Before saying goodbye to this course, my classmates and my instructor, I have one last opportunity to blog about the course. I have to say that this course kept me extremely busy. In fact, so busy that sometimes I would have to push my work on my other courses to the side in order to meet the deadlines. I think this is one of the only things I did not like about this course. Considering the amount of insight the course gave me about writing and what I am capable of achieving, however, does balance things out. I found I love writing and being able to voice my point of view through writing.
It is interesting to work with someone about my work and help guide me along the way. It is refreshing when I get more than the perspective of the instructor as well. I am able to work side by side (or laptop by laptop) with my classmates as we tried to make sense of the course and each other. I especially want to thank both Sarah and Ahmad for the hard work they did on my peer reviews. I hope my classmates also enjoyed my peer reviews. It was wonderful to see what others wrote when interpreting the same subject from different perspectives.
I would like to thank Rachael for everything she has done for me. She has worked hard to make sure I understand the course and the material I worked with. She showed interest in trying to make me do my best work, which illustrates how valuable she is as a teacher. She definitely likes to play with words and I like that about her. You've got my "props" girl!
If anyone would like to continue to read my blogs I will continue to post from time to time. In case you don't know where to find me, you can look me up at cjcool76@blogspot.com. Always feel free to post a comment, question or a link to find you. Good luck in all your endeavors and Happy Holidays!
Hi Carlos,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your insights. As I mentioned to Ahmad, I am always open to hearing about how the peer reviews work for everyone. I know that sometimes the review is substantial and helpful, but other times your reviewer might not devote as much attention to your paper. Also, I am surprised to hear you say that you felt even a slight sense of community with the other students in class. I am really happy to hear that from one person, since I was thinking I didn't do enough to encourage student collaboration or mutual support within the class. It's hard online, but perhaps having a smaller class helped.
It's interesting to read your comments about the workload. Overall, I think most English 101 courses have a heavy workload, but it was hard for me to negotiate the assignments in an online environment. I will have to reconsider how much blogging/discussions to require the next time time I teach 101 online. Any other specifics about the workload would help. Was it just the amount of writing, reading, or both? Was it hard keeping track of assignments and due dates, and did that contribute to a feeling of being overwhelmed? I know some other students initially had trouble keeping track of the schedule of due dates from week to week.
Anyway, it was great working with you this semester. It was really fun to see your essays go through each stage of development, getting better and better with each draft.
I hope you keep writing, in some capacity.
Stay in touch!