1st Semester Reflection

1st Semester Reflection
Diego Blank
02/11/2014

Last Semester

In my opinion, my academic performance in the last semester was terrible. I barely completed any assignments, and when I did, I would usually turn them in late. With this attitude, I started receiving horrible grades, and it ended up affecting me badly. I am still in deep hatred for my irresponsibility and laziness, and I am still in complex confusion about why I let myself loose like that. My time management schedule was a failure frankly, since I would always be distracted by social media and not care about my assignments at all. Being aware of the situation I was getting myself into and yet not doing anything to stop it from aggravating further, I let all the consequences swarm over me. Only when the semester was over I realized I had to change my whole academic career and functionality in order to do a better job. I took a long while during summer vacations to reflect about what I was doing wrong and what I had to do better. The first thing I prioritized as the most concerning problem was my time management. I realized having a simple organizer that could be accessible in many devices at different places could simply do the trick, so I downloaded an app on the iPad called Trello, which is a powerful graphic organizer. Using it in school this semester is giving me a lot of potential help, since I now know what I have to prepare for in the future and what assignments I have to complete for each day. Another time management solution I took was dedicating all my potential time of total alertness to homework instead of other tasks, and up until now, that method has worked astonishingly well. Another problem which I presently resolved was my motivation to complete all assignments. This change of attitude was produced by my determination to complete high school with good grades, to later attend college to an applicable area of interest. 

New Semester

With all of my main academic problems cleared up, I am currently doing a much better job at turning in my assignments on time, all of them entirely completed. I reckon this improvement I made within school bounds will benefit me radically in the future.

My current plans for improvement are very dull at this point. I did not designate them yet, since I am still transitioning from my irresponsible phase to my effective one. If I had to draw one out, it would be to keep doing what I am currently doing, working hard, and also to find a different study method. I now realize that my old study method was totally ineffective. I lost huge amounts of time and absorbed the least amounts of information, which consequently made me either fail on tests or flunk in-class assignments. However, I am sure with time, more and new goals will emerge.

The video below shows some real useful tips for studying. I totally didn't post this video because of his accent. Not at all.

Future Plans

I believe that my motivation lies within my future plans. I am probably going to work in association producing video games, in terms of programming mostly. A website called Codecademy has taught me the basics of Javascript, which is one of the associated programming languages used in Unity 3D, a video game developing software. I developed my first video game project in very short time, and made me realize that developing knowledge about my area of interest now is a good advantage start for my future career. 

This video shows how powerful Unity's Unity 3D engine really is. It shows a 5:22 minute video on a WIP project that features the engine's key components. 

I also picked up music production as a habit. If my video game career goes elsewhere, producing music would be my second option. I have uploaded a few test samples already on Soundcloud, in case you are interested. I currently use a program called FL Studio Pro 11 and Ableton Live 9 to produce my music. 

Not to leave apart, to aid my academic content understanding, I have been using a website perfect for self-guided learning called Khan Academy. I've been using it to study Algebra II, Chemistry and astronomy. It is a really useful tool for basic understanding. 

For now, this is all. Thank you for your attention.
-Diego Blank

Academic Leadership - Hate and Racism to Tolerance and Respect (Diego Blank)

"What does it take for someone to move from a position of hate and racism to a position of tolerance and respect like the transformation that occurred in Derek?" 

      What it takes to move from a position of hate and racism to a position of tolerance and respect is a discussable case. The main reason for this change in perception would be having the experience. Hating a race with no previous true interaction or understanding would obviously lead to nowhere but to a fixed mind state. For example, a kid is born in a racist family, and grows up knowing that he must hate a certain race. There will be no questioning until the individual recieves proper experience, so he can set his perspective in other's shoes.  So, resuming, it does not take much to move from hate and racism to a position or repsect and tolerance. 
      Ignorance is really the main blockade between that change in perseption, not allowing the person to visualize why they are being against each other. Ignorance also doesn't allow someone to realize for what reason they hate that certain race, so, in conclusion, having the experience will allow someone to bypass that ignorance "blockade" and realize the meaining of their rivality. That is, all considering what was said throughout the movie.  

