My Honest Thoughts about
The Living History Journal and
The Decades Project
Below are the three projects completed for HIST 1301 and 1302 in the Fall semesters of 2012 and 2013.
Fall 2012 LHJ |
Decades Project |
Fall 2013 LHJ |
I will reflect on each project and write about my thoughts of each project and the HIST 1301 and 1302 classes in this portion of the blog in order to conclude the History projects. All of these are honest thoughts that I have right now as of the Winter break right after the Decades Project and the second Living History Journal, so everything is still heated in my head and I would probably feel differently about the projects later on.
Fall 2012: The First Living History Journal
This was the class and the project that I looked forward for in my first semester of college. The lectures were very enlightening and the project was just fun to do. The HIST 1301 course was a blow-off course, but a very productive and memorable blow-off course. Throughout the semester, my sisters and I were focused on getting the activities done for the blog. The most memorable activities in this blog involved the first RenFest visit with the Jester and Reaper outfits. I felt like this was my most creative project because of the format and layout of the blog page. Going through the first blog and thinking back about this class just brings back an indescribable feeling.
Fall 2013: The Decades Project - A Rant.
This project made me DREAD my semester. I spent my summer convincing a friend to take the class with me because I thought the class was interesting and fun based on last year's experience. I also spent my summer preparing for the second part of the living history journal while anticipating classes full of enlightening lectures. And I was looking forward to having a part-time job during a full semester to help my friend pay off her car. Instead, the decades project turned out to be a group project that ended up interrupting my school and work schedule. I also believe that the lecture quality was reduced because of the decades project. Although talkative classmates and side tracked discussions were the main reason why lectures were dull, the decades project videos took up the rest of the semester after the first test. I was hoping for lectures about the Reconstruction, World War I and World War II, the Cold War, the Great Depression, and other major historical event involving the US. Instead, we only learned about the Reconstruction. The rest of the semester was watching student-made videos about the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s, some of which had NO educational value.
The big problem of the project was my group. This class had assigned leaders and the rest of the students got to pick their group/leader. I took two groups out of consideration because the leaders were my sisters. I did not do this because I did not want to work under them but because I was sick of people's idea that "The Phams are always together." I also decided to avoid my friend's group because of a similar reason. That left me with two other groups since one group was immediately filled: a group filled with friends who always talk to each other in class, and a group that had a 13-year-old as a leader. I decided to go with the 13-year-old because I don't like people who talk in class and because I thought the 13-year-old would have an idea of how to make a scripted video. Right in our first meeting, someone got our names and phone numbers down and she said she would get a group text thread going so we can communicate at home. So I thought to myself, "Good, for once I can relax in a group project and just wait for my to-do list."
BOY, I WAS WRONG ABOUT THIS GROUP. I had a part time job where I would go to work immediately after the History Class on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the lunch rush hour. I also work for half a day on Friday and Saturday. Because of this, I was not able to show up to the "group meetings" that were held after class. For simple reasons, I was name the group members "N," "G," "V," and "M."
After two weeks that the class started the group project, G made a list of major events in our assigned 2000s decade. I took the list and added in or take out events for the group to work with. After the next meeting, the group sent me an email telling me that the decade was split into five parts and that I was in charge of researching for the 2009-2010 period while other people were in charge of the other periods. I did so and tried to get the research done as soon as I could. I kept constantly apologizing to the group leader, N, about being late and that I'd try to get it done as fast as possible. N would always tell me that some of the other members did not send their work in either, so I didn't have to worry too much as long as I get it to him. I would also ask him if he had thought of a format for the video yet and he said that he has an idea going and that he will tell us at the group meeting.
Other than these, I did not know of anything until the month of October, the month that the project was due. I asked my boss to let me take off during the weekdays so that I can be at the after-class meetings. I also asked for a flexible changing partner so that I can switch my schedules to fit meeting times when needed. Both requests were granted and I told my group that I will be able to make it to every meeting until the end of the project.
The Oct. 11th meeting was the first day I found out that the group did not have a plan or a script. I found out this was the first actual group meeting (the rest were just for a few minutes) and that they were planning to improvise during recordings to make the 20-minute video. They decided to record in the library where people were clearly already sitting there to study. Our group was just sitting there talking, discussing and laughing and those people studying were giving us dirty looks. One of them actually came up to us and asked us if we were "doing this all day." When I talked to N privately when leaving, I found out that N had been placing this project as his last priority. After that meeting, I told G and N that I was unhappy and that I preferred scripts to be written beforehand.
