Final Letter

Dear Mr. Igoe,
     I chose to do my senior english project on yoga because I have known a lot of people who practice yoga. Before attending Lawrence Academy yoga was not in any way a part of my life but after coming to LA my mom started practicing, I took a few classes at my local gym and I even did yoga as my sport sophomore year. I knew about yoga as an exercise in general but I become curious with the roots of yoga and the benefits while I was taking classes. So although yoga was not the first idea to pop into my mind when brainstorming topics, as soon as I landed upon it, my curiosity was sparked. I was also curious about yoga because as of late, it has become a big part of society with more and more people realizing miraculous facts about it so part of me also wanted to see why people were suddenly so fascinated with it.
     This project resonates with me because I am not a very good athlete and that's always been a little discouraging for me but I really like that I have found an activity where you are getting exercise that I have enjoyed so much and I've not been terrible at it. I think it also resonates with me because sports for students will end at some point but I can continue with yoga throughout my whole life and I find that fascinating. I've seen people still practice yoga when they're in their 70s and they seem as healthy as can be so part of me hopes that will be me in the far future. Lastly, my mom is really into dieting and exercise and even though I don't practice yoga often, I feel like when I do yoga, my mom can be happy with the exercise choices I make.
     I had a lot of success in getting people to participate in my project which falls into the organization, speaking and listening skills. When I asked people to perform for my video, most of the time they wanted to without hesitations. I also had success with directions being followed for my videos. My speaking must have been clear because most times they could follow directions and get the task done the first time. I also listened well to what the people thought they could and could not do as far as yoga stretches. The video overall was a large success of mine. I fell short when it came to writing. I thought my book would make up for my lack of writing and I was even excited to do so but the size of my book was so small that I really could not fit much writing in. I needed to make room for the demonstrations and the reviews in my book so the writing came second and it did not turn out as well as it could have. Looking back, I really wish I had more time to write either poems or short stories because I really could have had a lot of fun with that because that is something I love to do! I improved under the skill of thinking because in the beginning of this project I had one set task in mind and I thought I knew all the steps I needed to take in order to get there but as one can tell from looking at my calendar, a lot has been different. I have had to problem solve for things that didn't work and reschedule plans that fell through. My end piece is not at all what I originally planned for it to be but it shows that my thinking skill has developed because I have worked through the hard parts.
     I don't think there's anything more to really continue with as far as this project goes. I would like to be able to convince people to try yoga and tell them why it would be good for them in general and there is always a reason it would be good for anyone. If I have more questions about yoga and the benefits and about the 'whys' then I will continue with small doses of research but as far as solid plans, I want to take a yoga class once a week at college just because I know now what it can do for me and all the special advantages people can have from doing it. So I plan on continuing with practicing yoga for hopefully a long time.
     My favorite part of this terms work was definitely making the videos. As I said earlier, it turned out to be a very enjoyable and easy experience. People took directions easily and I could give them easily. I also liked using my creative mind to put the video together and explore all different aspects of iMovie. I had fun with it and I think it turned out nice. I can't wait to share it at capstone night. I've always had an interest in creating video and putting it together so I am very happy I chose to incorporate a video part into this project.
     My least favorite part of this term was the reading. I am sad to say that I did not finish all of the book but I tried so hard. It's not that the book wasn't interesting, because it certainly was but for some reason I always felt like reading was last on my list and I could never get around to doing it, which stressed me out immensely. I might read the book in the future when I have enough time simply because I am curious about what it has to say. It says it is the first unbiased book on yoga so even that just captures my attention.
     What I would tell students for next year is to have fun with the project and don't feel like they need to do a paper or things they don't like to do because it will not be fun for them. I would tell them to be lenient with their schedule because most likely it will change and a big freak out regarding change of plans is not necessary. I also would tell them to set appropriate goals for themselves, not goals that they think their teacher or other students would want them to set because if they can not complete the goals, it is not in their control.
     The most important truth I've learned about my working process is I work much better if I have an idea or an outline of what I'm doing rather then a 'whatever comes to my mind' approach. I tend to approach goals in the wrong manner and it stresses me out to the point where sometimes I can't accomplish them. So I've learned that to set goals, I need to focus on what I am capable of rather than what I think the teacher wants from me. I've learned that going astray from my schedule can sometimes work best for me because that way I don't have to be tied down to one idea that I may not actually want to do.
     The most important truth I've learned about myself is that even if I have doubts about my ideas, I can always come thru and end up enjoying the topic if I let myself. I can pick things within the topic that speak to me and interest me. At first I didn't know what I could do as far as yoga went but I knew I wanted to do it and I finally let myself think of ways in which I can get benefits from the project. I need to accept my gut and go with what I have!
Sincerely, Hannah Cunningham

Blog Failure

I didn't update my blog this week because I hate to admit it but I really didn't do anything with my English project. I am all done with it and now I'm just waiting to present and to write the final letter.

