LAST BLOG OF THE SEMESTER

For my very last blog post, I wanted to talk about my experiences this semester. So.. here it goes... This semester was probably one of the hardest and also one of the most complicated.... I started with five classes and ended up with three. Due to the fact to unforeseen events, I decided to drop two of my classes. One class I was taking earlier on in the semester was taking Geography class because of course, it was for a GE requirement. I had to drop the class because I was so overwhelmed with all the homework, quizzes that the instructor wanted us to do. The whole class was required to do assessments every single class, also were required to have map quizzes every Tuesday. Since I am a student that does school and work, I felt so overwhelmed with all the assignments that I will be doing, also knowing the fact that that class ended on the days of my other two hardest classes. So... I had to drop the class. Another class that I had to drop was my personal adjustment class, I dropped the class because I found out with my advisor that I DID NOT need the class, I was supposed to be taking something else which made me really upset because I only dropped the last in September. I basically wasted my time in the class, also I did not enjoy how my instructor was teaching it.. I dropped the class and now I am paying for it out on my pocket... I wish I didn't have to work, but I needed money to pay for my tuition. But, there are many things, I learned and gained during this semester. I gained the knowledge I never knew I will be learning. It's so fun learning about things I never even knew before. Also, this semester made me gain new friends!!! It's so awesome being in a group project with people who have the same interest as you. I hope this semester brings me a 4.0. :) 

Self-Presentation + Procrastination = NO GOOD

About 2 weeks in my ED215 class we were given an assignment where we had to create a presentation about the topic given. The chapter I was assigned to was on Chapter 6. Chapter 6's topic was about Emotional Disturbance. There is a variety of things listed for that topic, but the one I wanted to do a presentation on was "Depression" because it was the most common out of all the rest. I also chose this topic because I know someone who is dealing with depression RIGHT NOW, and its not very nice to look at. Basically, depression is a marked pervasive sad mood and sense of hopelessness. Symptoms include social withdrawal; irritability; feelings of guilt or worthlessness. 

-I was so nervous about this presentation, because in all honestly... I only started working on it the day before the presentation. I had a really long weekend and there was so many things going on, on my plate. I felt like I didn't have time to start on this presentation. Luckily, a friend of mine wanted to help me out... So I literally did my powerpoint the whole damn day... It was not easy at all because I had to search up all the information about depression literally during that one day!!! :( I know I said I wasn't going to procrastinate anymore, but I literally didn't have time over the weekend. My presentation yesterday was nerve-racking because I did not really practice my lines and it was so hard not to read the information from the slides. But, yesterday I was the first person to present my powerpoint!!!!! the presentation had to be 20-25 minutes long, and I honestly feel confident that I got a really good grade. That is probably one of my last presentations I will be doing for this semester. :) I'm so happy that the semester is about to end, but I am going to miss my classmates that I got so close too!!!!! :((

W.O.W

As this very long weekend is about to end, in this blog, I wanted to talk about what my class did on Thursday and some weekend festivities. On Thursday, in my ED215 class we had a little group activity to do. We were required to draw a picture of a good teacher, including his/her physical characteristics and the tools needed to do his/her job effectively. IT was a pretty fun activity because everyone in my group didn't know how to DRAW... AT ALL... It was pretty fun. I guess we lack the art department. In my group, the tools that we drew were, a clock, desk, calendar, book, and so much more. Some of our classmates also did a pretty good job on their drawings and pretty interesting how we kind of did not draw the same tools. I'm really going to miss this class when the semester ends, because I got to meet so many great colleagues and being around them is pretty fun!!!! On another note, I went to a beautiful wedding this weekend and I gotta say..... I feel like I'm more behind on my school work than I already am. It's so crazy how there is absolutely LITTLE TIME TO DO ANYTHING! I'm hoping and praying I get majority of the things I need to do, finished by tonight... How's everybody's weekend going? 

