It's my favorite time in the semester again! Feedback sessions. For me, these sessions are probably one of the hardest things we do in the IA, regardless, they are one of my favorites. Why? Because I get to step back and think about how each and every one in the IA is doing, what they excel at, but most importantly what they can improve on. And I also love to hear what everybody has to say about everybody else! This semester, I've been very happy with the feedback that I've been given. Let me start with English. I'm always surprised when we talk about my writing, because I have never considered myself a strong writer. Apart from enjoying writing research papers, I never really liked writing, let alone thought I was a strong writer. However, every feedback session, I've been told that I am, that I have few grammar errors and that I have a clear voice. Apart from that, my writing is fluid and strong as well as impacting. One other point that I didn't think was my strength was using strong vocab and finding the right time to add new vocab. Regardless, this was something that I thought I needed to improve on. Last December, we had to present our POL's and I'm extremely surprised and pleased as to how that went. I have always been one to suffer from stage-fright when I was not being backed up by any sort of music or being accompanied by other people. This time I was pleasantly surprised that I was excited rather than nervous before going on stage and I presented poised and composed, something that I didn't know I could do. One thing I do know, and which was pointed out to me, is that I am an engaged and very fast reader. Regardless of my strengths, we all have weaknesses and mine are recurring. One, that I have to play with my writing and not make it so squared. All my life I have enjoyed writing research papers but not really stories or anything of the sort. This is where I believe my squareness comes from. Second of all, when I talk, I happen to have a really strong voice which can sometimes offend people, so I have to tone it down and soften it up when I talk. These two are points that I was told last semester as well. Even though I have been working on them, they are the two things that I consider the hardest and I've been constantly trying to improve. When it comes to business, I feel like I've improved a lot compared to last semester. I made the decision to join Karen for Habla Roosevelt rather than staying on working on the food truck/cart because I knew that my time would be more valuably spent there. This was a huge change in responsibility for me because I knew that there were a lot more things to get done, and a lot more people that were going to be affected if something with the program didn't work out. I've taken more initiative and I've put myself in charge of more tasks but at the same time, I started to lose my sense of responsibility and I was letting slide some of my tasks, meaning that I wasn't staying on top of them like I should have. Don't get me wrong, I would complete them, but at the last minute, something that I should not be doing. However, one of my points of improvement for English--having a very strong voice when I talk--is one of my strong points for business. Regarding English, this was seen as something that I have to tone down, but for the business aspect of life, it is concrete and useful. Also, something I value greatly in the IA is the amount of teamwork that goes on and this semester I've had a lot of that because I was working so closely with Karen. One last point, is that I feel that I've grown immensely this semester because I had to interact so much more with experts than I had before. We had to have meetings with different admin at school as well as interview teachers for the Habla Roosevelt positions, things I had never done before. However, they're pretty useful skills to have for life. Media has made me learn something about myself of extreme importance--although now that I come to this realization, it seems kind of obvious. When I'm really interested in something or I feel very proud of something that I'm doing or get very excited about it, I will share my work as much as possible. The reason why I started to become more active on Twitter is because I was on it a lot more to share pictures of my donuts. This time I spend on Twitter is not only spent sharing my own work, but also retweeting classmates work and things I find interesting. It's definitely a habit that I want to develop because it's a great way to showcase beautiful work and showcase ourselves. These feedback sessions have made me come to some realizations. One, seeing as English was my strongest point last semester, I didn't work as hard as I should have in order to improve what I needed to from last semester. Two, I've taken more initiative for certain tasks and left some behind. Three, when I'm extremely proud or excited about something--Glazed--I'm a lot more like to start tweeting out my things and using media to sell my products. Most importantly of all, sometimes we are so caught up in ourselves and what we're doing, that we don't take the time to zoom in and analyze ourselves and we don't zoom out and let people constructively criticize us. These opportunities are not meant to bring us down, but to help us grow.
1 Comment
Andrea Hurtado
4/26/2015 01:57:08 am
F!! I loved this blog because you were so genuine throughout. I know we've given you feedback in your writing because sometimes it feels too technical, but sometimes I feel that this is what makes your voice so powerful as a writer. As I was reading this I could perfectly hear you saying this. So, I would challenge you to work on your style, but to keep this inner voice that makes YOU stand out so much. Also, I have to say the title is brilliant, sometimes I struggle with them, but this one perfectly exemplifies what you will talk about. I loved how you share the feedback we gave you, and at the same time reflect upon it. It shows me that you are constantly challenging yourself to grow! Nice post F :)
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Author"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." Archives
June 2015
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