This is my week 4 reflection so let us begin. I had a pretty decent week. We’re trucking along in my 120 Math course and I am working on my art project. In English we learned about the difference between having a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. One believes that intelligence grows, values effort, and typically works harder while the other believes intelligence is always the same, they tend to procrastinate and want to look smart instead of going through the process of learning. It is possible to be in between but studies have shown that being a person with a growth mindset will do better in school. This also means that someone with a fixed mindset can become someone with a growth mindset. Outside of school I say that I had an okay week. Typically during weekends I like to go and see a movie. This week me and a group of my friends went to go see the Green Inferno. It has those typical things you expect from a modern day horror movie. Bad acting, a boring and predictable plot and so on and so forth. This movie had all of that but it did successfully did the jump scares and things that were cringe worthy pretty down pat. That were a lot of gory scenes in the movie. Looking around in the theater every once in a while people would do the pose where they have their one hand that is all half assed and covering their face. While they are still peeking through their fingertips, refusing to look away from the screen. We watched a late night screening because of the pope visit which basically turned into popeageddon. Also this weekend I watched the Eagles game where they barely hung on till the very end. There was a lot of dropped passes and the offense still looked out of sync even though they were going up against the Jets. Our defense was pretty good forcing a couple turnovers. Whether that was luck or not I don’t know but I think the Pope coming to Philadelphia was a good luck charm. Just seeing that Brandon Marshall play kind of shown that freak plays and luck might have been on our side. Maybe the scary blood moon gave us some luck. That blood moon looked creepy though. I’m not about that sketchy red moon in the sky. Makes me think that I’ll get attacked by a vampire Wesley Snipes or something. I don’t know, but to conclude that was my week in a nutshell.
I believe that change is an inevitable process. Everyone goes through phases and everyone has different experiences. Back to when I was in high school I was one of those kids that just wanted to get by. I think that I didn’t have any confidence in myself. For any test or quiz or whatever I already had this precognitive notion that I wasn’t smart enough. I remember the times that I would get home from school and my mom would find out about my test scores and chew me out for which felt like days. Always having the statement that she knew that I could do better. It wasn’t until I believe my junior and senior year that I realized what she said was true. I think it comes down towards motivation. How motivated are you to do better and do you have the confidence in yourself to keep trying and learn to do better. For me it was the kick in the @$$ by my mom that put me in my place and by doing this it changed my mindset (see brought it all back). I believe that now I have a growth mindset. I like making comic books, but I don’t limit myself to just doing dudes wearing capes. I like making comic books about monsters like the ‘Swamp Thing’ and ‘Frankenstein’ or dark gritty stories like The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil: The Devil Inside and Out and, Death in the Family to comedies like Deadpool, Archer, Quantum and Woody and, Howard the Duck. This allows me to vary and be more creative hopping from genre to genre dealing with a bevy of different characters with a bevy of different personalities.
What’s the difference between growth mindset and fixed mindset? Both mindsets are vastly different. One considers intelligence to be already set and the other believes that intelligence can grow. Here is a brief description and a couple of examples that explain and differentiate the two.
A growth mindset and a fixed mindset are vastly different. People with a growth mindset believes that we can grow our intelligence while someone with a fixed mindset believes we were born with a certain amount of intelligence Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset. One values effort, learning and if set back works harder. Someone with a fixed mindset does not value effort, wants to look smart instead of going through the process of learning. Someone with a fixed mindset also gives up when a setback occurs. Studies have shown that someone with a growth mindset does better in school rather than someone with a fixed mindset. One study in particular shows that in certain situations someone with a growth mindset acts differently from someone with a fixed mindset. Scientists brought in a group of people to fill out and complete a test. When the test was completed and the answers were given it showed that the people with a growth mindset looked at the tests of students that did better as a way to gain more information from the test. The students with a fixed mindset look at the tests score of the students that did worse. When the instructor went over the answers the students with the growth mindset paid attention to what the answers were and the information about the answers, but the students with the fixed mindset zoned out after having already received the answers. Another study was conducted with rats in empty cages versus rats in stimulating, challenging cages and the rats in the challenging cages were more active and productive, How Growth Mindset Leads to Higher Achievement. There’s also the information about London taxi drivers whose hippocampus might be larger than a majority of other people because of “The Knowledge” taxi driver test, Growth Mindset: Studies Showing the Brain is Malleable. This test makes them memorize and know every single street in London. There was also the story about a group of students in the pottery class where the class was split in half. One half worked on one very detailed pot and the other half worked on just putting out as many pots as possible. When the teacher brought in pottery experts they said that the ones that worked on doing a large number of pots had the better ones because they made each pot creatively differently and expanded their mind doing so. Lastly the stories of John Legend, John Legend: Success Through Effort and the woman with the interests in robotics Student Success Stories. John Legend who worked for so many years to get a record deal and the woman who loved robotics who had a dream to work for NASA, but was told that she wasn’t good enough. Their perseverance made by John Legend, who worked for many years and nearly a decade without