Since no one was able to meet in the weekends, I made sure to have a script to record my short scene on Tuesday, the 15th. We planned to have three people in the scene while I record on Tuesday before class, but only two people showed up. My friend ended up helping and this recording was clearly better and more productive than the other recording sessions. N then told us that we would meet on Thursday (the class workday) with scripts prepared and ready to be recorded. I also found out that G, the person who took our phone numbers, originally did not know how to set up group texting AND she never told us that she lost our numbers. Because I did not have texting on my phone plan, I did not know about it until I asked her to text everyone and add me onto the thread.
On that Thursday, NO ONE made any scripts as planned, so N, the group leader, started a make-script-then-record-on-the-same-day plan. We spent time planning three scenes, then on Friday, we recorded those scenes. This is when I decided that something seem off when I heard that my sisters' groups and my friend's group already finished filming or already finished making the scripts.
I decided that I wanted to know where our group was compared to everyone else so I can make a plan and tell N. I tried to get the videos from V because he had the videos since he was supposed to be the video editor. I told him we should meet up in the weekends and he tried to send me the 2.2GB files instead. I ended up having to meet him before our meeting on Monday, Oct. 21st, to delete bad-takes and random-takes to find that the videos were only 0.25 GB of videos.
That means we had 2 minutes of video clips out of the 20 minutes we needed 10 days before the video was due.
The very next day, I talked to the professor about the group and that I wanted to switch to a group with a better CEO. I told her that one of my sister's group was still missing research that was supposed to be done by someone who got kicked out of the group and that I was willing to help with that research and take responsibilities for whatever her group needed. The professor then told me that it was too late in the project to join another group because everyone already played their part and that if I felt like I needed to take charge, just tell everyone, then do it.
On that day, Oct. 22nd, I sat in class being unable to focus. I had no plan or format for the video. I decided to make a timeline of what we needed to do by when so that I can have enough time to gather resources and edit the video.
The big problem of the project was my group. This class had assigned leaders and the rest of the students got to pick their group/leader. I took two groups out of consideration because the leaders were my sisters. I did not do this because I did not want to work under them but because I was sick of people's idea that "The Phams are always together." I also decided to avoid my friend's group because of a similar reason. That left me with two other groups since one group was immediately filled: a group filled with friends who always talk to each other in class, and a group that had a 13-year-old as a leader. I decided to go with the 13-year-old because I don't like people who talk in class and because I thought the 13-year-old would have an idea of how to make a scripted video. Right in our first meeting, someone got our names and phone numbers down and she said she would get a group text thread going so we can communicate at home. So I thought to myself, "Good, for once I can relax in a group project and just wait for my to-do list."
BOY, I WAS WRONG ABOUT THIS GROUP. I had a part time job where I would go to work immediately after the History Class on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the lunch rush hour. I also work for half a day on Friday and Saturday. Because of this, I was not able to show up to the "group meetings" that were held after class. For simple reasons, I was name the group members "N," "G," "V," and "M."
After two weeks that the class started the group project, G made a list of major events in our assigned 2000s decade. I took the list and added in or take out events for the group to work with. After the next meeting, the group sent me an email telling me that the decade was split into five parts and that I was in charge of researching for the 2009-2010 period while other people were in charge of the other periods. I did so and tried to get the research done as soon as I could. I kept constantly apologizing to the group leader, N, about being late and that I'd try to get it done as fast as possible. N would always tell me that some of the other members did not send their work in either, so I didn't have to worry too much as long as I get it to him. I would also ask him if he had thought of a format for the video yet and he said that he has an idea going and that he will tell us at the group meeting.
Other than these, I did not know of anything until the month of October, the month that the project was due. I asked my boss to let me take off during the weekdays so that I can be at the after-class meetings. I also asked for a flexible changing partner so that I can switch my schedules to fit meeting times when needed. Both requests were granted and I told my group that I will be able to make it to every meeting until the end of the project.
The Oct. 11th meeting was the first day I found out that the group did not have a plan or a script. I found out this was the first actual group meeting (the rest were just for a few minutes) and that they were planning to improvise during recordings to make the 20-minute video. They decided to record in the library where people were clearly already sitting there to study. Our group was just sitting there talking, discussing and laughing and those people studying were giving us dirty looks. One of them actually came up to us and asked us if we were "doing this all day." When I talked to N privately when leaving, I found out that N had been placing this project as his last priority. After that meeting, I told G and N that I was unhappy and that I preferred scripts to be written beforehand.
