For Future Students

English 304 has been extremely beneficial for me. We have learned how to write a resume, prepare for interviews, write memos, create a proposal, and be a part of a project dealing with a real client. I believe all of these things are important and will be very useful to me in the future. I believe Mrs. Rogers organized the class very well. All of the assignments flowed very smoothly. There is a fair amount of work, but because of the way the class is organized it is not too overwhelming.
My suggestion for the client project is to be sure to choose a group that you can work well with. You really do have to depend on other people to do their part and communicate with you. This is a great class to take and Mrs. Rogers is a wonderful teacher!

Christmas

Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year, and I am so excited that it is almost here! I love going shopping for Christmas gifts and decorating the house. Every Christmas my family puts our Christmas tree together on the first Saturday in December so we can enjoy it the entire month of December. Another tradition is for my mom, grandmother, cousin, and me to go on a big shopping trip several weekends before Christmas. This is always a lot of fun! I love being in college so when the fall semester ends my friends and I have time to go ice skating and watch the new Christmas movies that are realeased each year. I also like not having any homework or projects to worry about. This makes Christmas even more fun and enjoyable! The typical Christmas for me each year consists of getting together with my mom's side of the family on December 23. We get together at my grandmother's house for a big meal and to exchange gifts. This is my favorite family gathering because I have a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins on this side of my family. On Christmas Eve, my dad's side of the family gets together for a big meal. On Christmas Eve night, we go to church for a candlelight service. This is always very pretty! Christmas day is pretty calm at my house. My mom, dad, and I cook breakfast, open gifts, watch movies, and look at Christmas lights at night. Talking about Christmas makes me even more excited! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Reflection on "Employers Study Applicants' Personalities"

I believe the article "Employers Study Applicants' Personalities" by Ellen Simon presented some good ideas. I believe that teaching someone a skill is just as important as their personality. A person has to be able to do the job, but also be able to work well with coworkers. With skill and a good personality, the job will most likely be done well and of good quality because of the positive atmosphere. In my opinion, the interview process that Rackspace uses would be very effective. They have interviewers go through an all day interview. After approximately 10 hours, a company will know a great deal about a person. I also believe companies that include coworkers in interviews would be effective. Coworkers are going to want a person they feel is intelligent, hard-working, and personable.

Dual Coding Theory

I was watching TV and saw a Levi jeans commercial. A boy is pulling up his jeans and the ground level of the building comes up with them. He finds himself on the street looking at a girl that is also wearing Levi jeans. It is obvious that they are attracted to each other. The dual coding theory is used in this commercial because it uses pictures and words to appeal to young men and women. It portrays that if you wear Levi jeans, you are attractive.

I also saw a Geico commercial that portrayed the dual coding theory. It was using celebrities to promote Geico insurance. Because of the words celebrities used and visual images of celebrities promoting the insurance, the dual coding theory was used. This commercial is trying to appeal to men and women using celebrities because many people want to be like celebrities.

Group Work

I have learned that group work can be easy at times and hard at times for college students. My group has done very well with communicating. We communicate a lot through email which avoids many miscommunications because the information is in writing to refer back to. There has been once or twice that an email has been unclear and I have had to ask for an explanation. Also, my group is not good with setting exact deadlines. We usually say to get the work done as soon as possible and email it to the person it should go to. Sometimes this halts progress because everyone's schedules are different, and certain times are better for some than others. This could be avoided in the future and phase 2 by setting a specific time for everyone to have their work completed. Frequent group meetings to discuss the project in detail has been very successful for my group, and email has also worked well. I like that everyone in my group does their share of the work. I think my group has been a good group to work with.

Interview

This interview experience was the first I have ever had. From my interview, the biggest thing I learned is what types of questions to expect an interviewer to ask. After my interview I made some notes on the questions I was asked so I can be prepared for my real interview in the future. This was an all-around great learning experience for me because I really did not know what to expect, except for the pointers Mrs. Rogers gave in class. I do not believe there is any way I could have made my interview on Monday very much better because I did not really know how to prepare myself. In the future, I will know what types of questions to prepare for and practice. From this experience, I also learned that it is best to prepare a cover letter to present with your resume and send a follow-up thank you letter to the interviewer. If I had not learned that in this class, I would have not have known to do that. I feel this interview provided me with a better understanding of what the whole interview process involves.

CPR Class

I am going to talk about my ED 322 class, CPR class. I have been amazed at how much there is to remember about CPR. It is definitely not as easy as it looks. Learning CPR is different for an infant, child, and adult. There are AED machines you have to learn about and the procedures are different for infants, children, and adults. You have to be mindful of heart problems and respiratory problems. There are different procedures for a choking infant, child, and adult. There are different procedures if the victim is unconscious or conscious. I have taken all of the written tests and done well so far, but we are about to have an individual skills test. Now that I have started studying, it is really hard to remember the minor differences in the procedures. It is frustrating that there are so many different things to learn, but I know that it is very important. In a real situation, I know that it will be very important for me to know all of the details because it could make the difference in saving someone’s life. Wish me luck on my test!