Tag Archives: Reflections

Reflection

This semester for me had its ups and downs. I was a little behind in the beginning and soon caught up, then I fell behind again and was always turning in things late. I liked the projects overall because they were interesting- not dull and boring where you just do research at home, write an essay and turn it in. There was some exploration and adventure for these assignments which I’m glad for because it made it more fun. I think my writing skills have improved in the past 4 months however I could do better with my procrastination level. College is time consuming because of the work but this class made it fun and I was able to do some of the work with my friends outside of school. I think I need to work on my vocabulary words more because I want a wider range of vocabulary and I’ve been slacking with that this semester, mainly focusing on the assignments. Overall the work was fair and our peer mentor was helpful throughout the semester and I can say I will use what I learned in the next semesters I have left here and in real life.

Reflection (Aesthetic Mapping)

For project 4, I expected it to be challenging to find a unique route because downtown Brooklyn is an area that seems to have more buildings than trees (in my opinion). However, it was a fun experience even though I would’ve preferred to do it in the spring or summer- where nature is more recognized because of the bloomed flowers/trees. I didn’t try to make my walk too long and I didn’t spend too much time in the park because it was something lie 20-30 degrees outside and I was so cold to the point where tears were coming out my eyes. I don’t think I would have went to take the walk that day if I didn’t have my friend with me because I HATE the cold. But living in Brooklyn, I don’t think I’ve ever been to Cadman Plaza Park and seeing Cadman Plaza Park in the evening was a pretty sight. I spent the most part of this project writing the Pitch since it doesn’t take me 5 minutes to write 700-900 words about my walk. I didn’t remember a lot of the street names so I had to rely on google and google maps to include in my pitch. I didn’t really get any feedback from any peers so I just did some research online about the history of the parks and added that to the Pitch. It wasn’t much but I think I excelled at capturing the right pictures to show what I saw on the walk specifically. I also think I needed to work on what were some more of the sounds and smells on my walk because I didn’t really focus on that.  But like the article said, this walk can ease stress. For me, that’s just what it did for a while.

Project 4 Self-Evaluation; Reflection

Project 4 was given to us at the end of November about a week before Thanksgiving break. The proposal was to take a walk and to create a route that deviates from the route to City Tech. We all had to come up with a variation upon leaving the train station and to take a more serene route. Similar to Project 2 which involved taking a walk in a given direction for fifteen minutes and to document what the path looked, felt, and smelt like. Unlike that project, this time we were more specific at our surroundings and environment in a more enclosed area per-say.

Project 4 felt a lot more simpler to do in the sense that it was more up front in what the directions were. Coming up with an alternate route to City Tech seemed like a much easier task than to document a random walk. This of course is my opinion. The amount of time invested in this project was fair in the amount of time we were given to start with. Planning the route from scratch took at most a few hours. Starting with the route I normally took to school it seemed easier to deviate in a certain direction. There was an area that I had begun to familiarise myself with such as Borough Hall and the Brooklyn Heights area.

Writing things down such as the description of the walk and the directions to and fro, took some time. It took a while to get things together because I felt it was too simple and needed a bit of a ‘something’ for lack of a better word. The walk time also had to be adjusted because it did not factor in certain climatic conditions such as rain, snow or sleet.

I personally don’t feel I excelled in any specific part of this assignment.

Fastest or Most Beautiful Route: Reflection

This article was very interesting to me. It discusses taking the fastest vs the most beautiful route to your destination, and what people would prefer. Also what people consider a beautiful route. They talk about an app that would give you the route to your destination, either the fastest or the most beautiful one. Since the app we now use usually only give us the fastest route. I did keep thinking that this didn’t matter because everyone has their own sense to what would be beautiful. But they id a survey that had two different pictures asking people which they considered more beautiful.

I’m not sure what I would chose because it depends on the situation. If I’m late or a bit early to class I’ll still go unless I’m an hour early, then I’ll take my time and maybe take a more scenic route. What I could say is a beautiful route is any calm areas where there aren’t many crowds, or in some cases an area can look very beautiful but also be very crowded. Walking through a park, any well known spots, or anywhere that there’s just a lot of nature is very calm and appealing to me.

