Final Journal

Bailey Hanrahan

5/10/20

Final Journal

Working on my product, I learned a lot about my time management skills. If I could have done it again, I would have started it earlier. I am now playing with the cards that I dealt with myself. Although I didn’t have as much time to work on my product as I would have liked, I worked hard to get it all done through making lists and plans that I needed to stick to. “Throughout this process, I have learned a lot about time management. Especially in these next couple of weeks, that aspect of the project and my learning is going to be put to the test. I have been working very hard to stay organized and make lists of what to do each day to get my project done. This form of organization has helped me a lot throughout this year. It has held me accountable, especially now with all of the upcoming deadlines that I have to face” (Hanrahan Journal 8). I think that this has been my biggest obstacle throughout the process of my product. As of now, I am ready for the deadline in a couple of days!

Throughout this experience, I have learned a lot about how to manage my time and how to work well with other people. I also worked hard to get what I needed to succeed through contacting other people and asking instead of things being handed to me. The relationship that I have with my mentor is amazing. Although, most of the work that I did was independent. We were in constant communication throughout the year despite me doing most of my work by myself. I was going to meet with her a couple more times before the year was over, but we are not able to due to the quarantine. I met with her twice and she helped me brainstorm my product and how to make it more effective. I only spent a few hours with her, but we have been in contact all year. Although this was not the relationship that I would have liked from my mentor, I made it work the best that I could.

Overall for this project, I think that I handled it very well. I had a few challenges that I needed to overcome, but overall I think that I exceeded the expectations. The biggest challenge for me, as I talked about before was time management. For my product, paper, and portfolio, I did not give myself as much time that I would have liked to complete the tasks. Although I met all of the deadlines, I had to work hard last-minute sometimes to achieve them. Overall, my time management skills have progressed significantly from the start and I am not doing everything the day before anymore. One situation that I think I handled well was working with other people and having self-confidence in myself and plans. After my first panel meeting, I felt down because my panel didn’t think that the plan that I had for my paper was going to work. I had a lot of self-confidence in what my plan was. So I went to see Mrs. Holder and talked through my paper with her. Looking back at it now, with it being graded with an SP, I am extremely proud of myself for not changing my plan just because someone thought it wouldn’t work. I challenged myself and got a second opinion and worked through it. This was one of my best decisions throughout this project, and it turned out to be the best paper that I have ever written.

In my paper and product, I learned about different forms of communication that are available for people that are deaf. Sign language and Cochlear Implants are both options that are available to many. In my research paper, I learned about a way that a deaf person could possibly be able to hear electronically and communicate like a hearing person. In my paper, I evaluated things that one should consider before going ahead with the process of getting a Cochlear Implant. In my product, I go into the sign language part of communication. I looked at the different aspects of sign language. Word order is very different between English and sign language. When signing, one often skips over multiple words because they are just not needed to make sense. Another thing to consider is facial expressions, body language, and emotion. Since people speaking sign language cannot express with the tone of their voices, body language, and facial expressions can dramatically change a conversation from just talking to yelling, etc. Although the topic of my paper and the learning that I did for my product is not directly connected. They both look at the different forms of communication for someone in the deaf community.