Progress+Reports


 * Progress Report #1**

Honestly, I am not very happy with my progress so far and I know that I can do much better. I've done all the things that are due but I feel like I am doing the bare minimum. I know that it is senior year but that is no excuse to slack off. I have to work hard on this project and be dedicated to recieve the grade that I want. Even though I am not very happy, I have made some progress. I've established my final thesis, found a number of scholarly sources, figured out what to do for my hands on and I've done my initial proposal. I've met most of my goals but, as I stated before, I feel like I could have done a lot more. The goals that I haven't met yet are because I thought it was okay to not work as hard but I know that I will need to change that attitude towards this project and start to work harder than I have been.

The three goals that I am focused on accomplishing within the next several weeks are, getting all of my sources annotated and cited, getting the hands on part of the project done and to start outlining/writing my paper. I have most of my articles but I have yet to really dig into them and pick out the good information that I can apply to my project. I will focus on that this upcoming weekend and I will hopefully get all of that done. After that I will try to figure out exactly when I'll be able to go down to Baltimore for the behind the scenes tour at the aquarium.

I haven't figured out who my topic expert is yet so he/she has not been able to give me advice or help at all so far. My mentor and teacher have helped me significantly with getting me to stick with my topic. I've already started to doubt myself about my ability to do well with this project and I wanted to switch my topic. I know that the visual presentation is going to be hard but this topic will produce a well written paper, knowing this I've decided to stick with my topic and stop complaining.

1. In the past few weeks I have made a significant amount of improvement on my project. I changed my topic but I have been focused on finding scholarly resources and information that will produce a well written paper and presentation. I set specific goals but I didn’t meet all of them. I have found a good amount of sources but I still believe that I need more. I have discovered a new foundation and this was the key for me to start my research. For the sources that I have, I have taken out specific chunks of information and broke them down to relate them to my thesis. For the things that I haven’t accomplished yet such as starting an outline or my rough draft to my paper, I will have to make up lost time. I will need to work diligently on my paper to get caught up with the rest of the class.
 * Progress Report #2**

2. I have three goals that I have to accomplish before the next progress report is due. One is rough draft has to be completed; I have it peer edited/edited by the teacher. Another goal is that I have all my information organized and in order so that if I need it I will be able to look back at it. The last is to start writing my final paper. I want to get my paper finished as quickly as possible so that I have plenty of time to edit it and do my project.

3. My topic expert and mentor haven’t really contributed to any of my progress in the last week. To be honest, I haven’t needed much help at all. I have been able to understand and find most of the information that I needed to. My topic expert will be helping me shortly once I get a questionnaire together.

Now that I am done with my paper, it is time to move on to the hands on portion of the project. I am pretty happy with the grade that I received on my paper since I was struggling with my research and support. I haven't really decided on what to do for my hands on but I would like to be able to figure out the high schools sports related injuries statistics. I am not sure how I am going to approach this but I am going to do it in some form of a survey and I will talk with our athletic director about how to distribute it. I have set three goals for myself that I want to accomplish before the next progress report. One is to get all of my surveys and questions finalized by Mr. Martin. Two is to talk with the athletic director about handing them out and three is to calculate the statistics and apply them to my final project.
 * Progress Report #3**

1. Since my last progress report, I have made a significant amount of improvement on final project. I have started my powerpoint slides that will help me present this topic to the audience and I am starting to pull my speech together slowly. Our slides are due soon so I need to really focus on getting them done and how I will use pictures to convey my message. As for my hands on I am still struggling with it. I need to get started on it though because my presentation will come before I know it. I am going to interview the schools athletic trainer and hopefully get some sort of statistics from the school sports.
 * Progress Report #4 (12/15)**

2. I have three goals that I have to accomplish before the Christmas break. I need to be completely done my slides for my presentation, I need to be completely done my hands on and I need to start practicing for my presentation on the 13th of Janurary. I am not a very good public speaker so I need to leave a good amount of time for me to practice my speech so that I feel better about the way I am presenting.

3. My mentor has really helped me stay on task and working hard. He has helped me with my powerpoint presentation and the type of pictures I should put on them.