Friday, March 5, 2010

Freshmen: Personal Reflections

Due 3-11-10 as a comment posted here:

In class, we created a pie chart illustrating the values we place on activities, relationships, academics, etc. We then created charts representing the amount of time we devote to each category. Reflect on these charts and consider the following: Theoretically, if life were perfect, our charts would appear identical. In other words, our priorities would correspond to the amount of time we devote to them. In reality, this is rarely the case. Consider the disparity between your charts and discuss your observations. What changes could you make in order to manage your time in a fashion that is productive for you?

20 comments:

ctwitchell said...

If my charts looked identical, my life would be perfect, however my charts differ from one another. On my first chart, where my family is the biggest priority in my life takes up the most space, then my friends. The second chart i have, school is where i spend most of my time throughout the week.
I should be spending the most time with my family if they are my biggest priority in life, but that is not the case.Education is important in my life, however it is not the biggest thing in my life that i absolutely love. In a perfect world, the persons charts would have the biggest priority match up so that, that is the time they spend most at. In order to accomplish that, I should have to make myself let school, since it is where i spend most of my time in the week, make myself love it so it is a major priority. Whatever you do the most in your week, should be your biggest priority in life, since that is what you do most, and make yourself love it.

Anonymous said...

With the pie charts that we used, our observations between our priorities and everyday life were different. Yes, if life were perfect, they would be more similar. With my charts, they were not far off. I do make my time work with what I am required to do. I think that most people , even myself do things that matter more to us, than the things that we should be doing. Most peoples every day life would consist of video games, friends, and chatting on the computer. When their priorities would be much different.
On my chart with the things that I revolve my life around, It was mostly family, friends, school and homework. If anyone could choose, I am sure that most of their priorites would not include homework and school. Homework and school are required and have to be on there list of things to do. Most people would like to have matching pie charts with most of the things that they want to do. My charts were pretty close and accurate.

-hannah labonte, E

22569 said...

One could have a practically perfect life if they got EVERYTHING that they could ever want and live the good life. There are at least 3 people in my shop that has ALL of their priorities inline. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people. I should make more time to complete homework\schoolwork.

I need to put my schoolwork first and then once everything is done, then I can do what I want. I spend just about ALL of my time chilling out and testing PlayFirst games and writing tips\cheats. I should rely less on being able to complete my homework\academic work in shop like I used to be able to do at the beginning of the year.

Nobody's perfect. We're all regular human beings; we make mistakes and we try to fix them the best we can and then move on.

Lauren Wefers
SERSD

Anonymous said...

Juliana Ahern G

The results for my pie charts were very interesting. With this activity, I discovered that the time I spent with certain categories differs from the amount of value I had toward it. The amount of time I spent with my friends differs from the amount of care I feel toward them is an example. The example that shocked me the most was the time I spent with school and how I truly valued it.

On one of my pie charts, the percentages for time spent on school (studying, homework, etc.) took up a large portion of the chart. On the other chart, I concluded that I did not value school as much. This resulted in percentage going down 25%. One would imagine that if an activity took up a large portion of a daily routine, the devotion of that activity would be the same. Maybe, in order to make school more enjoyable, I could get the proper amount of sleep so I don’t go to school in a bad, tired mood. Perhaps, instead of dreading a class, I could look for positive qualities that class has to offer. Either way, I’ll try to make the best of school.

The results of the pie graphs were different and unexpected. The graphs should have matched up but, because they didn’t, I’ve decided to try to change the amount I value school. My goal is to have the two portions the same percentage before I graduate in 2013.

Anonymous said...

If my life were perfect my pie chart would have equally corresponded from how important things are to me to how much time I devote to them. However, my life is not perfect and some of my values were askew. It appeared to me then that there are many things that I could do to make my values correspond. In the following I will inform you on how I can make my values better and try to better improve myself as a person. The one thing that shocked me was how little time I spend with my family.

The thing that shocked me most is that I spend more time on xbox live with my family. However, there are things I can do to fix that. The first thing I could do is to only play xbox on weekends. This would help me to spend more time with my family and less time on xbox. I could also play sports with my brother. Many times during the week my brother will ask me to play basketball, or play catch. However, unless I am forced to I usually say no because I am more busy on xbox. Not only would this help my family time it would help my brother increase his ability in sports and excel outside of playing with me. My third thing that I think would help me to lower my xbox time would be to get rid of it all together. Not only does it isolate me from my family it also affects me in school. I would rather be playing xbox than learning new info that would help my grades. As I write this I would rather be on xbox and just take a zero but I am smarter than that. These are all things I think I can do to better my life.