Fastest/Beautiful Route Summary and Reflection

In this very interesting article by Lex Berko. They speak on application or app that can help you receive the fastest and most beautiful route to your destination. Some things they were inquiring about was that some routes that are appealing to some may not be to others. This was something I also thought about, they asked themselves the question “but how do you quantify concepts as nebulous as beauty or happiness?” Their question was answered when they went to a website that juxtaposed two pictures and surveyed what people are appealed to most.
In my opinion Im not sure what route I would pick. But, I do know what I like in an alternate route app. I would most likely like to have a fast route that shows me the most pictures of urban artwork and basketball courts. It is very bizarre to see those things together but this is what I would like to see. I have been loving basketball since I was a little boy and urban art like graffiti art because I personally can not do it.

Project #2: Reflection

Upon doing project 2, I didn’t know how I was going to reach the 900 words minimum. The most words I’ve ever wrote for a project or essay in high school was 600. So that was the main thing I was worried about. However, I learned something new about juxtapositions once I actually had to scout one out myself and got to know the downtown Brooklyn area a little better than before. Colson Whitehead’s example of a juxtaposition was helpful to me. The thing I am most proud of is writing a 900+ word essay but I could have organized the essay maybe a little better because I basically wrote things all around the page without sequence really.

Project #2 Reflection

I enjoyed this project because it involved walking out to a new place. It was really interesting to learn about juxtapositions. I really got to know areas near the school more. I thought finding overlapping New Yorks would be hard, but it wasn’t as hard as I thought. What I could improve more on the project is how I describe what I see by sight or any senses. I also need to improve on my quotes and showing how they support my essay’s thesis more, I might not have elaborated on them much in my essay.

Project 2: Reflection

In Project 2 Of English 1101 we had to take a 10-15 minute walk passed city tech. Our goal was to use our senses and observe  an overlapping New York. We would post about the location we chose and why did we choose it. Prior to the project we read ” City Limits” by Colson Whitehead and got an idea on how to explain our topics in our writing.One of the goals was to compare and contrast Different and overlapping New Yorks and the people that live there and how they are affected by it. I wrote about the overlap between commercial buildings and personals stores like Groceries or even little apartments far off next to the Brooklyn Bridge. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know this area more and the type of people who live here. I am new to the busy side of Brooklyn so this project made me feel more welcomed around here.Because I got more familiar, I was enlightened. I was Taught where the nearest Barnes and Noble is located and I learned directions towards different subway stations to lead me to City Tech just in case I am stuck In Traffic, However I think I need more improvement on how I describe my surroundings and senses.But since I have acquired these life skills , I know I have gained something from this adventurous project. The additional support I had was friends and I going through the busy streets and spotting anything of interest to help us along the project and also the reading of City Limits and how a overlapping New York look like.

Bric Field Trip Reflection

 

photo 1 (5) photo 2 (5) photo 3 (3)

In this field trip we walked down Brooklyn to visit the Bric Museum. This museum had a lot of media art like Music recording and experiment arts.I personally Believe this was the best field trip. The Art work really struck me on a spiritual or inner self kind of way. I took my time around and read a lot and the two works  that stuck out to me was the pictures above. The reason why I like it so much because it shows the struggling journey that people go through in order to find themselves. It conveys that we go through trial and error just to find something that we already have. The sound box that we all tried interests me on how our body functions Mentally and Physically. When one of our senses go down like our sight, the other raises like our sense of hearing. When this happens we become more involved with this sense, and inside the outhouse it was playing sounds of nature  which really relaxed me. I completely understood the Idea of this experiment. I would love to have more trips/ Experiments like this in the future.

Boston Photographs Reflection

The Boston Photographs really peaked my interest because it has a lot to do with morality and ethic views. In Senior year of High School I took a Moral Philosophy class and I believe it helped me further understand what is going on within this Article, because I took this class it led me to believe that this is a Open-ended argument debating if publishing pictures of a women falling to her death is considered a ‘good thing’. Graphic pictures are usually not shown in the newspaper because it can be considered too violent or unpleasant. I sense a type of guilt found in this piece because the Photographer did not expect this to happen and the events resulting from it.This catastrophe resulted in the concerns of ” Life in the ghetto ” stated in page sixty. ” They dramatized the need to check on the safety of fire escapes”.

I believe that the pictures does show a rather unpleasant view but in one way it does make people more alert about fires and safety hazards. It is a mixture of feelings and opinions. One reason to oppose is the privacy of someone who passed away, Family members or friends who rightfully angry would obviously take action and cause more chaos. 1000 words could describe a picture , especially a picture like this. In times today it is also the same issue about our privacy as media and social networks increase.