Another week down and only about six more to go. Only three to go before the much-anticipated Thanksgiving Break! I’m sure I won’t have anything to do over my break (LOL—I was being facetious of course!). Anyway here’s what happened this week and what’s happening now…

I’m still aiming to keep my head above the water. This week, much to my surprise, I was able to do just that. In terms of this class, I kind of put all of this work off until the last minute. I aimed to decide on my 6th genre and I aimed to begin drafting that earlier in the week; however, it didn’t work out that way. I wanted to draft it earlier so that I wouldn’t have so much to do this weekend, but due to the overwhelming amount of work that I have had to complete for my other classes, I waited on this work (because I knew that I could!). I also aimed to make a solid decision regarding my unifying genre. I aimed to do this because I think this is going to be rather time consuming, and I want it to go ahead and begin thinking of ideas so that it will turn out halfway decent. Other than that, I didn’t have very many objectives for the week other that the ever-so-important “keeping my head above water” objective that seems to be an ongoing aim of mine. I guess that later this week, I had planned to get most of my work done on Friday so that I will only have my 6th genre to complete over the weekend. I am currently meeting that objective, as I am completing my journal entry and this morning, I completed the peer reviews for my group.

The content of this week was much like that of last week’s. It’s funny, but I feel as if I am very comfortable in this class (meaning, that I can get an idea about what will be expected of me from week to week). It seems as though we are at a standstill in our work for this class (almost very Twilight Zone-ish), but I’m not complaining at all. It’s a nice little breather and like I said before, I’m comfortable because I know what to expect for the next week. There wasn’t a MOO meeting this week, which freed up some time so that I could get some things done. Sadly enough though, or should I say, pathetically enough, I didn’t use the time to complete any assignments for this class. However, because I got so much done earlier this week, I now have more time to spend on my MRP (uh, you’re not buying that, are you?). Anyway, I peer reviewed my group’s 5th genres this morning and I have to say, I wasn’t surprised at all when I found that they were great. Now that I have decided what my 6th genre is going to be, I have decided to do this over the next couple of days. I have some ideas of what I may include in my interview script. I want to do it as if the parents of the client, the client, and the SLP are all invited to be guests on a morning talk show that is doing a special on autism awareness. I have more ideas about what I want to include, but there are so many, I may be here all day listing them and talking about them. So, for now, I guess you’ll just have to visit my blog!

What processes did I use this week in completing my work? I should probably note that my brain is currently experiencing technical difficulties and that using processes lately has been a very rare event. I do suppose, however, that I did have to use my brain a little this week in completing my work for this class. When it came to reviewing my group’s 5th genres, I just did exactly what I have done since the start; I went to their pages and I read their work and I found things that I liked and things that I thought could be changed. I can honestly say that my group makes it easy, they rarely have any major mistakes in their work and they are all such good writers and thorough in their work. In thinking of my 6th genre, I decided to do an interview script because I definitely want this to be a major part of my unifying genre, which by the way, will be my PPT presentation. I just thought it would make more sense if I did an interview script this week and also placed the exact script into my PPT, along with my other genres for next week’s unifying genre (my PPT). I might just so a portion of the script for this week’s genre, though. That, I still haven’t figured out yet.

I guess I am experiencing a little more clarity in my thinking when it comes to my work in this class. I feel as though my project has a definite sense of direction and as I had said last week, I can finally see the end and how it may look as a cohesive whole. I have also come to the realization that I haven’t done such a bad job at completing my work and in staying sane through it all. It’s not that this research was difficult or the genres were difficult to put together, it’s just that my other classes have been so demanding and it’s difficult to find time to do all of the things that are expected of me. I’m glad that we have a whole week to complete this work. I know that I have used this as a crutch lately, but I don’t really mind devoting some of my weekend to working on my MRP (really). I look at it this way: if I wouldn’t be doing this class’s work over the weekend, I would probably be doing work for another class. Also, I honestly cannot remember the last time that I didn’t have something to do over the weekend, so by now, it’s nothing out of the ordinary and I have come to expect it.

I had a question last week that I have an answer for this week. I asked, “Will I have time to do another e-mail exchange in addition to my other genres that I already have planned.” The answer to that question is: I have changed my mind. I decided not to do the e-mail exchange between the clinician and the client’s mom because I thought I could just do the interview and the PPT presentation. Why make it more difficult than it has to be? Until next time…

Heather P.