CEC FIPP Activity Report
Name Jose Bernaudo
Date 12/05/10
Department English/ Humanities
FIPP Partner Mohsen Sahebjame
Class title & section # English 1A
Name of Activity/Strategy Time Management Log & Journal
Category: (Please select only one.) (Reminder: You will submit one report from each of
the categories.)
Classroom Activity
Classroom Environment
Classroom Expectations
Feedback & Evaluation
Homework & Out-of-Classroom Learning Experiences
Briefly describe the activity/strategy, providing enough detail so that a colleague can
replicate the activity/strategy.
1. Introduction This 10 point homework assignment is based on the time
management form for students that is in the On Course workbook. The goal of
this assignment is to get students, especially the younger ones, to see how
they are utilizing and managing their use of time. For example, a student may
want to major in nursing and become a successful RN, yet he or she is wasting
40 or more hours per week watching TV, playing video games, and partying.
This same student may be devoting only 12 hours or less to attending class
and studying!
2. Set-up & Supplies Pen and paper.
3. Directions For one week, students keep a log of all their use of time for each
day - obviously, very personal things are not included. I give them very little
direction. I only ask that they be very honest with themselves. I suggest that at
the end of each day they simply jot down how much time they spent doing what
they did, e.g. homework, texting, housework, television, partying - you get the
idea. After the log is completed for the week, they are to write a one page
journal entry reflecting on how much time they are simply squandering and how
much time they are devoting towards their educational and career goals. I
stress that for students to get the most out of this assignment, they be should
brutally honest with themselves and to be very discriminating in their analysis.
For example, exercising, doing household chores, spending time WITH friends
and loved ones should not be considered wastes of time but are important to a
happy healthy life. On the day the logs and journals are due I simply glance at
them and reward each student 10 pts for completing the assignment. After the
assignments are recorded, we have a discussion with students volunteering to
share the contents of their logs and journals.
What worked well? The discussion seemed to suggest that the assigment was not very
successful, as only one student responded positively and another student did not seem
as if she were being very honest. (She admitted she spent 12 hours watching television
on one day, but on average she watched little or no TV - yeah right.) The student who
responded positively, however, was startled to realize that she was spending 4 or more
hours a day reading supermarket romance trash novels. We talked a little about the
appeal of these types of novels, and if I read such novels myself. The class was very
interested when I said that such writing would be very painful for me to read because I
generally read only writers who are considered to be great. I also went on to say that I
find such writing bordering on being offensive because those kinds of authors are
merciless in exploitating their readers. We then discussed how it is very easy to be
conditioned by mediocre and trite offerings from mass culture, and how these offerings
can become addictive: e.g. soap operas, sit-coms, action movies, reality shows, twentyfour hour news and sports coverage. The student next asked me what she should read
instead, and I advised her that there are many great novelists, male and female who
have written very beautifully amd meaningfully about the theme of love and that the
classics section in any good bookstore or library would be a good place to start.
What would you change? This assignment should be done at the beginning of the
semester, not after the middle as I mistakenly did. The class was antsy and impatient
because now is crunch time for them: novels to read, research papers to write, and final
exams to worry about.
Would you use the activity/strategy again? Why or why not? Yes, I still think this could be
a very good assignment that could lead to many epiphanies for many students.
Please describe any student learning and/or changes that you observed after the
implementation of the activity/strategy. At least one student will cut down on reading
supermarket romance novels!