Since no one was able to meet in the weekends, I made sure to have a script to record my short scene on Tuesday, the 15th. We planned to have three people in the scene while I record on Tuesday before class, but only two people showed up. My friend ended up helping and this recording was clearly better and more productive than the other recording sessions. N then told us that we would meet on Thursday (the class workday) with scripts prepared and ready to be recorded. I also found out that G, the person who took our phone numbers, originally did not know how to set up group texting AND she never told us that she lost our numbers. Because I did not have texting on my phone plan, I did not know about it until I asked her to text everyone and add me onto the thread.
On that Thursday, NO ONE made any scripts as planned, so N, the group leader, started a make-script-then-record-on-the-same-day plan. We spent time planning three scenes, then on Friday, we recorded those scenes. This is when I decided that something seem off when I heard that my sisters' groups and my friend's group already finished filming or already finished making the scripts.
I decided that I wanted to know where our group was compared to everyone else so I can make a plan and tell N. I tried to get the videos from V because he had the videos since he was supposed to be the video editor. I told him we should meet up in the weekends and he tried to send me the 2.2GB files instead. I ended up having to meet him before our meeting on Monday, Oct. 21st, to delete bad-takes and random-takes to find that the videos were only 0.25 GB of videos.
That means we had 2 minutes of video clips out of the 20 minutes we needed 10 days before the video was due.
The very next day, I talked to the professor about the group and that I wanted to switch to a group with a better CEO. I told her that one of my sister's group was still missing research that was supposed to be done by someone who got kicked out of the group and that I was willing to help with that research and take responsibilities for whatever her group needed. The professor then told me that it was too late in the project to join another group because everyone already played their part and that if I felt like I needed to take charge, just tell everyone, then do it.
On that day, Oct. 22nd, I sat in class being unable to focus. I had no plan or format for the video. I decided to make a timeline of what we needed to do by when so that I can have enough time to gather resources and edit the video.
Pictured above is the back of my notebook where you can see "FML... I can't switch because it's too late." Also shown on the book is a timeline of October 22nd to October 31st, the day the project was due.
I decided that what was needed was for one person to make sure to have the scripts ready and that I would only trust myself to do it since no one else seem to have done their jobs. I called for online meeting to get approval from the group about my plan but only one person came up and thought it was a good idea. This is when I decided to make this project my highest priority in order to make sure everything is kept on time.
I asked N for the research that was sent in to him but he never sent it to me, so that night, I stayed up all night researching everyone's year period so I can write the scripts. I told N to prepare his short script and he did. I wrote all the scripts and planned out the video duration time so I can get an idea of the video's pace and timing. On Wednesday, Oct. 23, we met up and I showed the group what we were going to do. We recorded the short scenes that were needed, then we recorded some of the longer scripts. On Thursday, we finished recording the long scripts and I told the group that I was going to listen to all the recordings and that I needed everyone to send me their research based on the script. I even gave the group an example of my two year period script and research. As I edited the videos, I texted the group on Friday, and on Saturday morning. G's research was great, but V's and M's research were HORRIBLE. V only gave me minor highlights of the main points while M's research wasn't even research... it was a list of events, some of which were not related to what was recorded. N didn't text me anything until Sunday, telling me that he forgot to do the research and he ended up sending it to me on Sunday night.
Despite N's argument saying that his research does include everything covered in the recording, it definitely did not. I had to spend an hour refining N's research and I had to spend more time to refine V's research. I barely had to spend any time refining G's research but I had to find someone to refine M's research. I wanted to finish everything on Sunday so I can study for Tuesday's test but I ended up spending Monday to read through the research while the group had a study group session.
Pictured below are the materials used to plan and prepare the videos for editing. On the left photo, you can find the organization of celebrities' deaths, the list made by G and me, and the narrating scripts with editing/pacing marks. On the right photo, you can see green markings "RC, RF, CD, C&P, and F&S." I don't remember what these initials were for but they were the final check-marks I used to double check citations, captions, resources, and other things the videos needed.
I decided that what was needed was for one person to make sure to have the scripts ready and that I would only trust myself to do it since no one else seem to have done their jobs. I called for online meeting to get approval from the group about my plan but only one person came up and thought it was a good idea. This is when I decided to make this project my highest priority in order to make sure everything is kept on time.
