We made it! I cannot help but feel a sense of relief and amazement. This semester was incredible intense. I was challenged in so many ways in this class particular. The content we educational and entertaining at the same time, the activities kept me on my toes, the high standard pushed me to a higher level.
I know you all are going to roll your eyes when I say this, but I really like the Exploring Literature book that we read. It tied the reading from On Bullshit, Animal Farm, Reading Lolita in Tehran into our lessons so well. The questions that we had to answer for each week was tedious to say the least, but would I have read much of the book if I did not have to answer the questions? No, probably not! I would have skimmed enough of it to formulate a decent assignment.
The Discussions board in this class was different than in any other online class. I have never had to answer a question from our current readings from a classmate and then formulate one of my own. I feel that this requirement proved to be another check-point for me. You really cannot just formulate a question if you don’t have a clue what the book was talking about.
In other classes that I have taken you get very little opportunity to read other students work. Unless you have a study partner that you work closely with, you are really just kind of doing your own thing without anything to compare it to. In this class everything is out there. I was able to read so many other types of writing. I found that the blogging made it a personal class opposed to some of the other online classes.
I have learned that I really need to read the instruction slowly and clearly. I cannot rush through then. I learned the different types of communication, why they are necessary and how individuals and groups use them. I have learned that when I am analyzing a piece of literature, or anything for that matter, that I need to go word, by word, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph. I have learned that everything does not need to be a narrative. I have the tendency to write in narrative only. I have been difficult to write in the analytical or critical sense.
Not only have I grown academically, but individually. I have been faced over and over again with my natural ability to procrastinate and underestimate. I wait till the last minute because it really doesn’t take long to pump out a 7 page paper…Yeah Right!!! I need days, or even weeks to write anything worth posting. I know this now. This semester I was overloaded with life and work and school. I have learned to guard my schedule to put myself in the position to succeed in all aspects of my life.
Most of all I learned college is hard. I am graduating with my AS in Biological Sciences and man has this last two semesters kicked my butt! I know that each class that I take from here on out I will be ready to put in the time.
I hope that I have really learned these things and at the end of next semester I will not be saying the same thing.