These are the things I think I could do to better my life. I am going to try and do these things and get my life back on track. I understand that I think this will be difficult to do but I believe in myself and know I can do it. My life is much better from this exercise and I am glad we did it. I think that I can spend more time with my family and eventually even out my pie chart.

n petersen

Anonymous said...

Zack Buttner Period G 3/10/10

In a perfect world we would spend as the most time on the things that are most important to us. Unfortunately the world is not a perfect place and this is not how things work out.
On my pie chart that explained what is most important to me in my life my friends took up about 40% of what is important. On the chart that showed how much time I spend with my friends, they only took up about 25% of my time. This is quite a significant difference. One way I can change this is by making more of an effort to hang out with my friends when I have time to do so.
Sports are also another important thing to me. It took up about 25% of my pie chart. But when I flip the page over and see that it only takes up about 10% of my time, this is troubling to me. I play several different sports that I enjoy playing. One way that I can add more time to playing sports is to go outside and become more active.
Another important subject in my life is family. They were about 20% of my importance chart. When I looked at my time chart it was startling to see that I only spend 10% of my time with my family. Even though we live under the same roof I don’t really get much of a chance to spend time with them. I can change this by taking a little bit of time out of my other activities and spend more time with my family.
The last thing on my chart was school. It was the least important thing to me on my importance chart, taking up only 10%. Unfortunately, when I look at my time chart I noticed that it took up about 40% of my time. This is not a good thing. There really isn’t much of a solution to this problem. I cannot drop out of school because my parents would never allow it. Even if I did drop out there would be very little chance of me being successful in my life. The only thing I can think of to fix this problem is to deal with school for the next four years, and try to enjoy it.
These were the differences in to charts between importance and time. I am sure everyone else is dealing with the same problem as I am. I will do everything in my power to try and equal out the differences between the importance and the amount spent doing these activities.

Tyler R said...

Theoretically if life were perfect the pie charts we made should be, or be almost identical however life is not perfect so this is not the case. In my first chart the biggest category was my girlfriend, but in my second chart the biggest category was school. If I had it my way school would not be in any chart. The problem is it’s something I’m forced to do, and not necessarily want to do, and because I’m forced to go to school for 6 hours a day, and 30 hours a week it will inevitably be biggest portion of the chart because it takes up most of my time. I think the first chart we made represents what we want life to be like in terms of how we spend our time, and the second is how life really is. The only real way to make these charts matchup is to find interest in things you might not want to do like school for example. If you do that I think you’ll find everyday life much more enjoyable especially if that’s where most of your time is spent.

Anonymous said...

During class my charts, which illustrated what I devote my time to vs. what really is the time I devote to, were different but not that far off. The first chart showed what I would want my devoted time to be like but as I looked at my second chart they were not similar because I realized that school and homework took up most of my pie chart. My first pie chart incorporated my family, friends, school, dance, shopping and vacationing. Each category was divided in a way in which I would want it to be. For an example, family was a big chunk of my time and school was probably a half of my family category. My first pie chart opposed to my second pie chart was school being more than a half of the circle. So what I observed during this activity was that the first pie chart showed what my life would be if it was perfect and what I wanted it to be. The second chart showed reality. One way to make our charts similar is to focus on what matters at your given time in your life, which for me is school and homework. The pie charts will keep altering as my priorities change. For an example, school and homework are such a big part of my time right now but later on it will change to work. Both charts will probably never look identical because there are certain things you have to do and other things what you want to do. This activity shows the difference between my priorities in which of what I thought it really was and what it is.

Shannon M.
Block: D

Anonymous said...

If the world made pie charts, and the two charts were identical, life would be perfect. On the chart with my priorities, family was the largest, then friends, then education. On the second chart, with the way i spend my time, school was the largest, then friends, then family was the third largest.

If education was a higher priority on my list then i would probably do better. Maybe if i viewed school as training for the real world, and a way to choose how you will do in life in the terms of a job. If you do good in school, then you can get into a good college which will greaten the chance of getting a good job. Also since I spend most of my time at school I should make it one of my higher priorities and it will help me get into a good college. If the pie charts were the same people would be more successful.

-Brandon Salvas D

Mitchell Robey said...

If my charts were the same, then my life would be just how it should be, perfect. But actually my two charts are very different. On my first chart I value my family the most, and jobs, friends, and school the least. On my second chart I spend the most time at school, and the least time doing homework.
Since, I spend the most time in school, I think I should value school more, and since I value Family more on my first chart, I think I should spend more time with my family. But this hard because my family is spread out in New England. If I could change what I value and how much time I spend with doing that thing, I would probably say my Family because I do not spend a lot of time with them, but I can call them or send them an e-mail once in a while. I also think I should spend more time on homework than playing video games. I think whatever I spend the most of my week doing, I should have more value with.

