Last post?

Today we had the oral presentation in the auditorium, it wasn't that bad, I actually thought that there would be more people, but there were like 40 students and teachers. I couldn’t be nervous because I didn’t present anything, I just made the farewell and the thanks, so I wasn’t nervous. The one who presented was Adrian, my partner who asks a lot. He did it quite well, but I don’t know why I thought he was exceeding the time when he actually didn’t.

At the end of all the presentations, they chose us as the best aircraft project and we were very glad of it.

Maybe this will be the last post, or maybe not, who knows if I still write my progress during the university years, let's just say that this is not a goodbye. 

A voluntary presentation.

In the last class, we started doing the project as always, but we knew that we were going to have to present something, what I didn't know is that it was voluntary, as it was voluntary, my group offered to do a little presentation, in order to letting the students criticize us for our better. It was Adrian and me who presented and we didn’t prepare it, so it was very difficult to do a very fluid presentation, so there were a lot of things to say about us, but that was actually good, because if you know how to correct your mistakes it will always be better. This Tuesday we will have the final presentation… Let's see how it goes.

The stress is in increase.

We are still planning the PowerPoint for tomorrow,  it is not that hard to do it, because it is just a presentation of 5 minutes, the deal though is that we have more works to do, and even though our teacher is letting us some time for doing the project, I still have a lot of things to do.

Tomorrow, we will have to do a little presentation of the aircraft of 2040,and I hope that I won't have to present this time, because I'm too much saturated. There is too much stress in this term.

My partner is still doing questions.

From now on, it seems that all the classes will be about improving our project, it is something that we appreciate too much because there was no material time for doing everything!

My teammate Adrian is still asking our teacher a lot of questions, this time correctly answered by her, but the funny thing was that she was answering him some questions during 30 minutes and then she moved to the rest like 20 minutes. At that time Adrian had 10 questions more, so it was impossible to finish for the teacher. He didn’t finish his questions! It was like a constant questions machine. I really laughed a lot with this…

Very productive and funny classes

We have improved a lot in our project of the aircraft in the Thursday's class. Now I think we know what do we have to do with our future plane. From now on, I think that all these classes are being very productive.

At the end of the class, there was also something that I found very funny, my partner Adrian was doubtful about what he needed to put in his blog and he asked the teacher about it and she was answering him with other questions, something that I know that irritates him a lot, the funny thing is that even though he knew that the teacher wouldn’t answer him, he was still asking. It was very funny.

If you want to see Adrian's blog, you can click here: http://imreadytoflyhigh.blogspot.com.es/

Working in the 2040 aircraft.

In today's class, we started with our work of the aircraft of the 2040, it has been a class in which we all were doing the project asked in each respective subject. In my opinion it is a relief that we can do what we want or at least what we need to do in class, I think that it is a very good thing that our teacher let us advance in our projects, I don’t think that I could keep working during too long, there is too many things to do in this time of the year.

Another thing that I find interesting is that I'm "learning" Hungarian, you know, the typical things, hello, bye, dog, thanks and sometimes I talk with my Hungarian friends and I have a lot of fun!

Another presenttation more.

In today's class, I thought that we were going to do our team work activities, but we first had to present one of our activities, that was something that I didn’t expected. There only had to present two students from all the class, and guess what? I had to present. In these type of things I'm not very lucky. I wasn’t nervous at all, so I think that due to that I was able to present my activity in a very good way, even though I wasn’t able to prepare it before. I definitely think that I already know how to do good presentations in public, at least my nerves are totally gone.

New way of doing the classes.

In today's class, the teacher told us that the way of doing all the classes is going to change, now we are going to do all the projects that we have in this term during the class, and present them one day before of the day of the real presentation so you can know that you will do better in the real one. In my opinion, I think it is a good idea doing this, it actually has its point, as you do it before you finish the work before too, but there is also some problems of doing this, I think that it will be very stressing that we have one day less for doing all these activities.

We continued with the SWOT analysis.

In today's class I had to do an activity where I had to do a report about the things that my partner told, but the SWOT analysis of the partner that should handle to me, wasn’t in my       e-mail, so I had to do the work again with Joaquín, who has been showing me all the work that he has been doing and it was actually really good, I was very impressed of the work done by him, it was actually better presented than mine, the content of his works it was good, but I had time just to read some of them.

My personal opinion of this activity was that it is very important to know how to criticize other's works and how to take the criticism as an opportunity to change it, it was very useful this activity.

