Creativity is Vital 10V

Creativity is one of those things that change depending on the person.  To me creativity means letting go of any judgment.  This is when you brain allows itself to wander and to come up with new ideas that it otherwise wouldn’t.  This is hard to do because most people fear judgment and are afraid to test their creativity.  Failure is always a big set back, but that’s how things are created.  Creativity is something that everyone has, they just need help finding it within themselves. 

Attenuate: weaken.  By this time in the semester, everyone is tired and weak.  We need to make sure to get enough sleep, drink enough water, and don’t over do it.  Otherwise you will get sick.

Vital: essential, important.  Studying is vital to success in college.  Its been hard for me to concentrate on something boring for long amounts of time, but when I get that good grade on the test, it makes it all worth it.   

Halloween in Neff 10I

This past week I attended a Halloween party that was put on by my residence hall.  In the basement of Neff hall, Caitlin and I decided to take a peek at what was going on.  We discovered a dance party with a bunch of people all dressed up in their Halloween costumes.  There we saw some people dressed up as Teletubies, cowgirls and Dora.   Everyone was having a great time.  To make some kind of friendly competition, they had mummy wrapping contests with toilet paper and a guessing jar for jellybeans.  It was nice to get away from the books and have fun with some friends for a while.

Creativity Killer 10B

I have a really bad memory and I don’t remember much, but I do remember the first time my creative spark was killed.  In the summer before second grade, my mom signed me up for an arts and crafts camp for a week during vacation.  I was so excited to go.  The first day, the activity was to modge podge a flowerpot and paint it.  I picked out a purple and a pink to paint the pot and just started doing what the instructions were.   After I was done painting, I showed the instructor and she handed me a plain flowerpot and she said, “start over.” I didn’t understand so I asked why and she said because my colors didn’t match.  At the time, it really hurt my feelings.  This was the first time I had been creative and someone shot my creativity down.  I remember telling my mom and she said she just didn’t understand how to appreciate different kinds of art. 

In my mind, it was just the girly colors to choose.  I didn’t think it was the greatest idea, I just thought it looked pretty.  In my seven year old mind, it made sense as to why I would choose those colors, however, to the instructor she had this idea of what “good” was and wasn’t very good at giving contrastive criticism.  At the time, I was mortified that she would say something like that, but now, I know that she didn’t know what creativity meant.  Because of that embarrassing moment, my mom was able to teach me the lesson that the creative things are things that don’t match and things that just express your thoughts and feelings.  The thing that made my work stupid was the fact that this certain instructor wasn’t able to see what I had in mind.  Instead of making me feel as though what I did was different, she made me feel less than everyone. 

That instructor killed the creativity in me.  I never wanted to stand out or be different because she called me out on it.  For such a long time I would never say my opinion because I was afraid to be shut down.  Creativity is something that has to be embraced rather then shut down. 

Midterm Video 10A

Over the past month, I have been working endlessly on my midterm video.  I feel as though I deserve at least a B for my work.  My video was on the academic support here at Southern.  As I learned through this video, it is a very dry topic.  There’s not much to it and I felt as though it was hard to be creative with it.  I have yet to be in a situation where I have needed to go to outside sources for help academically so I didn’t think I was really qualified to be talking about this topic.  However, I did my best.  If I were able have more time to edit it, I would definitely make it more engaging. Next time I definitely would have planned out how I was going to do it before I sat down to execute that plan.  It was hard to get into, but now looking back if I had made it more relatable to me being someone who doesn’t know anything, I think I could have had more fun with it.   I admit it’s a little boring and not much to it.  I would definitely try to have a story line go along with it rather then it just be informative.

I really tried to pick out music that would be relatable because in the end when someone feels connected to the music they automatically will stay interested for longer.  I should have planned out a better conclusion.  I was at a loss of how to end it, so I just tried to not leave any loose ends. Next time to make it more interactive, I would go to the different resources and ask those who work there questions and include those.  I feel as though that would make it a lot less to read and a lot less dry. 

Although, I feel as it was not my best work, I learned a lot about the program and now know what I could do next time to make it a lot more interactive. 

Final INQ Midterm Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQaTn9vvJtc

Out of the Box 9V

This weeks word is critical thinking.  If you were to look up that word in the dictionary it would say something along the lines of disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence. Critical thinking to me means that you are able to make your own opinion based on analyzing something.  This is an important skill to have because that way you are able to understand things that are beneath the surface. 

Antiquated: outdated; old fashioned.  This word is important because this describes a lot of teaching styles.  Some people learn better when the old fashioned black board and a book.  I however, do not.  I have learned throughout the years that I am a very visual and hands on learner. 

Parity: This word means equality.  This word is important because in the end no one is better than anyone everyone is only human.  I don’t think this world will every reach a state of equality because of all different peoples opinions clashing.