Note Taking Strategies

22nd of March 2012

Today we studied about notes taking strategies.How to take notes in an effective way.He gave us an example of a notes taking stratergy.That is Bloom's Taxonomy.

Bloom's Taxonomy is a classification of learning objectives within education proposed in 1956 by a committee of educators chaired by Benjamin Bloom who also edited the first volume of the standard text, Taxonomy of educational objectives: the classification of educational goals^[

There is more than one type of learning. A committee of colleges, led by Benjamin Bloom (1956), identified three domains of educational activities:

• Cognitive: mental skills (Knowledge)
• Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (Attitude)
• Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (Skills)

I read some details related to effective Learning in the book named "".

Effective Learning

To be an effective learner he/she should evaluate him/herself with some Questions.Those are :

• Do I need to be more effective andaware in relations to my Study habits?
• Am I in touch with my reasons for study?Do I need more Motivation?
• Are there anxieties & oncerns I need to Sort out first?
• Am I being too virtuous rather than effective?
• Am I working to my preferred learning Skills?
• Are my time and space Organized effectively?
• Am I aware of my Priorities for developing my study Skills?
• Am I in the best frame of mind for study?
• Is my Learning active enough?
• Do I need more Support from others?

You should be able to answer these questions.Before starting to study you have to rewrite the above questions and prepare yourself.

Some Ideas related to Effective Learning

• Give yourself study triggers

          Ex: One student clears his desk each time when he finishes studying

• Creating the right environment

          Ex: Quite/Music background,Home/Library /with Friends,Clear table

• Use your distractions to help you Study

          Ex: Study on the move - Try to browse a chapter or going over notes before going shopping,etc and  
                reherse information in your head as you walk/cook.

And Some Time Saving Suggestions:

Time is money is a common saying but most of us are not aware of its importance.Anything can be saved or created but on secound passes we cant get the time.So to manage the time and to protect this valuable resource  we can use these 10 time saving Stratergies.

1.  Save rewriting notes and find more quickly what you have written

           Ex: Write major points in different sheets,Write notes on a laptop.

    2.   Save time writing notes           

  Ex: Use headings and Keywords,Dont rewrite notes because its a mess,Dont write same information twice.

   3.   Save time looking for notes

         Ex: Keep all in one place,Fill them as you go along,Keep guide to your files.


  4.  Save time reading

       Ex: SMART reading strergies,Read only the relevent information,If you come across something interesting for the future but is not relevant now can fillout index card/make an electronic record.

  5.  Save time in writing and looking up your references

       Ex: In the margin of your notes write the page references from the book for every book,article,etc that you read complete an index card.

 6.  Use word limits to focus your energies

      Ex: Map out your work to match the word limit.

 7. Save time thinking

     Ex: Always carry a  book to record ideas as it pops out.

 8. Save time organizing information

     Ex: Try brain storming,Use numbers and Highlighters to group information in different pages.

 9. Save time writing

     Ex: Write Assignments directly into a computer.

10. Avoid duplicating effort

      Ex: Find study partner to share research tasks and tactics and bounce idea off.

         
      

Preparing A Personal Portfolio

21st of March 2012

Today we studied about Personal portfolios.The Purpose of it and what should be included inthe Portfolios.

"A personal portfolio is an evidentiary document designed to provide qualitative and quantitative information. It is different from a resume in that its intent is not to summarize, but to expand upon and provide evidence relating to accomplishments, skills and experiences, in the classroom, workplace, and community in which you live."

Read more: Definition of a Personal Portfolio | eHow.com fhttp://www.ehow.com/about_6302573_definition-personal-portfolio.html#ixzz1qE2jjFWo

We should also create our own motto and my one is "Dedication and Hardworking are the key points for Success".Because even if you have knowledge without dedication and hardworking you cant achieve success in your life.

And we have to do a listening test and have to write the Score.I did an IELTS listining exam and got 9 out of 11 questions.

According to sir we have to create a Personal Portfolio.

Self Trust and Self Motivation

20th of March 2012

Today we all presented  our creativity.For that we used waste items.I did a wall hanger.For that I used some old magazines to recycle them into board and cut it into a big square and pasted a colour sheet.And decorated it using paper quilting flowers and leaves which were made out of stripes of sheets.
This is how it looks.

