As I sit thinking what should I post today, I opened my school email to notice some exciting news.  Here’s an extract from the email.

” Congratulations! I am pleased to inform you that your records indicate that you are among a select group of students who have or will have completed all degree requirements with academic distinction and will graduate with academic honors. You qualify to receive your degree summa cum laude, with a cumulative GPA of 3.80 – 4.00. You are also eligible to participate as a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. I commend you for your outstanding academic record at City Tech.  ”

Wow !! I’m excited.

As the semester is coming to an end, I can’t help to notice the amount of work I have to complete in the coming weeks. Most of the classes this semester are writing based and requires lots of writing. I think i’m now into survival mood as the pressure builds. Full time school full time work is no joke. I’ve been doing it for 4 years and I can’t wait to get some vacation time.  Summer, where are you ??

I think our group are off to a great start working on the group project. We have chosen our topic and began some research. Meeting the required amount of words for each member shouldn’t be difficult. I’m looking forward on continuing work on this assignment.

Having back to back class sessions with the reading for today was a little difficult. I wasn’t able to complete the reading because of my work schedule yesterday. But from the reading of chapter ” Tools of the mind”, what i got so far from it is the way our minds are programmed to do things. Starting from drawing lines on paper to drawing on computers and designing. It shows the way we think and remember things from when we were younger.

Wow !!  I can’t believe spring break is over. Only 4 more weeks for the semester to be over. Much of my Spring Break was spent doing homework for my other classes. While I was still working on the instruction manual for this class. Finishing the instruction manual was a difficult task for me, I redid my format to make it less boring to read.

During i spring break I plan to focus my time towards my studies. Since this is my last semester, I’m aiming for a strong finish. In the previous years, I would normally go on vacation but I figured since this is my last semester, I can have lots of vacations at the end of the semester. Books ! Books Books ! for me during the break.

The writing of the instruction manual is still ongoing. This manual requires careful at the point writing so it’s taking me sometime to get do. Writing a step can take minutes at fully complete, since it’s a write, read, edit and read again exercise. Yes !! I’ll make the Wednesday due date.

The writing of the instruction manual is an “uphill” task, for many of the ideas I have are way over the word limit. As i write the manual, keeping in mind my audience, each step of instructions required careful thinking and construction. Wish me luck with the writing of this manual.

The Atul Gawande’s article, ” The Checklist” published in the Annal of Medicine December 10 2007 Issues, outlines Doctors Peter Pronovost’s work in medical field. The author relates to many medical situations within hospitals with emphasis on the intensive care unit. Pronovost was among the first to recognize the power of using a checklist. Using a checklist can save lives in the ICU. It was a surprise to me that Spain was willing at adopt Pronovost’s checklist idea while only a few hospitals in the US have opted to do so. Routine steps can be easily missed or forgotten without using a checklist as shown by many of Pronovost’s experiments .

I’m thinking about writing an instruction manual for cooking a special dish from Trinidad. I’m still to choose my special dish.