Learning Record Midterm
10/26/2004
Thanks for tuning in to the show today! We have just arrived in the territory of today's subject. Our subject is female and approximately 20 years of age. Her name appears to be Malisa Hines, but members of her clan call her Mali. How curious. She seems oblivious to our presence, as she is wrapped up in performing some kind of task. We have managed to steal a list that the subject has made concerning her goals for some sort of class she is in. We will use our archived footage of the subject to evaluate her according to her own goals.
Goal 1: STOP procrastinating, and in turn put more time into projects. Well, it doesn’t appear that she has made much progress in this area. She routinely sits down to begin a task and then becomes sidetracked by her dog, television, or computer, nearly anything it seems. She actively looks for excuses to not to do her work. How strange. As far as this “putting more time into projects, she seems to have that down, although it tends to be right before the project is due. It seems she could benefit from regimenting her time a bit, maybe setting aside certain hours of the day to work on things.
Goal 2: Learn to manage my time better and to complete all reading assignments. Well, she hasn’t done very well in this department either. This goal is very closely linked to the last, and I think my suggestion to remedy the situation would apply to this goal as well. I think perhaps there is an illness that afflicts her. Perhaps she suffers from the dreaded Senioritis. This would explain the sudden laziness and lack of enthusiasm concerning her work. She must overcome this affliction.
So far our subject isn’t doing so well even by her own standards, not a good sign. Let’s continue on and see what develops. Goal 3: Learn how to write more effectively. Okay! The results are looking better. It appears that she has put a good effort into satisfying this goal. By reading various samples of her writing in chronological order, it appears she has greatly improved. She seems to take pride in a particular story that allowed her to incorporate research and creativity. (I actually liked that story myself.)
On we go to the next goal. Goal 4: Learn how to produce a professional product. She seems to be on a roll here! She learned to publish her work on the internet as a website. The site is quite attractive visually as well as informative in the text. We will consider this goal satisfied for now, but only in respect of the website. She could still use some work on producing a professional product when it comes to her writing. Perhaps we’ll go with half credit on this goal.
Goal 5: Learn more about myself through the activities of class. This is a hard one to evaluate. She has done some activities that suggest she is learning about herself. By doing the Myers-Briggs indicator test she learned about her personality. We have to assume that she’s learned about herself through reading for her course and the practice of journaling. She at least has learned to observe her reactions to reading texts. Although one should never stop learning about themselves we will consider this goal as fulfilled.
What is next? Oh yes, we are on to Goal 6: Work on giving good constructive criticism. This goal may be better evaluated by her peers. Perhaps that could be an additional project for her class. It would be interesting and probably helpful to know if the feedback given to classmates was helpful to them at all. It would also help in allowing the subject to see what types of suggestions were constructive and which types were less effective.
Goal 7: Produce a final project that is something that I can be proud of. Since the subject’s semester has not come to an end, we can not definitively say whether she has achieved this goal or not. However we can look at her progress up to this point. It seems like she has put a lot of time and effort into her web project. This suggests that, assuming she keeps putting the same amount of time and effort into the project, when it comes to the end of the semester she will indeed have a project to be proud of.
Goal 8: Write with the intention to produce the best product possible instead of only fulfilling requirements. Based on the results of evaluating the first two goals I find it highly unlikely that the subject is writing with this intention. Because the procrastination is such an issue it is more likely that she is writing to fulfill requirements rather than to produce the best product she can. If she works on her first two goals perhaps this one will follow.
Goal 9: Work on revising skills instead of just writing then turning in a project. Again this is something one must have the luxury of time to complete. With the way the subject is currently working, leaving things until the last minute, true revision is nearly impossible. The best she can hope for is a spell check and a quick read through of her work. This is yet another goal tied to the issue of procrastination.
We have arrived at the last goal. Goal 10: Don’t stress so much over assignments and just enjoy the class. This one looks good. The subject really does seem to be enjoying her class. She also doesn’t appear to be stressing out about it too much. When she does stress it is brought on by herself in her waiting until the last minute to do things. I do think however that so far she is fulfilling this goal nicely.
Now for our evaluation, if working on a 10 point scale (one point for each goal), I think so far she has made a 5 out of 10. While this is only half credit, she is only half way through the semester, so things are looking up. Perhaps she can fulfill her other goals by the time December rolls around.
As far as in the class itself our subject has a total of 347 points out of a possible 465. This gives her a probable grade of C in the class up until this point. Our subject must step it up a bit if she wishes to make a better grade in her class. Well, that’s all we have time for today. Be sure to tune in next week as we continue our observation of the one they call Mali.
Observer’s notes:
I have watched the subject as she participates in her class. She really seems to enjoy the classes which are conducted outside of the classroom. I have taken some surveillance photographs of the subject on one of these outings. They appear below.
While watching her on an excursion to the turtle pond I noticed she seemed to be meditating. This is an activity a really hope she keeps up. Meditation can help us by allowing us to “systematically observe the mind itself and become more familiar with the ways in which we are denied the experience of full concentration.”(pg. 75) It can also help us to “free ourselves from being carried away by our thoughts.”(pg.75)
Photographs:
Subject lying on the floor of the capital building looking up at the dome.
Subject attending class at the turtle pond.
Sleeping during class??