Karla Garza’s Semester Reflection of GDES_I

My target of expert hours this semester was 225 hours. Surprisingly I surpassed them with a total of 247 hours. I must say I did not expect that because it was a rough semester personally but I really enjoy working on my projects at home and modifying them therefore I believe those hours helped me exceed the target of total hours I had and I am happy about it. My current total hours taking into account since I was a junior in high school, because is when I started practicing, plays that I have attended to, and this two and a half years of college is an approximate of 1010 hours.

Social / Emotional Development

Mature – Young

In this category I believe I am between mature and young level. I started the semester with a mature attitude and I would pay attention in class, attend every class, do my best for projects, and turn in everything on time. Even though I have been going through a very difficult family problem, I tried my best the first half of the semester to act as maturely as I could but unfortunately things got complicated and that led to me getting sick and being at clinics and hospitals. As much as I tried to keep in a mature level, I failed and the last month of the second half of the semester I slide back to the young level. I think that although it was not my best month and brought consequences to my projects I did change throughout the semester because last semester I was too shy to participate during critiques but I feel that this semester I actually gave feedback to my classmates and I received mine gratefully.

Sophistication of your Work

High

I think this category varies for everyone and and I think that I made a great progress on my projects. I learned a lot about Illustrator such as shortcuts, these really save you time; how to use the pen correctly, I knew how but I would always see it as a challenge because I would always have had difficulties with it; and I am very happy that my skills got better. I love working on my projects and spend a great amount of time on them because I enjoy it so much and like I said in my midterm paper I do not even notice the time spent on them but what I do notice are the sophisticated results from it. I worked hard during this semester but I know I still need to practice and keep learning because I am not at the level I wish I be.

Use of Feedback

Useful

Feedback from my classmates is very important to me and I think I learned how to use that feedback effectively so that my projects work better after being critiqued. Unfortunately, I would have liked to receive and give more feedback but due to my personal situation I missed most of critique days and I know that is one of the important things about projects. Although I missed class, I feel that the use of feedback is useful because I would find a classmate and give each other feedback. The feedback that I think worked better is for the symbols project because I did change a lot based on my classmates’ feedback and I am grateful for that because I am satisfied with my work.

Level of Challenge to Yourself

Intense

This semester was very rough like I already said and despite of the problems I faced, I always kept trying to catch up with work so I would not miss deadlines and that is why I feel that I am in the intense level. For the symbol methodology project I worked very hard and every time I considered my symbol was done I would find a detail that I did not completely liked and change it again and again until I was satisfied with the symbols. I think that the maps were the huge challenge for me since it was the first time that I did any of those maps. The Flow Chart for me was the most challenging because I had no idea how to execute the project but I think I did a goo job. Since the maps were due during the time I was sick I had trouble turning in the spread on time and had little time to work on it but as soon as I got back on track, sadly the last days of class, I spent days and nights working on the projects trying to make the as good as I could. They are not my best work but I know that I made a great effort working on them to be able to turn it in on time.

Contribution to Climate

RoomTemp

As much as I was hoping to participate and be useful for my classmates I was not. I was not cold either because I did attend class before I got sick and give feedback but not enough. I feel that whenever I attended class I gave feedback to the person that would asked for it and therefore I am in the middle of the contribution to climate.

Use of practice time

Consistent

The amount of time that I spend on design work is very consistent. During the semester I not only work on my projects but if I have free time I look for things to do related to design. During christmas break and summer I find design work to do as well. Since my family knows that I enjoy designing they ask for logos or anything related to design. Sometimes I do not know how to execute what they ask for but is when fun time arrives because I challenge myself to learn how to do it and accomplish the work successfully. I see it as fun because I enjoy it too much like I said before and it is something that I never get bored of learning and working.

 

Over all, the change within myself has changed significantly due to this class because it helped me to improve my skills. At the beginning of the semester I knew just some basics of Illustrator but at this point I can say I feel much comfortable using the program and I am able to execute a project with less difficulties. I learned a lot from every single project starting by the fact that it was my first time doing each one of them. The symbols on vinyl was my favorite project and I feel I got a lot out of it. Considering that I did challenge myself and worked very hard on each project I would like to have an A but due to my absences and lack of feedback to my classmates I think I deserve a B for the semester.