Notes and Bits from Mentor Meeting

• a lot of breaks
• figure out how to speak towards these breaks?
• push more to seek more - bear that in mind
• journal? what are the reasons? explain.
• road to take? 
• not pushing = do more hands off
• you decide your fate
• mentor's job? - you (I) backed away from my project, so did Ms. Lord

-Make more lists! What do you know now that you didn't before? Of self, topic of interest, people, etc.

-PREPARE FOR PROJECT - anticipate what your evaluators are going to ask!

-scan your journals

Where's your endpoint? -> self teacher? why? 

Have Julianna bring in a piece? (final project idea?)

What do I want to know more about that I don't know now?

Do I want to explore other adults learning the piano?

Mentor Meeting Planss!

  Yeeah I see that I haven't really been doing much working on my goals. It's really falling apart. Maybe it's the end of the year coming along so quickly but I do realize that I haven't been keeping up to date with everything. One step in trying to fix that, however is that I will be brainstorming more of my ideas about my final project with Ms. Lord. Since that's coming up really soon, I need to confirm what I'm doing and work on it. So if I use some of this mentor meeting to come up with ideas, I'll at least definitely be working on one of my goals that I set for myself last week.

Thursday Mentor Meeting

  I feel like this is once more reenforcing the facts that I've been behind and there are some definite things that I need to get done. There's definitely a lot to do, but I guess if we had to narrow it down to the most important/urgent ones, planning for my WISE project and reflecting/demonstrating research!

Uhohhh---

  I might've mentioned this before, but my AP Physics C exam is from noon to 5pm on Monday, which interfers with my mentor meeting. I've contacted Ms. Lord and changed the time to Thursday.

Monday's Mentor Meeting

  In this mentor meeting, I revealed the fact that I think I am going to be really stressed during AP week and that I might possibly fall behind a lot in my WISE work. Of course, it's best if I make plan for this week but I hope I get a chance to actually do so, because I have so many exams this week that I honestly think I'm not prepared for at all that I'll end up cramming entire nights before the exam. Ms. Lord really thinks I should make a plan too. She was actually the one who suggested this because she sorta realized that I'm kind of the person who'd drop everything when something big, like, AP exams, are here. And I guess I've never admitted that about myself, but now I can't deny it.

Mentor Meeting After Break

This is for Monday 04/25/2011
   After my mentor meeting with Ms. Lord, I realized some other "homework" that I have to do. A big thing is making plans/an outline on what to practice and when to research (the specifics of the rest of my project). The "deadline" I should expect for the project is around the 10th of June, so make sure to get everything done before then. In this mentor meeting, I also realized that I should be focusing a lot on the macro portion of research and not just the micro portion. This means I should be doing more research on the piano in general! (I feel like this has been repeated multiple times in the past couple of mentor meetings...?) Hm... and a little idea for future journals is to write about how my project process is now different in comparison to before, when I had Mrs. Miller and there was someone to guide me through everything. Other ideas for future aid include trying to watch someone else practice or play or go to a recital or something of the sort. It is also important to consider the method of learning/approach, because there are more than one way to approach things, and sometimes it's hard to realize the fact that one specific way of approach may not be the best or only way to approach things. I guess this means that maybe I should be exploring my directions in learning and the paths I'm taking because there's definitely more than one route.
   The sample presentation that will be shown to our class will be on the 26th of May and Ms. Lord reminded me that everything's actually coming up pretty soon, so there's not too much time before I need to come up with a finished product. Gahhh so much to do...

Mentor Meeting & Response on Ideas for End of the Year

(semi posting this like a week later, but the date's set to when it's supposed to be so that my journal entries are in order as they're supposed to be)
   So like I've stated in my last mentor meeting blog, I've still been having trouble coming back online. But anyways, in my mentor meeting today, Ms. Lord congratulated me on sort of finding my way, and stepping out of my comfort zone (a lot)? Similar to my last mentor meeting post, I seem to be still having lack of motivation in coming online onto my blog. Scraps of paper keep piling up somewhere around the house when I write notes down for my journal, but I'm really having trouble coming back here to update. Maybe it's the end of the year or maybe it's cause spring break/AP week's coming, but it's definitely an issue. Which brings up the next point I need to make. What am I planning for my end of the year presentation? The end is coming by really fast and no joke, it might crash into me, so where am I headed? Ms. Lord says it's a good time to start thinking now. And I have, a little bit, or at least in the thirty minutes...
   I guess I'm still not quite sure on exactly yet, but I think for my presentation, what I could be (possibly) showing are (oh my gosh really?) my progress videos, if they turn out okay and I do enough [maybe just the first and last?] and perhaps teach the class a little something that they would be able to play on their own?

Monday's Mentor Meeting

    It seems that I've been having quite a difficult time trying to update my WISE blog. I don't know why, but I just, whenever I come onto my blog, I've gotten to lack the motivation to write anything down, or somehow, my mind just goes blank. In this mentor meeting, I know there was discussion regarding my making a plan for the next week, to keep track of my progress and to make sure that I'm progressing. I don't really have a plan yet though, so that's a GOAL OF THIS WEEK! To find a plan, to make a plan... or something.

