Ruben's Blog

This week I have decided to read an article about empathy for my learning by heart challenge. This is by far my favorite challenge. I love reading and learning new stuff. Getting extra credit for doing something that I think is intriguing is a blast! Anyway, this article lists 10 Reasons To Stop Judging People , hence the title.  After a lot of studying with Exam Krackers for psychology portion of the MCAT, I away a great deal of information concerning the ideas with this article. Thus, this article confirmed my knowledge that one reason to stop judging people is because we are more ALIKE than we are different. We're all human and most of us have very similar desires, simply wanting to be accepted and be happy. One thing that the article lists that I was new to me was to look for basic goodness. This is obviously very simple so its not completely foreign. However, I think its a nice daily mantra to have. I think that it could help to make the individual more joyous, along  tho...

I have completed back up and check up and I have read the announcements for this upcoming week. My favorite announcement had to be the friendly calendar that was conveniently listed at the top of the page, along with the kind wishes for those headed back from OU/Texas. After that crazy weekend, I have opened the schedule in a permanent window for reference from the week.                                                                     The field at the Cotton Bowl stadium during the Red River Shootout

I seen that Padlet was tech tip while browsing Growth Mindset quotes so I had to give it try. I was actually pleasantly surprised as to how easy it was to navigate because they have online assistance on stand by to chat with. Also, it seems like they've really tried to make posting as simple as possible. (Not that it's on blogger!) But you can also get it from the app store, I downloaded the app. I am seriously considering making a personal site.

For this week's Growth Mindset, I found a quote written in Padlet that I felt I could relate to, since I also apply the same practice. "Trying to cram too much information when I am dead tired because I cannot take anything in. When I get home from school, I take a shower, eat my dinner, then rest for thirty minutes before studying." I had actually read this quote before when browsing. However, since reading a few learning by heart articles and becoming more familiar with growth mindset, I feel that I can relate to this more now. I read in the articles that it is usually best to not to sacrifice rest in hopes of getting extra study time (I wrote about this in one of my blog posts). In addition, I think that it best suites the growth mindset approach to take things at a gradual pace and bask in the process, this promotes a strong foundation in whatever it is you want to learn. Also, it allows the knowledge to become more intuitive to you. This is why I have been utili...

I seen the "all seeing eye" in a post on the twitter for the class retweeted by Professor Gibbs from Peter Frankopan. I have heard a few things about it, but I've never taken the chance to look into it. Today, I made a few searches and learned a lot more it and related things. Wikipedia never lets you down! Nevertheless, I found these facts really intriguing. Eye of Providence : It is more commonly known as the All Seeing Eye surrounded by rays of light. It can be found in many places associated with freemasonry. It is on the back of the dollar bill. It represents God watching over humanity. Freemasonry : Freemasonry consists of fraternal organizations that trace their origins back to stonemasonry brotherhood. The status of "degrees" of the current members are named in manner that gives respect this. For example, an apprentice level is considered a fellow "craft." Further, no women can be admitted. Lastly, it originated in England and has been a se...

Overall this should have been a hectic week I am going to Dallas for OU/Texas, as are many of us. However, I have tried hard to get my ducks in a row before hand. (That’s the kind of insight being a senior will give you!!) I have made sure to get some extra studying in for my courses starting early this week. It was extra encouraging that I made high A’s in all the exams that I got back from last week. Moreover, even though this was an easy week I did my best to make good on my promise I made in my last “famous last words” assignment of completing ALL the week’s assignments. But I have also taken a step further, since I am hopeful to complete all the extra credit as well. This isn’t hard since I really enjoy it anyway. I did my best writing for this course on Monday. On this day, I completed the assignments listed for Tuesday through Thursday, then I had some time read some of the stories that my classmates posted. I thought all the ones I read were very good. Howe...

Overall, I have been very pleased with the level interaction this course allows. I feel that this course offers a very unique structure in the way that it promotes students commenting on one another work and engaging in others posts in general. I have seen much of the feedback that has been commented on my work and I have found it to be very encouraging. And one thing that makes this course different from many other online courses in the fact that the structure of the course is already in place, so if a student wants to utilize any constructive criticism offered by another, they can simply do so next week during a similar assignment. Also, I feel that the fact that this class encourages feedback allows students to take ownership over their blog, since they know other students will be viewing it. It makes the assignment of more consequence and not seem like busy work. Furthermore, I have tried to leave comments on many of the other students pages that comment on a vast amount of things ...