1. Eric Daniel
Mrs. Lester
Honors 10th Lit/Comp
May 2012
End of Semester Summative Reflections
1. This semester I have been studying all about Traumatic Brain Injury. I have been
researching this topic and discussing it with my peers in fishbowl discussions. To really
receive the maximum amount of knowledge possible I limited my study to T.B.I. in only
war veterans. Veterans who have this injury usually receive it from a bomb on the side
of the road. About 10 to 20 percent of soldiers who return home from war have some
symptoms of a traumatic brain injury. Luckily I was given plenty of time to research my
topic and do not have any questions.
2. This was a pretty “smooth sailing” project. I did not have to many challenges I
had to encounter. Time management was not a problem due to the fact that we had
plenty of time in between deadlines to do what was asked of us. My group and I have
known each other for a very long time and had worked on a project together previously
so we knew that we would be able to do this project well. We split everything up evenly
and all played our role so there were no arguments to be had. If I was to pinpoint one
challenge that my group and I encountered it would be research. At the beginning of the
research process we were finding article after article giving us the same information.
Since we were worried about how we would be able to do a whole project with limited

2. information we went to Ms. Lester and Hamilton. They reassured us that this was ok
and that we just needed to go deeper into our research.
3. For my group the most difficult part of the project was finding a professional on
our topic to interview. It took us four tries and a little more than a week to get a positive
response. For our first choice we could not find an email for our professional. On our
second try we shot the guy an email but did not receive a response. The third person
that we tried did not have an email in sight, so we went to Ms. Hamilton who “tweeted”
her. After waiting for a few days we decided we would not hear back and contacted Dr.
Charles H. Bombardier. The best feeling was when we saw his name in the inbox and
realized we did not have to stress about it anymore.
4. “All Quiet on the Western Front” did not really influence my decision. My war
book of choice was, “Dear America, Letters Home From Vietnam” and lead me to
originally want to do the project over the family's role in a soldier’s life. Then when I
contacted my partners they persuaded me into doing Traumatic Brain Injury. This also
interested me because I had a family friend who had been in an accident recently and
was suffering from a case of Traumatic Brain Injury. The more fishbowls we had and the
more I heard about my peers talking about it, the more I began to like the idea of the
topic.
5. The biggest lasting impact for me will be visiting with my family friend. It just
amazed me to see how much the injury could change a person. He was just a normal
person like the rest of us until his accident and now he has trouble with his speech and
memory. It helped me get a sense of what it was like for veterans and their families

3. were going through when the veteran would arrive home with a traumatic brain injury. I
think I will carry this learning experience throughout my life.
6. I am most proud of the fact that I felt as if me and my group stepped our game up
from the last project. We did countless research and worked as a team to make the best
project we could. Just seeing it all come together day by day made me proud. Being
able to stay organized using my calendar was something kind of new for me as well. I
am usually not well organized but have the calendar at hand made my life so much
easier and less stressful.
7. I think the thing that was most challenging for me was the stress of it all. Luckily
there was not too much stress either. Due to our calendar I was able to keep my stress
at an all time low when it comes to projects. but I still encountered it a few times.
Everything can just get overwhelming sometimes when you have homework in every
class, sports, and family all in one day. I can also get nervous before a fishbowl
worrying that I might sound stupid or say something incorrect. As far as the actual
project, everything went well and now that I am approaching the end of it I realize that
there really was not anything to stress over.
8. (1.1.1) This year I learned how to properly develop research questions. This is
going to be so helpful for me down the line. I have learned to really dig deep and get in
depth with my questions. (1.1.5) Websites like Wikipedia usually get used a lot and are
not trustworthy. This year Ms. Lester and Hamilton taught us the CRAAP test to make
sure all of the information we were finding was true. I look forward to using this skill
when I encounter projects that I need to find all the information possible for. (1.1.8)
Scoop.it was very heplful this year it was a website that me and my partners could use

4. to find articles on our topic and then within a click of the mouse could have in our
possesion for research. I know for a fact that I will be keeping my Scoop.it profile!
(2.1.2) Netvibes and Symbaloo are not really helpful to me they just seem like a website
where you can put down unnecessary information instead of just bookmarking it and
getting back to it later. (1.3.3) I know that me and my partners really enjoyed being
introduced to EasyBib this year. It made citing our resources so much easier compared
to what we were doing with NoodleTools earlier in the year.
9. My group and I used VoiceThread once again for our final product. As far as it
enhancing our learning experience, for me, it did not really just because we already had
done our design proposal and our shaping sheet. We had been researching for over a
month and already had all of our information. By the time we got to the VoiceThread it
was all about finding copyright friendly pictures and talking about our information that
we had on our shaping sheet.
10. My group and I chose Netvibes. I really do not like the whole idea of Netvibes
and Symbaloo, I can see where it would be helpful for some people but just not me. I
guess for me it just seems like a waste of time when you already have all the
information to go and put it up on there. It also reminds me of a website that you go to
and then just click on a link which will take you to a website you have previously been
to. In which case I think just bookmarking the URL would be easier.
11. This class has been so helpful. I look forward to taking my brand new
organization techniques and researching skills to American Literature and Composition
next year. I hope that we do something kind of like a fishbowl because to me they were
really helpful. I feel like I now know my way around the computer better which in our age

5. of time is very important. Also even more so than American Lit I want to thank Ms.
Lester and Hamilton for preparing me for college.