Introduction/Background
My name is Lorissa Salinas and my pronouns are she/her. My major is Psychology for right now until I transfer out and alter my major more specifically to School counseling. I am taking this class mainly to finish off my GE's before I transfer out this upcoming Fall of 2023. I grew up mainly in most of IE so Fontana, Ca and in the high desert for the most part. My passion is to get into the school field to help children through tough times and guide them. My main life goal alongside my career is to be the counselor I never had which is one that really cared. I added some pictures on some things I enjoy like hiking, traveling, my pet, Zeus and my boyfriend.
Goals/Objectives
My smart goal for this semester is to stay ahead of my due dates and not fall behind on assignments. I would ideally like to stay a week at least ahead if I can by noting the changes in my planner to stay on top of what is going on. I can utilize all of my class time to stay ahead and by the end of each month see how well I was able to keep up. My smart goal for this class is to soak up geology facts that can be utilized outside of the classroom. I can achieve this by being genuinely associated in class and participating in the class setting. In order to attain this goal I will connect my personal life like my hiking interests and outdoor hobbies with the geology language. I will progress in incorporating terminology inside and outside the classroom resulting in my knowledge of geology growing every month.
Looking back at these goals I set for myself I feel good and content with how I am progressing. I had one slip up two weeks ago with my igneous and metamorphic lab by falling behind on turning them in but to also be fair I was not allowing myself enough time to understand both rocks so the lag was for my benefit of grasping the material better.
Methods
Some specific steps I am taking to achieve my goals are to include my class excitement in my everyday phone calls with my boyfriend or my sisters at home. Some things I can think of to assess growth in this class are developing genuine interests in the topics we discuss. My thoughts on the ungrading idea are pretty frightening since it is not something I have done so I can not expect what I am used to and the 'not knowing' gives me anxiety. I cannot prepare myself mentally for something I am not used to. I do look forward to learning new teaching methods though it's a scary, exciting feeling. So far my methods have been great. I truly do talk about this class in my own life and have been able to learn about the environment around me when I am doing outdoor things. I recently went on a trip to La Jolla and went kayaking above the Rose Canyon Fault and learned about the formation of the sedimentary rocks on their fault zone. I also learned it is the active component of the Pacific-North american plate boundary interconnected with the california fault system making the San Andreas Fault.
When you look at the methods you suggested you would use for this class, are you actually following them? If so, are they working?
My methods are being followed and they are working well for me.
How often have you been present in class? How focused on what is happening in class have you consistently been?
I have been mostly present but I am guilty of missing a couple of classes. Recently as more rocks and minerals have been introduced I have been having a hard time concentrating on one group at a time so my focus has been a bit rough.
How many hours a week do you typically spend on this class? When thinking about your progress in this class, do you feel it is enough?
I would say maybe around 15 hours give or take I am spending on this class and as far as my progress in this class I do feel it is moving but as far as learning the minerals I do not think it is enough. It’s a tricky memory game to study.
We discussed the fact that this class was meant to help you practice a variety of skills useful to any future, not just oceanography. Which do you think you have had most practice with due to class?
I feel I have had most practice with being social when it comes to group work and lab time.
Now that you have had a chance to contemplate your focus, time, and performance in this class, is there anything that you are planning to change for the rest of the semester?
Yes I plan to not avoid difficult topics that are not as interesting to myself personally so I can get my work done procrastination free.
(Preliminary) Results
In this class I believe my strengths are my genuine interest in the subject and my commitment to understanding what I do not initially know. My weakest has to be in minerals. They are just not clicking for me and I have little desire to continuously learn 20 different minerals that look so closely the same but I will still be trying my best to get them down.
(Preliminary) Conclusions
Based on my work in this class I would give myself a B because of my lack of desire to be on myself about learning what I do not know, like minerals. Everything else I need to succeed is either in my book or notes that I can study at any time from but the minerals are not and at most we get an hour a day with them and it is personally not enough for me to genuinely memorize their names.