Blog Assignment 1

About Me
My name is Amy Archer. I was born and raised in Decatur, AL. In May 2010, I graduated from Decatur High School with honors. Two months later I came down to Mobile, and I began a new chapter in my life as a Freshman at The University of South Alabama. I chose to study here, because I did not want to go straight into Auburn University or The University of Alabama. One distinguishing quality of The University of South Alabama is that it is a moderate size university and offers many outstanding programs, yet my professors know me by name. I am currently a Junior, and I have a double major in Elementary Education and Foreign Language with a concentration in Spanish.
I was born into a family with two very loving parents and two amazing siblings. As the oldest of three, my parents have always pushed me to go the extra mile in anything I do. My family is very close, and every summer we take a vacation with my mom's siblings and their children to Fort Morgan. My family has always played a big role in my life, especially my mom. She has taught for over twenty years, and she inspired me to become a teacher. I knew at a young age that I wanted to be a teacher, because I wanted to follow in my mother's foot steps.
Obviously, I have a passion for working with children. Otherwise I would not be here today. It is one of my goals to work in a Title 1 school one day, because I want to better my community and encourage children to achieve their goals like I did. In my spare time I love to run! Last March I ran in the Rock n' Roll marathon in New Orleans, LA. A month ago I competed in my first mini-triathlon in my hometown. This February I have set my goal higher and plan to run in the Rock n' Roll marathon again, but compete in the full marathon instead of the half. (That is 27.2 miles for those of you who do not know how long a marathon is.)
When I am not in class or studying, I also participate in many organizations on campus. In Fall 2010, I became a life long member of Alpha Omicron Pi. My sisters mean the world to me, and they have become my second family. This year I received the honor to be a member of the Student Government Association as a Senator for the Education Department. I plan to affiliate with the new "Leos" Club that is being established by Lion's Club members. On Tuesday afternoons I volunteer at the Boy's and Girl's Club downtown in the after school care.
I am a very active and motivated young lady. I like to stay busy, and I'm always on the go. Although I am a busy bee, meeting new people is something I do best. With that being said, do not hesitate to wave or say hey the next time we meet.
Randy Pausch on Time Management
Randy Pausch once made a speech on Time Management. In the YouTube video that I watched, he emphasized on "doing the right things", rather than "doing things right." Another quoted he said was, "Failing to plan is planing to fail."His key to avoiding stress and procrastination was to plan each day, each week, and each semester. He thought it was important to plan, because "you can always change your plan later-only if you have one."
One of the key points that Randy Pausch emphasized that stood out to me was to focus on doing the right things. I am a perfectionist, so I focus on the opposite, which to do things right. I learned from Pausch that I need to do all that I can in life. After all, experiences and life lessons come from bad judgement. I am going to mess up in life, but that is okay because next time I will know how to handle the situation.
When he said, "Failing to plan is planning to fail", I really took it to heart. If I do not create a plan for today, tomorrow, or next semester I will not go forward. I will stay where I am and never succeed. Though I may change my plan every other day, I have moved one step forward by setting goals to reach and priorities to keep.
About Randy Pausch
Randy Pausch died on July 25, 2008. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006. He passed away due to complications from the cancer. Although he suffered a great deal over those two years, he did not show it. The doctors did not expect him to live as long as he did, but Randy had energy and enthusiasm for life. Randy Pausch left a legacy of excellence and integrity. He makes a great role model for anyone, and his blog posts, videos, and pictures can be found all over the internet. We can learn so much from him and realize that our struggles are not the end of the world.
Time Management
Penn State's Learning website has articles on Time Management Exercises and Time Management Lessons. Time Management Exercises teaches you how to prioritize your time and use it wisely. If you sleep 7 hours a night, 7 days a week then you are left with a total of 119 hours to your week. How you use those hours is up to you. Penn State said, "You can monitor these hours or become a Time Waster." Their article, incorporated the use of a calendar and a mini planner to keep up with daily to-do lists and upcoming events. The website also has a time exercise where you can enter in how many hours you spend on eating, sleeping, and daily hygiene a week to see how many hours you are really leaving for studying and extra curricular events.
The other article on Time Management Lessons focuses on creating a "time table" for your life. In order to make a time table, you need a blank calendar with semi-large sized boxes, a planner, all your courses' syllabi, and a copy of the campus calendar. On your calendar you write out the dates of upcoming test, campus events, and things you want to do for fun. In your planner, you write your daily to do list. Penn state emphasizes, though, that it is important not to create a to-do list that you cannot accomplish in one day.
From both of these articles I learned many new ways to prioritize my time and better prepare myself for the semester. I already have a planner, but I learned from Penn State that I am not prioritizing my time properly in order to complete these events. I fall into the category of a "time waster" many days and would rather catch up on the latest episode of my favorite shows on television. I need to keep a better lay out to my day and invest in Hulu Plus, so I can accomplish all of my tasks. I am glad that Dr. Strange assigned these two articles to our class, because I learned life valuable lessons on time management.