US Election 2016

Wednesday, November 09 2016 is the day we will find out who our new president of the United States will be. Every four years there is a general presidential election for the next president, I never was interested in this particular event because I was never exposed to politics. But, this year as I am older and a little exposed to this event and topic, I am so shocked and surprised of who the nominees are..... Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. I don't know much of these two people, but I they are no strangers to me. I know of Hilary Clinton because of the former president, Bill Clinton. I kid you not, I don't know much of what Bill Clinton did for the United States. I am not sure if he did an awesome job during this time in office and so on..... So, in my understanding.. people probably thought Hilary Clinton will be the same kind of president as her husband. I heard that Clinton promises many things that will be done with the United States to better the country, but nothing much has changed during his term. 

-About Donald Trump..... I know of Trump because he had his own TV show, which I'm not sure what it is about. It is so CRAZY how he is now the new president of the United States. Trump, has never been elected to any office, he is just a regular business man, but now he is the new president. I am with none of the two, but I wanted Hilary Clinton to win because Trump is already making threats to "Make America Great Again." That little motto that he has.... is crazy. Durning Obama's term, his EIGHT YEAR term for the country, was one of the greatest America has been. Obama made a huge difference in the United States and the fact that, Donald Trump says, he was a horrible president makes him more crazy. AMERICA IS CRAZY!!!!!!!! But, then again, I hope America will stay the same.......... I hope............. Pray for us!!!!! kidding! 

National Stress Day

So, apparently on November 02 is National Stress Day. I believe I heard of this day a couple of times before but never really cared for it. As I was driving to my 8am class, I heard on the radio about this national stress day. I wanted to reevaluate my life with how I cope with my stress. Growing up, my family always labeled me as a very stressed person because I would always stress out on EVERYTHING. From little things like, running out of lotion to use to stressing out on current projects. Today, I wanted to deal with my stress in a orderly way. I know that everybody stresses out every single day, little to the big things, everybody stresses out. 

-Some people deal with stress like they don't have any, and the rest, cope differently, like myself. When I am extremely stressed, I find myself stress eating OR I find myself crying on my bed trying to find a solution to the problem. I also like to stress spend my money which is not good at all. Today, I wanted to be stress free but I knew for sure that wasn't going to happen. I had a good time in my 11am class today, and I needed to run some errands at gcc. I needed to go there so I could finally register for my classes. Of course, I knew I was going to something that will stop me for registering. My GCC account is still not working, so I couldn't register online. And by doing so, I needed to do my registration at the admissions office. I really was eager to register because classes will filing up. So, I was asked to use the computer to look for the course numbers and the classes I wanted to take next semester. It was such a long process because I am not familiar with GCC's course numbers because it is very much different from UOG's. But, the help and the assistance with the great staff there, I was finally registered and finally ready for next semester. I handled my stress level today very well, because the staff at GCC's admissions office was awesome!!!!! Happy National Day! :)

The weather...

Since last week, the flu has been going around. Many of the students at UOG (or well at least the people I have class with) is sick with a cold. Since the weather has been changing and we are expected to get rain this whole entire week, students are in the verge of getting a cold or catching the cough for another student or someone in ones work place. The thing I love about this weather is getting to wear all the sweaters! Since, Guam is a tropical place, we get sun most of the time or actually scratch that, we get sun all the time. 

-BUT, when rain hits us hard here on Guam, none of us like it because we are so used to the hot, blazing weather. As I type this blog post, it is currently raining at 11:30 pm and I can't sleep because the sound of the rain freaks me out. LOL am I the only one who is freaked out by the sound of hard blowing rain?? I wanted to post about the weather because I sometimes do get lazy to go to class because the cold rainy weather makes me just want to sleep all day. I know I am the only one... admit it. I swear every time the rain hits before any of my classes, I seriously re-think my decision of coming to class or not, it's really not because I don't want to go, its because I don't want to be soaking wet from the rain, and get dry by the cold aircon inside class and guess what? I'm gonna get sick from that, smh. 

