We Did It! Final Reflection Post

I can’t believe it’s actually the end of the semester! It seems so odd to be doing an end-of-the-class reflection.

Looking back, this was definitely a good course to take. Like Mike, I was required to take it for my journalism major. Even though the 8am class seemed impossible to get to three times a week, I made it to nearly every class and it paid off.

I really enjoyed the freedom we had in this class. We had the choice to pick nearly any topics we wanted for our speeches, which I really appreciated, and Andi, you were great about being open to any ideas we chose. I also enjoyed hearing everybody’s speeches throughout the semester. I definitely learned about some interesting topics that I wouldn’t have known anything about if I hadn’t taken this class.

Even though I got a little nervous before each speech, putting together and giving the speeches was probably my favorite part of this class. While the book and corresponding lectures could get a little dry, the speeches were always a way to do something that was interesting and relevant to us. I also, surprisingly, really liked the group project. Although it seemed we were really unproductive at times, we had LOTS of storming (but it was out of love), and the late nights at McKeldin were no fun, I really became friends with my group members and had a good time with them. It was also great to have a group of us standing in front of the class to give our presentation rather than being by ourselves—it was much less intimidating, and I felt very comfortable.

My two least favorite parts of the class were probably the textbook and the blog. The textbook seemed very elementary and it never really taught me much. It seemed like the book took everyday, simple ideas and slapped stupid terms on them just to make them seem more complex and scholarly than they actually were. I would have preferred simply relying on the class lectures based on the book, but for the midterm and final I felt like I needed to read the book. As for the blog, I like the idea of it and I appreciate that it helped me learn how to use a blog. I also liked the more relaxed format of our blog posts, like these, rather than writing formal papers. However, I felt it was often disorganized. It was hard to find and find out about assignments, and when some things were posted on the blog and some things on Facebook, it was hard to keep track. I kept up with the commenting, but I don’t feel like it made me any more engaged with the class—I think most people, myself included, would just skim through a post that looked remotely interesting and leave a brief comment on it. In the future, I would recommend assigning things in class, then posting the assignment on the blog—which Andi frequently did—but not just relying on “check the blog sometime before next class for your assignment.” I know of several instances where myself and others checked the blog for our assignment before the next class, but according to the blog post we only had about a day to complete the assignment, which I don’t think was made explicitly clear in class. I guess just working on organization and clarity would be my advice for improving the blog.

Overall, I’m glad I took this class and I really enjoyed getting to know everyone through class activities, the group project, and by hearing everyone’s speeches. Congrats everyone…we did it!