Introduction
Hello all! I would like to start this post by thanking everybody who has taken the time to read my posts, comment, and give feedback. I have had a wonderful time learning alongside so many talented peers. For my learning project, I decided to learn to read for pleasure. This came with many struggles and many wins and has ended with me learning a valuable skill, but also learning new ways to improve my abilities in concentration and motivation. This learning project has been not always a breeze for me, but it was worth it in the end. I was able to utilize many resources and learn new abilities in learning to slow down and enjoy silence. I have ended my learning project with new skills in reading, but also reduced screen time and a greater presence in my life because my brain is less distractable. This overall has been a greatly beneficial project for me, and I am very grateful to have had the opportunity.
Learning Project Recap
Learning to read for pleasure (again)
- Introduction to what my project will be, sharing photos of the books I have collected and that I would like to read throughout this project
This week was a big fat failure!!!!!!!!! (kinda)
- This week was the first week I spent learning the skill and was struggling as I found it to be very difficult to concentrate on reading and found I wasn’t enjoying it, so I was lacking motivation. I added a video that I watched on how to enjoy reading.
A small success or a great victory?
- This week I was able to read and enjoy it. I was feeling very accomplished and hopeful. I shared the book I was reading and some tools I had learned to help concentrate better while reading.
Learning project struggles: “What do you mean I can’t read and doom scroll at the same time?!”
- This week, once again, I was struggling a great deal with concentration. This was during the February break, and the disruption of my schedule caused me to fall behind in basically everything. Sleep, chores, school work, self-care, all of it was being neglected and I felt trapped in my phone.
- I discussed burnout and how I felt burnout and how it was affecting my learning, and shared a Forbes article about the many ways burnout can affect a person.
- It was this week that I decided it was time to make a change and a realization of the impact my phone addiction was having on me. I was able to post a Youtube video about practicing mindfulness with ADHD and it was very validating that relearning coping skills and relearning how to enjoy life was difficult.
- I was, however, able to complete my first book, a graphic novel entitled “Pumpkin Heads” by Rainbow Rowell.
I have completed my second book!
- This week I completed my second book, a fiction novel entitled “Carry On” by Rainbow Rowell. In this post I was able to showcase the author, as well as share an interview she did where she speaks about her struggles with mental health and being plus size and how she incorporates that into her books.
- This week, I checked out a second graphic novel from the school library entitled “Brooms” by Jasmine Walls, because it was a graphic novel I was able to complete this book quickly.
- This week I began my third novel, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” by Caitlin Doughty. I shared why I found this book interesting, and I also shared a docuseries about dark tourism and how I have a fascination with the things nobody really talks about, like death.
Falling behind in self care during finals
- This week I talked about struggles I had with keeping up with self-care in finals, and further talked about how music has helped me keep up with all that needs to be done, inside and outside my learning project, and a concert I took myself to that weekend.
Mental health and technology – Learning Project post
- In this post I spoke about the impact screen time has on mental health and the research that exists to prove this. I spoke about Opal and using it to help concentrate and reduce my screen time, and have since purchased and have put many limits on my social media use.
Assessment of My Learning
Choosing this project, I knew it was something I wanted very badly, and I knew it was something I struggled greatly to build as a skill in myself. I knew this was going to be difficult for me going into this project, and not every week was a glaring success. I do think, however, as a whole, this project was a success. I was able to explore multiple types of books, as well as authors, and online resources, and have been able to reduce my screen time to a fraction of what it was by giving myself a healthy and productive hobby. Some weeks in my learning, mainly in February when my routine was disturbed by the break, were hard. I was a chronic fast-scrolling dopamine addict and my attention span was the worst it had ever been when I started this project, and I didn’t have a clue how bad it was until I tried to sit down and read a book. This project started as me wanting to read some of the dozens of books I own and ended in me changing my lifestyle.
Looking back, even though this project has been successful and proven to have many benefits to my life, if I were to change anything, I would have changed my learning project to something that had a greater role with technology, it was quite difficult to find resources to help with reading, but I was able to utilize resources in more creative ways throughout my project. One resource I mentioned in my previous post on mental health and technology is Opal. Since making that post I have downloaded Opal and put many restrictions on my social media use. I am able to put non-bypassable blocks on apps and set myself “focus times” where selected apps will be blocked for an amount of time of my choosing. I am going to buy the full-year subscription because it has helped me to reduce my use of social media and keep the dreaded “doom scrolling” under control.
I was also able to add multiple interactive elements to my posts despite the struggle I had in finding relevant resources, such as photos and YouTube videos. I was able to utilize online tools to learn more about the books and authors and also be able to communicate my thought processes to those who are reading my posts. I have been able to express how topics in books relate to me and my interests, such as sharing the trailer for “Dark Tourist”, or sharing interviews with authors, like Rainbow Rowell. Although needing to use creativity to blog my posts in a technologically relevant way, I was able to incorporate many sources which in turn was beneficial to my learning and development. Being held accountable in needing to make regular posts about my project kept me on track and was able to further my skill development.
Concluding Thoughts
In conclusion, this wasn’t easy, but it was worth it. Some weeks I felt defeated and that I had chosen the wrong skill to learn, but without struggle, there is no learning. I was able to complete almost four books, one fiction, two graphic novels and a non-fiction novel. This is the most reading I have done in months, and I was able to learn many skills in concentration, such as listening to music, and now, blocking distracting apps. I was able to notice a difference in mental health and attention span after a few weeks of this project, ones that I never committed long enough to see previously. I am very grateful for the learning and skill development that I have had the opportunity to grow throughout this project, and I hope to continue on my journey of developing those skills.