In a funk

I'd have to admit lately I've been in a funk lately as far as school work goes. After getting some decent grades around midterm last week I've been lazy about school work. I have managed to work out my oil change outline for my speech and I've got a resume to start for my other class.

Recommended Reading

In my "Student Success" textbook(On Course by Skip Downing) it takes a lot from Stephen Covey's book "The 7 habit's of Highly Effective People". I was so interested I picked up the book off Amazon. It's a fascinating book and has provided me with a lot of insight into my own life and my "habit's". It starts off kind of heavy in the theory but it picks up steam as it goes. I highly recommend it.

Re: Midterm

I got my midterm grade for my Student Success class and and I got an "A". So far so good. This calls for another celebratory music video....

Midterm

I got a 92 on my Oral Communications midterm. It made my day! It seems I'm off to a pretty good start. I was happy with it. Next up is a demo speech. I'm thinking of doing one on changing the oil in a car. I've already got an outline done for it. Got my Student Success class tomorrow.

In celebration here's a tune from one of my favorites groups.

Week in Review

Oral Communications: This week was our midterm exam. I think I did pretty good. It was multiple choice and covered mainly the terms from our book on public speaking. We also got back our grades from last weeks speech. I got a "C" with some good comments from the teacher. I was happy with it. Not bad for someone who absolutely feared this class. Only 4 of us showed up. A few guys we haven't even seen the last couple of weeks. Next up will be a speech of demonstration. I'm thinking of doing one on an oil change. I actually don't fear as much getting up to speak as more nervous of the material itself.
Student Success: I'm still enjoying this class very much. It's hard to explain what exactly this course does. It's very insightful and I'm feeling I'm learning much more than can be put into words. I'm learning as much about my self and how to change my ways from a victim mentality to a creator. A lot of it is about setting goals and how to reach them. We just had a quiz and did an assignment in class this week. Grade wise It's not that hard the quizzes we get are fairly simple.

Just some thought's

Being back in school has enlightened me in some ways . My "Student Success" class has been probably the most eye opening one. The main theme seems to be personal responsibility. Dealing with "Creator" and "Victim" personality type. It's usually easy to spot someone else's fault's but to spot your own isn't alway as easy. After reading the book it made me more aware of peoples different personality types(creator or victim ) usually a blend of both leaning usually more to one or the other. Of course I was almost thinking I was above all that, but I soon realized that (usually with some help from my wife, she's good for that) my own faults. I'm usually quick to go on the defensive about things especially when confronted with something(my fault or not). On the good side I do feel that going to school now I've decided to take some direction in my life (a creator action). It's a start. Reading through my book some times I see subject's I'd love to write here about. perhaps I will some time in the near future. It would give me a chance to share some insight.

On a different note(pardon the pun). I'm not sure if there is any correlation between school and music. I've found I'm listening to a lot more music along with actually purchasing CD's again. I guess it's a harmless distraction from all the studying.

Here's one from a CD I just bought:

This weeks summary

Oral Communications:
This week we did our presentations. I think I did OK. I fumbled a little but didn't panic which was a good thing. Only three of us showed for the class (out of about 7 we have small classes). Between the three of us I think mine was about in the middle of the pack. One guy just froze right up in the middle. He needed a bit more practice, I kind of felt bad for him but I give him credit for trying. My big thing was giving it a bit more practice I think it would have been better. We've got our mid-term next week so I'll be reviewing my notes and book this coming week. I think I'm actually working through my fear of public speaking. I was more worried about my material than the speaking part.
Student Success: I'm actually enjoying this class. I'm learning a lot about motivation, attitude and self management. I'm almost finished reading the book, lol. We did a bit of catch up work this week because of last weeks lightly attended class.
After class I had a chance to do some reading from our book On Course by Skip Downing. In chapter in came across a section about Flow . It described as a state of mind when your in a zone of where your totally absorbed into whatever your doing. Be it work, play or whatever you may be doing. It's when time passes by quickly. What came to mind was that Kevin Costner baseball movie called "For love of the game". About a pitcher playing his last game before retiring and he was pitching a no hitter. When he was in the act of picture everything around except for himself, batter and catcher was zoned out. Ok the movie wasn't the greatest but I do remember that part of it. It really made me think about what I'm doing when I get in the "zone". It's been a tough question for myself. Times I remember being in sort of a zone would be doing things like working on fixing a computer, detailing or working on my car and similar stuff. How many of us spend our life not being able to find that zone?It made for interesting thinking.
Well I've got to go to bed for now. Thanks for reading. I'll leave you with a quote from the above book...

"Being able to enter flow is emotional intelligence at it's best; flow represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performance and learning" - Daniel Goleman

Another one I liked...

"The best career advice to give the young is "Find out what you like doing the best and get someone to pay you for doing it" - Katherine Whitehorn

Stuff

Here's a summary of what I've been working on.
Oral Communications: This week we went over basic stuff for organizing speech's covering support material for a speech. We also covered basic stuff that we'll have in our mid-term exam in about two weeks. Our next speech will be a 5-6 minute speech on a subject that has duel viewpoint. We have to present both sides of a current hot button topic unbiased. My topic I chose was whether to pull troops out of Iraq now or later. I've got the basic outline almost done and now I just have to put the supporting material in a cohesive manner.
Student Success: This week we didn't really cover too much. It was a lightly attended class to say the least. Me, myself and the teacher. Three day holiday weekend too tempting for the other two students. Class was only an hour and we didn't cover too much. I'm actually ahead in my reading and homework in this class. I'm really enjoying this one.