Thinking Hat

After reviewing the pdf of different ways of thinking I realized that I think in the more "American & British" way. I like to get right down to the point with what I am trying to describe. But I also like to think outside of the box when I put my thinking cap on. Sometimes when a problem arises and all of the obvious solutions to the problem arent working I know that I need to think of other ways to solve it. This requires me to be creative with my thinking in order to come up with good ideas. I also like to think utside of the box becasue I like new and different ideas of doing things. Sometimes this can make it harder for me becasue as my mom would say I can think too hard about the issue and hhow to solve it. However my thinking hat, I believe is a comboniation of positive, creative and objective. Being creative is something that I have always been. But I also feel that it is important to stay objective while being creative with my thinking becasue if i don't it is possible to not be completely honest with myself. Staying positive is something good to do becasue its gives me hope that I can solve the issue with success.

Am I more Left Brained or Right Brianed?

 

Left Brain “Critical”	Right Brain “Creative”
Precise in activities (perfection)	Creative with drawing, crafts and art
Strategize activities	Active listener
Chronological thought	Visual thinker and learner
Well organized	Balance of friends and family
Think about things usually before I do them	Act on impulses and instincts
Strong writing ability with papers and structuring	Generally trust my instincts, but occasionally doubt them too
	Have strong emotions and connect them to my everyday life
	Memorize songs well

After doing this exercise I realized that I am well organized and think things out before I do them but also I like to act on the impulses and spontaneity that I have. That can sometimes come around and bite me in the butt. I know that I have many strengths but it was rather hard for me not think of the things that I struggle with too. Because this was a strengths based activity, it was a little harder to complete. After doing this exercise and making the chart of my personal left and right brain strengths, I noticed that I tend to be a little more right brained than left brained. Even though I have lots of strong points with organization, thoughts, perfection, and strategies; I found that I prefer to be more social, creative, and connected with emotions. I like to listen to others and see their insight on certain things as well as give my own personal feedback and thoughts too. My everyday life can get stressful and that is something that I struggle with consistently. But I know that If I put my strengths to work to rather than focusing on my defects I can overpower the things that I don't do well with the things that I do.

Obstacle Course

Exercise Prompt: With a paper and pen, crayons, or colored markers, ask yourself what stops you from starting and progressing and finishing a piece of writing. Draw your obstacles (no matter how rough or sketchy they look!). Some may come from the world around you- like a lack of time or bad vibes from friends, teachers or bosses. Some may seem to be deeply rooted inside you, like worries about perfection. As much as possible, stay in the mindset of free-writing so the drawings come intuitively from deep inside, not from what you think you ought to draw. When you have drawn your gallery of obstacles, give each one a name. Then go to your blog and write about what you have discovered.

Above is my drawn out obstacle course to finishing assignments. When I read what we were supposed to do this week I automatically though of creating a course. The green flag is the start and the checkered is the finish. But in between those I have little red flags that mean I stop becasue of each designated issue that I come upon during many writing assignments. I was able to come up with seven different obstacles of mine. They are:
1. Feeling lack of not only time but energy (becasue I am consistently busy and hardly have either of them, although school and work is priority.)
2. Work (I work five days a week)
3. Other homework (As we all know, this can be an onstacale for every student if you are taking other courses.)
4. Perfection Issues (I have a tendency to want my work perfect. I don't like to do things wrong and get bad grades, it's better to know you did it and tried your hardest the fist time.)
5. Assignment Clarity (Sometimes I have problems with what the assignment is asking for.)
6. Communication With Classmates/Teachers (If I have questions or we are assigned to a group to do the assignment, it can be a struggle to get the information needed to finish the assignment.)
7. Unclear Study Material (I can sometimes struggle with what we are studying and not understand the information correctly.)

After doing this exercise and writing down and identifying my obstacles, I feel it is going to be easier to work around them and problem solve the issues. That way I can successfully complete all writing assignments.

These Days...

Freewriting Reflection

As I started to free write I found myself writing about what was going through my mind right at that moment. It wasn't necessarily pleasant becasue I was very frustrated at the time. I would say that because no one was watching, listening, or reading what I was writing it was much easier to get out what I wanted to say. I used it as a venting session. It was kind of nice and rejuvenating to do so. I do have to say I found myself having an issue writing it only becasue I had so much to say and not very much time. It was like my mind was saying more thoughts that I could possibly write down.
Now to expand a little on what I actually was writing about...
I vented about all the frustrations I have been having with some of my classes, actually one in particular. I was feeling extremely overwhelmed with my life, school and work all together. It's like I had a lot of things to do and no time to do all of them. I was piled with reading, essays, reviewing papers, meeting with group partners, family issues and so so much more. I wish I could talk about it all, but I can't. I have to say that I am extremely thankful for the online Social Work Program at Humboldt, becasue without it I would have had to drop school for the year and start again next year at a different school. That would have meant that I would loose my scholarship, and I definitely can't afford to do that. But on the other hand I find it much harder and more frustrating and taking face to face classes on campus. So I am struggling with it, but I am doing alright. I think it will get a lot better once I have the ways of online learning down. I feel that doing group work is the hardest thing for me becasue I don't live in or close enough to Arcata to meet my group in person, so we have to find other ways to do it. That means a whole lot more than it sounds becasue the groups I have been put in I have consistently had one person that is very hard to contact or get to respond back to the rest of the group. Even though I know we have to do group work and it is a good way for us to meet each other in our cohort, I find it much easier to do the work on my own...
Anyways that is my little venting session. I could probable go on for hours talking about this, but unfortunately I don't have the time considering I barely have the time to sleep.