The struggles of school and work.....

I am the type of person who does not like complaining about this topic because I like the lifestyle I am living. I've been working since I was 16 years old. That was nearly almost 5 years ago. It amazing me how far I've come and still up to this present day, I am still doing school and work. I decided I wanted to work when I wanted to work during summer time during before junior year. I wanted to work because I was bored at home and had nothing else better to do during the summer. SO why not, work, not get bored and get earn a new bucks to just help out around the house and also so I could go shopping (that is mostly my main reason) LOL 

-Recently, I became overwhelmed with all the stress I've been going under in. With the flu season going around, and the weather being bipolar, I honestly wanted to quit doing school and work. But, prior to doing so, I will lose out on so any things. First, I won't be able to buy the things I want, obviously. And second of all, I won't be able to pay for my bills like (phone bill, gym, and newest edition to the monthly payment, a new car). I hate adulting so much. I miss the days when I didn't have bills to pay, anything to worry about, and most certainly not working. But, this is life right? Our generation today, requires 16 year olds to work because they want to earn some kind of money, and also to prepare one another for the real world. I think the real world hit me at a early stage. I am still working today because I have so many responsibilities to cater too, but at the same time I also want to get my studies out of the way. :((( School and work sucks.. 

UOG--->GCC

As I way my way through my college semesters, I realized that college is not the place to fool around at. I recently came to a conclusion that I am going to be going to Guam Community College next semester to continue to finish my general requires. When I was a freshman in college, all I wanted to do was party every single night, go to lunch with my friends and skip my classes. Those actions led me to not focusing on my studies and eventually ended up failing about 1-2 of my classes. It took me one year to realize that, enough is enough and I need to focus on my studies more. So, can you just imagine how behind I feel at the moment? 

-I really want to finish college because I seriously sometimes don't enjoy being at school. So I decided that I am going to continue my studies at the Guam community college and maybe even finish with my associates degree. I still am going to be going to UOG next semester but, I am going to be only taking one class. I am excited to be at GCC because everybody there is so nice and really helpful. When I went there do my paperwork, I got all the help I needed and so much more. I just wish I don't feel so left behind at UOG but, I need to do what I need to do to be out of college as soon as possible. 

Group Project/Assignments

Today, I wanted to talk about group projects and assignments. I wanted to vent about my most recent experience. So, for one of my classes, we we're placed in groups of 3 or 4 people. Each student in the class had a main objective and that was to work together for the upcoming powerpoint presentation. With today's technology, it is not difficult to communicate with others. Technology today, makes us communicate without having to be physically there. So, there should not be a problem with communication. My group mates were the ones that do not talk much in our class. I wasn't worried at first because I thought they would get the assignment done. 

-We had an agreement that we will not divide the powerpoint because we trusted each other to add or fix up whatever one puts on the powerpoint. As a college student, it is ones responsibility to get work done no matter what it takes. Like I mentioned earlier, communication should not be difficult in today's generation. I was upset that nobody in my group talked on the whatsapp group that I created. The weekend has already passed and nobody has said anything. Now, I was a bit worried because the deadline was already tomorrow and we had no progress. I forgot to mention that, we made a google doc for this assignment and nobody touched it! Here is the most upsetting thing, I ended up doing everything with this group project, I researched, edited and added graphics... I had no HELP from any of my group mates whatsoever. I was so upset that, the next day I didn't care if they went to class or not.. I was so up to presenting the assignment all on my own since I was the one who did everything. The thing that made me more upset, was when one of my group mates asked me, "which slides do you want me to present" as if this person  contributed to the assignment. If YOU were on my shoes, would you have told the professor that you did everything and let your group mates receive a low grade OR refuse to present the assignment with you???? This is college, not middle school. (just saying) 

Venting

Recently I've come to notice that some of the lectures that this one specific gives is NOT very effective to my classmates and I. I realized that this professor just gives random assignments and random take home tests that does not really relate to what we were talking about in class. Sometimes I feel like we're just doing a certain to just get a grade, which I really don't mind because I need those extra points. But, I did pay to attend this certain class to LEARN something. Another factor that I do not like is that ALL of us (students) are not sure what we are getting for the class because this instructor does not update moodle or tell us or current grade. What is the point of this online moodle if it won't be updated? 

