Reflective Letter
Dear Professor Sabatino,
This semester and course have been very interesting. Looking back I can see that this class was jam packed and there are a few things I learned that will stay with me.
For starters, your statement: “think on paper” will stick in my mind probably forever. It was like a lightbulb went off in my head when I heard those words. My style of writing has always been to get it together in my head then write it down and revise later. However, thinking on paper has really helped me not only in your course but in all my classes this semester. It gave me something to go on even if the writing wasn’t what I thought it should be.
Technology has always intimidated me honestly and I didn’t feel like having a Twitter account, website etc. But using these forms of technology helped me get over that useless fear. I realized that while I may never completely love technology it is easier to use than I thought. I thought Prezi was pretty cool and simple to use. The only real challenge was the process of filming the interview for oral history and transferring that onto Weebly. I borrowed my cousin’s camera which I never used before and turned the record button OFF before I began an hour long interview with Jessie. Wow. Anyway, she was willing to do it again and my collaborative group was able to edit her interview for the project.
I felt like our class was really a little community through Twitter and sharing our blogs with each other. Keeping up a blog was something new for me. It helped to know that blogs can be informal and this also goes along with the think on paper or think on keyboard mentality. The fact that my writing would be public, even if it is only the class, was something that I was afraid of at first. But after you gave us time in class to check out each other’s blogs and have others comment on my writing I felt good about the whole experience.
My idea of research has always been data, facts, and numbers. The idea that story telling can be a way of preserving history as well of research was a new concept for me. While I still believe in objective Truth, and see a danger in subjective research, the idea of finding the story is a great one. The whole idea of narrative inquiry is really unique and changed my ideas of research. Your statements in class about finding the story and getting someone to tell their story made research more human and less of a chore.
Thanks again for your passion and energy for teaching about writing, research and technology. Sincerely,
Olivia
This semester and course have been very interesting. Looking back I can see that this class was jam packed and there are a few things I learned that will stay with me.
For starters, your statement: “think on paper” will stick in my mind probably forever. It was like a lightbulb went off in my head when I heard those words. My style of writing has always been to get it together in my head then write it down and revise later. However, thinking on paper has really helped me not only in your course but in all my classes this semester. It gave me something to go on even if the writing wasn’t what I thought it should be.
Technology has always intimidated me honestly and I didn’t feel like having a Twitter account, website etc. But using these forms of technology helped me get over that useless fear. I realized that while I may never completely love technology it is easier to use than I thought. I thought Prezi was pretty cool and simple to use. The only real challenge was the process of filming the interview for oral history and transferring that onto Weebly. I borrowed my cousin’s camera which I never used before and turned the record button OFF before I began an hour long interview with Jessie. Wow. Anyway, she was willing to do it again and my collaborative group was able to edit her interview for the project.
I felt like our class was really a little community through Twitter and sharing our blogs with each other. Keeping up a blog was something new for me. It helped to know that blogs can be informal and this also goes along with the think on paper or think on keyboard mentality. The fact that my writing would be public, even if it is only the class, was something that I was afraid of at first. But after you gave us time in class to check out each other’s blogs and have others comment on my writing I felt good about the whole experience.
My idea of research has always been data, facts, and numbers. The idea that story telling can be a way of preserving history as well of research was a new concept for me. While I still believe in objective Truth, and see a danger in subjective research, the idea of finding the story is a great one. The whole idea of narrative inquiry is really unique and changed my ideas of research. Your statements in class about finding the story and getting someone to tell their story made research more human and less of a chore.
Thanks again for your passion and energy for teaching about writing, research and technology. Sincerely,
Olivia