My first thoughts when I think about this class is coming to an end is yay and I can’t believe I actually made it! Don’t get me wrong I really enjoyed this class and I have learned so much, but I am so happy for it over. No more stressing about getting all of my assignments in on time and no more staying up until almost 3 in the morning because between my son, my job, taking care of the house and all the other responsibilities I have, night time was the only time I had enough alone time during the day to actually sit down and concentrate on all of my school work. No matter how frustrated I got or how often I procrastinated, I never once even considered dropping this class which is something I am very proud of! I started college right after high school but I honestly just didn’t care about it, back then I would have dropped this class in a heartbeat as soon as I felt overwhelmed. I am so happy that I took some time off and have grown up since then and am really set on finishing school.
One of the things I really enjoyed about this class was that we didn’t have a normal text book. I loved that the curriculum was based on Music and Culture and They Say I Say. I learned a lot about English and writing from both books, but I have to say how much I learned from music and culture about music. When it comes to music I kind of stick to the same thing and don’t really venture that far out of what I am comfortable with. Music and Culture made me step outside my comfort zone and discover music that I actually really like. It has even changed my mind about certain genres and even artists that I thought I didn’t like…except hip-hop and “Gangsta Rap” I still don’t like that and never will ha-ha. It was a nice and unexpected surprise to not have to do all of the boring English assignments that you would expect from an English class.
I think that my least favorite thing about this class has to be the group assignments. It was just so difficult for everyone to get to do their fair share of work because everyone has such different schedules and a lot of people (myself included) are procrastinators. The two combined just make for a miserable time trying to accomplish a group project. The people who aren’t procrastinators or who don’t have as busy schedules or the same kind of responsibilities as others feel like they’re doing all the work and it is unfair which it kind of is. I enjoyed doing the actually projects themselves it was just the process of everything that made it so unattractive. Group projects for an online class are just a disaster waiting to happen in my opinion.
As stressful as it all was I’m so glad I took this class and it really seemed like these past 16 weeks flew by. Good job for everyone who stuck with it and good luck with everything else!!:)
It’s awesome that you didn’t get discouraged! Look at you now! The semester is over and you made it through it! I don’t have children and I found it hard to manage my time so that really says a lot about your drive to succeed. You should be very proud of yourself. I really liked working out of the Music and Culture book too. It was actually interesting and didn’t seem like torture having to do assignments out of it every week. Music is also something that everyone can relate to so it was a great text selection for this course. Yea I’m glad we didn’t have to do that many group assignments. Even in person, doing group assignments doesn’t ever really work out fair, but online it’s almost impossible. I’m glad that I took this course, because I don’t think that I would have had the same amount of fun or learned nearly as much if I would have taken it with someone other than Jennifer. I usually dread taking English so I just wanted to get it out of the way but I was pleasantly surprised. The work load was heavy but manageable and all I can say is that I am happy I made it through and bring on the summer! Hope you enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteI love your title! Final Blog! That’s great! But is it really your final blog? Come on, don’t you want to keep blogging? LOL. The blogs were my favorite assignments. Even though the blog topics were assigned, it was fun to just go off and write our own thoughts and opinions on stuff. I totally agree with you about learning so much and really enjoying the class.
ReplyDeleteThe group assignments were also my least favorite. I felt that 1 or 2 members of the group did all the work while the others put in very little effort. Also the peer draft reviews did not seem helpful to me; some people put very little thought into their reviews, so I thought that was kind of a waste of time. Although I didn’t really like the Music & Culture book that much, I agree that it was cool to be writing about a subject I love – music! And much better than the typical English writing topics.
I think you should totally be proud of yourself – working, a child and school and doing homework at night. I thought I had a rough semester, but my kids are grown, so I didn’t have to deal with a little one at home, and I didn’t work the first half of the semester. The second half when I’ve been working has been so tough. It’s hard to work on a computer all day and then come home and do homework on the computer at night. I’m confident you will achieve your goal to finish school. You’re a good writer and you seem determined, so that is half the battle. Best of luck, have a great summer!