Week Three Evaluation

This week was much harder then the other two for obvious reasons. I had to finish the guide, put a show together, and do them at the same time. By the beginning of this week I had finished just about all the text to the guide. Now I just needed to design it so it was appealing to an ADD Freshman. I had fun designing it, but too much of anything gets old after a while.

This week was pretty stressful, but I have come to find that I do some of my best work under stress. With less time to work, I feel like I work faster and harder. Watching my guide come together by my own hands was an awesome experience. I like to look at this 31 page document and know that I created every piece of it (Excluding of course the cover page that was created graciously by Will Cudahy). After putting so much time into it, I really hope people will enjoy reading it and that it actually will help freshman. It’s been a great learning experience, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to do it.

Friday, end of week three

What was the end of senior project for many students has ended up just being another day of senior project for me. I will continue to work on the guide over the weekend, and hopefully have it up on the Proctor website by Tuesday! I have been picking away at the design for several days now, and finally I am getting close to the end. I'm hitting a slight road block right now, as I get to the Dining Hall section. It is going to require a lot of picturse that I need from the Dining Hall. Easy to get, but will take time never-the-less (does that saying of hyphens?). But the Dining Hall chapter is 9 out of 12 chapters, so I'm getting close to the end! Work on it today and Sunday should result in a completion by Monday or Tuesday!

I'm on my final lap! Whoohoo!

So busy, I forgot Thursday!

Will the showing finally coming together and opening night being tonight, I am becoming very very busy. I have all text for the guide written, now I am just working on the design.

With twelve chapters though, the design is going to take a while. I am going to be working on it throughout the weekend and hopefully I will be able to turn something in Monday/Tuesday! I would write a longer post, but as I've said, I'm very busy! I'll keep you updated.

-C

Wednesday, the 25th

Today I got a lot done! I more or less finished the Day Student, Dorm Life, Dining Hall, and all other chapters of the guide. None of them have a design yet, and I'm guessing that will take at least two days, maybe three, because they still need to be proofread and that will change the design layout if they are a different length, etc.

But today I finally laid out all of my material onto one page and saw what I was dealing with. I have 12 chapters, 14 including the Intro and Epilogue. This will probably make the guide around 30 pages long. A decent length. These next few days will be spent proofreading and putting in a design, and then it's off to the Proctor website! Whoohoo!

Tuesday

Today was a looonng day.

I got a lot done though, needless to say. I just about finished the day student and computer chapters. What still needs work is the Dorm, Dining Hall, Intro, and epilogue chapters. I hope to finish most of those tomorrow, and if I'm really lucky I can start design layouts for other chapters tomorrow too.

Today consisted of yet another run through of the show, and I didn't get home until about 10 pm. I am getting a little stressed with these two projects coming to a finally at the same time, but this was expected. I'm sure I can pull this all off. As I said before, the worst case scenario is that the guide is finished a few days late. Tonight I hope to get a little more work done on the guide before I go to bed, then more work, work, work tomorrow! Oh, and while I'm at it... check out this awesome cover Will Cudahy designed for me!

Monday, the start of week three

Start of week three! I went to Chuck's office this morning, as usual, and we talked about my plans for this last week of Senior Project. After that was said and done, I talked to Chuck about the history of Head's Day which I plan to talk about in the guide. I figured he would know more about its history then most...

After that I went to the other side of the Development office to talk to Kim, who is the one that will be helping me get the guide online in a few days. I talked to her again about the logistics of getting it online, and made sure we were both on the same page. I told her I would be back in a few days, ready to upload the guide! (hopefully)

Once I was done talking to her I headed over to the Wise to get more writing done. As I move closer to my due date I am starting to make a list of what still needs to be done. I still need to work on the Intro chapter, The Dining Hall chapter, Dorms, Day Students, Computers, and the Epilogue. And on top of that I need to make an interesting design for almost all chapters. There is a lot to go, but I think it's a possible amount. Worst case scenario I will not finish it until next Monday or Tuesday, which (I think) will be okay.

I pretty much spent all of today writing, trying to get closer and closer to a finish. Tomorrow will probably be very similar.

Week Two Evaluation

The second week of Senior Project was rather similar to the first week. The only difference was that I went into this week knowing exactly what I needed to do, whereas last week I felt a little lost. This week I got a lot of work done on the guide. I started playing with design schemes and completed a lot of my… “Chapters” I guess is what we can call them. My biggest worry for next week is when it gets to actually combining all of this work, getting it on the web, and having it all work. When it comes to technology, especially the internet, you never know what can go wrong. I hope to be just about done with all of the writing by Monday or Tuesday of next week so that I can focus on getting the guide online by the end of the week. But this is supposed to be a summary of this week, so enough of that!

