I am going to have to wrtie this entire thing again. I had it half way done and my little niece some how erased everything. This class has been somewhat interesting. I was glad to see that everyone was allowed to have an opinion of their own on each reading. I was also glad that we discussed every reading as a class to hlep clear up some difficult areas. No one really judged anyone on their opinions, and that was really nice. In fact, I think each opinion helped everyone understand things a little better. These types of classes that i have taken in the past have been a lot different. The profs. usually wouldn't discuss the books much beyond their opinion. I really enjoyed the discussions and I think they were really helpful.
I have mixed fellings on these blogs to be honest. As a nontraditional student who has a lot of responsbilities outside of going make to school, they have been a hassel to try to keep up with. I didn't always have access to the internet and sometimes i had to go places to get it. I understand the importance of these because it gets the sudents to do the work more than just before class. This allows the students to think about the readings more, which leads to better discussions. If i was a traditional student staying on campus, it might be a little easier. There have also been times that the sites have been down which makes it even harder to blog. I have kept up with most of the assignments and i think i missed only one or two short stories and one poem. I think Mina is the only person that has bloged on every readding and i give her a lot of credit. It has been really hard this second have to comment on other blogs because there have been so few blog entries before thursday. I commented on the same three peoples blogs this second half becuase that is all that ever seemed to post anything.
I think my blog entries have been ok. They are better then others but they are worse than others. I think it was Holly that said sometimes you don't need to reasearch a book to have an opinion on it. Mine haven't been too involved, but i have bloged my opinion and asked my questions. The comments that others have left have been helpful, it is good to hear what my peers think about my opinion. I find that it is hard to narrow the blog entries down into the categories that are set up for this portfolio. They all seem to have their own uniqueness.
The first group of short stories that we read after portfolio 1 were interesting. "Here We Are" and "The Best Girlfriend You Never Had" seemd to get a good bit of comments from other students, which I like to see. "Miracle at St. Anna" was an interesting book which I was able to connect with a little bit. This was more my style of book because it was packed with historical references and it was a war book. I was disappointed taht no one commented on this blog, but I think I might have gotten a little carried away on what I was typeing. "I want to Live" hit a little bit of emotional cord considering my dad went through the fight with cancer last year while i was on active duty. I was hard seeing things unfold while you are unable to help. My mom was a wreck and my dad was a little lost for awhile. He beat it and he is alright now, but it does affect you a lot.
Other stories that i would like to include in this portfolio are "The Farmers Children", "The Secret Life of Bees", "Blood-Burning Moon", and "You're Ugly, Too". I believe all of these selections fit in with the requirements of the categories. I Also would like to mention that there were some good conversations with other peers on their sites.
This has been an interesting class and an interesting experience. I believe I have learned some things that I didn't know before, and that is the point of taking these classes. I would like to thank my peers for commenting on my blogs and giving me feedback. It was very helpful. I hope I was able to help my peers with my background as some of them were able to help me.
Posted by ScottClark at May 5, 2005 12:34 PM | TrackBack