Organization

A big goal for me today was to organize all of my ideas and to plan for what my presentation will look like. On Friday I am going to tell the class to be prepared to take a yoga class, which means instructing them to bring the right clothes. Then on Tuesday during G Block I will gather up the yoga matts- about 15, and my iPod player along with my iPod which will play music. I have instructions I will print out so I can go by those when I teach the class. I would try doing it without the instructions but since I've never taught a class before, I think it will be a good thing to have. This weekend I will practice the routine so I know exactly how it feels and exactly how it should look like. After the class, which should be about 8 mins, I will ask questions about how they feel and I'll ask their ideas on the interview questions I have. Then I will go into explaining my book and lastly, I'll answer questions which should take up all the time I have. Because I have thought thoroughly on this, I feel more relaxed on what will happen. I just need to make sure everything gets done as I say it will. In class I looked through all materials I had and made note of the most important. I also flipped through my homemade yoga book to decide what is important to mention and what is not important to mention. At home I worked for an hour on a lot of the organization pieces I talked about. Unfortunately I'm not entirely sure where my book, "The Science of Yoga is' but I'm trying to find that and if I find that I will read some more of it within the next couple days. I am excited to witness the presentations of everyone else's projects to possibly get ideas on what works and what doesn't. I've realized I've mapped out a good timeline because everything has worked as I originally plan. I ran into difficulties along the way but I'm happy with the point I'm at now. I also need to write the final letter.

Got my book!

Yesterday I came home and opened my front door and there was my book, all packaged up. I couldn't believe it had gotten here so early, It was just last Tuesday when I ordered it. At first I was excited but then I was angry because I realized I could have payed less money for a slower shipping method but it doesn't matter now, at least my book is here. I immediately opened it up and flipped through it, awing at the nice quality. The pictures that it said would be too blurry on line ended up coming out right so I was happy I stuck with my decision to keep them. Also I was worried when I was making the book about the size and the quality of the paper but I couldn't be happier with the size and quality of paper I ended up choosing. Now I have to decide if I want my final presentation to include either a reading of the book or me summarizing it because I do want to tell about everything in there but I also do want to talk in depth. It feels good knowing I have the book in my hands and that I don't have to worry about the book getting to me late. This week I will definitely focus on reading Broad's book and this should be easier for me because since I have nothing else in the way, I won't feel stressed out while reading it, like I normally do. I still need to figure out a few logistics for my presentation but that won't take long and I have a week and two days to figure it out. Part of me wishes I was presenting this Tuesday so I could get it finished and then focus on all my other projects but not only was my name drawn almost last, but I had to go last because I didn't think my book would be done.

Finished?

I didn't really do much in class today and I think that is because I really do not have a lot left to do. I've finished this project a lot earlier than expected and now it's all about putting the final touches on, getting my book and preparing for my presentation. I'm surprised at myself that I've gotten what I wanted to get accomplished, accomplished. I will continue to read my book and blog about what I find and also about how I will prepare my presentation but, aside from that I've completed most everything. I think I've gotten it done so early because we were told in the beginning that we'd be presenting next week and so I planned around that. Also, I have many other projects in classes and so I worked hard to come close to finishing this one so I can work on the others. Maybe I should have spaced my time out a bit more and made it so I finished everything the day before the presentation but whenever I do that, it gets me so stressed out so I am happy I did this instead.

Ordered my book!

I ended up ordering my book yesterday morning instead of monday night as I had originally planned. It says it will be here by next Wednesday, meaning I can't do present my project until either Thursday or Friday. If my book does not get here by Wednesday then on Wednesday night I will have to plan something else to do, other than just the yoga class. I should probably start thinking about what I can do now so I am prepared if the book doesn't come. The only part I'm a little bummed about is I guess I ordered it too late so we had to pay a lot of extra money to get the book here within a week, I was very surprised it would cost as much as it did. What I planned to do today for homework and ended up doing was spending 30 minutes to 1 hour reading my book. I worked well because I knew I had a lot of time to do this because I have to stay on campus late tonight for one acts. I hope that I can really focus on finishing my book this week and this weekend so that I do not feel as though anything is left uncompleted. I should still refresh and revise my plan to teach the yoga class and write down what I might need to this, such as matts and music. I also need to forewarn the class to come dressed appropriately. And for the capstone night, I will have my video playing and my book on display. I've realized that even when I think things are going really well, something can always become screwed up. For example, I thought I'd be in good shape for getting my book this weekend but I didn't realize how long it might take to get the book to me. I really hope it arrives in time.