   I think there's some other things I've forgotten that were discussed in this mentor meeting, but one thing I wanted to mention was that Ms. Lord that insisted that I bring up the previous incident that had happened, and reflect upon it. This is the second time it was mentioned, and the first time, it wasn't because I forgot, but it was because I didn't want to remember it. As much as it may be thought to be of help, I do not think it will be of any aid, and I will not be expanding anything more regarding to this issue.

Mentor Meeting: Week into April

   So I'm actually writing this today [Tuesday, April 05, 2011], which is about a week later than the date of this mentor meeting, and I have to say, I honestly can't remember much of the content. I know this was the first mentor meeting in a very long time (I missed the one last week) and so I think all that happened was that I updated Ms. Lord on all the things...? I hope I don't forget to include anything here, but basically, I informed Ms. Lord that I have been having some issues and I have informed her that I have stopped my lessons with Mrs. Miller. I think another major part of this mentor meeting was indicating that I have also not progressed much in the last week(s).

Mentor Meeting on Pi Day

  It hasn't been a long time since the last mentor meeting so there wasn't too much to discuss during this one. I came in during 6th period because I had a test 7th. So first of all, regarding the Saturday class, I haven't really decided anything. I kept saying that I don't know, and that maybe I'll go, but only for the reason that I'm expected/hoped to be there. I have said "I don't know" so many times during this project that it's annoying even me. Ms. Lord says that I really shouldn't be doing that. I shouldn't be unsure, but rather, I should figure out my own path, because no one's going to be there to set the guidelines for me. Honestly, I don't know  Scratch that, I do know, I just dondhsdjkghsklgs I think I'm going to need to like, set a rule for myself where I can't say "I don't know".
   During this mentor meeting, I also told Ms. Lord of my plans to end my lessons with Mrs. Miller due to the fact that I want to take on the challenge of working with myself and keeping myself on track. However, what would be my plan to keep myself learning? How would I be enforcing learning?

Mentor Meeting Feedback

   So today's meeting, according to Mrs. Lord, was one of the most important mentor meetings thus far, because I've come to realize that I'm encountering problems with myself and not just with piano playing as a topic in general. There are two, with the first one being that I can't read sheet music and I can't seem to get it straight no matter how hard I work at it. Mrs. Lord suggested that I try a different approach, but somehow I don't find that an appealing option. Maybe I'll just work in this manner for a couple more weeks and then decide something? And another thing is the Saturday morning class. My inability to decide on whether or not to go could be because of stage fright, or something else... Am I afraid of feeling inferior to all the other younger students that are going to be there? Or am I just not prepared yet? What is it?

Wait A Minute... What?

   In response to my previous entry on mentor meeting plans, I've found some answers while some other questions were left blank. With the continuing lessons thing, I've decided to stick with taking lessons for another month and seeing how it goes. Everything else could pretty much be answered with "it really depends on you" (me).

   After my fourth piano class, it was recognized that I still honestly don't know how to read sheet music because I have a lot of trouble recognizing the notes on the staff and knowing what they are. So for this week, that's going to be my focus.

    Another thing is the pedal. I have no idea how to use it, and while Mrs. Miller and I were exploring the pedal on Monday, it was found that I really need practice with it. Since I only have an electric piano at home, I plan to use the school pianos especially for this type of practice. The song "Black Swan" is absolutely perfect on which to practice the pedaling.

Before My Mentor Meeting

   Mentor meeting today 7th period! I've kind of been contemplating whether or not I should continue taking piano lessons from Mrs. Miller because to learn fingerings, it can basically be taught in one lesson... but Mrs. Miller's also teaching me about keys and such so... I don't know...
  This is just a little note to myself for things I want to bring up and talk about today with Ms. Lord:

• Future plans... Am I going in the wrong direction? A new direction?
• Do I have to have recitals?
• Am I going at the right pace?
• Should I start learning pieces on my own?
• Should I continue piano lessons with Mrs. Miller?
• Should I tell Mrs. Miller about my blog?

A Mentor Message

[I've been on vacation so I haven't updated for two weeks, but I have everything down! :)]

FOR: Wednesday, February 16th, 2011


    My first mentor meeting was supposed to be on the 14th of Monday, but I accidentally missed Ms. Lord when I went by. That was a bad start to the week... but fortunately, I was able to reschedule and meet with Ms. Lord today, the Wednesday after.

   In our first mentor meeting, we discussed the plans for future mentor meetings. I didn't really know what the specific jobs of a mentor were, but I found out today that they vary depending on the mentor and student. Here's some notes for future mentor meetings (technically speaking to myself here):

• If your mentor isn't there and the room door is open, he/she will most likely return shortly and/or is nearby. Stay and wait a while, or leave a note on the door and come back in a couple of minutes. 
• The mentor isn't supposed to go after you to make sure you make the meeting. At least that's not what most mentors do. It is your job to reschedule and/or plan accordingly.
• YOU tell your mentor what you want them to do. Do you want them to reflect on your progress? To question you? To listen to you? To be someone that you can ask questions?
• Bring questions for yourself and plan to discuss them with your mentor.