Taking criticism is hard.

I got an 85 on my Mars sugar paper, and an A- in the class.

That's good, right?

I received comments from both my professor and my classmates on the paper. Unfortunately, I think my professor was a little disappointed in it.

Or maybe I am over-emphasizing the constructive criticism.

What kind of ticks me off is, I agree with most of the comments that were made (and knew that they would be made even as I was writing it), but I just didn't have enough time to fix it. I wrote the paper in a hurry and thus didn't produce my best work.

I think the reason that it took me so long was because I was treading in largely unfamiliar territory.

I guess one thing I learned was, if you're going to write a real grant proposal, you should have someone else take a look at it before you submit it. And of course that means finishing the first draft well in advance.

I've been doing quite a bit of self-reflection in my teacher training this week.

I need to try to be more confident in my own ideas.

Someone today suggested that I try practicing some confrontational-type situations with other teachers to get over my fear of confrontation. I thought this was a pretty great idea, but I don't know if I'll do it or not. It would be very, very hard for me.

Maybe there is some kind of seminar I can take on that subject...and I don't just want to get one of those self-help books...