What has been the biggest learning curve this week is how to work on my own schedule. Except for checking in with Chuck in the morning, no one is supervising me or making sure I’m doing my work. I don’t have to be anywhere until 3:15 pm. What I do in between that time is up to me, and I’m not used to that! I have gone through four years of going from one class to the next and all of a sudden my schedule is whatever I feel like. It’s fantastic, but at the same time it’s a curse because I’m so used to being told what to do next, it’s hard to wrap my head around the concept of doing what I want, when I want. It’s a totally different style of working, and I’m glad I got to experience before college because I imagine college to be more like this.

End of week two. Yikes.

So here we are, Friday, the end of week two. It's scary to think that I am already two-thirds of the way through my senior project. And with Yearbooks handed out today, I am once again reminded that I am graduating in two weeks! AGHH!

Today started right before assembly as I went to quickly talked to Chuck in his office. We looked over some pictures I took yesterday in the Dining Hall, which tragically didn't turn out too well. Low lighting... or maybe I messed up on the shutter speed. I don't know....

Anywho, I made another announcement in assembly today reminding people to talk to me if they have any thoughts about Proctor they would like to share with me before Senior Project is over. After assembly I met up with Sarah Will and we went through everything I have written so far and looked for grammatical errors. I started to realize how short this guide might be... it's packed with information, but I think it is only going to end up being are 15-20 pages. It's okay, this is my project and there is no requirement to it's length! All that matters is that incoming students find it useful and entertaining :)

Once I was done talking with Sarah I headed over to the Dining Hall and started a new section called "How To Make Friends". This is an essential piece that I have been meaning to write for a while because I think one of incoming student's biggest fears is making friends! After lunch I went to the Wise and continued to work on this piece. By the time it was about 2:30 I got to what I thought to be an end to that piece. But it still needs a lot of work because a section like that is based so much off of opinion and I have to make sure it can apply to all different types of people.

So here we are, Friday, the end of week two. On to my final week!

Rainy Thursday

Another rainy day today. And the weather shows the next week being about the same thing. That has nothing to do with my guide though, so let's move on to the important stuff!

I am now officially more then half way through my senior project, which is a little scary! But I feel like I am in a good position and this will end up being a great guide! (That was more of a public motivational boost for myself). This morning I grabbed Chuck's camera and went to the Dining Hall to get some pictures of how to make the "Perfect Cinnamon Toast" and other food secrets. After that I stayed in the Dining Hall sense it was so restful and quite and wrote more of the guide. I finally started the "Dorm Life" section, and I hope to be done writing that one by tomorrow or early next week.

Tomorrow I have an appointment to meet with Sarah Will during F block so that she can look over what I have written and give me pointers. I hope to have just about all writing done by early next week so that I can spend most of my last week designing the guide so it can go on the Proctor website. Woohoo!

Wednesday!

I am coming to find that the closer I get to finishing a project, the more problems I run into. I have taken care of most of the easy parts, now I am dealing with a lot of nitty gritty details, and how to accomplish them. Such as how to combine all these articles I have created into one big "guide". I have complex design to some of these and it's pretty much impossible to copy and paste the whole thing. For some of them, I may have to redo the design.

Anyways, today I again found myself in Nancy Shoeller's old office working more on the guide. I touched back on pieces I hadn't worked on in a while... such as "The Role of Your Advisor". I also got in contact with fellow student Will Cudahy who is very skilled with Photoshop to help create a cover for my guide. We are still working with first drafts, but right now we are thinking about a cover that looks like a composition notebook that says "Freshman Survival Guide". When those ideas develop I'll let you know.

Tomorrow I plan to upload another survey and get pictures in the Dining Hall so that I can really get the "Dining Hall Secrets" section rolling. I have started my section about dorms but I haven't talked to enough kids yet to really get a full piece written. Hopefully I will have time tomorrow to do that too..

Wish me luck!

Tuesday, May 17th

The day started by getting Chuck's insight on the two pieces I wrote yesterday. The biggest change I made was switching the title "Punishment" to "Rules and Regulations: Simplified". This is a much more attractive title, that better described what the article was about (pretty much the rules in the Green Book, put it a more "easy to read" fashion). After making some edits to pieces I had already written, I did some work on new pieces.

After that I found some kids in the dining hall to ask about dorm life. Dorm life is something I know very little about, so all my info will really depend on what other student say. I also continued to put together another survey I hope to upload tomorrow or Thursday. After lunch I did some more work on the design of the guide, specifically the "Grades, Points, and Everything In Between" piece.

Over these next two weeks my time will become very tight... with the play and the guide coming to a finale at the same time. I will have to make sure I manage my time efficiently... but I look forward to all the hard work!

