Week Seven

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Weekly Accomplishments

This week has been a hectic one for sure. I got a ton of work done on my paper and map and even got to start on my map. My first big accomplishment is having completed the full rough draft of my paper. While it is still missing a decent amount in terms of revisions for research questions and early parts of the paper, the actual core content of each section is done. My second big accomplishment was having my map complete. While the map itself is pretty simple with a limited amount of data I think it does a really great job at conveying a core aspect of my research. I am very thankful for all the help I got along the way as QGIS and programs in general are not really my forte so getting help along the way allowed me to achieve my vision. My third accomplishment is creating a chatbot for my letters. When I signed up for this REU I never would have expected that I would be learning about how to create an AI but with some good instructions I made one. Not only is it helpful for the project but it is a good experience to have that I never would have gotten outside this program.

Roadblocks

With lots of progress comes lots of roadblocks. The first and most pervasive roadblock is burnout Putting in 3-4 hours everyday on top of class time left me very tired of looking at the letters by Friday. A chill Saturday and a fun trip Sunday should leave me recharged and ready to give it my all again next week. The up side is that while this week was a lot, the work I did then means less work that needs doing later. My second roadblock was was a bad reaction to my medication on Thursday. Without going into to much detail I was left very emotional with no real control over how I felt, luckily I was and am safe and the worst that happened is I kept crying at scrappy doo. Roadblock three loops into point two as Thursday was the day I had planned to create my presentation that we gave Friday. Not having slides to show Friday made me feel awful as I really do want to give it my all for this program and presenting is my thing, so to fumble it felt bad. Also because I was still not quite in control of my emotions Friday morning I was quite paranoid the whole time. Again I am all good now, just not a great time.

Things I have learned

I learned a great deal this week. Of course doing a good amount of work will cause me to learn plenty but what I did learn I felt was helpful not just for this program but in general. The first thing I learned is the findings of my paper. Of course I knew plenty of my findings before hand but by putting pen to paper I was able to make further connections and gain more appreciation for the research I had done. For example, I knew that I wanted to tie in the success of Black schools into the paper, but in writing my findings and making my map I realized the story was this core divergence between Black and white success. The second thing I learned is actually multiple things. Fridays practice presentations taught me a lot about what I should look for in a good presentation. I always pay attention to how teachers lecture to see what things I may like and want to eventually take for myself when I start teaching. But in both being critiqued and critiquing others I learned a lot about how I wanted this presentation to look and flow. The third thing I learned is that I am pretty good at giving feedback on others work. Because of my issues Friday morning upon asking others if the critiques I gave were helpful I got very positive answers. Being able to give good helpful feedback is greatly important in any field so hearing that people like what I share now was great.

What's Next

Next up is making the presentation. Cleanup on my paper can come later, what matters now is getting a good presentation made and practicing it for Monday.