Where to begin? This class taught me more than I ever imagined. You hear a class is called "Writing, Research, and Technology", but what can you truly expect to get out of it?
In this class, tons of things happened that I loved. The energy this class offered was amazing. When a class has a connection like that it just makes everything better. Starting off with the conversations help you see your peers in a different light. We get to know each other not just as classmates, but peers and sometimes even friends. We find out things about each other than can bring people together in ways you might not have imagined if no one spoke up. One of the biggest things for me in class was the day that my video was shown.
As hard as it is to believe, I'm not the most confident person. Most people have never heard me or see me sing or play ukulele. I'm petrified of people thinking I'm terrible. Honestly, it was the most amazing moment having Professor Mangini play the video for the class. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have ran out of class. I was scared that a group of my peers who had no reason to sugar coat how good or bad it was were in the room, ten feet away from me, judging me through a video. Then I finally get the courage to come back in the room and they started clapping. I was embarrassed but happy. That was the first time people had seen me "perform" and I somehow survived.
I thought I'd be able to just get by in this class, but I was wrong. As the days started passing, I slowly began slipping on my blogs. Posting them later and later then sometimes not even at all. I was getting lazy because I felt too preoccupied with stuff going on other classes. I took for granted how relaxed the class was and forget that it also, was a class, that needed its own attention when it came to the workload. By the time I had my conference with Professor Mangini, I had a big slap in the face. My grade was going to suffer because I was lacking on my blog posts, my Weebly wasn't a proper representation of who I was as a writer, and my Twitterive (for a lack of better words) was a mess.
I got back on track. I started revamping my Weebly page by page and giving it a more professional look. I added little tweaks all throughout to still be able to show bits of my humor and personality while maintaining a clean and professional feel to it. Once I started making those changes I knew I was on the right path. I had to basically totally revise my Twitterive, because the first time I did it - I wasn't truly aware of my place. It took time to embrace my new place, which was music, and figure out how I would channel that and find a way to express that through my Twitterive. I had to go back to my roots and the darker times, which was hard. Opening up isn't the easiest thing to do for anyone. I realized though that I could show how music was my place if I don't show how it saved me.
The final draft of my Twitterive is something I'm proud of.
I get to share something that is so personal to me and means so much with my peers. It was lifting a weight off my shoulders to be able to come clean about my past and show that it isn't something I need to be ashamed of, but rather how something great can come out of experiences that make us instead of break us.
The Oral History project that went along with our Collaborative Project was so fun to do.
We got to interview a 21 year old college student named Derrick Braun with tons of experience about what we were trying to come across through it! It was awesome to see someone my age filled with the experience and information that I had just come across this year. Food, Inc. helped open up my eyes about the food corporation and how deceitful it is. Through working on my collaborative project with Emily, Tricia, and Amanda we got to create an awesome multi-genre research page filled with information most people don't know. Working together with them was a great experience and unlike most group work, I think we did a nice job divvying out who was going to do what. No one felt overwhelmed with their workload and the ideas we all had made for a great collaborative team!
Overall through this semester, I think I've made big changes. I am far from the student I was in the beginning of this semester. My progress shows through my work and dedication as well as through the completed projects. I'm glad I got to take the class with a professor that was able to add so much excitement and liveliness to the class without losing his authority. It's professors like that who remind me the reason I want to be a teacher and also at the same time why I am majoring in Writing Arts. The skills I've learned in this class and life lessons are things that I will remember and be able to reflect upon in the future.
As hard as it is to believe, I'm not the most confident person. Most people have never heard me or see me sing or play ukulele. I'm petrified of people thinking I'm terrible. Honestly, it was the most amazing moment having Professor Mangini play the video for the class. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have ran out of class. I was scared that a group of my peers who had no reason to sugar coat how good or bad it was were in the room, ten feet away from me, judging me through a video. Then I finally get the courage to come back in the room and they started clapping. I was embarrassed but happy. That was the first time people had seen me "perform" and I somehow survived.
I thought I'd be able to just get by in this class, but I was wrong. As the days started passing, I slowly began slipping on my blogs. Posting them later and later then sometimes not even at all. I was getting lazy because I felt too preoccupied with stuff going on other classes. I took for granted how relaxed the class was and forget that it also, was a class, that needed its own attention when it came to the workload. By the time I had my conference with Professor Mangini, I had a big slap in the face. My grade was going to suffer because I was lacking on my blog posts, my Weebly wasn't a proper representation of who I was as a writer, and my Twitterive (for a lack of better words) was a mess.
I got back on track. I started revamping my Weebly page by page and giving it a more professional look. I added little tweaks all throughout to still be able to show bits of my humor and personality while maintaining a clean and professional feel to it. Once I started making those changes I knew I was on the right path. I had to basically totally revise my Twitterive, because the first time I did it - I wasn't truly aware of my place. It took time to embrace my new place, which was music, and figure out how I would channel that and find a way to express that through my Twitterive. I had to go back to my roots and the darker times, which was hard. Opening up isn't the easiest thing to do for anyone. I realized though that I could show how music was my place if I don't show how it saved me.
The final draft of my Twitterive is something I'm proud of.
I get to share something that is so personal to me and means so much with my peers. It was lifting a weight off my shoulders to be able to come clean about my past and show that it isn't something I need to be ashamed of, but rather how something great can come out of experiences that make us instead of break us.
The Oral History project that went along with our Collaborative Project was so fun to do.
We got to interview a 21 year old college student named Derrick Braun with tons of experience about what we were trying to come across through it! It was awesome to see someone my age filled with the experience and information that I had just come across this year. Food, Inc. helped open up my eyes about the food corporation and how deceitful it is. Through working on my collaborative project with Emily, Tricia, and Amanda we got to create an awesome multi-genre research page filled with information most people don't know. Working together with them was a great experience and unlike most group work, I think we did a nice job divvying out who was going to do what. No one felt overwhelmed with their workload and the ideas we all had made for a great collaborative team!
Overall through this semester, I think I've made big changes. I am far from the student I was in the beginning of this semester. My progress shows through my work and dedication as well as through the completed projects. I'm glad I got to take the class with a professor that was able to add so much excitement and liveliness to the class without losing his authority. It's professors like that who remind me the reason I want to be a teacher and also at the same time why I am majoring in Writing Arts. The skills I've learned in this class and life lessons are things that I will remember and be able to reflect upon in the future.