Anonymous said...

If life were perfect my charts would be the same, but we don’t live in a perfect world. The chart of things that I value most in life family was number 1 then sports was #2, and there was a big difference between the two. School and grades are valued in my life, but not as much as family or sports. On my time divided pie chart school was #1 and family was #2. I make time to do thing with my family probably more than other kids would because they are the most valued thing in my life.
~matt butler

Anonymous said...

For most people their two charts would have a huge difference in importance to them and the actual amount of time spent on them, most likely for school and family. For example if your family is very important to you it would have a large section in the importance chart, but how much time do you really spend with them? On the time spent chart, the family section might be much smaller than their importance to you. In my charts, surprisingly, there is not much of a difference between the two.

My two charts are fairly balanced and do not have much of a difference between them. To make my charts more productive for me I could waist less time sitting on the computer. My family is extremely important to me and I spend a lot of time with them as well. School took up a good amount of my time spent chart and about the same amount in my importance chart. If school wasn’t important to me I wouldn’t do homework, study, or put any effort into school which would lead to bad grades. With bad grades you can’t get into a good college and might not have a good future, therefore, school should be the same size on both charts.

Most people would have school as half of their time chart and a small amount in their importance chart and for family a large section in the importance chart and a smaller section for the amount of time spent with them. For me this is not the case. If school is so important in your life and future it should be important to you and if your family is so important to you, you should spend as much time with them as you can.
-Danielle Puopolo

K. Seetaram said...

School is something every teenager spends most of their time in, because of that we spend little time appreciating the education we get. The time I spend in school and actually doing the things, like spending time with friends, has a difference because when you are hanging out with friends you don’t have to but in with school you have to be there. My education is an important role in my life yet spending time with friends isn’t a demand like school. The changes I could make in order to manage my time in a way that is productive for me is to incorporate school and spending time with friends together. The way I could do that is by working on a school projects together with my friends, or studying together on a test together.
Making the changes in order to manage my time better that would make me more productive would be spending with friends while studying together. Studying, with books and notes, seems to be more of a demand that doesn’t seem to be necessary, and it’s probably something that can be easily blown off. Instead of blowing it off I could make studying with friends more like hanging out together but we can also be learning too. That would make studying for subject more fun and help me , by making the time I would normally spend with friends toward my education.

Anonymous said...

This is what I put down for my “What I most value in life chart”. The first and most valued section in my pie chart is my family. The second most valued section in my pie chart is school. The third is my friends. The fourth is my religion. And the last valued section in my pie chart is my games, sports, and electronics. For my pie chart on what I spend time on everyday, I wrote this. For Monday-Friday, most of the day I spend time on school. Then the rest of the day I spend time with my family and my electronics, games, and sports. For Friday-Sunday, I spend time with my family, friends, my religion, and my electronics, games, and sports.
I don’t think there needs any changing with my pie graphs. My graphs match up perfectly. My graphs match up with my daily activities perfectly.
Kevin Belt, E

Sarah Buchan said...

In my pie chart, the results were very interesting and somewhat shocking. It was very interesting to see that the things I enjoyed or valued less, took up more time than the things I valued most. The amount of time I spend at school was nearly half of my chart. The amount of time I spent with friends was the second largest.


On the pie chart that displayed what I valued in life, school wasn’t nearly as large as the friend’s section, and family was about the same size as school. On the chart that displayed how my time was divided, school took up nearly half of my chart. I realized that I do not value school as much as I should. I also noticed that since the friends section was bigger than family, when I looked at how my time is divided chart, I realized family shrunk quite a lot because of time in school and spent with friends. Life is not perfect, so the charts could not be exactly identical. But, the charts could be close to identical, with a lot of hard work. I think it would be good if family were a bigger part of how my time is provided because family is always there for you. I could try to spend time with friends and family at the same time. There is nothing that can really change how my time is spent during school, but it could be easy to work around.


I think I can possibly make my chart close to identical if I try very hard. I will set it as one of my main priorities and I can hopefully succeed in making the chart identical. I hope to make this happen by the time I finish high school. It would help me a lot in the future and possibly make my life a bit more organized.


Sarah Buchan, GBLOCK

Anonymous said...

