Service Project

Tonight I went to the Wilkinson's Center with my DS group and we helped make First-Aid kits for Missionaries and for people in Indonesia.  It was a really fun project and we had a blast putting them all together and we also got hot chocolate and bread afterwards.

Then we went to the Provo temple and we did baptisms for the dead and it was great.

All in all we got 3 hours of service towards our projects for University 101 and it was really fun.

Baking skills

Today in my Cooking class we made apple pies!  It was a blast!  We made the crust and the filling and then put it together and took it home to bake.  Mine has a lattice top and it looks really cool!

Here's me holding my pie, trying to take a timed pic but unknowingly spilling apple pie juices onto my pant leg!  haha  see the stream?

Here it is before I baked it...

And here it is after!   Mmmmmm!

Well it tasted delicious and I had Amy, Julie, and Summer over to help me eat it.  Well suffice it to say that we succeeded. ;D  Then I took a slice over to Grandpa Ellsworth because he let me borrow his pie pan to make this.  He liked it too.  :D

Disciple-scholar groups

For my disciple-scholar group I made a group on facebook called Keeping Commitments with the Rubies! so that we could discuss our group project.  Here's the link:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=32363409565&ref=ts

Night of Aesthetic Beauty

Tonight we had an activity with our Humanities class and we all got to bring the most beautiful thing we had ever seen or heard or something that we had created.  I brought a short film to a song that I loved called "The Dying Soldier" and I put pictures to it.  Here are some pictures and the video itself.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Tonight, I made dinner for my roommates by using the skills that I learned in my Cooking Class this week.  I made a delicious frittata and it turned out great.  I was really happy that I learned how to make this in foods class and all of my roommates and friends loved it!  I also had lemon poppyseed muffins.  This shows just how important it is to keep learning about as much as you can, you never know when you will need the knowledge!  Here are some pics:

Hugh Nibley: “If you pray for an angel to visit you, you know what he’ll do if he comes. He’ll just quote the scriptures to you—so you’re wasting your time waiting for what we already have.”

I love this quote from our readings online and it really made me think.  Many people pray for a manifestation or an angel to come to them and to tell them that God is real and that faith is sure.  This quote assures all that the scriptures hold everything we need in them and more.  The rest of the talk was excellent but this was my favorite part.

Brigham Young said: “There is no music in hell, for all good music belongs to heaven.”²⁴ It would be punishment enough to go to hell and not hear a note of music for all eternity.

This quote just speaks to me because I love music and I could never live without it.  I think constantly about what a world without music or sound would be like and I shudder at the prospect.

The paper about Indian culture is also very interesting.  The idea that organization just creates chaos is really mind-boggling.  But I do believe that organization is good in many ways.  For instance, the Church could not run as it does without the organization that it has now and maybe, if everyone lived like the Indians, it would be ok but not everyone does and so organization keeps things running.

Education in Zion

For my assignment this week, I went to see the Education in Zion exhibit at the JFSB.  It had lots of stories and quotes about the rise of church academies and the fall that came after.  It talked about the struggles between science and religion and the horrible things that occurred due to this.  Teachers were fired, students enraged, and the public was in uproar.  But the University pulled through all of this and emerged into the world-class establishment it is today.  The exhibit also spoke about the creation of seminary and institute and it was very interesting to learn all about it.  Here are some pictures of the exhibit itself:

Mapworks Survey

I took that mapworks survey for my class and it asked me lots of questions regarding my study and friend personality and my habits at school.  When I got the results, it told me that I needed to focus more on the quality of my study time than just the quantity.  It also told me that I was among most of the students when I said that I wanted to graduate in the next 6 years.

In reading these results and the many other results that the survey offered, I felt better about where I am as a student and I think that I will be able to do well this year because of the hard work that I am putting in already.  I also know that if I just improve a little more, I could excel even more and I could get more out of school this year.

Metacognition

By definition Metacognition is "thinking about thinking." ;D

~Think about thinking and how it affects your academic success

~Understand personal way of thinking about and walking through assignments

~Self-awareness (regulate your thinking and monitor your progress)

~Increase skills that support you in becoming a disciple-scholar

~4 key steps:

          ·       Identify the assignment

·      Determine an initial approach (identify knowledge, skills, learning, strategies you already know)

·      Monitor yourself as you work

·      Evaluate your work

After we took these notes, we discussed these steps to metacognition and how it could help us clear our minds when we are stressed.