getting a record deal to now becoming one of the top music artists in the country and then there was the woman who loved robotics and worked her whole life to get to the point of where she is right now who is a person that IS now working for NASA. Having a fixed mindset isn’t predetermined. Mindsets can change and adapting a growth mindset can help students do better in school. When you have a growth mindset you are willing to learn and try new things. Sometimes people are afraid to try something new are afraid of making these mistakes. Learning these new things effectively means you need to make more mistakes. If you’re not making mistakes then you’re not trying hard enough, Why You Need to Fail to Succeed. Keep working because the more you work the more you can expand your mind,On Being Creative . If you keep working the hard things you work on won’t seem that hard and will get easier. For someone wanting to gain a growth mindset it is important to know that when things get difficult you DON’T GIVE UP. Push forward and keep trying because whatever seen as harder will be seen as something beneficial down the line. This is my week 3 reflection. So let’s begin and allow me to sum up my week. Let’s start with English class because this week reflection is for English. We learned about Paulo Freire and his theory on the banking concept of education. Basically he says that the banking concept of education method is when students are made to memorize and categorize information without learning the meaning behind the information. This gives the classroom the feeling of oppression and control. The banking concept of education turns women and men into automatons (robots). This theory is opposed by the problem-solving method which is when the problem-posing educator constantly re-forms his or her reflections in the reflection of the students. Giving the classroom the environment and feeling of a two way street. A bridge of communication between educator and student. That freedom and liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it. Now let’s move on to my other courses like art and math. In art we finished and critiqued our first assignment that involved us picking a word or term like “wild” and we have to draw an image involving lines that depict the lines in a wild or crazy act. This assignment really isn’t my thing. I like drawing comic books and things like a Rick & Morty picture. I’m not a deep meaning and understanding artist but it is what it is. Next there’s my math assignments which involved doing the 1.3 and 1.4 homework. There really isn’t much to say anything about this except that I’m finished the 1.3 and 1.4 homework. As a fun note I went to a large block party/barbecue this weekend. They called it family and friends’ day so that was pretty fun. We watched the Eagles game which by the way was completely TERRIBLE. That offense was atrocious. I don’t believe this is a time to freak out, but this doesn’t look good. That defense also was getting run over by the Cowboys as well. Now the thing is rooting for someone to get hurt is terrible, you feel terrible about yourself because no one wants to see someone get hurt, but with Tony Romo hurt and Dez Bryant out maybe this gives us a shot. I don’t believe the Redskins are a threat and the Giants are too shaky for me to see them as a viable threat in the NFC East. Sure they have Victor Cruz and Odell Beckham but the Giants are either hot or they are not. They are hit or miss and that inconsistency might play a factor. It’s only 2 games and Chip Kelly won 10 games his last 2 seasons as the coach so maybe we’ll see the offense we were promised.
Paulo Freire, The Banking Concept of Education
In the article The "Banking Concept" of Education (Paulo Freire), the author, Paulo Freire, talks about the different ways of teaching and how the problem posing method is a better method of communication and teaching between the educator and the student. Paulo Freire is one of the most influential educators in history. His philosophy is based on the idea the in a classroom there should be equal power between the student and the teacher. To teach students to understand the meaning and reasoning toward what they are truly learning. Understanding the context of what is being taught to them. Students are taught to memorize certain phrases without knowing the meaning. The banking concept of education is based upon the idea that knowledge is being given by those deemed knowledgeable to those who are considered to know nothing. For my understanding the banking concept of education is the idea that there is no even ground. The students are just retaining information without any meaning behind it. For example the capita of the U.S is Washington D.C. The problem-posing method does not keep the relationship between the student and the teacher divided. For the problem-posing method the educator creates an environment with the student to which there is a common ground of understanding. Problem-posing education creates a way to bring in new knowledge while the banking concept of education holds back the students ability to think outside the box. The description that Paulo Freire gives towards banking concept educators is a perfect description of former teachers that I have had. It seems that the teachers that I had were exactly like a banking concept educator. And clearly, I don’t like that method because when they used that method I didn’t retain any information or should I say very little information with any meaning behind it. For example you can teach someone why 2+2=4 but without any base to it, that just makes that information somewhat meaningless and unimportant. The amount of years we have went to school and the amount of hours we have spent in the classroom should culminate into something we’re proud of. But I feel like there’s more information throughout the history of my own personal education that I have forgotten than I have retained. If you asked me a famous general from World War II, besides General Patton, I wouldn’t know. I don’t think that this is a result a “bad teacher” but rather a bad teaching method. It goes back to the whole premise of problem-posing education. A very few times have I ever had that idea that education is a two way street. Maybe because I’m still very young so I have never really put that much thought into it. The article did give me that feeling of a self-revelation when it brought up the idea that the banking concept of education makes the students feel like robots instead of equals. Like a bunch of robots we leave class at a certain time, sit down at a certain time, arrive to class at a certain time and so on and so forth. Like we’re all a bunch of mindless drones. I always thought that it felt like the actions I’ve done in school felt robotic and dull. I did like what Paulo Freire said