The results I had on both of my charts were very different from one another. My thing I like to do took up most of my time. These are the thing that I felt are most important to me. Family was a big part of the circle. A lot of the activities I do was also a big part of that chart. School was not a very big portion along with how much time I spend with friends. This was odd considering how much time I spend there a week. All of these change depending on the seasons. In the summer, school would not even be on my chart. Friends would also go up on this chart and would be a very important fixation for me. These are all what is important to me.
My other chart was how much time everything takes up. School which was not a very big portion of my other chart took up almost half of this chart. I found that family went down too. Most of my sports and activities stayed almost the same but went down a little bit. My friends also went down. I realized with this chart that many of the things that take up my time were not as important to me in this chart. The same thing happens though with the seasons. School would not be in there my friends and sports would go up, and I also would have my volunteer work. This really proved to me how much time I spend on unneeded portions of my day.
Ways that I could improve this is how much time I spend doing sports. If I do less of that I could spend more time on other stuff. School has unchanging hours unless you count the summer. Family I could spend more time with on weekends too instead of hanging out with friends for so long. I could find a lot of ways to balance out how much time I spend on the important things in my life.
-Rachel Smith
Period G

Anonymous said...

My two charts are totally different. I may spend more time at one thing but I might not like it as much as things I do for less time. I think the biggest one that is different is my school one. I go to school for so long in a week but I don’t have that as my biggest one. I think I did it that way because I like going to school but I just don’t think it’s more important than like my family. Then i always say I like to work out and stuff but I don’t do it more than school but I guess it’s more important to me that I look better now so I can live longer and not die because I’m over weight. If I get these to switch then I think mine would look pretty proportional. If I did I feel like I could get my grades up but also still work out and get a good diet going so I’m still in shape. That would help me in the two things I need the most right now.
Josh Jenkins

Anonymous said...

mr kefor my post isnt showing and i posted after school on thursday.....why isnt here??
natalie sharpe

Anonymous said...

Obviously if the charts looked the same life would be perfect. For my value chart the biggest was family and school. On the time chart school was the biggest and family was the second smallest.
If I value my family so much then why do I have family on my time chart is the second smallest? There is 168 hours in a week. Monday thru Friday kids go to school for 30 hours. That leaves 138 hours left. Everybody should get 54 hours of sleep a week (8 hours per day). So that leaves 84 hours of the week left. Most people including myself don’t spend half of that with their family. If life was perfect then about 70-75 of those 84 hours would be with my family. Then the rest eating and with my friends.
Most people biggest thing on their value chart is family. Then on then on the time chart it is one of the smallest things. If it’s the biggest on your value chart it should be the biggest on your time chart. You can’t live life for ever.

- Russell Boudreau, E

Anonymous said...

There are many changes that could be made to manage a more productive schedule. I have realized that between school, doing homework, and spending time with friends you spend a lot less time with family. There are several ways to manage your time more productively.

I spend a big portion of my time talking on the phone or on the computer with my friends. If I spent a little less time doing this I could be spending more time with my family. A lot of my time throughout the day is spent using electronics. If i spent a few hours less on the computer, on the phone, or just using electronics in general i could spend a lot more time around my family and i could be more involved in family activities. I am always with or talking to my friends over the phone, computer, or texting which also takes time away from my family. Friends are important but family should be the higher priority in your life and time is taken from that for spending more time with your friends. I think that if i spent a little less time with my friends i would have alot more time to be with my family.

Doing homework takes up a lot of time. The average amount of homework a highschool student usually gets takes at least an hour and usually longer. If you dont understand what you are doing for the homework you were assigned then you take longer doing it. When I am assigned an essay it takes a long time because you spend a lot of time writing it and you have to proof read it and fix your mistakes. When i am doing my homework i like to be alone and away from my family so i can concentrate easier but that takes alot of time away from my family. The amount of homework a student gets takes time away from time that could have been spent with family. If less homework was assigned every night then i would have more time to be with my family.

School takes up a huge portion of your day. School is a huge effort and tends to tire people out by the time they get home. Some parents are only home during the day and by the time you get home from school your parents are off to work and you dont see them at all. I go to school for about six hours five days a week and when i come home i have homework to do. Those six hours at school could be six hours you could be spending with your family. If you dont understand what you are learning at school you would probably stay after with that teacher which also takes up time away from your family. If school was shorter their would be more time to spend with family.
School, homework, and friends can interfere with your family life. If a little less time was used with those three activities i would have much more time to be with my family. You may think friends will always be there but in the end your family are the ones who will really mean the most so the more time thats spent with them, the more you realize how important they are to you. Friends are important but family lasts a life time.

-Jess Dowdy