reflection 8th March 09

Today we went to the library and we learned on how to make a bibliography using EasyBib. First we typed the contributors and then the name of the book. We also wrote the publication code, city and the year the book was published. this information can all be found on the retro page. I was talking a little bit through the explanation but I still understood what was going on. Then we searched through books and looked for an ancient civilization that looked interesting. I chose Ancient Indus Valley but I might change my mind.

My First Reflection 5th March 09

Well, this is my first reflection so far in this project, we have not done much. we have done this so far: We have chosen 3 of the 6 characteristics as a class and write down questions. The 3 characteristics we chose as a class are: Art & Architecture, Government & Law and Social Class. We are only allowed to use 2 out of these 3 characteristic for our individual project. We finished writing down the questions. I think that I did not work my hardest this lesson because I only said 4 questions. Next lesson we had to write down questions about the 3 characteristics we chose. I chose Religion, Government & Law and Education. I wrote down 9 questions for each characteristic. I think I worked well this lesson because I finished writing the reflection and the questions.