I'm very proud of my improvement

All the effort that I have done this year it was worth, why? I have really improved in doing oral presentations. Today, I had to do a presentation of the correspondence and memoranda, we decided between Eric and me yesterday who was going to explain the whole presentation by lot. I lost so I had to do the presentation. At the beginning I thought it was a bad thing that it was me who had to present it, but today, after explaining everything, I think it was better for me presenting because the pride I felt when I did the exposition almost perfect, I didn’t have any words, even the teacher, who criticized the rest of the participants a lot, didn't say anything bad about me, I think this course has been worth.

Meeting with the teacher.

Sorry for not writing posts since Wednesday, I actually couldn't because I was very busy with all the exams and other works. In Thursday, the class was actually the most important class of all the course for me, it was the class in which I had a personal meeting with the teacher. As always, I started being very nervous and she really did notice, she was very helpful in that case and made me feel comfortable in a few seconds. At the end of the meeting I think that I was very assertive during all the conversation and the most important thing is that it was me the one who was talking during most of the meeting, not my nervous part.

The start of the end.

In today's class we have started with the conversations with the teacher about what do we deserve of marks, I pretty think that it is very normal to be nervous in this case, because it is the time where the teacher decides your mark and I think everyone who cares about his marks is going to be nervous in this moment. I thought I was going to do this talk with her today because the order of the surnames but it didn't.

Instead of doing nothing in class, we did the evaluation of the teacher, which in my opinion got a good one, even though in this subject there is a lot of work to do, if I think it properly, I have learnt a lot. So I don’t think this subject was useless, maybe I could have learnt how to do a presentation in one or two years by practicing, but thank to this subject I was able to do it faster. I think this was one of the better things of this subject, the fact that I got better at doing presentations.

We did a test in class!

In today's class, we have been doing a test which was about creativity and some other stuff which it was actually pretty good, the creativity one was the best for me, because it was actually funny the way some creative questions were asked and funnier the way the answer was said.

For example, there was a question in which I laughed a lot. The question was: Andrew is a guy who was going to a party with some friends and when we was going out he forgot his driving license. When he was driving there, he skip a traffic light and also went in opposite direction. A policeman saw everything but he didn’t do anything. Why did this happen?

The answer was that he was walking, not by car. When I saw this, I just hadn't words to say how that question was, I just started laughing.

We are going to do a test in next class.

In last class, we were going to do a test, but I don't exactly know what was it about, because we didn't do it at last, because we needed internet explorer to do it, and there were people who didn't have this, so finally we decided to do this test on the next class, in a computer room of the university. This test reminded me to another test I did a week ago about emotional intelligence,  it was an extra work that I had to do from a class, I could do it if I wanted, so I did it. It told me that I'm not very good leader, but some good parts were that I am a person easy to trust in. This test wasn't a typically test of 10 questions were they tell you just useless things, it was actually a very good test. I would recommend it to you but it was only available until last tuesday.

More problems!!

In today's class we have continued with the assertive classes, today we have practiced where should we act assertively, where not, or even when is it very difficult to act like that. We had to choose a usual situation that happened to you, describe how you acted and how you should have acted. I chose that situation when you are at the cinema and someone behind you starts to disturb you kicking your seat, I put that I usually act passively, I just wait until he stops and I realized that it wasn't right to act like that, but I'm used to stay silenced and I know that it is not right to do it. It would be another nice thing to change in a future, but right now I don’t think that I'm able to do it.

More problems and stress

In today's class we have been correcting all the mistakes we have been doing in this term. When I saw all the messages by the teacher in order to change a lot of things  I was so stressed, I have to do works like for 10 hours and I am on exams, this is getting really hard. Today I was just thinking in all the work I have to do, I'm going to be working a lot these two following weeks.

Another part that made me think about something was when the teacher told us of because of arriving late from another class. I think that if that would happen every day,  I would understand it but, actually, it was first time we arrived late and there is no need to get angry for that. I can understand anyway that she wasn't happy with us. It is always a bad thing to arrive late anywhere.

Run out of ideas!!!

Today's class we have only done one activity and nothing more, so I run out of ideas for this post. This activity was the last we did in the last report. I think that if we had done more things than one, we could write more than one post, but we have only done one activity, in which I already talked about in last post. I think that we could do more than one post if the classes would last 3 hours, but in this year, they only last 2, so there's no time enough to do more than one activity and if nothing interesting happens apart from what I commented in the last post, it is difficult to come up with something. 

Looking for videos.

We have been doing an activity in class in which we had to look for some videos on YouTube where it appears some assertive techniques. Actually today's class, thanks to this activity was very light and calm and I was doing one of my hobbies too, searching for videos on the internet. One of the techniques was the "broken record" in which someone repeatedly says no to something. This technique immediately reminded me to the film "Yes man", a Jim Carrey's film which it is very funny, I tried to look some scenes of the film in order to use them for the work but I couldn't find any, I suppose I will continue searching.