For more information relating to paper quilting see it in this website : http://books.google.lk/books?id=o3BPe13lVoEC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false
Some people did different frames and others did collages,etc.One of my friend did a frame using broken glass pieces.It was really pretty.and another one did a frame using paper quilting f lowers and butterflies,onion leaves and boards and another one did pen holder using calender sheets and tin another one did same pen holder with different idea using cardboard and wraping sheets and another one did decorative pen and also another guy did a card holder and last not least one of my friend did plate wraping using wraping sheets.

This activity is mainly to increase our self motivation and self trust about our creativity.When a person has the self trust whatever the surroundings say he/she will continue to do their own desire.They wont get tired or stop the work without reaching the destiny.There will be a thing called self motivation that drives a person to finish the goal.We have to do some activities to make that work.We need some practices like giving an tap on your shoulders when you achive something or give a small gift to yourself when you reach a small goal.

The Ladder Towards The Success

On 15th of March 2012

Today the Semester is on Skills.The Skill is the 1st step in the Ladder towards the Success.According to Business Dictonary The Skill means :

Definition of Skill

An ability and capacity acquired through deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort to smoothly and adaptively carryout complex activities or job functions involving ideas (cognitive skills), things (technical skills), and/or people (interpersonal skills)

(Source : http://www.businessdictionary.com)

There are 3 Main Types of Skill:

• Technical Skills -- The most fundamental types of skills one must have to achieve in life are technical skills; including those required of life in general (e.g. cleaning, cooking, grooming, organizing, planning, etc.), as well as the very specific technical skills required of your specific job. As most of us have discovered technical skill building is an on-going, never-ending process. We suggest that you continually upgrade your skills, stay on top of changes and developments, and make continuous education a cornerstone of your life.
• Interpersonal Skills -- In addition, you will need to know how to convey information, verbally or non-verbally to people you are in contact with. These are your interpersonal skills. To succeed at a high level in life you will need to have writing, speaking, presentation, communication, and management/leadership skills amongst others. 
• Psychological Skills -- Perhaps the most important type of skills to succeed in life are psychological skills. The ability to show real concern for others and knowing how to show that concern in interactions with others is a psychological skill. Other psychological skills include the ability to help others develop and grow, the ability to create harmony in difficult situations, the ability to know how to motivate others, the ability to understand another's true motives when interacting with them, and many others. By developing psychological skills, you increase the motivation and energy of those around you, and you increase your chance for success, joy, and happiness in life.

(Roy Posner 2012)

But for success these three skills are not enough there are more skills a person should pocess to be a successfull person in life.And as a step to learn skills we did a class activity.

CLASS ACTIVITY

•         Lets identify our skills

•         Think about something you do well, a difficulty you overcame, or a personal achievement, no matter how small.  Write down all the elements that go into something you have done well

–       What did you do to create the conditions that led to success?

–       Which skills, attitudes and qualities did you exhibit? Did you practice?

–       Did you urge yourself on in a particular way?

–       Did you find people to help? Or did you just believe you could do it?

Ø Achieved 7A 2B in O/L exams

Ø I have been my own Motivation

Changed myself to an Optimist

Ø Yes I did some practices, referred many Books and websites and wrote the things I studied.

Ø Yes I started to urge myself by writing the notes and doing past papers

Ø Yes I got some encouragements from Parents, Teachers and Friends. But I believed 100% that I will do my Best

To be a successfull person, she/he should be able to grab the opportunity.For that he/she should pocess the optimism character and the ability to take risks without loosing enthusiasm.There are many people with same qualification are struggling to reach the top level and to achieve it he/she should be ready at anytime.







Wheel Of Opportunity
(Which is originally created by our sir)

Based on a number of surveys on the skills required by graduates undertaken by Microsoft, Target Jobs, the BBC, Prospects, NACE and AGR and other organizations, here is our summary of the skills which were most often deemed important.

VERBAL COMMUNICATION  -  Able to express your ideas clearly and confidently in speech

TEAM WORK  - Work confidently within a group

COMMERCIAL AWARENESS - Understand the commercial realities affecting the organization

ANALYSING & INVESTIGATING - Gather information systematically to establish facts & principles. Problem solving.

INITIATIVE/SELF MOTIVATION - Able to act on initiative, identify opportunities & proactive in putting forward ideas & solutions

DRIVE - Determination to get things done. Make things happen & constantly looking for better ways of doing things.

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION - Able to express yourself clearly in writing

PLANNING & ORGANISING - Able to plan activities & carry them through effectively

FLEXIBILITY  - Adapt successfully to changing situations & environments

TIME MANAGEMENT -  Manage time effectively, prioritizing tasks and able to work to deadlines.

