Writing Course Reflection

Prior to taking First Year Writing, my main approach to writing stood on the principles of a constant formalness, persuasiveness, and providing context. Often too much context. I believe this was primarily due to most of my prior academic writing prior was solely consisted of argumentative writing, which I see as a pro and con. The good thing is that I knew how to make debatable thesis, but not with much use of all of the rhetorical appeal of pathos. Now I believe I approach writing in a much more open way, in the sense that I believe that I am much more versed in writing for academia both formally and informally.

As a practicing teaching, it is responsibility to create and maintain a safe and supportive learning environment for students. Whilst on professional experience at a local school in Cairns, I taught a series of lessons (artefact 4) for a year 8 Health and Physical Education class. In order to effectively teach each lesson, I had to manage the classroom activities and challenging behaviours. I used the ten micro-skills for classroom management to not only manage students’ behaviour but also ensure inclusive student participation and engagement.

In WPC 101 this semester I learned that I need to work on my public speaking skills. Over the course of this semester there was many assignments where I had present to the class. I learned that I need to fix common habits I do while presenting. I often say the word “like” while public speaking and I tend to lose my train of thought. Additionally I learned that my true passion is helping other people. My classmates would often ask for help on math and whenever I was able to resolve their questions I felt very proud of myself. Being able to help my peers has motivated me even more to get a degree in law because like to help small business’ defend themselves from a legal standpoint. Lastly, I learned that organization is my strongest skill. Being organized allows me to think more clearly and get tasks done more quickly.

This course was comprised of many learning activities; each was designed to help me achieve the course learning outcomes. I have taken two college English classes in the past; however, it has been several years since my last college class. I have some experience in writing and this class definitely helped me get back into writing. I often have trouble brainstorming and capturing the subject I need to write about. This class definitely helped me overcome the challenges I faced in writing and being able to effectively express my ideas in a clear and concise manner. Not to mention, it definitely helped build my writing foundation through a step by step approach to each assignment. Therefore, this class bolstered my writing and communication skills.

This course offers numerous opportunities to improve our writing. In this class, I not only enhanced the skills I already had, but also learned new writing concepts. Before I took this class, I knew that my writing is poor, and I have always wanted to improve it; however, I did not know how and what aspects of writing to improve. So, I came into this class with the ambition to improve my writing, and I have accomplished my goal although there is still room for improvement. At this point of this course, I have learned the elements that successful writing is composed of, and I am now able to categorize the various techniques that can work together to define strong

Throughout the course of this semester, I have learned so much about writing. I used to think writing was my best skill in terms of school, but after taking this course, I realized I have a lot to learn still. In high school English was always my highest grade because of my writing, my writing in my SAT scores was always the highest, and last semester in ENGL 1301, I got a high A in the course. But this course has challenged me as a writer to think outside of the box and be more academically smarter in terms of writing. The journals have helped me write about things that we like more than the other assignments because it gives us more freedom and flexibility about what we can write about. These journals are being used as a tool as practice

Before taking this class I never liked my English classes more specifically writing essays for them. I didn’t understand much of how to use strategies while writing essays and focuses little on learning it. By taking this class and using the strategies that I was provided with it made taking this class easy and enjoyable while writing analytical essays. I was willing to put in the effort and do my part in order to get a good grade in this English class and it worked. I feel that my performance in an English class has improved significantly.

In December of 2013, I was told that I was not considered for the full-time temporary faculty position in political science on South Campus by Dr. Sonia Nieves because I was not able to teach international relations even though I have graduate level coursework in international relations and Political Science degrees do not specify a focus. I later found out that, this requirement was false and inconsistent with Broward College’s Faculty Credentialing Manual and that Dr. Nieves hired an adjunct faculty member from another campus who had the same degree as me. This left me in the middle of December with no classes for the upcoming spring term despite my ability and record to fill my classes and outstanding reviews by students and supervisors. Dr. Neves also mentioned to me, on several occasions, that it was always a major scheduling “hassle” to be forced to find a downstairs classroom in order to accommodate my ADA needs.

This course as you stated has been very complicated to me as well at times. However, the course has offered many valuable tools for us to utilize in preparing for our research-based paper. Proofreading your paper is important to ensure all errors are corrected before submitting your paper in for grading. I would like to congratulate you on your renewed inspiration of journal writing again.

When signing up for class I knew that I had to take an English 101 class. But there was a little bump in the road to having the class. When I got back form winter break I looked at my schugle and saw that there was no English class. So, I went down to the admiration office to speak to my advisor and see if I could get into any English 101 class. Luckily there was one class available that worked with my schugle. Taking English 101 has help developed my reading and writing skills on hobbits of mind, aniotating an article and using ethos, pathos, and logos. When it comes to writing, and reading my weakness is trying to come up with a good thesis. But my strengths are writing an excellent body.

My contribution to the course material was as follows; First, I conducted a meeting with my team to divide the tasks and set the criteria of the work that needed to be done. Second, after receiving the individual’s deliverables I performed QA and provided both positive feedback and constructive criticism. Third, after providing feedback some team members were reluctant to accept them, so I stepped in and rewrote tables that were not clearly visible, wrote notes on the slides that contain tables and figures that didn’t have any, adjusting the overall format, and selecting a background of the presentation.

As previously described in my previous writing, I wrote a rather large research paper on the financial crisis of 2008. In this writing I will be piggy backing off of my last assignment in which I wrote about my strategies on finding sources and creating a coherent paper. I will link passages from texts that we have read throughout the semester to my actual writing style and strategies.

Now that I have completed the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth course Crafting the Essay, I feel I have tremendously grown as a writer. Even after submitting the first assignment, I looked back at a position paper I wrote for school that I received an A+ on, yet I saw several flaws I wished I had changed.

Without a doubt the lessons and exercises on time management were the most meaningful to me. They brought insight into why I seemed to be constantly working yet still never really got anything I wanted to accomplish throughout the day finished. I realized the majority of the activities I had been spending the most time on didn’t reflect my values of hard work and self discipline and long term academic goals to be successful in college. This motivated to completely change the way I managed my time by effectively striking a balance between my maintenance, committed, and free time.

“Be a reflective teacher. Honestly look at what you do from time to time. Evaluate the purpose of your role as a teacher.” (Robert John Meenham, 2011)