I'm getting better

Today we started the class a bit late. The secretary of today was Francisco Javier and he did it actually quite well, there was no pressure on him and we could notice it. He did it very natural. The way he did it, it might be the way I would like to do it when presentation. Talking about my shyness problem, it is starting to get better, every presentation I do in class, I do it more natural and I can notice my change. Today I had to do another presentation and I did a very good job with it. I'm very proud of my changes, but I still have to get better.

Another problem incoming

We have done another activity today, it was about learning how to say no. It has been an activity that made me think a lot about a lot of things I have done bad with a lot of people. I am used to be a person that says yes to everyone, every favor they ask to me I help them and I know that it is a bad thing to do, when acting like this I'm not respecting myself and it is another thing that I should start to change. This is really going to be difficult to change because I have been like this all my life, but with some effort I will change it. 

I speak in public again

In today's class we have done an activity very interesting, it was in pairs and one of these pairs where a worker whose aggressive behavior was annoying the workers and the boss should have to make him change in a assertive way. I did this activity with Janos and we had to do this activity in public. I totally forgot about my shyness problem and I did it very well. It might have been the first time that I wasn't nervous. I think that I'm starting to change this thing and working it for the better.

First "presentation"

In today's class we had to do an oral presentation of our project for the 2050 aircraft, it was just the introduction and the conclusion but, as always, I was very nervous.

We started the class as always and then we begin practicing the presentation. Every minute passed I was feeling more nervous. But when the time came, I felt very self-assured. The problem was when I had to start talking, I don't know why, but my nerves attacked again. I thought I was very comfortable but… as I saw today, things can change.

Even though I thought I did it really bad, people thought that I showed our presentation very well. Actually, I didn't think that they'd think that, but I'm glad they did.

Another problem is incomming.

Today, we have talked about how to do good presentations.  It has been very productive because it is an important thing to talk in a good way to the public. Our teacher has told us that we are going to do a conference in the auditorium. It has really set of my nerves, I can stand a presentation with people of my class, but… with a lot of people that we don't know… it will be difficult to go through it without any problem.  It will be another thing that I will have to try to change.

Nonverbal communication.

In today's class we have talked about how important is the nonverbal communication and we have done an exercise in which we had to make our partner listen to us just with gestures. I think it was interesting and strange too. In my opinion I think it would have been more interesting and funny to play a game called "Los hombres lobo de Castronegro". It's a game where there are three werewolves and many other characters. The werewolves are in charge of attacking at night to the villagers, they need to decide which villager they need to kill. In the next morning, everyone must do a judgment in which they will decide or not if they are going to kill someone, trying to guess who the werewolves are. It is a very interesting game in which you can have a lot of fun.

I'm not the only one who is shy.

In today's class, the secretary was Adrián Gallego, who as secretary did it very well, but I could notice that he was very shy while doing it. Some reasons of why I noticed that were because he spoke with a very low voice, it was also hard for him to say some words even though he is very good at English and I know him pretty much for thinking that he was going to be nervous despite he didn't tell me anything. All these reasons remind me the day when I was the secretary. I think that I was as nervous as he was today. But I think that he also will have realized that it wasn't bad at all being the secretary. If someone wants to go to his blog, here's the link: http://imreadytoflyhigh.blogspot.com.es/

How to write an email correctly.

Our teacher has said to us to correct three emails and to write another two, in order to improve our writing email's ability. I think that this activity might have been productive, because most of the emails I have written were as the teacher said they weren't correct. Probably it can be something that I will thank in the future when applying for jobs, or writing emails in a company. Before of doing this I didn't know even the half of the mistakes I was doing. It has actually been very helpful.

One of my hobbies: Youtube.

In today's class we kept working in the email activity and we also saw Janos's blog. It had a funny video in it and it remind me one of my hobbies: watching videos in Youtube. Actually I probably spend between one and two hours in Youtube a day. I watch every kind of video, such as videogame, music, funny or even science videos. Actually, my favorite youtuber is Pewdiepie, he is from Switzerland and he has 6,6 million subscribers and increasing. He plays a lot of types of games, but he most plays horror games. If someone wants to know something about him here's a link to his channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/PewDiePie

It's a channel I really recommend.

Manuel Campo's conference.

Last Monday we went to the Manuel Campo's conference, which was very light too as the Pedro Duque's, but it had another way of making it. The Pedro Duque's conference were just questions, but this one, Manuel Campo talked us about the importance of talking in public even thought we were engineers. It actually seemed very similar to a normal class of communication skills, because he talked about a lot of topics that we have already seen in this class, such as the importance of talking in public or the importance of your profile photo. I was very asleep because last night I couldn't sleep quite well, so I couldn't pay much attention. But despite I was sleepy I took note from most of the things he said, it definitely was a very interesting conference. 

