Final Reflection

Week 13

This week we took a tour of the local Goodwill! Not only was it interesting to see how they distribute all of the things people drop off there, but I learned that they employ mentally disabled people. I thought that was very cool. Paige and I brought snacks and we did an activity to find an outfit for an interview under $20. We completed our letters to our respective senators with mine being about the water quality for communities surrounding the Great Lakes. It also wrapped up our Eco-Chic Lifestyle Changes. It was fun to make those habits!

Week 14

This week we presented our junk projects... mine being a traveling storage case for your backpack or purse.

We also created an online learning activity for our group members to complete. Mine was designed to raise the awareness about water quality locally.

Learned about myself...

 In this course, I learned a great deal about myself. As I get older, I continue to become better at critically thinking. Each and every class period of this course helped me with this. I also learned that if I make something such as a lifestyle change part of my daily routine, it can become a habit before I know it.

Learned about the environment...

Although this course has opened my eyes to such new depths in this department, I still have trouble remembering that many others don't have the knowledge I do about environmentally friendly things and instead of categorizing them as ignorant I should just tell myself they need the proper education to behave the way I do in correspondence with the environment. I am continuing to work at this.

Learned about blogging...

I may continue to blog! I haven't decided yet if I will continue to be as constant about it, but I definitely think it is a great way to post things about myself and my feelings in regards to whichever topic I like. It is fun to have something like this that is a little different than other social networking sites, like Facebook. 

This course has been eye-opening. I recommend it to all Health Majors in the future and will remember the things I learned throughout my life. Happy Finals Week!    

Reflection: Weeks 11 & 12

Week 11

We did an environmental literacy activity where we came up with our own definitions. Then we watched a short video called 'The Story of Stuff ', where a woman basically broke it down for us about 'stuff'. It was very interesting. Then Dr. V  brought in some 'junk' for us. We thought up some ideas that it could be up-cycled into. We also did the issue overview for our blogs, which was also quite interesting.

Week 12

This week was all about blog hops. We created one to hop from each of our blogs to show our photo essays. Everyone's ideas were really great!

Learned about myself...
I learned that I actually like upcycling. I never thought I would be the kind of person to recycle my old junk but I am actually considering trying it now!
Learned about the environment...
Not many things can function without a positive respect for the environment in mind. Keith's Photo Essay really sticks in my head because I can't believe there are neighborhoods right here in Minnesota that have environmental issues like these. It really opened my eyes.
Learned about blogging...
I learned that I want to keep up my blogging after the class is over. There are many things to blog about on a daily basis and I don't think I will ever get bored with it. It is kind of fun to vent through your blog!

Hope everyone had a good turkey break! 

Reflection: Weeks 9 & 10

Week 9

This week we started the advocacy section of the course. By finding our political representatives, it made us aware of the hierarchy above us here in the state of Minnesota. We also incorporated how it related to our profession to be aware of our reps. It was also week 6 of our lifestyle change and the 3rd quarter of our read n seed.

 Week 10

This week we watched the video "Unnatural Causes ". We also talked about our next blog post dealing with the issues for the Healthy People 2010 goal that we chose. I chose to focus on an issue dealing with water quality and the Great Lakes. We also got a small overview of the upcoming photo essay assignment, which I am looking forward to. It was also week 7 of our lifestyle change.

Learned about myself...

This week I learned that I should be more aware of our political reps. They are the ones we implemented to make choices about things such as our environment and we should be aware of who these people are and how we can contact them to give them our feedback. They have reps for each district for that reason exactly. 

Learned about the environment...

About the environment I learned how much it is intertwined with politics. I don't think we correlate the two together very much when we definitely should. 

Learned about blogging...

I learned some interesting things about blogging this week. Not only was I reminded of plagiarism in blogging, but I also learned how you can really work anything into our blog. It is fun to think it is a place to write absolutely anything that comes to your mind and speak freely about it.

The semester is flying by! Happy weekend!

Reflection: Weeks 7 & 8

Week 7.
*watched the video "Green"... this video was a documentary done by a grad student about certain 'cancer alleys' and how the people feel about these companies that have came in and taken over
*4th week of our lifestyle change
*2nd quarter of Read n Seed book
*Environmental working group... learned about the hazards of ingredients in our make-up

Week 8.
*watched the movie "Thirst"... this video was about the privitization of water and the affect it has on the countries being abused by manufacturers to bottle water
*we did an eye-opener called "junk on the brain" where I was made aware of some 'junk' terms and some cute ways to make some junk I had into great pieces of art around the house
*week 5 of our lifestyle change

Things i learned..
I learned quite a few new things throughout these weeks. Not only did I find new ways to recycle or upcycle my junk, but my eyes were once again opened to some of the negatives in other people's lives.. such as 3rd world countries whose water is currently privitized and some people who live right here in the US in so-called cancer alleys. I am also learning through my lifestyle change that the more I challenge myself with it, the more interest I keep regarding the goal.