Good Silences

THIS WEEKS PROMPT:

" Good Silences~

Paulo Freire always reminded us of complexity, even in language. The word 'silence' stretches way beyond oppression. It also describe something we seek and treasure. It's in silence that we gather our thoughts, center out energy, fell the love and understanding we need for taking action. Quakers, Buddhist meditators and many others use silence to connect with forces larger than ourselves. Freire also valued the reflective possibilities of silence. In 1985, I heard him speak about what he called the "tensions between silence and voice." Silence, which we often see as empty, can represent great activity. "I can spend on hour silent but totally alive. I can speak a lot in silence" he told a crowd at Harvard University. Freire warned teachers not to "emphasize our own voice so much that we impose silence on students" but to "feel out how to get voice from the other side... how to, little by little, go into silence." When we truly choose it, silence is a powerful ally to speech (Dunlap,15)"

Reference:
Dunlap, L. (2007). Undoing the Silence: Six Tools for Social Change Writing. Oakland: New Village Press.

MY RESPONSE:

First off WOW!! This is a a very empowering paragraph, which I feel means that his speech was even more impacting. So, silence...it can be a very good thing as well as bad. The last time we blogged we talked about voicing our opinions in order to help ourselves as well as others. This is along the same lines of that. We need to speak our thoughts but not so much that we don't allow others to do so on their own. So we must silence ourselves too. I believe this connects to social work a lot because it is important to help others help themselves by silencing ourselves and taking in their feelings and feeling empathy for them, rather than preaching what we think. Sometimes silence can be better than speaking out because it allows us to think to ourselves and process ideas and feelings that we have. That is how I use silence. When I am having a rough day or maybe even a good day, I make the point to have some time to myself and just relax to help wind me down. I like to process my day and think about the things that happened. I also use it as a way of problem solving, because it allows me to fulling think the problem over before I act on it. Sometimes when I act on something before I think about it, whatever I do makes the problem worse. I guess that validates the saying "Think before you speak." If we silence our voices somewhat I feel it allows others to share more of their voice rather just our own which means that we can gain more insight on things. If you takes the time to listen it may help you change something in your life, because the example you got impacted by it greatly. So a little tip of advice: don't just speak, allow silence in your life too because you may learn something about yourself in the process.

Why Be Reluctant to Speak Out???

Prompt: Mainstream Americans are reluctant to speak out in writing, even when it can make a real difference. How can we shift that reluctance by setting aside self-judgment, releasing fear and tapping our common heritage as powerful thinkers as a means of turning our writing into action? 

I feel that from time to time every person has this feeling. It may be for different reasons for each person, but some of those reasons may include: feeling they wouldn't be heard, feeling embarrassed, or just plain not wanting to do it. In reality even though we may have this feeling it is not always what comes out of the situation. Many times if you ask for help you are going to get it. Also it can be very beneficial to others if you voice your opinions, thoughts or questions because someone else may feel the same way. It can be a way for you to feel better about yourself and the decisions you may make. If we take the initiative to step up to the plate it is very likely that we can overcome our fears of this issue. I know from personal experience that I don't like to speak in front of others because I feel embarrassed and that I may say something wrong. I feel this way even when I need to ask a question through writing, but if I take the step to do it I usually come out on top of the problem with information I need to feel confident.
This brings me to the profession of social work that we are all getting into. Taking what we learn from these classes and experiences and turning them into tools for us will help us help others in positive ways. We will always learn from our actions sometimes in good ways, and sometimes in bad ways. But if we don't take the steps to have those experiences we won't learn as much.

Little Bit-O Life

Just some more of my life :)

Journey to Success

I have had this goal of wanting to be in the helping professional singe I was a kid. When I started college and focusing on becoming a nurse I had many struggles through my community college experience. As I changed my major to social work those struggles became to lessen. I think it is partially because I now feel like I was meant for social work more than I was for nursing. Even though they are both jobs where you help people, they have different kinds of helping. When I moved away last semester to attend HSU I was excited and ready to really start my journey to success!!! But I know that there are some things that still get me down as I am working toward my degree. Some of those things include feeling like I am unable to keep up with the course work, misunderstanding instruction; some specific topic that will come up will be tough, and just down right frustration!!! I have found that if I form relationships within the course and feel that I can ask questions that I will be able to keep up. But as it is my first time ever doing online courses, I will have to work really hard on that. I also know that there are going to be certain topic that are going to come up in learning all the aspects of social work that are going to be hard for me to digest because of personal experiences. We all will encounter frustration many times through this journey, I think it is much easier for me if I get so frustrated to walk away from the activity for a bit and then come back when I am thinking more clearly. Because I know if I don't I will just want to give up! As I work my way to success I play the most important role in my excursion. I cannot be just along for the ride because it's my life and I have to take charge and drive!!!

I am a 21 year old female Humboldt State Social Work student that lives in Anderson, CA. I want to be a Social worker with the elderly becasue I am very close to my parents and grandparents. And one day when they are too old to take care of themselves I want to know that there are people out there that will advocate for them in whatever way they need. I strive to be the best person of my ability and work as hard as possible to get where I want to be in life. Sometimes that may mean that I have some bumps,  hills or mountains in the road, but I will always find a way to climb them with success!!! School is a huge priority in my life and I will do whatever I need to reach my goals.

Some other things about me: I am super close to my family and friends and would do anything in the world for them. I have an older brother, my dad and my mom, but she suddenly passed away in August 2011. So school and life ingeneral has been rough this past year. But I know I can get through it with her watchig over me. Well enough sad stuff, I love to swim, ride quads and dance! My favorite color is lime green and I love zebra print :)