Oh reflection, its something that we do a lot but don't actually realize its happening. Normally, its something that accomplished in our on thoughts so that we can learn from things that have happened in our lives. In this case thought, my reflections must be public and thats good because hopefully some of my and everybody else's thoughts can help this be a better class in the future. So Lets get this started.
Positives
Amount of speaking.
Public speaking is the most feared things among people and in this class you are forced to do it. I think thats awesome because it really can help people get over their fears. Honestly, I might even make those impromptu speeches something that more integrated into the class, because having to some up with a speech that quickly and then perform it is skill that not many people have.
Blog
Lots of people hated the blog, and I agree that it has its flaws (more on that later) but it was also a very creative way to try and bring the class together, and also be a central place to hear about what was going on. I think we as a class (i am guilty of this) took the blog as something that was very serious and didn't really take advantage of the creative ways we could have communicated and shared interesting stuff.
Freedom to Choose
One of my favorite parts of class was Andi letting us basically pick whatever we wanted for our persuasive speeches and especially our informative briefs. I felt like if the topics had been stringent, people would not have been as passionate about their speeches, and they would not have been as interesting. Being able to talk about Taylor Swift and College Athletics was awesome because I really cared about what I was talking about. Also I was able to learn about a bunch of awesome topics that people came up with. Whether it was the origin of Coca Cola, kidney transplants, NASA, the UN, aid to Africa, Fro Yo, Norway or tennis courts (i could go on and on) it was cool to hear about things you might not otherwise no about, or care about researching.
Communication from teacher to students
Andi, thank you for always being available on E-Mail, Twitter, and Facebook. It helped greatly. Also, more people get Twitter. Ive been on it for 2 years and its really fun.
Prezi
Love that thing, will use it in the future. Continue to promote it.
Negatives
Blog
All right, so I liked the blog, but that doesn't mean it was perfect. The problem was it was unclear how the blog should be utilized. Was it a common place for people to just share what was on their minds? Was it just ELMS on steroids? Was it in between those somewhere? I am honestly not sure, and I don't think anybody else really knows either. I think the blog has huge potential, but I think its only in its second semester of use (not sure if I am right on that) so the kinks are still being worked out. But while the blog is probably getting a lot of flack, Andi, keep using it, and tell other Teachers to try it because I think it could be awesome.
Getting up at 8 am.
Sorry I just had to put it. Everybody hated that.
Teacher Student Communication.
Ah positive things can also be negative things. I felt like when class was canceled, it was not very well communicated. I kind of felt bad for the couple of people who had to drive from off campus and when class was canceled at like 7:30 had to get here and find that out. I totally understand the unpredictability of Andi's injury and how it affected class being on or not, but I thought we should have had a set way that everybody checked at a certain time to see if we had class or not.
Lack of Speaking
Once again I loved how much we spoke. But I would have like more speaking. I actually think the few times we did impromptu speeches, people got very good feedback because we were here as a group. Andi cannot see everything, and I thought myself and many others were able to notice things about people speeches and delivery that she missed. But this was normally rushed at the end of class and not everybody (I didn't) got to give one. I really wanted to educate you guys about the origins of MMA and its explosion as the fastest growing sport in the world, but that will have to wait for another day. Thinking about it, I would have done two informative briefs. I would have gone all out on that MMA one.
The Lectures
They were flat out boring. Sorry, they were. I mean I really would have liked more creativity especially when we were expected to do this in our speeches. My journalism 175 teacher used Prezi and they were pretty good. I feel like if the lecture presentations are not good, why should mine be during my speeches.
Grades
They need to be better explained.
Dress for speeches
I like the idea of people dressing for speeches. But I think it is very unfair to expect people, especially if they are freshman, to obtain the type of dress standards that were supposedly needed. I am lucky, I have two suits from competing nationally in speech and debate in high school and I live in Baltimore so its not that bad for me. But other people were put in a very tough spot, especially for the informative brief, when this bomb was kind of just dropped on them right before the speeches. This expectation must be said on the first day of class to give people ample time to try and get themselves together.
In conclusion
Andi was very nice and she did a fairly good job of delivering the content. She was fantastic at answering any type of questions or other types of communication quickly and effectively. I think the social networking aspects she brought to the table helped the class run smoother, but also did bring some confusion. I think the class should be more focused on speaking, rather than tons of book content. I actually think the blog may only be as good as how much the students put into it. Fellow classmates, especially my group project teammates, you guys were awesome and taught me about so many cool things and provided me with some entertainment and laughs at 8 in the morning, I hope I did the same.
I will end with three videos.
First, this is a montage played before every UFC event in the arena, Just wanted to throw some MMA out there for you guys. I went to UFC 101 and love this sport, give it a chance, you won't be disappointed.
Second, this is a clip from HBO's critically acclaimed 24/7 series. It profiles boxers in the lead up to big fights and its the best produced show I have ever seen. Sorry I just like to talk it up. If you like it, boxing core.com has a lot of the episodes.
Last but not least, Ms. Swift saying goodbye.
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