This semester is slowly coming to an end, but there is still much work and studying to be done. This is when planning comes in hand. Failing to plan ahead of time for tests, projects, and assignments will lead to lots of cramming and late nights. Maybe everyone doesn’t think planning is important, and some people may get through college with ease without any precise planning, but I need all the planning I can get. I’m the person with a color coded agenda that has all my appointments, due dates, exams, and anything else that’s going to happen, school related or not, written down. I’m also that person that has an obnoxious amount of reminders in my phone even though it’s already written in my agenda. I tend to be a very worried and anxious person so I think all this planning helps to ease my stress, even if it seems unnecessary.
My final presentation for my New Literacy class at Canisius is due in a little over a week, and I feel fairly confident about my progress so far. This presentation is a very large portion of my final grade so of course I wanted to start planning early. When my professor first mentioned the assignment she made the requirements very loose meaning we could choose almost any topic that came to our mind that we felt passionate enough to teach about. Being able to choose a nonspecific topic made me nervous because I really had no clue what I wanted to do. My professor told me not to worry about the topic just yet, and suggested to pay attention to different discussions and topics around me and see if something sparks my interest. So I took this advice and to my surprise I chose my topic when I was driving around in my car. I often listen to podcasts and I chose to listen to a Ted Radio Hour podcast called Decoding Our Emotions. This podcast really interested me because I have recently began going to therapy, and have been focusing on my emotional development and mental health. This is when I decided I wanted to teach more about the understanding of our complex emotions, and why there is so much stigma behind talking about our mental health and going to therapy.
Planning for this presentation was not difficult for me because I found a topic that I am very interested in and enjoyed researching. Also, with this topic I had much of my own knowledge and personal experiences to add. I began preparing for this presentation by opening a blank Google document and just typing. This is how I begin to plan for any presentation, project, or essay that I am assigned. I type everything I know about the topic along with all the information I obtain after reading multiple sources. Once I had pages of information, I read through and organized the information by fixing spelling and grammar mistakes, adding some bullet points, and summarized so I didn’t have too much going on. After I had all I wanted to talk about for my presentation, I created a Prezi where I could organize and summarize this information even more in a way that could be presented to the class. I am still working on the Prezi so that I achieve an aesthetically pleasing look and easily presentable layout. I also found a couple videos that help explain the information that I will be presenting. Lastly, I decided to create a Google form that my classmates can complete and discuss for part of my presentation. I wanted to add an aspect that allowed my classmates to participate and be part of the discussion.
I feel excited and about ready to teach my classmates about emotional development and mental health next Monday. I think this is a subject that is rarely focused on in schools, and I want my classmates to understand the importance of this topic. My obsession with planning definitely came in hand and helped me prepare for this presentation. I still have more to work on over the next week, but I feel confident that I will be ready to share my knowledge and engage my classmates. Never underestimate the power of planning; it’s always better to be over prepared for anything rather than under prepared!