In Class-- March 18th

We are in class right now and have been assigned a few questions to answer about the gleaning from the past assignment that was due today.  At first I was really excited about the idea of this, and then when I saw the stack of paper being the journal I kind of dreaded it.  I am not too into arts and crafts myself, and it seemed like a daunting task.  But once I dove into it and started reading, I was very glad I got to read about something that I don't know much about and that doesn't interest me too much.

Real gems of the project:
-There was a journal entry from March 22nd that really stuck out to me.  It was pretty unrealated to the project, actually not related at all.  It described how the month of March was a rollercoaster for Anna and it was really cool for me to get a look into her life while seeing all that she has accomplished.  It made her project and journal a lot more personal and really put things into perspective in terms of her project and my own life. 
-Anna included many sketches, both doodles and plans for her jewelry in her journal.  I liked how it seemed to bring the journal to life more and spiced it up.  I'm not exactly sure how I would do that on my blog because it clearly isn't a written journal, but I will try to include more maps, lists, etc. to make it more interesting than just a bunch of text. 

Oops, could have been better:
-There could have been titles on all entries to know what the reader was going to be reading about and to organize the journal a bit better.  It wasn't completely horrible that headings were hardly ever present, but it could have helped the layout. 
-More actual research could have been present, as it often seemed that research was talked about (in the journal) but it wasn't too evident of how much of that was completed. 

Things I'm going to borrow:
-Pictures!! My blog needs some more life in it and I think that'll help.  It will definitely test my technology skills, as I'm not sure how to for example, take a screenshot and post it on my blog of my mapmyrun route, but I'll work on figuring it out!
-Personal!!  I have noticed on some other blogs this year that people throw in irrelevant posts just so if they look back on their blog in a few years, they can know what else was going on in their life at the time.  I will not make my posts completely irrelevant, but I think that sometimes some context of the project helps and this is a way to express different things going on in my life that could be impacting my project. 

In class today we also talked about the WISE Project Funding Proposal.  I won't be applying for a grant myself, but I would like to be on the student committee that reviews the proposals.  I think it will be an interesting way for me to get a look at other projects and I want to help out with that in any way that I can.  I'm fortunate enough that my project doesn't require huge expenses, but I can imagine if it does that would be stressful and I want to be a part of helping others get around that.  

That's all for this assignment, and the period is almost over!