American History X - Trailer

      In the film "American History X", Derek, the protagonist, started off as a race hater. He completely changed his mind later on as the plot developed only because he met a black laundry worker, also describable as his co-worker. Daily interaction with that person was self-sufficient to convince him that the black community were not supposed to be discriminated that way, and that made Derek totally consider his family's point of view into his own pespective, distinguishing what was right and what was wrong.


The link below will lead you to the Rotten Tomatoes review of "American History X"
Click here

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Diego Blank

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Academic Leadership - Seattle Boycott Article Response (Diego Blank)

In response to the Seattle Boycott article
(http://processofliving.com/2013/01/27/under-pressure)

      The current mood that any student would be on a particular day would essentially affect a test grade. The idea behind all the standardized testing, as of my opinion, should be diminished and the use of personal portfolios would be best.  Why? The use of these portfolios would bring widely more accurate results than a standardized test, and as for the student they could have the chance to demonstrate their full potential.  I would agree with the High School Garfield teachers for bringing up a valid point, that not only certain students should think for standardized testing to be reduced but also for teachers to say that this kind of testing does not make the student academically progress through their learning career.
      Thus, bringing all the academic results from each individual student, that would be assembling all pieces of valid information in each's individual portfolios, could be harder to assemble than it would be as a standardized test. As standardized tests would be easier for the administrators to manage to bring everything to average, portfolios would be better for the student's true overview and also affect how somebody would look upon that individual.
      The best thing to do would be integrate a little bit of both into one system that would permit the student to still reveal their full potential trough an academic portfolio. Finding a good way to stop conflict amongst teacher, parents and students themselves would be essential but somewhat challenging, so more time and more thought should still be put in this in order to develop a new MAP testing.
      Of course this does not go as far as only my opinion. I am aware that certain schools will defend standardized testing and keep it that way, thus if there would be an alternative that approaches a student's accurate abilities it would be academically better to integrate that to more schools.  

This is the link to the article.
http://processofliving.com/2013/01/27/under-pressure/

Diego Blank

Academic Leadership - Time Management Goals (Diego Blank) «Blog Post #3»

Assignment 2: Before the due date, write a blog post in which you reflect
on the time management goals you set on 19/20 Sept. In your paragraph, include whether or not you met your goals,any problems you had, any successes you had, and anything you learned. Also include an updated version of your goals based on your experience. (250 word min.)

     My time management goals for that day was to write down everything i had to down the Apple iPad Calendars, so I would know whenever I had an assignment due for a specified date. Up to now, I did meet my goals, and what I did was very helpful.
     I did not need to remember everything I had to do and it did help manage the time I took to do my homework. What I meant by that was that I did one homework at a time, which actually saved up a lot of time. It also made my schedule seem much less confusing, since the Edmodo schedule is simply a rainbow of colors and boxes of random assignments for each period.
     Now that I got that out of the way, I did indeed find some problems with managing my assignments using the calendar, which are the fact that you cannot organize the work of each class by color, sometimes making my schedule look very messy and complicated to understand.
     Also, the icons for each assignment looks very small and making it hard to read, so I have to click on each icon so I could know what it is about. I learned that organizing my school work would improve my time management dramatically. Thank to this I can make my homework more efficient, freeing up time for other assignments. Next time, I will use a better App, which is specialized for these kinds of things, like a planner for example.

Diego Blank

Academic Leadership - Diego Blank (Blog Post #2)

You briefly met with a college recruiter last week, and you reviewed a number of questions to ask about colleges. This must have gotten you thinking about your future, so tell us about it: Without any strict requirements, write about your expectations, goals, fears, concerns, questions that you have concerning your future in college. Additionally, now that you know that recruiters want to hear about you and your intellectual interests and pursuits, how do you think being an aware Academic Leader will give you an advantage when applying to the college of your choice? 