I asked N for the research that was sent in to him but he never sent it to me, so that night, I stayed up all night researching everyone's year period so I can write the scripts. I told N to prepare his short script and he did. I wrote all the scripts and planned out the video duration time so I can get an idea of the video's pace and timing. On Wednesday, Oct. 23, we met up and I showed the group what we were going to do. We recorded the short scenes that were needed, then we recorded some of the longer scripts. On Thursday, we finished recording the long scripts and I told the group that I was going to listen to all the recordings and that I needed everyone to send me their research based on the script. I even gave the group an example of my two year period script and research. As I edited the videos, I texted the group on Friday, and on Saturday morning. G's research was great, but V's and M's research were HORRIBLE. V only gave me minor highlights of the main points while M's research wasn't even research... it was a list of events, some of which were not related to what was recorded. N didn't text me anything until Sunday, telling me that he forgot to do the research and he ended up sending it to me on Sunday night.
Despite N's argument saying that his research does include everything covered in the recording, it definitely did not. I had to spend an hour refining N's research and I had to spend more time to refine V's research. I barely had to spend any time refining G's research but I had to find someone to refine M's research. I wanted to finish everything on Sunday so I can study for Tuesday's test but I ended up spending Monday to read through the research while the group had a study group session.
Pictured below are the materials used to plan and prepare the videos for editing. On the left photo, you can find the organization of celebrities' deaths, the list made by G and me, and the narrating scripts with editing/pacing marks. On the right photo, you can see green markings "RC, RF, CD, C&P, and F&S." I don't remember what these initials were for but they were the final check-marks I used to double check citations, captions, resources, and other things the videos needed.
I also started to give up studying for the test so I can help my sisters and make sure that their hard work on the project does not fail.
On Tuesday, Oct. 29th, I only had one hour to study due to the lack of sleep I had throughout the week. I was on caffeine pills, coffee, and Monster but my body had a breakdown right before I was supposed to wake up from my 2-hour nap to study for the test. Therefore, I came to the test unprepared.
On Wednesday night, the night before the video links were due, I found out that one of my sisters was having a body breakdown and that her video was taking an unusually long amount of time to process into an actual video. When I looked, I found out that she made a crucial error of not processing her video as she edited it. This was extremely important because her video included MANY frames of photos since her video was a drawing video. I ended up staying up all night to process the video parts by parts by hand so that it would finish faster.
On Thursday morning, as my sisters and my friend woke up to get ready to go to the history class, I continued to process the video so that I can upload it on YouTube. I made sure I printed my group's script and uploaded my group's resources so I can hand it to my friend so she can bring it to my group leader. [By the way, my group leader didn't text me or asked me if I needed help until this Wednesday night, the night before it was due.] I got the video uploaded on time for her then I rushed to class in case I needed to be there in person. I got home and fell asleep due to exhaustion and relief that the project was over... despite the fact that I made a 62 and my friend made a 52 on Tuesday's exam [while my group leader made an 84].
The next morning, I open up my email to find this:
On Tuesday, Oct. 29th, I only had one hour to study due to the lack of sleep I had throughout the week. I was on caffeine pills, coffee, and Monster but my body had a breakdown right before I was supposed to wake up from my 2-hour nap to study for the test. Therefore, I came to the test unprepared.
On Wednesday night, the night before the video links were due, I found out that one of my sisters was having a body breakdown and that her video was taking an unusually long amount of time to process into an actual video. When I looked, I found out that she made a crucial error of not processing her video as she edited it. This was extremely important because her video included MANY frames of photos since her video was a drawing video. I ended up staying up all night to process the video parts by parts by hand so that it would finish faster.
On Thursday morning, as my sisters and my friend woke up to get ready to go to the history class, I continued to process the video so that I can upload it on YouTube. I made sure I printed my group's script and uploaded my group's resources so I can hand it to my friend so she can bring it to my group leader. [By the way, my group leader didn't text me or asked me if I needed help until this Wednesday night, the night before it was due.] I got the video uploaded on time for her then I rushed to class in case I needed to be there in person. I got home and fell asleep due to exhaustion and relief that the project was over... despite the fact that I made a 62 and my friend made a 52 on Tuesday's exam [while my group leader made an 84].
The next morning, I open up my email to find this:
This email, along with the fact that I found on at my workplace that my name was no longer on the schedule, made me explode.
N did NOT write any of the scripts except for almost two of them. M did not do ANY research and N didn't even know it [N told me that he didn't have a chance to look at any of the research, so I'm sure he did not see M's research]. He might claim that "each of our position is just as important for the success of this video," but his position as group leader/CEO did not help the group but almost ruin the group instead.
