Category: Unit 3

A few months ago, my class was introduced to this project. We were told to create a research project, and that we had the freedom to choose essentially whatever topic we wanted. Immediately my thoughts became focused on everything that I am mentally lacking. Knowledge that has the potential to drastically improve my life. ‘I am being given the motivation to actually achieve some level of understanding. So what will my focus be?’ Few answers came to mind. The most prominent being: How to build a business/ company. I have known for a very long time that there is absolutely zero interest in my heart, soul; entire being to be an employee; make money for someone else (at least in the  long term). That’s all great, but to achieve that I need to be able to make it for myself. What better way than to just make the company? This project is the perfect way to start learning, and therefore became my topic. Obviously, ‘how to build a business’ is a loaded topic, and I needed to narrow it down. Therefore, implementing the second thing I have known for a very long time: I want to work in fashion; be a designer. Perfect! I can research how to create a fashion brand I can design for. The second aspect of this project was to present my findings in the genre of my choosing. To make that choice, I considered how I can both provide the necessary information, while still learning in the process. In my opinion, the best way to learn is to do. I initially decided to attempt founding a business and blog about all the steps I take, along with outcomes and challenges. As I was just writing about my experience, the readers could see me as a very credible source. I was not trying to make claims about what I thought I knew. It was solely supposed to be personal observations. As I began, and the days went by, it became increasingly clear that time would be a huge issue. Surprise! Surprise! Building a business takes an extremely long time. I don’t know what I thought I would accomplish in the weeks that I worked on this project. However, it certainly was not enough to create sufficient content for my blog. Each little thing was extremely tedious, time consuming, and generally uninteresting. I decided to change course. Because it was unrealistic to accomplish enough to blog about, I began providing general information on the steps I would be taking, if I had sufficient time. Instead of a step by step guide, I ended up providing key insights into each broader phase. Because I was no longer narrating my journey and therefore was not a reliable narrator, I switched to providing the most logical information. I first did what I could in the time I had, and then proceeded to expand on what I would do in the future, based on my research. Each blog post, after my introduction, discussed one general phase in the growth process and contained specific details and insights. While people who may be completely lost want a universal step by step guide; it may not exist. Before coming to that conclusion, my nerves ran high out of the possibility that I may not be able to accomplish this task. With each aspect being so interchangeable, my blog may actually be equally helpful to those looking for guidance in building their own businesses. While for what it is, I did a good job, I would have made different choices if I had more time. I really liked the idea of me starting my business and taking my readers with me for the ride. I could have had the time to wait for everything to be processed. I could have taken time to intricately go through every aspect; make mistakes, and learn how to correct them. In my opinion, that would have made for a superior blog. It was difficult to let go of that prospect, but I eventually had to accept that it wasn’t possible, and make the best out of it. All that being said, I am happy with the result. Looking back, I probably should have chosen a less time consuming genre, or a more easily digestible topic. 

When I started this Unit project I was very excited about the topic I chose for this unit. Learning about ancient Rome is something I was very interested in throughout high school. I remember sitting down in class in my freshman year and having this amazing teacher that liked history a lot and how society has changed throughout time. I remember entering class that day and he wanted to talk about a different topic, that was about ancient Rome, something that not a lot of teachers don’t teach to their students nowadays. Coming to that class that day I had no idea about ancient Rome or the history of it even my classmates didn’t knew anything about that topic. It was something new to all of us. I grew very interested when he started talking about Julies Cesar and many great leaders that came from Rome. Also how great was Rome and the technology it brought to our society for example: Solar Power the Romans used the Sun as a passive solar heat source for buildings. Also Romans constructed numerous aqueducts to supply water throughout the cities. But he only talked about this topic for only two class periods and since then I always wanted to learn more about it but didn’t know where to start. The purpose of me making this project is to teach others about ancient Rome and the impact it had on our society. We learn and adapt to a lot of Rome technology and laws to improve our society. The audience I am going for are high schoolers and teachers. I think this will be the best target because it’s something that students won’t find boring and can learn something new from it. Also help them in the real world by learning law, science, or even engineering. I feel like as high schoolers they can be creative and adaptive to their environment. Giving this lesson to them can help them a lot. It’s something someone might not think about. I can see my work being shown to other schools by teachers or even students. This topic can be taught to any age group if you make it fun and interesting to learn. At first I picked a documentary style as my genre but then I found out that it’s harder than what I thought it was going to be. I wanted to look perfect and appealing but it didn’t turn out that way. So I change it to a lecture or a lesson. I found it way better because I can use highly educated words and make it fun with a slideshow. In the slideshow they’re going to have pictures, videos, and quotes from great leaders. This is the best for my audience because it’s going to be engaging and fun. It’s hard just sitting in a class for multiple hours so by adding things to do and interact with can be more interesting. Also I can change it or even improve it over time. Feedbacks can help me a lot at how I can make my lesson more interesting and fun while still learning from this lesson/lecture.

I first started by looking at good examples of slideshows while getting information about ancient Rome. I like how the slide shows ended up looking. I have pictures and videos that can make it easier to teach and learn key information about Rome. So far it went well. The only thing was putting everything together and making sure the flow is good and not all over the place. Having the right things on the slideshow can really make an impact on the finishing product. Everything I had on my Unit 2 research I have on the slide made it easier for me to strat. I think it turned out great. I like it a lot. I made a lot of changes on my slide making it appealing. I don’t think I would change anything or do it differently. I like how it turned out to be. It was in the middle not too hard or easy to do once I knew how to start it got better and the flow of my work. I had days where it was hard for me to get it done or work on it because I overthink too much and do much to make it look better. Having this as a college project is great. I think it’s much better than writing essays and reading articles. Having this to do was fun because it made me be creative and not get bored. I can see this being used more because it’s different and fun to have you don’t feel trapped and repetitive of doing the same things every time.