Also, we took a survey on MyMap that asked us questions about us and our daily lives.   With the results of this survey, the website told us about our study techniques and about where we could use some help.  It was an interesting survey that compared my habits to those of other BYU students.  

Accepting Correction

For my assignment, I decided to visit my peer mentor and have an interview with her and I also met with one of my teachers to discuss a paper due in class this week.  After I had done both, I had received some really good advice and it helped me to think about a lot of the things that I’m doing here at BYU.

            When I met with my peer mentor, Amy Hansen, we discussed all of my classes this semester and whether I was doing ok with the workload and the stress.  I told her I was dealing alright with the work and when I told her about my classes, she seemed really excited for me and she even wanted to know about some of them, like my scuba diving class and my cooking class.  We got to talking and I think that she really might want to take them too.  We also talked about her and the classes that she was taking.  Talking with Amy got me to think about why I was at this school and it helped me to understand what I wanted to do with my time here at collage.  We talked about my possible majors and it was nice to have someone to discuss it all with.  Overall, I got to think hard about what classes I want to take in the future and what majors and career opportunities that I might want to take.  Amy really is a nice girl and she and I got along very well.

            For my second activity, I got to meet with my English teacher, Professor Christianson.  We talked about my rhetorical analysis paper that I wrote for this week.  It was all about Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech and the Republican convention.  As we talked, I got to ask him for help on my thesis and my topic in general.  He answered by helping me find a suitable thesis for my paper and we worked on the relevance of all of my points that I had made.  It was really helpful to discuss it with him and I made my paper sound much better than before.  He helped me learn how to connect all of my ideas and be able to put it all down on paper.  From now on, I hope that I do get to meet with my teachers about our class activities and projects because I received some very useful help.

            Lately, I have been seeking a lot of help in finding out what classes to take and what major to choose.  It’s been such a long ongoing process and it really tends to stress me out.  So, instead of just freaking out whenever the topic comes up, I have decided to meet the a counselor who can help me to decide what major and course of study will be best for me.  My meeting is tomorrow afternoon and I am really excited to finally be able to talk to someone who knows about the school and the major’s that I can participate in.  I’ve also needed some help with some of my assignments in school and I actually went by the writing center today in the hopes of getting some assistance on one of my papers.  The line ended up being too long for me to stay but even getting myself to the writing center made me want to go back so that I could actually see what the people at the center had to offer.  Overall, I think that this assignment has been a good experience for me and I’m glad that it was assigned.

Teaching the Hula

For our homework we had to teach our "hula" to three other people so we decided to teach our fhe group.  They seemed to enjoy it... ;D  

It was really nice to show them all of the traits of a disciple-scholar and they learned something new and important to. :)

Class on Friday September 12

So we took some fun pics before class started and it was really fun! ;D

Today we discussed the five traits of a great scholar:

1. They welcome correction

2. They keep commitments

3. They work hard

4. They help other people

5. They expect resistance and overcome it

Then we all got up and we got ready for a new "activity" to help us remember the five traits. ;D

It turns out, Mrs. Haddock had a little hula dance for us that included all of the traits in the movements. haha!  Well here's a video...

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Homework for Sept. 12

Here's a pic of me doing my homework that was assigned to us on the first day of class.  We were supposed to copy over our schedules into our calendars and also to highlight and read an article by Henry B. Eyring titled "A Child of God."  The talk was all about pride and humility and about trying to stay humble while still succeeding in what we do.  It was a really meaningful talk and it helped me to understand how to stay humble while I learn.

September 5 class

On my first day of class I took my first pictures to document my experience.  And here they are...;D

Mrs. Haddock as she introduced our assignment.  :)

This was my row of people on that first day.

Some of the students as we introduce ourselves.

We even had someone lose her shoe! haha

Starting Class!

So I just created this new blog and I'm going to start describing every little thing that goes on with my and my Freshman Seminar class so enjoy!  (here are me and my roommates!) ;D