Monday- The start of week two

The great thing about senior project is that I can go into each day without knowing what I will be doing, or where... but simply knowing that I will be doing something. I started today like I have most days of senior project by going into Chuck's office. We had a quick talk, then I headed to The Wise.

I opened my computer, looked at the work I had done, and what I still needed to do. I decided to try and finish my article called "Punishment", which covers the topics of Major and Minor violations, and how to stay out of trouble! This was a very hard part to write... because I had to make sure I always stayed in the spirit of supporting Proctor's rules. For instance I wanted to tell kids to not smoke in dorms, because that can result in an automatic dismissal... but by saying that was I saying it would be okay to smoke not in dorms? Of course not, but someone might take it that way and so all things must be considered in this manner.

Once I had gotten a rough draft together, I sent it to Chuck so he could also make sure it sounded okay. After assembly I wanted to find a place quieter than the Wise so that I could continue writing without disturbance. I found myself sitting in the room outside the Into to Lit classroom (Nancy Schoeller's old office). I started (and finished) a long article called "Grades, Points, And Everything In Between." I talked about the difference between letter grade and effort grades, how to get points, what points are, what punishments can result from points, etc...

By the time I finished all of that it was time for lunch. I tried out another fruit juice drink recommended to me by a student. I am starting to realize that no matter what combination of juices you put together, they all kinda taste the same....

After lunch I did a few more edits on the two pieces I worked on today, then headed off to rehearsal. Day one of week two complete!

Canon out.

Weekly reflection

My Senior Project began as a “learn-as-you-go” process. Going into it, I really had no idea how I was going to be creating this guide. Would I be writing at home? On campus? Would it by a physical book? Online? Would someone be watching over me making sure I was working? There were so many things I was not sure of.

On the morning of May 9^th, I went up to the Development office and was given a tour of the real “Chuck’s Corner”. I never knew any of this space existed. Chuck and I talked about my plans for the guide, and I quickly became more comfortable with this process. Finally, after my four years at Proctor, I could work at my own pace. I had a deadline, but how I got there was up to me. All of the decisions, all of the writing… it was all determined by me. I started to write. I wrote down everything I could think of that a Freshman would want to know. Once I did that, I talked to other kids and tried to write down everything they could think of. I also created online surveys so that the entire student body could answer my questions. Now, I know that 75% of students on campus have never switched advisors. Who knew?

Every day was like the next. I talked to more students, and I wrote down more. I was slowly building up information for the ultimate guide. Near the end of the week I started to create pages that looked like they would for the final product of the guide. I was very satisfied with the results, so I talked to a lady in the Development office that said she would help me get this guide on the Proctor website over these next few weeks. I still have a lot of work ahead of me, but I’m having fun doing what I want to do!

Firday, the end of week one!

Today consisted of many small random tasks... It started with writing more of the guide. I started a new section today called "Punishment", which will cover all the basics about Major and Minor violations, how to stay out of trouble, and how to deal with it if you don't! This one will have to be very carefully written. I must make sure that my guide never comes across as supporting the abuse of substances, sense it will be on the Proctor website.

After assembly I headed over to the Andover school to see if I could talk to some 8th graders that were coming to Proctor next year, and ask them what they are most concerned about for next year. But today was Share Day at Andover, a day similar to Proctor's "Earth Day". So, no one was really available to talk to. But I loved seeing my old teachers again! After that I headed home because my brother needed some help with various tasks. I had lunch at home, and then headed back to campus to get my time card signed by Chuck Will which I have to turn in at the end of every week. Speaking of that.... I was supposed to hand that in 20 minutes ago.... oops. Anyways, I had rehearsal at 3:15 and now I have a nice weekend to look forward to! (Even though I will probably still it spend working on the guide...)

But, until Monday, peace out!

Blogger down! But the guide must go on....

So things got all "blogged up" and I couldn't post my summery from yesterday.... but here it is now!

Thursday: Today was Earth Day on Proctor's campus, so normal cla

sses were not going on. I talked to Chuck a little bit in the morning, then headed to Slocumb where the visual arts of Proctor are created. Because there were workshops instead of classes, I had the building to myself. I sat down at one of the tables, plugged my i

pod into the stereo, and began to write. Ah, perfect bliss.

I proofread my article on Orientation, and worked some more on the Dining Hall section. At 10:30 there was a speaker in the theater that I joined in on. In the theme of Earth Day, he talked about what is in our food... specifically, corn! Lots and lots of corn! With corn starch, high fructose corn syrup, corn fed beef, and other corn products, corn is in just about everything we eat. Interesting!

