In the past two weeks of class, I have come to realize that I have grown more confident in what I am saying and that it is much easier for me to speak in front of my peers. Before, I would be freaking out before a presentation and hate being in front of my classmates while trying to present my information in the fastest way possible. I never would have raised my hand to offer my opinion even if I felt strongly about it. In the past two weeks, I found it much easier to get up in front of everyone and present my prezi about my elements of fiction. I was astounded with myself, I hadn't had one worrisome thought or allowed myself an ounce of panic. I believe I have come further in my confidence of my work and my ability to say "well, screw it, I don't care what they think about me and I am going to do just fine."
With the poem "Battle of Birmingham", I noticed that sometimes a poem is just what it is, it needs to be taken at face value and there really isn't much deeper meaning that a reader should be looking for. Yes, the poem had a very strong meaning, but it did NOT have any hidden meanings that I could pick up on. Many teachers will have you believe that "the curtains were blue because the reader wanted the character to be sad" and that might be true but heck, the author might have just wanted to have blue curtains in the room and to hell with any other meaning. I know personally whenever I write short stories, generally I don't put double meaning on such things like curtains. I thought it was very refreshing to have a poem that I actually understood because I knew the historical meaning behind it and was able to make all the connections that I was supposed to. There wasn't any guessing really to the intent of the speaker or what they had meant.
Another important lesson that I learned this week is that sometimes peoples schedules do not work out and you will have to make due with the resources you have. With a group of four, it was difficult to find time for us to meet up to do our project and personally, I had a weekend filled with plans made in advance due to my brother being home from out of state for a wedding. I was unable to meet up in person with my group. We learned that sometimes you just have to deal with the circumstances and move on from them. We utilized the technology at hand and my group was able to contact me via the actual google document that I could reach from my phone, my cellphones capability with text messages, and Facebook messages. Most teachers frown upon the use of technology in their classes but what if it would help get the job without the headache of having to worry well why isn't this group member here and what are we going to do without them? Even thought it was a minor setback not to be able to meet with my group face to face, we figured it out and still did pretty well on our essays. How could technology be a bad thing then?
With the poem "Battle of Birmingham", I noticed that sometimes a poem is just what it is, it needs to be taken at face value and there really isn't much deeper meaning that a reader should be looking for. Yes, the poem had a very strong meaning, but it did NOT have any hidden meanings that I could pick up on. Many teachers will have you believe that "the curtains were blue because the reader wanted the character to be sad" and that might be true but heck, the author might have just wanted to have blue curtains in the room and to hell with any other meaning. I know personally whenever I write short stories, generally I don't put double meaning on such things like curtains. I thought it was very refreshing to have a poem that I actually understood because I knew the historical meaning behind it and was able to make all the connections that I was supposed to. There wasn't any guessing really to the intent of the speaker or what they had meant.
Another important lesson that I learned this week is that sometimes peoples schedules do not work out and you will have to make due with the resources you have. With a group of four, it was difficult to find time for us to meet up to do our project and personally, I had a weekend filled with plans made in advance due to my brother being home from out of state for a wedding. I was unable to meet up in person with my group. We learned that sometimes you just have to deal with the circumstances and move on from them. We utilized the technology at hand and my group was able to contact me via the actual google document that I could reach from my phone, my cellphones capability with text messages, and Facebook messages. Most teachers frown upon the use of technology in their classes but what if it would help get the job without the headache of having to worry well why isn't this group member here and what are we going to do without them? Even thought it was a minor setback not to be able to meet with my group face to face, we figured it out and still did pretty well on our essays. How could technology be a bad thing then?