-Every time class is in session and lecture is being given, none of us listen because we all think that the lectures are useless and the fact that all the lecture slides are on moodle. I just don't see the purpose of doing an assignment that doe snot relate to what were currently learning at the moment an effective thing? Are we really going to use what we learned on that specific assignment in our future endeavors? 

Light the way for Individuals with Disabilities

Sunday October 16 was the light the way for individuals with disabilities sunset 5k. My ED215 class and I volunteered to help out for this 5k. We we're voluntold but, it was honestly a great experience. The 5k was along Chamorro Village area and stopped I believe at the big latte stone area. My group and I we're stationed to pass out water. It was a fun experience because we got to see many children and many individuals running the 5k. There were also many supports and families running the 5k. I did not like the fact that it was sprinkling during the run. I hope nobody feels sick tomorrow morning.
-This 5k was a success because many runners showed up even though today was a rainy and windy weather. Since our ED215 class a volunteering, I also did not like the fact that we had to be there so early. We we're required to meet up at Chamorro Village at 2pm and the run does not start until 5pm. We were all tired but I was just glad that there was food provided for us. The 5k had chips, hotdogs, chili, bananas, apples and many more. Although my group and I did not run we got to burn a few calories by walking to our very far water station area!!!!!!! 0.o IT WAS SO INTENSE. So happy all the runners got a shirt so did us volunteers. It was a fun experience, but for sure the next one I will be running!!! HAHAH 

Powerpoint Presentations

As I started college, I was so afraid of presenting in front of my class. I would not volunteer to go first, but since my last name starts with the letter "C", I was always one of the first people to present my powerpoint. I was so afraid that I would freeze in front of my peers and will not continue on with my presentation. This is about my fifth year in college and I still do feel uncomfortable presenting in front of everybody. But, I took this class last semester "CO210" and that particular class really DID help me with my public speaking. On our first presentation we had to tell the whole class about our MOST memorable moment/memory. I did mine about going to Disney Land and how excited I felt when I got there. Since that class and being comfortable in my own voice and my own ability to speak in front of everybody made me better at speaking in front of the class.

-Today in  class, we did our group presentation about our game rubric. My group was a little worried about today's presentation because we did not know how we will do or if we were going to sound stupid (which I highly doubt). We did a brief re-run before class and our first practice we did sorta well, but I know we could do better. But, to be honest I was not really worried because I know my group had this inside the bag. :) But, it does not hurt to practice right? I thought my group and I did a pretty good job for only practicing twice before class time. (we even went first, I guess we wanted to get this presentation over with. Everybody's game choices we're awesome! One had, coding? I honestly did not know what that was till this class period. LOL. I'm so glad that I'm not afraid of speaking in front of my peers because as a future teacher, you are supposed to feel comfortable with presenting in front of not just your students, but also your fellow colleagues. I'm so happy that college is making me retain how to become a better public speaker. (: 

200 little baggies !!!!!

Today in my ED215 class, we had to make little baggies for the special Olympics game this coming Saturday. I'm so glad everybody in my class donated something for the children. Even though this was a voluntold thing, it is always nice to do a good deed. My classmates and myself brought, healthy fruit names, little cracks, candy to stickers and pencils and erasers. I wish I was able to go this weekend, but unfortunately I have to work and be an adult. I hate adulting so much, but it's okay I guess. 

-I believe that we made more than 200 little baggies for the children. It was an honor putting those bags together because it was for a good cost. Everybody in my class had a good time putting them together. It was also bonding with my classmates. :) --------> This a better visual of how the bags looked liked and what was inside of them

Educational Games!!!!