Relief!

I am very relieved because like I said in my blog yesterday, I worked every free time I got today to complete my book. I picked it up this morning during my free block and I finished up until the statistics page and then in English class I finished writing the whole book and even had time to have Mr. Igoe edit it. Then for homework I just applied all of Mr. Igoe's edits to my book and it is in the right condition to be sent off and had published. I will wait until I get home at 10 tonight to do that so I hope I don't forget because it's important to have my book to me by next week but since I finished it three days earlier than I thought I would, I think I am in good shape. Everything looks the way I want it to look and it seems that the book is a mélange of all the things I have done this term under my project. I may have left a few of the things I researched out but overall if someone were to read my book they can easily understand the general idea of my project with some detail. I can't wait until I have the final product in my hands and up until that point I think I will be nervous that it might not get to me in time. For the next week or so I will research more about yoga so that I can answer any and all questions people throw at me. Everything has come together nicely and I've finished my book in the right amount of time.

Deadlines

Over the weekend I have been working very efficiently. I've already edited the beginning of my book and I've added four more pages on the yoga studio reviews. I spent about an hour and a half playing around with my book and just adding whatever felt right and necessary. I've run into a few problems on blurb where because my book is so small, I don't have a lot of room for text so I have to edit out a lot and make the fonts small but I have done it in a way that looks clean. My goal is to finish my book by Wednesday so I can send it off on Thursday. In order to do this I will need to get the rest of my pages done soon so that I can have a day to edit. I think I will plug away on that tomorrow in class and after school. I want my book so be sent off by Thursday because at the end of this week, I am very busy due to one acts and I need to make sure that my book arrives here on time for my final presentation. I think I have the perfect amount of time to do everything and I hope I can stay on track. Aside from the book, I've completed my videos and I've written up what my yoga class will look like so I am in good shape and I'm looking forward to see how my book turns out. I am nervous because I have a lot to do this week so working on my book might be difficult which is why I will make the best use of class time to do this. I don't have too much left and I should be able to complete everything on time if I work to the best of my ability. I'm excited to share my project with everyone else.

Fast Pace on my Book

I feel like right now I am working at a very good pace for my project. In class today Mr. Igoe told me to check out blurb.com in order for me to decide if I wanted to have my book hand done or if I wanted to send it off somewhere to be printed. I looked at blurb and decided that would be the best and most organized way for me to display all information. I got to work very quickly and I typed up around ten pages already. I made my cover page, wrote my table of contents, my introduction and 8 yoga demonstrations. For about 40 minutes for tonight's homework I will write up the yoga class reviews and put them on 3 pages but I have to leave one page free for the review I have yet to do. I've noticed that this gets me very stressed out if I find something I can't do until later on and my mind won't relax until that page is free. I'm not sure what to do to solve this problem and make me feel more calm about having an empty page but I will find some way to figure it out when I get there. All in all I am very proud that I was able to get a lot of pages completed and I feel like if I work hard enough, I can get the book completed and sent back to me with time to maybe do something else but we will see. I am excited to go to my last yoga class though and perhaps I will be taught new things which I can put into my book. I do have a feeling though that the part of the book I did is the easiest part and what's in front of me will take longer because it is a lot of writing and I haven't planned that out yet but I hope to breeze through it as quickly as possible. I also want to leave time to get my writing edited before I can send it off so my plans are to spend a lot of time writing my pages out.

Table of Contents

In class yesterday I worked on deciding exactly what would be in my scrapbook and I went at it with an approach that didn't work well. First I started writing some pages that would be in the book but then I realized I didn't know exactly what would be in the different sections so by the end of the class I decided it would be a good idea to plan out my different sections. I didn't get to do it in class but I wanted to spend around 30 minutes doing that for homework and maybe working on a few other pages. So I finished my table of contents and I chose to divide my book into roughly eight sections because I felt this would be the best way to display all the information I found out. I plan to spend the rest of the week hopefully either on the computer or in the arts wing making the pages for my book. I am happy I did the table of contents and so now I have a solid understanding of what the outline of my book will be and I don't have to pile a bunch of random things together.

