Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Entry #5 Class/Self-Assessment Letter


Dear Dr. Jones,

At first I was feeling very uneasy about taking this class because the thought of writing makes me more than uncomfortable.   Once we began class I began to feel even more anxious, especially with the thought of writing a blog.  The thought of classmates having open access to “judge” my writing or thought process is very intimidating.  I initially was struggling when reading Hicks because I felt as though so much of it I was unfamiliar with.  I never knew about wikis, what the purposes of blogs were, and how these could be valuable to our students.

Since the beginning of class I feel as though I have become more comfortable to the thought of the different types of writing assignments I am presented with, such as blogs and discussion forums.  I believe that my feelings steam from the fact that I have never had to write like this before with classmates as audience as well as my professor.  I can see why incorporating different facets such as these with our students serve to be beneficial learning.  Not only will they be able to grasp these concepts early on but they will be able to use them in their future.

I feel as though my understanding of connections between reading and writing have progressed since the beginning of the semester.  When beginning the program at Nazareth I had no idea about all of the information I was going to gain pertaining to the connection between reading and writing.   I never knew the connection between the two were so in depth.  The writing I have engaged in so far in class has allowed me to fully transact.  I feel as though when using the discussion forum this is when I am to reconsider what I have written.  I am able to see others views and look into the discussion a bit deeper than if I had just been responding for my own wellbeing. 

I have learned many strategies that help me to better understand what good readers and writers do.  As I learn different strategies and think back to my education I wonder why I wasn’t taught such skills.  The school I work at I am always hearing the principle talk about what good readers and writers do, it makes me feel good to know that he is talking with students about strategies.

I still feel a bit overwhelmed with all that we are learning this semester.  I have always been a very organized person and at the moment I am feeling unorganized, not in the general sense but an in my head sense.  I feel as though I am still trying how to figure out how to write and use technology to its fullest in many new ways.  The most important thing however is that I am learning all of this new information and the different ways to utilize it which can only benefit my future students.  If I didn’t have access to learn these kinds of tools I would be a disservice to them.  One area I would like to focus on is having more time to further explore these different tools, how can they be used outside of educational purposes and be used towards personal thoughts.  I would like to focus on being able to write with a “clear” mind when using the blogs and discussion forum.  I feel as though I have a “block” because I know others are reading.  I don’t believe that there is anything needed to further enhance my learning there has just been a lot of new technology introduced to me and as I stated before I just need to find the time to explore these tools to their fullest ability.

I appreciate the time you take to respond to our blogs and discussion forums it is really beneficial while learning about all of these new topics.  Thank you for introducing me to a new way of writing.

Sincerely,

Still getting used to it

1 comment:

  1. Jaci, this was your best entry yet! The honesty in your reflections and questions is EXACTLY the kind of mindset you want to bring to these future entries. Starting with a question is one of the best ways to begin a reflective post. Also, don't feel you have to have "all the answers" by the end of the blog post. It is perfectly okay to say..."You know what? I still don't know how I feel about this..." But the key is that you independently seek out that additional information to try and help you answer your questions or form an opinion.

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