So today in class, we had a task to look for educational games online. I was pretty excited because I've NEVER searched up educational games before. As I was browsing through the internet, I came across a game that was for typing. It's basically to test your basic typing skills and it also shows you how fast you typed that certain paragraph. I wanted to play the game myself because I learned how to type in middle school. I assumed that I would not get errors, but on my first round I made about 74 errors which was so insane because I thought I was a pretty good typer. LOL.
-The game became kind of addicting because I wanted to get a perfect score (no errors). Since we were placed into groups of 3, my educational games obviously did not get chosen. Mine was just all typing, but it was pretty fun because I now know that I still need work on my typing. (At least I know how to type right?) haha. Also, I game across this game (not educational) called "Marble Lines" you basically have to match the colors til they reach the end of the whole. That was one of my childhood games ever. NOW that game is very addicting, I played it when I got home!!! :0

OH MY GOODNESS

As I walked into my class, I totally forgot that we had an exam today. I was not really worried about this exam because it was an open book exam. I love open book exams because it gives us students an advantage if we did not study. Professor starts her daily agenda with the class. She automatically starts to pass out the exam's and says; "Okay class, you only have an hour to complete the whole exam. So by 12:00 pm you guys better be finish. This is also to practice your praxis exam with the multiple choice." The current time right now is 11:00 am. Every's hearts seriously stopped because there was about 40 questions on this test. 
-Every one was literally rushing to find ALL the answers on our textbook. 15 minutes has passed and I find myself only on #8. I was struggling because first, I did not read any of the chapters on this exam and I was getting pressured of the time. It was now 30 minutes into the exam... I WAS STILL NOT ON THE NEXT CHAPTER! I see my other classmates were also having a hard time because the answers were just so hard to find. Literally one question took me about 5-8 minutes to answer. IT IS NOT 12:00 pm. Professor is right on the dot of the clock, she says, "OKAY EVERYONE I'M GOING TO STOP YOU GUYS HERE. I SEE THAT NOBODY HAS FINISHED THE EXAM. YOU ALL CAN TAKE IT HOME TO FINISH"!!!!!!!" My mouth has dropped instantly, everyone was so relieved because we all thought she was going to collect our exams!!!!! NOW I CAN FINISH IT AT HOME!!!! Oh my goodness, literally had an anxiety for an hour. haha.   

M&M Activity.

Today in ED271, did an M&M activity by groups. The class had tasks to be followed. One tasks was to guess how many M&M's were inside the bag. The class had three M&M bags to choose from. One bag was peanut butter, another was chocolate, and lastly just plain peanut. Of course my group and I's guesses were wrong, but super close to the actual number of how many M&M's. We we're required to use google sheet to document our findings. Another tasks that we had to do was guess how many color variety their were in each back. It was pretty much self-explanatory because the bag was colored with the colors of the M&M's. The last task that we had to do as a group, was to find the mean and the median of the flavors of the M&M's and their colors.
As a group, we did not figure out how to do the graphing part because for some reason, every time we put the pie graph together, something wrong would happen. I'm just glad that this assignment was just for team building and using google sheets for maybe future assignments. Thank goodness this assignment was NOT graded, or else my group and I would've received a low grade.... haha kidding.

Children with disabilities

Last week Thursday in my ED215 class, we had a special guest speaker. Her name was Leone Rohr from Parents Empowering Parents (PEP). She is the discoverer of that local organization that basically helps children with disabilities and their parents to live a normal life. This woman amazes me because she started this local organization when she found out that her oldest son had a learning disability. When she found out her son has a learning disability, she was devastated because she had NO clue who to contact or who to call. She was giving the class different stories that she went through. I remember her saying, "Imagine, you are at the hospital, you just gave birth to your baby. The nurse tells you that your new born might have a learning disability, who do you call? who do you talk to? The nurses at the hospital WILL NOT HELP YOU!!!! All they're going to say is, to back your things and go home.
She wanted to do this local organization because she wants to be able to connect with children with disabilities and also to help families learn more about their child's condition. She wants to empower many people that children with disabilities can live a normal live too!!! This coming October 16, 2016 there will be a 5k run featuring the PEP "Special Needs" Course! I love this 5k concept because it is a sunset 5k run/walk AND wheelchair! Just so amazing! I can't wait to see all the runners! :)

Is it weird?