Pedro Duque's conference

Last week we went to a conference where Pedro Duque wanted to answer some questions. It was very light and easy to follow. Most of the conference was all those questions, and most of them were good, but there was a question that really hit Pedro Duque. It said: How did your father inspired you to do this work? Actually the question wasn't that bad, but the main problem was that his father died two years ago, so it was very hard to answer. I can imagine that must be very annoying because when I was 6 years old, I remember that my great grandmother died and it was very difficult for me to talk to people because I was too sad. Actually, Pedro Duque was able to answer the question, so he was very brave to do this.

Time to change the education system

In today's class we have done the same things as always: reading the minute, the wiki and all those things. We have finished Mind Map of how to write an email and we have also talked about the nowadays system of teaching in schools.

Everyone thought that kids in primary should have more capacity for choosing what they want to be, but I think that it is not the point. When you are a kid, you just want to be a football player, a dancer, a singer, or things like that. If we all say to our children to do that, there won't be anyone who works in engineering or medicine. So I think that the primary school is ok how it is, but what we should change is the last two years. In England, the last two years, you decide what you want to study, but not anymore in Spain, we have to study all those subjects that we will forget in just a few days. I think this must be another change we should try to do.

I changed the blog!!

In yesterday's class, we reviewed my minute and this blog so they could have a look at it. They thought that it expressed sadness, when actually I wanted to express seriousness, but anyway I didn't looked to more types of blog, so I decided to look for other's that could express seriousness. I found this one which is actually very nice and not that depressing. When they told me that, I could see the point about why they were telling it to me, it was a very depressing environment for a blog. 

First accomplishment. I'm the secretary!

In today's lesson, I was the secretary, and it wasn't that bad! I thought it was going to be very uncomfortable but, it wasn't. I think the worst part was when I had to read the minutes and the blogs, because I was nervous. But as soon as the time passed by, my nerves just disappeared,  actually, the class was faster than other days. I have really enjoyed it, despite it remind me my first conference, when I was 12 years old.

 I think I'm starting to lose my shyness, something that as I said, is one of my main problems. Probably, the only con of being the secretary it is the extra work, but the rest of the things are clearly pros, it has been an experience to advise.

My problem attacks again

In today's class, we have been most of the time working on the next activity (the interview to Pedro Duque). We have been doing the biography and prepared some questions for him on Friday. I am very excited about this conference, because his job it would be the one that I want to work in, it would be fantastic to be an astronaut, who hasn't dreamt about it when you were a child? I could also have been the responsible of interviewing him, but my problem that i have already mentioned of shyness just made me say no. Probably I will regret this decision, but I think that the important thing is that you shouldn't care if you fall, you always have to get up. In this case, for a future, I will remember what I did today and I will try to do my best.

Things we should start to change

There have been a lot of themes in today’s class, 04/04/2013, but the one that has interested me a lot has been the video projection. This video was about creativity in schools and how we have been losing it day by day. It was a very interesting topic which has made me think about it. In the video said that the today’s education is being very monotone, they just let the kids study math’s, literature… but they never let them study what they want, if they want to study dance, let them do it, if they want to sing, to be an artist or whatever, let them do it, or they will never be happy in their lives. Recently, I saw a video on YouTube, where someone said that when he was a child, he wanted to sing, even thought he wasn’t going to be rich, but he prefers to do what he likes than to be millionaire sitting on a chair just wasting his life. I think that is one of the things of this society that we should start to change, because I think that the mainly important thing in our lives is to be happy with ourselves.

Getting to know the subject.

Today, 3/4/2013, our teacher has showed us how this subject is going to be and I have noticed that we are going to have to do a lot of presentations, something obvious because of the name of the subject: communication abilities. I suppose that it is going to be a subject that is going to get hard for me due to what I said in the last post, but I think that there is nothing you can’t do if you do an effort for it. This situation has happened three times already in this university, in the first term I had to do a presentation for calculus and chemistry and in the second term for algebra and all of them went very well although I was very nervous. I think one of my goals for this term is to forget about this “stage fright” with the help of this subject, let’s see if it is possible.

First day, first problem.

In our first class, 2/4/2013, we have had to sit with someone that we didn´t know and present him to the rest of the classmates. It has been an exercise where a lot of people have had to forget about their shame and talk to all the class, I was one of those because of I am very shy since I was a child. This time was very easy because everyone had to do it and we were just 20 students. It has also been funny at the end!! This class has remembered me an experience when I was 12 years old, in which I had to talk to 200 people during 15 minutes, I was extremely shy on that situation as you can imagine.