Sunday, January 24, 2016

Course Projects


Throughout this semester, my strength and wit will be challenged. I, with my closest english classmates by my side, will have to courageously battle through four grueling tasks. Will we make it out alive? Stay tuned.

What am I most confused or nervous about in regards to the four major projects?

In simple terms, I am most worried about the amount of time I am going to have to dedicate to these projects in comparison to the amount of time it would take me to write a traditional research paper. Overall, these projects require effort outside of the typical college essay, including interviews and extensive research into specific topics. Aside from the Reflective Self-Assessment, time will need to be divided amongst research and developing my work.

Similarly, I am not a fan of public speaking or the publication of my work, so having everything be shared online is moderately uncomfortable for me.

What am I most interested in or excited for?

Honestly, the idea of doing something out of the norm for academic purposes both scares me and excites me. I am ready and willing to go in depth into topics that interest me, but doing the extra work to make myself an expert on the topics may be difficult. Ultimately, I am most excited to be able to pick my topic based on my interests, and to be forced out of my comfort zone, especially to conduct interviews for the Rhetorical Investigation. 

What elements of this course do I have to plan ahead for?

In all honesty, all of them. Mostly I need to focus on spending my time wisely and not waiting until the last day to start my projects. Recognizing that things in this course are typically longer assignments will be essential to my success.

How will my time management be challenged?

My time management will be challenged in terms of balancing all of my obligations so I can meet deadlines. For example, if I know I have practice on a Saturday night, I might start working on the weekly deadline Friday instead of being forced to wait until the day that it is due. 

I will need to disperse my time fairly and effectively in order to stay on top of the bigger project deadlines. Also, I will need to plan my projects accordingly so that I have all of my pre-production planning complete before I have to start developing my work.

How has my past English coursework prepared me for this semester? What skills will I bring into the course with me?

In the past, I have not been particularly challenged by an english class. I have been able to easily meet deadlines and complete work that is above average. Because of this, and from other courses throughout my high school experience, I have developed certain skills that will help me throughout this course. These include:
  • moderate time management
  • ability to complete a lot of work in small amounts of time
  • ability to focus on work
  • interest in research/learning
Any questions?

The only thing I am unclear about is whether or not we will be publicly presenting our projects or just posting them publicly. Other than that I am crystal clear!

Edit: I read over Amelia's and Sienna's posts about Course Projects. Overall, I feel better now knowing that almost everyone in this class is in the same boat as me in terms of time management. It was reassuring to discover that I have a similar educational background to both Sienna and Amelia. With this new information, I feel more confident about completing these projects and I am excited to see what everyone else comes up with as well.

3 comments:

  1. I'm with you on the public presentation aspect. Not a huge fan. But, if we do have to present, it's also fun to challenge ourselves. I like that about this course, that hopefully it will be more challenging (and interesting) than a standard essay-based class. Also, good structuring. This post was easy to process, my only recommendation would be throw a pic in!

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  2. Avalon, I also had the same question about presentations. I looked at the syllabus, and there is no indication that there are days set aside for presentations. However, the grade break downs on the individual documents for the projects say there is peer review involved. My guess is that we will have to present our rough drafts or something with a few classmates. And maybe once the project is due, maybe we will post them on our blogs or something for our peers to comment on? I'm not sure.
    On another note, it is nice to know I am not alone in questioning whether I will survive against my time management skills!

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  3. I thought this post was very well-formatted and well-written. I agree with you and Zachary that the public presentation won't be my favorite thing in the world but I like the opportunity to do something different so I think it could be cool for all of us!

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