Book is not so bad

I know I said that this week I would start on my scrapbook and that will come soon but I really felt today like I should  check out more instructional videos for what I want to do in my final presentation and I am very happy I did this. I didn't have a set amount of time I would work on this- I figured as long as it took for me to feel like I was in a good place and this turned out to be one hour. I also read more of my book. I'm looking at my book now as more of a side project. If I find I have time and I don't need to be doing other work, than the book is a great idea. But it is hard to get me to read it if I know there is other work that needs to be completed first. I found that I actually enjoyed reading it more in my downtime than if I have to schedule my time to read it. I read more slowly and really payed more closer attention and I think I got more out of the book this time than any other time I have read it. Since this works well for me, I will continue to do this. I wasn't in class today since I had to take an AP exam and I am sort of disappointed that I wasn't in class because when I am, I can get a lot of work done because I know that my English block is the designated time to do that sort of work and I do not have to worry about getting other work done then. For the future, I want to start my scrapbook and continue to read the book, but only in my downtime or else it will stress me out too much and I will read too fast.

Review of Yang's Studio

Today I went to Yang's Gym in Andover to try Vinyassa Yoga. I used to go to this gym all the time both for exercizing and for classes like yoga so I knew what to expect. I actually found that I really enjoyed the other two studios more. I felt like at Yang's the yoga went on forever and I'm not sure what to attribute that to. We used a lot of the same poses that I had done in Beginner Yoga. I also found that alot of the time we were either in downward dog or child's pose. Vinyassa is supposed to have more of a flow to it but at some points the poses were quite choppy and didn't go into one from the other. I think Yang's is a really good studio for people who want to do the same original yoga poses all the time but it was nice to see how compared to other places, the yoga was very boring. The part I did like though was the music, the music really helped calm my nerves and get my mind set on yoga. The instructer was good at walking us through poses and telling us all the steps we needed to do in order to be in an exact replica of the pose we were trying. Before the class began, she had us lay down and told us to leave all of our thoughts outside of the room. This helped me relax knowing that it was safe to not think about anything else. I found it took a lot of mind over matter in order to hold some of the more difficult poses. I knew I was strong enough to do so but it was the thought of it being so stenuous and taking up alot of stamina that caused me to doubt myself. Alot of the poses we did were flexibility poses, which I have to say are my least favorite because I am not flexible in the slightest. In the end I did enjoy the class but I definately liked the other two classes I have done better.

Video Completion

I didn't realize that making a video could take so long. I've probably spend 3 class periods and 1 hour outside of class just putting it together. I could be slow but it is a lot of meticulous work so I don't think that's the case. Today, I have finally gotten it to a point where it is presentable but I still may need to work a little more on it. I thought the hard part would be putting the videos into iMovie but it turns out the hard part was adding the title slide, adding the slides that explain the next video and just adjusting volumes and things of the sort. I am proud of it right now but I know I will most likely shooting a few more videos and I'll have to go back and incorporate them into the video at the end. It shouldn't be too hard now that I think I know what I'm doing. My goal for this week is to in some manner begin my scrapbook. By this point, my entire schedule has been turned around but in a better direction. I don't know it I'll have to rewrite my calendar because there's been so many things I haven't done and so many new things I have done. I do feel confident about the amount of time that's left and I know if I stay on top of all the work I will be able to do everything very carefully in the time left. I've learned that I can't throw any of my ideas away because I did have the idea to do a yoga class for the final piece originally but I dismissed that because I thought it had to be an actual hard copy of something. But I am now back to that idea and I'm going with it thanks to a classmate. My future plans include taking my yoga class tomorrow and writing up a review afterwards and then for this week to begin my yoga scrapbook.

Off Schedule

My project has gotten a little bit off track but I have still been working hard. I think my next goal will be to change my calendar around  because I've decided on a few changes. Instead of teaching and filming basically everyday, I think I will keep only about ten different videos. I already started editing the clips into one big video and it already lasts about four minutes which I think is plenty of time. I may do a couple more or so but instead of investing all of my time into filming people when in reality, my video can't have many more clips to it, I will focus on learning how to teach the yoga poses that I will teach as my final project. Today in class I didn't plan on taking this long but I spent the whole class trying to edit and change around my video. For homework I wanted to look at more clips of instructional yoga and take notes on what I will say when I teach yoga to my class. In the future I also plan on spending time doing a lot more research and doing the final two yoga classes within the next three weeks. My other outcome of this project will be a book that  I should start on when I get done with my video. I've learned that I have no idea how to use the iMovie application and I've struggle a lot with trying to edit things but I think I am slowly figuring it all out.