Professor Burton is currently reading his own blog post about students being engaged in their own learning. As I listen to his opinion, I find that this is what is wrong with me. I'll be honest, this class takes me out of my comfort zone. I have very brave family members who actively write with the intention of letting others read their work; I am the opposite. When I came to class last week I was expecting this class to be like every other English course I have taken while at BYU. I read a book, I write a paper on it, I hand it in to the professor, he reads it, grades it and I take the paper back and put in the my huge collection of school work I have been saving since 6th grade. Yesterday was the Add/Drop deadline for spring semester. I am in this class whether I like it or not, so I better start engaging in Professor Burton's class.
Today he started off with a lecture on engaged learning. He explains that there are more important aspects of a class than the resulting grade. Sometimes my GPA would disagree, but for the moment I will agree with him. If the grade is the end goal, then the journey to the end will be boring. It will entail completing a list of assignments that will join the ranks alongside my 7th grade Algebra homework (because those will come in useful
someday). Even though I need a grade for this class in order to help my GPA, I am making a goal to care more about daily, engaged learning than my end grade.
What this means:
- Breaking old habits in order to create new ones.
My old habits have already been explained to a point. I write for me and the professor. So much that even such things as a Facebook status requires edits and revisions before I'll post it, and if there is any grammar errors after it is posted I become deeply embarrassed of my writing. As a result of this class I will not hide my writing (even if I wanted to I couldn't as the whole class is designed to be public). I am not the best writer, but I'll bite the bullet and publicize what I love to do.
As the next 7 weeks pass by I will make an active effort to see the connections between Vernor Vinge's
Rainbow's End, James Surowiecki's
The Wisdom of Crowds and basically everything else! What use is reading these books if they are not applied to life outside of the classroom? Even though I am not a Sci/Fi reader, I will read
Rainbow's End, and find something good to apply to life.
Professor Burton concluded his lecture on students being engaged in their learning and not the grade by saying, "They could so much more if only engaged." I feel like I hear this all the time at BYU; however, the word engaged is used in reference to BYU's #1 goal of "Get Married!" and not so much mental engagement. Being engaged in your learning is important. We pay a large sum of money for our education, and unless we take Professor Burton's advice and apply and engage ourselves, all the money and time is wasted.
I think we all feel that initial reluctance when blogging for the first time. It's hard to throw your words and ideas into the air where anybody can catch them and read what you are saying. It gets easier the more often you do it.
ReplyDeleteProbably most of us in the class are average writers, all struggling to say something semi-intelligent, in a semi-coherent way. There is a definite learning curve and we're all trying to find our voices. So, I'd say not to worry.
OK Carlie, I'm going to come out and just say it: I find the font hard to read on your blog. But Dr. Burton loves it, he has mentioned it like two or three different times in class. :) I personally like the classic fonts.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry. I'm sure I'll change the layouts and fonts of this blog as often as I change my hair color. :)
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