Is it weird that every time I swear I wear my UOG shirt to school, I feel more motivated to finish assignments in class? Or getting homework done in advance? I actually only own one UOG shirt, and I have it in black. I want to get all the colors but I'm waiting for them to go on sale. Another thing is that, I would like to purchase a UOG pull-over BUT I'm scared because it's TOO hot on Guam, and I would probably go on heat stroke or something. o.O 
An interesting thing that happened the other day was, I was returning a brand new book at the book store, my Geography book. I ended up dropping the class, but I also did purchase a brand new textbook. I go to the book store, I go up to the cashier and I asked him for a refund. The cashier tell me that I won't be getting the full price back only because it was school policy. I just think that is a little weird because I never used the book. I think UOG book store should change that policy because if they receive the book in perfect condition, students should receive FULL money back!!!!! 

RANT! RANT! RANT!

Thursday, September 15 we took our Exam #2 for Psychology. I just want to put it out there that professor said, "students in the previous semester say that this the hardest test they have ever taken in my class." After announcing that statement to the whole class, everybody was afraid to take this killer exam! As promised, my professor had an envelope of numbers from 2-7. These numbers correlate the exam numbers. He kindly asked, one of his TA's to pull a number out of the envelope. The number that the TA pulls out will be the open book and notes exam. Everybody was praying it will be Exam 2. DRUMB ROLL PLEASE................... TA pulls the number #2 out of the envelope. A sense of relieve was lifted off my shoulders because studying for this exam was major killer! 

We are required to do this test in 50 minutes. Mind you not, this test was about 54 questions long, all questions were also multiple choice. Since this exam was open book and notes, it takes about 2-3 minutes to find the correct answers to the question. (well, it took me about 5 minutes or so). I reached questions 25-30 of the exam, and my professor says, "OKAY YOU HAVE 10 MORE MINUTES!!!!" I started freaking out because I was far behind from finishing on time. About 8 minutes into the last announcement, I reached question 30... And my professor, "okay you have 2 MORE MINUTES" I personally was not in rush to finish the exam BECAUSE I thought I was not the only one who will NOT finish. Apparently, 2 minutes was up and he told us to pass our exam's to the right. I DID NOT FINISH AT ALL! Since I was sitting in the front of the class, I asked my professor if I could finish my exam after class.. He says: "No, that means I will have to make everyone who did not finish, finish their exams. I can't just do that for one person. Well on the bright, you can drop 2 low exam grades." I personally was so upset because I wanted to ace that exam, just the fact that he did not want me to finish the exam, tells me that he does not want me to pass the class. I believe that all professors should give second chances to their students who are willing to better their grade... RANT! 

WAKING UP EARLY

This semester I am taking Psychology class. This is the very first time that I have an 8am class. I can tell you guys now, waking up early for this class is a struggle. I DO NOT like waking up at 6am to get ready. I live North side of Guam, so can you just imagine having to leave your house an hour early? It is also frustrating having an 8am class because of the 8am traffic. Everyone is rushing to get to school or their work place. Waking up early is just NOT my thing! 


Psychology is my least favorite subject right now this semester. I am currently struggling in class because there is so much information to process and to comprehend. If anyone has any suggestions that they can give me, please do so, it would help me a lot. This time around, we are now learning about the brain and its properties. How the functions of the brain reflects how a person behaves so on. I am currently changing my study techniques so  that I will have a better understanding of the main concept. Also, I believe that having an 8am class takes a tole of my performance in class. #struggle