     Personally, I do not have a lot of concerns about getting into college since the message that they give you on how to be a successful student is pretty clear. That is to be dedicated and know what you are doing, so for me, if I really put some effort into my work, I will have a chance to be accepted in specific colleges.
     If we were to talk about my goals, I wouldn't have a lot except for the fact that I would want to be accepted in a good college because I did not decide on what I would do with my future yet, so the idea still lays warm in my head.
     One of the many expectations that I have into getting into college and what happens inside of college is if the college recruiters will listen to your voice, that is, to what you have to say and if they will take it into consideration or not. This would also be the main fear that I have into getting into college, because there is always the thought that you will not get accepted due to whatever reason. Away from that, I also expect good and consistent education that will furnish me a good future. Obvious but necessary, I would say...
     I do have a lot of questions, but listing them here would take too much space, so it's better off without them. Most of them was what the schedule worked and what were the main majors that they offered anyways. Being an aware Academic Leader makes you able to take leadership of whatever task you have to you can learn from your mistakes and move on in life, gradually getting better so you can make better impression on the college recruiters, and even on other people.
     If you are a good leader, then you are well admired by thousands of people, and I guess this is the point. So basically, they will see that you are eligible at handling responsibility and start admiring you at the very second.

- Diego Blank

Academic Leadership - Diego Blank (Blog Post #1)

Diego Blank



"In our first two weeks, you have read two articles, seen several videos and been engaged in several discussions related to the concept of academic leadership. At this point, and in your own words, what does the concept mean to you? What subjects or interests do you have a sophisticated, intellectual understanding of that you may want to turn into a major academic project in this class? How do people sometimes abuse academic knowledge to manipulate others? How would you feel if someone used your work to manipulate others (as Jared Diamond claims Mitt Romney has)? How can creating academically sophisticated, intellectual leaders help prevent such people from taking advantage of others the way they do? How can this create a stronger democratic society?" 

     The principal purpose of this class, named after Academic Leadership, is to teach individuals how to
take talents to an advantage and how to take leadership over it. For example, if you are good in
technology, this course will help you eventually get better at it and make you assume leadership and
use your knowledge to manipulate or teach other people. It also means how to take leadership over a
weak spot and turn it into something that you will use later on in the future flawlessly. What I am good at and what I wish to flourish and turn it into an academic project is any kind of technology, either related to computers or other sorts of technology. I am pretty good at computer science, video making and maybe some very basic server (or what you call what is related to the Internet) knowledge.
     I would expect from this academic class for me to flourish this strong spot of mine into good use where I could make my life easier by using it to help me with different points or simply by the sake of it. Sometimes, people use academic knowledge to manipulate others by simply using his or their knowledge to make other people understand better that knowledge, or simply using their knowledge to their advantage for whatever reason. For example, I could use my technology knowledge to make people visit my blog and read my post by simply sending them messages or hacking into their devices and forcing them to look at it, which would be something I would probably would never learn how to. Also, people could just be fascinated by my knowledge and simply decided to visit my blog because I made a good impression on them, which might not really be the case right now.
     If someone would ever use my work or knowledge to manipulate others, I would be pretty angry at that someone because I was supposed to be the one demonstrating all my knowledge rather than somebody else which simply decided to steal my hard work. I would also feel utterly tired for working so hard to get to a point until a certain someone stole my work.
     Academically sophisticated and able leaders could help prevent people using other people's knowledge as an advantage by assuming responsibility over their own work. Such leaders would have the mind to know that what they have worked for is theirs, and not somebody else, so that would really reduce the amount of people using your work as an advantage because you will be able to show that the knowledge truly comes from you and not others, since you assumed leadership and you know its yours. This can create a stronger democratic society because you will be able to assume leadership and know what you will be doing, so you will be able to moderately manipulate or teach people about your knowledge as your own work. This will fortify democracy, since the idea of strong academic leadership is applied.