Blog Assignment #1

A Little (maybe a lot) About Me

Hello all! My name is Anna Zhuo (or Mayes) and I am 23 years old! I was born in Manhattan, New York but raised in Brooklyn, New York. I am Chinese and the first generation in America. In my family there is my mom, my dad, and two younger brothers. Benjamin, the youngest brother, is attending high school and Sherwin, is attending CUNY Baruch College for accounting. My family came from Mainland China. I've lived in New York until last year. I moved to Mobile, Alabama at the end of June 2011. Some of you may ask, "how did you end up being in the South?!". Long story short, I met the love of my life! He happens to be from Mobile, AL and I graduated with an associates degree on time for me to make a smooth move down to the South! His name is Samuel Mayes and I have known him for 4 years. He is also a student at the U.S.A., works for U.S.A. Student Health and works for a research program at the College of Engineering. We decided to get married on November 11, 2011 and it'll be our first anniversary soon! I have also gained awesome in-laws! My mother-in-law, Clare King, and father-in-law, Walter E. Beckham, also works for the university and are alumnus. They are teaching me how to improve my artwork, photography and many more. I have a male dog named Tzar. My husband rescued him at the Bits and Spurs Animal Hospital in December 2010. He is a German Shepherd mix and is the sweetest dog ever! Personally, I am not much of a big city or party girl so moving to the South wasn't a drastic change. I enjoy the southern comfort, the people, the quietness, sky view with no city light distractions, privacy but I do miss the convenience in NY. I was able to walk one street down to get access to many stores for grocery, hardware needs, clothing stores, shoes, banks and etc. There is also the MTA transit system so there's no need for driving. Now I need to learn to drive!

I attended CUNY New York City College of Technology and CUNY Kingsborough Community College. At first I was a Nursing major but decided that wasn't the path I wanted to take. After semesters and semesters, I've decided I want to become a teacher. Why did I decide to make such a big switch? I was hired as a group leader for an after-school program ran by the Neighboring Improvement Association of Brooklyn. It was taken place at P.S. 186, an elementary school. I was also a part of an AmeriCorps program that was associated with my job and eventually became a “Team Leader”. I began working with Kindergartners and fell in love with the job! For the summer, I worked for the same association but at a different location. It was a summer program held at P.S. 229 and I was a group leader for the 4th grade. When the normal school year started again, I was a group leader for the 1st grade. There were times in the year where I was able to work with every grade level, whether it would be helping them with their homework or activities such as art or dance. It was a pleasure to help young children through their academics, be a part of their life, be their role model and to be able to gain such an experience that will help me in the future. I got to write my own lesson plans following the teacher's guidelines, communicated with parents, exposed to certain situations, worked on a professional level, worked with the elementary school out of work hours, was able to volunteer for major events, and etc. Because I was an AmeriCorps member, I attended many helpful workshops where I learned skills that can be applied to my field and traveled to help different communities in New York City. The ability to help young children, who are our future, is amazing and sometimes unexplainable. I found my niche. I want to help children in need. I want to help special ed and autistic children as well. I want to guide them, be there for them especially if their parents are too busy and be another person that they can look up to or can go to for help. I had a rough childhood. Even though I was born in America, I did not understand English as much as I should have. My parents couldn't help me. I had no older relative who understood it either. I was afraid to ask questions. Til this day, I still have problems but it's much better. I have more people to go to and I ask a lot of questions. I am sure there are many kids who are the same way and I want to help them. After years of college, I decided to change my major to Early Childhood Education at CUNY KBCC (Kingsborough Community College) but they suggested that I complete an associates degree in liberal arts so I can move on to a better college. I had most of the general requirements done so I ended up finishing in time to make a move to the South. That is when I decided to apply to the University of South Alabama. It was the better choice for me because my husband goes there and I don't know how to drive. I am still learning but in the mean time he drives me around! Due to certain problems, I didn't start until Spring semester of 2012 and take classes in the Summer. Even though I have an associates degree, I have to retake a lot of courses and that frustrated me. In the end, I've come to make peace with it. I am a proud 4.0 student (hopefully it'll stay that way), and currently in the National Society of Leadership and Success.

I am interested in a lot of things. I can go on and on about it just like this post! I love to draw, especially anime, paint, take photographs, cook, and make people laugh. I have a passion for art. If being a K-6 teacher doesn't work, I want to become an art teacher. If that doesn't work, I'll open my own day care or tutoring facility. If that doesn't work, then I'll figure it out later! I think art really helps people, kind of like art therapy. It's a way for people to express their feelings or thoughts in a visual way. Not many people see it that way but I believe it. I am also a gamer. I use to be a hardcore gamer, spending 10-40 hours a week playing online games. Right now, it's more controlled and I put less hours into it since I have other important things to work on. I still play games though! I use to be a web designer and HTML/CSS coder but that was 5-8 years ago. Currently, I am an anime/manga artist, digital artist, traditional painter, and amateur photographer. I sell some of my works and take videos to produce a speed -paint version for fans to watch on YouTube. I also have a fan page and an Etsy shop for those interested in my work. I apologize in advance for this long story of my life!

Randy Pausch on Time Management

I have never heard of Dr. Pausch before. After watching his video, Randy Pausch on Time Management, I agree with everything he said. It really helps to manage your time efficiently and set goals. It makes everything in your life more organized and less hectic. Dr. Pausch points out the very basic steps in order to manage time and goals. In order to do proper time management, a person needs to think ahead of time. Even there are possibilities that the plan may change, it doesn't matter as long as you have a base. There is a chance that changes may not happen and you can carry on with your original plan. As Dr. Pausch says, people need to ask themselves the core principles. They need to ask themselves what they need to do, why they need to do it, what is the goal and what are the consequences for not doing it. Like he says, there has to be a base to start with and for every goal there has to be an end or else it wouldn't be complete. When there is a start, there has to be a finish. I always have a plan, make schedules and carry a planner around to help me. I avoid using my smart phone calendar for that because I remember better when I physically write it out. When he said, "do the ugliest first", I think that is absolutely right. People tend to do the quicker/easier tasks and leave the bigger or difficult tasks in the end. In result, that task doesn't get done on time due to procrastination and there are consequences that come with it. It's like when people who do their homework or projects the last minute. I am guilty of this and have gotten away with it many times. I already planned ahead of time and figured it out but I executed that plan the last minute, which is still bad because it can turn into a habit. The work gets put off one day after another then it ends up being the last few hours of Sunday before you go to bed then head to class the next morning. People usually stay up and pull an all-nighter but that is very unhealthy and the homework or project is less likely to be a good one or of high quality! People also prioritize incorrectly and misunderstand what doing the "right" thing is. In relation to Dr. Pausch's comment in the beginning about Americans being bad with time management, I think that's the case because more and more people are busy with work, are lazy and would rather someone else do it for them or rather spend their time doing something else. It's rare for people to sit down for 30 minutes to an hour planning. Even though I already follow what Dr. Pausch suggests, it is a very helpful video and people should definitely start following his suggestions. It really takes some of the stress off you.