and kind of gave a more philosophical “Plato-ish” touch toward education and it gave me a new understanding towards my own education and how it develops. I also like how he used his own philosophy to help kids and teachers all over the world and to help reinvigorate and revolutionize education itself. This is my, Adam Blunt, writing process. Everyone has their own writing process. Some listen to music, some stare off into empty space and for others it comes naturally. For me it is reading and learning from pieces of work I have read. I read A LOT of comic books and graphic novels. Within comic books there is an enormous amount of universes and storylines. Most people know of the big two, Marvel and DC. But there is a vast amount of independent comic books that would blow the major comic book companies out of the water. For example Valiant Comics is the hottest comic book company out there today. Then there’s IDW and Dark Horse and Image who have this wide variety of ideas that branches out from the stigma of superheroes with capes. For somehow having trouble coming up with ideas, maybe my own personal writing process can help you. For me I look at the genres that I like. Whether it involves superheroes, spies or whatever. The idea comes from what you love and it branches off from there. And if you love comedy and love cracking jokes make a comedy. If you love romance make something involving romance. If you love weird creepy Stephen King type of horror or even Goosebumps horror, write a horror story. For me I like comic book and comic book stories and storytelling. Whether it’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Deadpool, Spider-Man type crazy comic book fun or dark serious stories like a Daredevil or Batman story. For me I grab inspiration of stories I personally love myself. And I use that as a backdrop for my story. Like a personality trait. For example batman has this compulsiveness and rage to him that I like which adds depth to his character. I see that and I like that personality trait so I add that to the character I’m creating. Or if I like that one power like flight for example and I give that to the character I’m creating. And even broadening that the story itself. What is the world surrounding this person like? What are the people like in this person’s life and going on from there? That’s what I do and how I come up with my own comic book stories.
A group of travelers settle in after a long journey toward King’s Landing a grassy forest. The travelers are being sent as a gift for King Joffrey as a way of appeasement and entertainment for the young king. As they settle in the youngest of the travelers, Sir Adam Blunt of Delaware County, asked his fellow travelers, Maria Popova of Bulgaria, Anne Lamott of San Francisco and Ray Bradbury of Waukegan Illinois. As the camp fire begins to illuminate and bounce off the trees of the forest the youngest lad begins to ponder about their journey. Queen Cersei has summoned them to the court being the great story tellers in all of Westeros and as an appeasement for her son King Joffrey. The young man wondered, “This cannot be I’m not the same caliber of writer as my fellow wordsmiths” So the young man decided to start up the conversation with his writing companions. Feeling nervous about his trip he asks…
Sir Adam: If I may interrupt this joyous moment and ask, this question is for all of you, what are your writing processes? I always have such wonderful ideas in my head but can never put them into action. There’s so many stories out there. It’s hard to know where to even begin. How did you create your own and do you have any words of wisdom that I can take into my repertoire? Sir Bradbury: The problem for any writer in any field is being circumscribed by what has gone before or what is being printed that very day in books and magazines Madam Lamott: Almost all good writing begins with begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper. Sir Adam: Great. Thanks. But how do you guys ever find time to write. You’re the most famous of writers in all of Westeros. Madam Popova: A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper. Sir Bradbury: My passions drive me to the typewriter every day of my life, and they have driven me there since I was twelve. So I never have to worry about schedules. Some new thing is always exploding in me, and it schedules me, I don’t schedule it. It says: Get to the typewriter right now and finish this. Madam Lamont: Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it. What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head. Quieting these voices is at least half the battle I fight daily. Sir Adam: That’s awesome. Do you guys work with other people or do you guys prefer to work alone and what’s your editing process? Sir Bradbury: I wrote at least a thousand words a day every day from the age of twelve on. Sir Adam: Jesus….. Sir Bradbury: I finally figured out that if you are going to step on a live mine, make it your own. Be blown up, as it were, be your own delights and despairs. Sir Adam: Well said….. Madam Lamont: Whenever I’m giving a lecture at a writing conference and happen to mention the benefits of finding someone to read your drafts, at least one older established writer comes up to me and says that he or she would never in a million years show his or her work to another person before it was done. It is not a good idea, and I must stop telling my students that it will help them. Then I go telling people to consider finding someone who would not mind reading their drafts and marking them up with useful suggestions. The person may not have an answer to what is missing or annoying about the piece, but is often about marking mistakes and feeling lost. Sir Adam: Thanks. You guys gave me a lot to think about. As the night went by the young writer was thinking about what his fellow companions have said. During the morning they woke up and head off towards King’s Landing. As they arrived they saw the monumental beauty of this enormous city. They went to the palace and was greeted by Cersei Lannister, Tyrion Lannister and King Joffrey Lannister. They began the entertainment as instructed and told their own stories for the king. The young Sir took the advice his fellow wordsmiths told him and told a tale about a galaxy far far away…A tale of droids, aliens, monsters, bounty hunters, space travel and a power known as the force…Sadly King Joffrey wasn’t amused and sent the writer’s to be beheaded. And that was the end of the writer’s long informative tale. Long Live Ned Stark True King of the North. Winter Is Coming
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Adam BluntMe, Adam Blunt. Just a normal guy that likes comic books, pot, music and video games. And yeah I write a blog now. Archives
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