The professor made it clear to the group that we officially had two group leaders, N and me. But I am upset by what followed. Apparently, while I was out of the classroom, the professor talked to the class about the project and how the project probably caused a lot of stress for some students and that several students probably learned something about their leadership skills. She pointed out that some people like to take charge of group projects. When I re-entered the classroom, everyone laughed and I found out that she was probably implying that one of those people to be me.
Honestly, I do like to take charge when my leadership position is assigned at the beginning of the task. However, I hate being the second choice, but I don't mind being the second choice if everyone in the group cooperate with me to get the job done. For this group, I was satisfied with not having to deal with a leadership position because being in girl scouts and being the older sister, I have had plenty of leadership experiences. However, I ended up having to take the leadership position towards the end of the project, and when I did take the position, my group did not cooperate, so all the burden fell on me when I decided that the group was not worth trusting after all their failures (and I was right). I DID NOT like to take charge of this group project.
This was a big lesson for me: whenever there's a group project, trust yourself and take charge at the beginning. Unless there's someone who is obviously better and more eligible than I am. After telling my older sister about this experience, she told me that for her entire school years in high school and college, she took over her group projects and never regretted it.
This project made me put off work, made me behind in my online Calculus course, made me behind on the living history journal, and made me stressed.
I was also commended for "bailing my group out."
Let's just say I needed to bail myself out and had no choice but to bail everyone else in the process.
N did NOT write any of the scripts except for almost two of them. M did not do ANY research and N didn't even know it [N told me that he didn't have a chance to look at any of the research, so I'm sure he did not see M's research]. He might claim that "each of our position is just as important for the success of this video," but his position as group leader/CEO did not help the group but almost ruin the group instead.
The professor made it clear to the group that we officially had two group leaders, N and me. But I am upset by what followed. Apparently, while I was out of the classroom, the professor talked to the class about the project and how the project probably caused a lot of stress for some students and that several students probably learned something about their leadership skills. She pointed out that some people like to take charge of group projects. When I re-entered the classroom, everyone laughed and I found out that she was probably implying that one of those people to be me.
Honestly, I do like to take charge when my leadership position is assigned at the beginning of the task. However, I hate being the second choice, but I don't mind being the second choice if everyone in the group cooperate with me to get the job done. For this group, I was satisfied with not having to deal with a leadership position because being in girl scouts and being the older sister, I have had plenty of leadership experiences. However, I ended up having to take the leadership position towards the end of the project, and when I did take the position, my group did not cooperate, so all the burden fell on me when I decided that the group was not worth trusting after all their failures (and I was right). I DID NOT like to take charge of this group project.
This was a big lesson for me: whenever there's a group project, trust yourself and take charge at the beginning. Unless there's someone who is obviously better and more eligible than I am. After telling my older sister about this experience, she told me that for her entire school years in high school and college, she took over her group projects and never regretted it.
This project made me put off work, made me behind in my online Calculus course, made me behind on the living history journal, and made me stressed.
I was also commended for "bailing my group out."
Let's just say I needed to bail myself out and had no choice but to bail everyone else in the process.
Fall 2013: The Second Living History Journal
The activities themselves that I did for this living history journal were VERY interesting compared to the first living history journal activities, but the blog making process was a lot more stressful because of the lack amount of time we had. Last year, we had Thanksgiving weekend to work on the blog. This year, we only had a few weeks after the Decades Project to finish them [Not to mention the fact that some people were trying to catch up with school]. I'm not satisfied with this blog site because I know it could have been a lot better.
Another thing is that I lost interest in doing some of the things I wanted to do. Because of the hard work I had to put in for the Decades Project, I decided not to write a comparison about my mother's and father's stories about their lives in Vietnam. I also decided not to write a comparison about my Fall 2012 and 2013 RenFest visits.
This Living History Journal was fun but disappointing at the same time.
As I conclude these History Projects, I'll try to remember to keep the fun memories and learn from the bad experiences.
Another thing is that I lost interest in doing some of the things I wanted to do. Because of the hard work I had to put in for the Decades Project, I decided not to write a comparison about my mother's and father's stories about their lives in Vietnam. I also decided not to write a comparison about my Fall 2012 and 2013 RenFest visits.
This Living History Journal was fun but disappointing at the same time.
As I conclude these History Projects, I'll try to remember to keep the fun memories and learn from the bad experiences.