Blog Assignment 1

A Little About Me

Hey!  I’m Taylor Lane and this is my blog for EDM310!  Well, I was born and raised in Moss Point, MS.  I went to school and lived in Montgomery, AL for a while, but now I’m home on the coast again. I have a huge family and that’s one of the main reasons I’m excited to be back.  I travel about 40 minutes one way to attend USA.  So, getting to know life as a commuter student is going to be a challenging adventure.

One of the main reasons I am excited about pursuing a career in the field of education comes from past experiences.  I had an AP English teacher in high school that just could not get me interested in English, literature, or poetry at all.  She just could not make it interesting.  To make a long story short, I had some English and literature professors in college who opened my eyes to how much our language can enrich someone’s quality of life.  I hope that I can do that for others.

My passions sound cliché when you read them.  For example, if I said “I love music.” You can’t tell how much I love music, but I LOVE music. Some of my favorite artists are The Avett Brothers and Ben Folds.  I also love reading. Over the summer I’ve been reading “Infinite Jest” by David Foster Wallace and it contains some of the most amazing description I’ve ever read.

That’s a little about me.


Dr. Pausch on Time Management

I learned a few things from Dr. Pausch’s video that I had not previously considered.  When he presented suggestions on goal setting and planning one of the ideas that I found remarkable was thinking “What happens if I choose not to do it?”  It makes me think of the consequence of choosing not to do something in order to motivate me to action.  He also motivated me make a plan and make to do lists.  I actually made one right after I watched the video.  His advice to “Do the ugliest thing first” was my inspiration to tackle this first blog post.

This is the first time I have seen a video of Dr. Pausch, but its not my first run in with him.  I read his book ‘The Last Lecture” a few Christmases ago.  It was a great book with a number of notable life lessons.

Penn State University's Time Management Exercises

This is another suggestion that I found to be extremely helpful.  I have already put a few of these suggestions into action in my daily routine. I found the suggestion to just do one thing at a time very useful.  I have so many things to do this semester that I’ve found when I sit down to study or work it is overwhelming the number of things I have to get accomplished.  So, focusing on one thing at a time and completing that one task makes it easier for me to go on to the next one and complete another. 

I also found the suggestion to have plans for the semester, week, and day to be a great way to work.  I have already laid out in my planner when all my tests are and what readings I need to get done each week in order to be prepared for class.  Breaking my tasks down into smaller increments makes them much easier to manage.  As opposed to just viewing them all as big daunting tasks they become small steps toward a main goal.