Other skills that were also seen as important

GLOBAL SKILLS - Able to speak and understand other languages.

ü  Appreciation of other cultures.

ü  Study and work placements outside the SL

ü  Working Abroad

NEGOTIATING & PERSUADING - Able to influence and convince others, to discuss and reach agreement

LEADERSHIP Able to motivate and direct others

NUMERACY Multiply & divide accurately, calculate percentages, use statistics & a calculator, interpret graphs & tables.

COMPUTING SKILLS - Word-processing, using databases, spreadsheets, the Internet & email, designing web pages etc.

SELF AWARENES - Awareness of achievements, abilities, values & weaknesses & what you want out of life.

PERSONAL IMPACT/CONFIDENCE - Presents a strong, professional, positive image to others which inspires confidence & commands respect.

LIFELONG LEARNING - Continues to learn throughout life. Develops the competencies needed for current & future roles

STRESS TOLERANCE - Maintains effective performance under pressure

INTEGRITY - Adheres to standards & procedures, maintains confidentiality and questions inappropriate behavior.

INDEPENDENCE - Accepts responsibility for views & actions and able to work under their own direction & initiative.

DEVELOPING PROFESSIONALISM - Pays care & attention to quality in all their work. Supports & empowers others.

ACTION PLANNING - Able to decide what steps are needed to achieve particular goals and then implement these.

DECISION-MAKING - Determines the best course of action. Evaluates options based on logic & fact & presents solutions

INTERPERSONAL SENSITIVITY - Recognizes & respects different perspectives. Open to the ideas & views of others

CREATIVITY - Generates & applying new ideas & solutions

(Source: http://www.kent.ac.uk)

 

·         To be A Successful Person He/She shouldn’t only Pocess the above mentioned Skills

·         But He/She should pocess the most important ability

·         That is HARD WORKING

Even if a Person has Creativity,Talent,Educational skills and above mentioned skills to my opinion without the hard working ability She/he will not be able to reach the top level of the Ladder that is SUCCESS.

According to Winston Churchill :                                

  

Steps To Success



"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. "

Steps Towards The Personal Development

14th of March 2012

Today we had our sessions on Personal Development.Sir started the session with a question "who have creativity?".And according to that we were divided into 2 groups and did a discussion based on asking questions and getting answers.Finally we got brief idea about creativity its the way of thinking or doing things in a different way from the rest of the world.

Source; beautifulwreck1.wordpress.com

Creativity is when a person is not following others idea.He/She is not as a sheep following the master's path.creativity is when we learn someting and ask ourselves why cant we do it another method.creating an own method.

There are some steps he has to go through to be a creative person.Following will explain us how this process works.

Source;www.blog.iqmatrix.com

Sir told us about his experience and what he creatively did in his past life.Then he taught us about Personal skills.To be the Skilled person he/she should pocess 4 Qualities or features.And they are :





No 1

                    





No 2







                               




No 3

 

                                                                                



No 4

                         

When a person achieve these characteristics he/she become the successfull Person with the Skills. According to our sir we have to do a personal SWOT analysis. And This is

 My Personal SWOT Analysis
MY STRENGTHS
ü Team Work
ü Creativity, Design and Layout
ü Ability to Learn from Mistakes
ü Trust in My Own Abilities
ü  Willingness to take Risks & Experiments
ü Ability to Recognize My Own Needs & Ask for Help
ü Ability to get on with People from different Background
MY WEAKNESSES
•  Managing Other People
•  Teaching or Training Others
•  Speaking clearly & to the Point
•  Ability to cope with Difficult People
•  Being good on Argument and Debate
•  Setting Priorities
• Stress Management
•  Hard to identify opportunities
 

       OPPORTUNITIES

•  Taking part in Dramas and Speeches
•  Reading Books and getting information through Research
•  Obtaining Guidance and Advices from Wise People

        THREATS

•  Some ill advices from enemies
•  Negative opinions from our Surroundings
•  Hard to trust the information due to Negative sources
•  High Competitions 





Introduction to our Sessions

Today we had our introduction session where we learnt about the syllabuse,assignments and assesment techniques for this semester.As its an intro session we sort of have to do a diary about what we learn and what we had understand about the modules in these order :-

1. Research related to the module that we discussed
2. Comparing the related research with what we studied (analysing)
3. Then writing our conclusions according to our view

And he wanted us to create blog in google and showed us how to create an account.using http://www.blogger.com/.

steps :-

• Go to http://www.blogger.com/
• create an account if you dont have a gmail account or if you are an existing gmail holder you can just sign in
• click create a blog icon and start typing a title for your blog and an address for your blog
• and then start writing.

