Final Thoughts on the Course
My favourite assignment during this class was probably the final project. I liked doing this so much because i’ve heard of lots of classing creating their bucket list before and i’ve always envied other groups getting to create such a personal and rewarding project but unfortunately I was never able to do one in class until this year. TBL project really helped me expand my thinking and figure out what it really was I wanted to accomplish in my life and it was a really rewarding fulfilling experience to create all of my list items. My least favourite assignments were always the reading reflections. Even though I understand the importance of the reading reflections I felt it was hard for me to get into the rhythm of keeping up to date with posting them on my blog and it was hard to focus on a certain book at some points.
Friday reading is a really good idea in my opinion. For people like myself it is sometimes hard to stay focused on a book and I rarely choose to read on my own time so having the reading classes helped me to complete reflections and actually read. I think you should keep the friday reading classes for your future classes! Monday writing reflections on the other hand I wasn’t much a fan of. Doing the writing reflections on the same day as reading reflections were sometimes a little hard to complete both at the same time. But, it is also safe to say that the writing reflections were easy to accomplish and the topic we had to write about was always straight to the point making them relatively easy.
To be honest my personal opinion about the WRN is that it should be optional. I found that it was not helpful to me and I think it should be an option for students who want to put more personal things into it rather then posting them on their blog if they aren’t comfortable with everyone viewing them. The blog itself was a great idea. At first, I was very unsure about the whole idea and my thoughts were, “this is not what I signed up for” but in the end I actually found a new love for blogging and the whole technology part of the course. It was a really cool idea and I think you should continue with this style for next year and years to go! there is probably a lot more to teach and learn to expand the growth of blogs to influence the course to be even better. Tweeting was not my personal fav part of the course. I feel like I spend too much time on twitter as it is so that’s why I don’t enjoy tweeting in class but you’re right. The class proved that twitter can definitely be educational and helpful.
The introduction of so much technology to the course was really beneficial and I never felt overwhelmed with the amount of new stuff being taught because I was actually interested in learning more because it was technology, not chemistry or physics. During this course I learnt that I am becoming a better writer from practicing so much with the reflections. Even though it was sometimes painful doing the reflections it for sure helped develop me as a writer. I also learned that I am pretty creative and do not give myself enough credit. I think this because i’m pretty proud of my blog because I managed to organize it well and keep it up to date at all times.
Some comments I have to say to you Ms. Mclauchlin is that you did a great job creating this new form of creative writing and that I can guarantee that you will inspire other teachers to hopefully choose this same style of teaching and give them the understanding of how it works so well with students. I hope the florida conference goes better then excellent! Final advice I have for future students is just to always make sure they keep their blog up to date rather then doing it all last minute and to use class time wisely.