After that I headed over to lunch. Ooo! Which reminds me... last night, I tired out a drink

that was recommended to me called "Bubblegum DrAnk". Equal proportions of root beer, sprite, and blue Powerade. Sounds gross, right? But it's true! This off-green drink tasted like bubblegum! Food chemistry works in weird ways.... anyways, after lunch I sat down in the lobby right outside of the Dining Hall to do some quick work on the guide. Or at least... what I thought was going to be quick. I ended up sitting there for another two hours designing the Orientation section to what I would want it to look like as a final product.... just so I could get an idea of what I was dealing with for this guide. I was really happy with my results... here is a sneak preview:

After that, being such a nice day, I headed to a bench by the pond to study my lines for the play. After another half hour or so, it was time for rehearsal.

Dinner that night was stir-fry night which I helped out with. After spending an hour making several custom stir-fries (is that a word?), I went back to the theater for more rehearsal. It was a very long day, especially being my girlfriend's birthday, but I got a lot done! What I need more of though is student interviews. I think I will head to the wise tomorrow and snipe out a view kids to talk to.

Day Three For You and Me!

Today Chuck had a meeting that ran well into 10 AM, so I was able to sleep in a little. I woke up around 9 and after taking a shower I opened my laptop to keep working on some parts of the blog. I made the Dining Hall section a little more neat, finalizing some of the recipes and giving random facts about the Dining Hall such as the "Make your own Sunday bar" is available on Wednesdays and Sundays.

I also threw together a pie graph from one of my surveys. This specific one will go under the "Advisor" section.

By 11:30 I was off to the dining hall for lunch, and then the theater at 12:30. A short day of work, but tomorrow is Earth Day at Proctor so hopefully I will get more done! Woohoo!

Tuesday.... more talking and writing

Today started similar to yesterday.... around 9 o'clock I made my way into Chuck's office to check in with him. We talked over a couple of things and soon after I headed back home to do some more writing. But I found myself being more productive on campus so around 10:15 I headed over to the Dining Hall to join in on my advisory meeting. I talked with a couple of my fellow advisees and got a few tips out of them to put in my guide. I also put my first survey live on the web, and emailed the link to all Proctor students. So far I already have 15o responses! Whoohoo!

After that I headed down to the tech center to talk about the logistics of having my guide on the Proctor website. Jim Cox made it seem very possible, I just need to figure out weather it can go under "Admissions" or "A to Z" depending on its content. We'll see.... anyways, still in the tech center, I found a couple of more students and received yet more information to use in my guide.

For lunch I made another sandwich recommendation from a student. I feel like the Dining Hall section of this guide is going to be pretty big......

At 2 pm I had a meeting with Mike Henriques to talk over any important changes that would be happening in the 2011/2012 curriculum that I should know about for my guide. It seemed that there was not much to worry about. By the end of the conversation we were philosophically talking about life, as most talks with Mike do....

By 2:30 I was on my way over to the Development Office which is on the second floor of the admissions buildings. I talked with a very nice lady that helped my figure out how to get my guide on the Proctor website. She made it sound very easy... all I had to do is design something in Word or Pages and export it as a pdf. I could then upload that right onto the website with a link and then anyone could download it!

Cool!

So after I talked with her I wrote down a couple more things and then headed off to rehearsal. Day two complete!

Monday, May 9th. Day one.

I started the day at 9 AM by going over to the actual "Chuck's Corner". Chuck's and I met in his office at the top corner of the admissions building where we had a short informal talk about my plans: What I hope to do in these next few weeks, and how I plan to do it.

After all that was said and done I headed over to the Wise Center to start writing. I jotted down a few notes that I could write without someone else's opinion.... such as what an "Advisor" is, and what their job is. I found this to be a great start to a complex guide. Not necessarily the beginning of the book, but it's where I started.

After that I headed over to assembly to make an announcement about how I need student's support for this guide because... well, I don't know everything about Proctor... and I will need other people's opinions and perspectives to write a proper guide. Which is exactly what happened after assembly when I sat down with Mackin (Yes, he's back apparently) and he told me many things he has discovered about Proctor. He gave me a wide range of things to put down such as:

"Don't swear in the Wise. Ed will take you down."

"Be optimistic for orientation. If you think it's going to suck, it's going to suck."

After getting a couple of food ideas from students, I went to the Dining Hall to try some out. I had one of the best grilled cheeses I'v ever made in the Dining Hall, and a drink called the Grand Slam which consisted of all six fruit drinks combined. Overall, a very enjoyable meal.

The rest of the afternoon I spent writing... and then at 3:15 I headed over to the theater for rehearsal. Overall, today made a nice dent into my project. I look forward to tomorrow!