Its really a usefull for us because we cant remember all the things after 2 weeks.So creating blog each day and writing what we did for the day and analysing whether there are alternative ways to do it if so writing them down and finally writing a conclusion from our view or experience.So end of 1 week we can recheck them and can remind ourselves what we did.Its really a worth exercise.

Creation of Portfolio

Today we had our second session about our individual assignments.The Day started with some disciplinary actions due to late comers.Sir gave the final warning to them.According to me late coming is a bad habbit for example late coming of a worker always ends in late submission of work which shows his/her inefficiency.Next he explained what the assignment should contain, how the details should be researched,and how to do the citations and referencing,how the assignments are assessed and how many words should be in the assignment.He gave                
He wanted us to do a research in how to create a Portfolio.And according to http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/portfolios.htm page There are some steps to create a Portfolio.


"And those are :-

• Purpose: What is the purpose(s) of the portfolio?
• Audience: For what audience(s) will the portfolio be created?
• Content: What samples of student work will be included?
• Process: What processes will be engaged in during the development of the portfolio?
  • Selection of Contents
  • Reflection on Samples of Work
  • Conferencing on Student Work and Processes
• Management: How will time and materials be managed in the development of the portfolio?
• Communication: How and when will the portfolio be shared with pertinent audiences?
• Evaluation: If the portfolio is to be used for evaluation, how and when should it be evaluated?"  

                                                                                                  (Jon mueller,2005)
On 13th march 2012

According to Jake Lawson Perfectionism is:
* the irrational belief that you and/or your environment must be perfect
* the striving to be the best, to reach the ideal and to never make a mistake
* an all pervasive attitude that whatever you attempt in life must be done letter perfect with no deviation, mistakes, slip-ups or inconsistencies
* a habit developed from youth that keeps you constantly alert to the imperfections, failings, and weakness in yourself and others
* a level of consciousness that keeps you ever vigilant to any deviations from the norm, the guidelines or the way things are "supposed to be"
* the underlying motive present in the fear of failure and fear of rejection, i.e., if I am not perfect I will fail and/or I will be rejected by others
* a reason why you may be fearful of success, i.e., if I achieve my goal, will I be able to continue, maintain that level of achievement
* a rigid, moralistic outlook that does not allow for humanism or imperfection
* an inhibiting factor that keeps you from making a commitment to change habitual, unproductive behavior out of fear of not making the change "good enough"
* the belief that no matter what you attempt it is never "good enough" to meet your own or others' expectations

and imperfection is according to dictionary

Imperfect

• Not perfect; not complete in all its parts; wanting a part; deective; deficient.
  
• Wanting in some elementary organ that is essential to successful or normal activity.
  
• Not fulfilling its design; not realizing an ideal; not conformed to a standard or rule; not
• satisfying the taste or conscience; esthetically or morally defective.
  
• The imperfect tense; or the form of a verb denoting the imperfect tense.
  To make imperfect.
  

   

  

  It doesnt mean each person should be perfect.Each person has atleast a smaller quantity of imperfectionism.Imperfectionism allows the human being to improve and grow.Imperfection doesn't mean insane it only means you are not upto the certain standard.You can always change yourself from imperfect to perfect but for that you need hard working and adaptability.

  But to change you have to find whats your weaknesses and try to correct them or find your strength and stick to it and improve it to reach the best.

  If I take me as an example I have certain weaknesses and Strengths.If I list certain weaknesses the one which goes first is I totally get upset when something goes wrong.It always happens when I get confused.2nd is I get stage fright when I get a speech or a presentation to present it to audience.These are two worse weaknesses I m trying to overcome from it.

  From identifying my weaknesses I can improve myself by getting advice from others doing communicational exercises.

  Even though A person can change him/her from imperfectionism to perfectionism but there is no way an imperfect person or object can/ can be used to create perfect person or object.

  For example when we use a system which has problems (imperfect) to produce a perfect idea the end result will be imperfect.A teacher who is imperfect,who has less knowledge in the subject teaches a person, the person will definetly become imperfect.

  So my conclusion is that an imperfect person wont always be imperfect , but at the same time an imperfect person or an object cannot create a perfectionist.