Blogging has become a part of life at this point, haha. I always feel like there is something I can post about in share and voice's, there just always seems to be something to rant or rave about, or even pose a question about.

Just wanted to give a shout-out to my group member Ashley, who received a blog award this week. Go Ashley!     


Seriously people, check out this video!!!

Happy blogging and have a good weekend everyone!

Reflection: Weeks 5 & 6

For week 5, we watched a video called the Future of Food. It was very interesting to learn about how food is actually processed and the positives to eating organically. We also did an eye-opener that related to that and Pam and Jordanne brought apples with peanut butter and nutella for our snack time. I also got farther into my book, "Smashed", and continue to learn more blogging shortcuts.

http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/2008/07/23-End/organic-food-g.jpg

In week 6, we watched Diet for a New America and learned how to create graphical headers for our blogs. Abby and Hailey brought apples with caramel for snack time. We are into our third week of our eco-chic lifestyle changes and I am trying new things to keep my short shower times from being so hard. I figured out how to join the Linky parties, i was struggling with those but managed to figure that out easily this time.

Learned about myself & blogging...
In weeks 5 & 6, I learned that the more time I put into blogging, the more I get out of it. I was pretty frustrated at first since I really hadn't blogged much before and I wanted to do all the cool features of it but couldn't figure out how. Now I just google anything I want to know, and wha-la.. I have discovered the world of blogs.

Learned about the environment...
I learned that even though I am doing an eco-chic lifestyle change, there are so many people around me not being environmentally friendly. I have taken it upon myself to say things to anyone I see that isn't doing their part and in the end I hope it makes everyone around me be eco-chic too. The environment will continue to change for the worse unless we are proactive.

As we are nearing the halfway point, I feel like my eyes have been opened to this whole new aspect of life that deals with the environment. I am so much more accountable for my actions when it comes to 'eco-chic-ness' and I like doing something positive while I'm in college and for my life after. Live green!

Reflection: Weeks 3 & 4

In week 3, we didn't actually have class time. I meet with Jayme and she went over the blog requirements with me. I seemed to be keeping up for the most part, I struggled a little bit with finding everyone's blog so I could follow them and also remembering to comment on all of my group member's posts. We also had to pick our book for Read 'n' Seed, explain what it was about, and decide how we were going to split up the reading. I am very excited to get started on this!

In week 4, we watched the video called 'An Inconvenient Truth', by Al Gore. I had read the book a long time ago, but this movie reminded me what I read. I covered a lot of aspects of global warming and climate change.

http://www.climatecrisis.net/aboutthefilm/

That is the official site for An Inconvenient Truth. Check it out!!

We also chose what we are going to do for our Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change. I chose to take shorter showers. We will see how that goes!!

In these couple of weeks, I learned there are a lot of things I can personally do that I am not doing already to make myself more eco-chic. Those ecological footprint quizzes we took were incredible eye-openers, I told a bunch of my friends to check them out!

The Al Gore movie really made me focus on the environment. We all definitely take our resources for granted and need to change the way we live immediately. This is something I want to become a walking advocate of.

Blogging is going well! I think I am starting to really get the hang of this!! :)

Reflection Post: Weeks 1 & 2

The first week in class I learned the basics of blogging. It was a very informational week. We spent time customizing them and doing our first post. I was very intrigued and wanted to learn more about this blogging phenomenon. My favorite part about blogging is that you can share your thoughts and feelings more than you can on facebook or other social networking sites.

The second week in class we watched a video about how much the government omits when it comes to our knowledge of global warming. It really makes me think about how much else is out there that our government feels is appropriate to keep from us. Makes it seem kind of scary we trust them with our money and laws. I am a little bit shaky on blogging but am starting to feel a little more comfortable with it and I am exciting for the book I chose!

Welcome to Mediterranean Melissa!

Hi, I am Melissa Herzig and my blog is going to be about environmental topics with focus on the Mediterranean area. I have a real interest in tropical areas, especially because these are some of the most beautiful places on our planet and we need to keep them green!


There are 6 possible types of posts on my blog. They include:

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change
5. Read 'n' Seed
6. Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the categories will be listed as labels. This post is has been labeled with all six kinds of posts. You will also see the number of each kind of post in my Labels Gadget at the top of the page. All post titles from now on will begin with one of the categories above.

The members of my web group are:

1. Melissa@MediterraneanMelissa
2. Ashley@Ashley's Green Lily Pad
3. Paige@Paige's E Health Blog
4. Mallory Johnson (I cannot access her blog?)


You can subscribe to my blog by clicking the subscribe gadget in the gadget column. You can also follow my blog by clicking "Follow this Blog" in the gadget column. I am subscribed to all the blogs in my blog list gadget. You can see my complete profile and all the blogs I am following by clicking on "See Complete Profile."

I am looking forward to this course and all the fun things I can do to be eco-chic! This course is unlike any other course I have had here at UMD. Here I come blogger!

"Blogged for the Welcome Linky Party hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy."