Skills Reflection 2
Skills Development Self-Assessment:
I do not think that my participation in class remains the same since my last skills reflection. Class discussions in my opinion have become more and more volatiles as two types of people emerge from the class; The people who are frustrated with the direction of the class and have given up, and the people who for whatever reason have taken a stand against Andy. Instead of taking a second understand, if not absorb what he says, people, in my opinion, have begun to brush off everything Andy says. I feel this degrades the values of his assignments and making them harder to accomplish. Personally I feel that one of the strongest ways I can tell if I am learning or not is through writing. Writing gives me a chance to test and train my thought process and make sense of everything. I feel I haven’t been doing as much as I should be in order to make the class more enjoyable and smoother for others and myself. I always have a proposal in mind in the beginning of class but I feel that the class doesn’t really care about how they spent their one or two hours in humanities. At times there are things on the agenda that I do not want to take part in but I always stay silent because I feel that making a proposal based on how I feel that day would be selfish and would not be in the best interest of the class. Andy isn’t the best/perfect teacher and yet we may not be the perfect students but I feel that we’re literally using a miniscule fraction of the freedom Andy is giving us and in the wrong way.
Like I said I feel that writing is one of my strengths. Through the year, I have been trying to work on proofreading, making my writing more concise and less bullshitting, sentence crafting, and grammar. Grammar, I feel is something I need to work on since most of what I write comes straight from my mental dialogue with myself. The snowball paper writing process has been a grueling process. As of now, it stands at six pages. It is just a continuation of chunks that I’ve written from time to time, taken from in class writings, thoughts, and my journal. In the beginning it was hard to even begin because I started off with a thesis that I didn’t whole heartily agree with. It’s hard to write when you don’t have anything to say about the topic. I feel my snowball paper is a direct reflection of how class is progressing because the any faults that happens in the class whether they are discussions turned petty vendettas, proposals with secret agendas, or rigged voting sessions, is reflected in my thoughts and when nothing comes to mind as I sit in the front of the computer, I feel like I got nothing from class the day or week before. The snowball paper is progressing slowly. Looking back at it everyday is definitely helping me in terms of grammar, re-working how I phrase things, and most importantly writing more. Being given almost total control over the snowball paper has encouraged me to devise new writing strategies, from handwriting it (since they say a pencil can job the mind), to spacing the writing out over a course of a few days.
Honestly, I haven’t been reading the assigned literature or passages. I feel like a rat saying this but the mounting amount of work has presented me with a major roadblock before we left for Christmas break. But as I am writing this skill reflection, the night before we go back to school, I feel a lot of things are back in order. I am just doing as much as I can before I’m presented with another roadblock. The snowball paper is about to be concluded but the exhibition process can be seen over the horizon. Hopefully when things definitely wind down I can take a real look at the stuff Andy assigns and really utilize the tools he’s given us.
At the same time I am also juggling my Independent Learning Plan, which is to create a 3 piece photographical exhibition of my work, with captions, and also to complete Andy’s minimum requirements. January will be strictly ILP month since my first goal coincides with the Parson’s School of Design home test. Right now I’m still going through the thought process, writing randomly in my journal and figuring out what to shoot. As of now I’m either going to exhibit work showing the influence that strangers have on me or what inspires me/frustrates me about the city. In my three pieces I will examine the theme through three different perspectives. Then I will write three 200-300-word captions for every piece of work, discussing what I was trying to depict, the process I went through in the darkroom, and of course where and why.
The Big-Idea:
In my snowball paper I said that the self does not exist, and anyone that might say that they know “the self” is merely desperate for conclusion in the life. I say this because I when I was younger I too through I knew myself. But looking back now I realized that I was a pathetic dweeb. But then the question arises, what if that was your real self and that what you are now is a total fake? The class has made me wonder about who I really am, and by doing so I sometime cause myself to be in bouts of depression but I’m only depressed because I feel that at an important time as this, I’m juggling such a silly problem; finding myself. But then again it isn’t that silly. I’m just curious how I’m going leave high school. What kind of person am I going to assume in college. I now question myself, more than ever. Am I who I really am? And the answer, whatever it may be, really frightens me because here I am determining what I’m going to spend my next fours years being, and I’m having doubts on who I really am. Hopefully I chose right.
The Highlights Reel:
One highlight would be the trial of Imani, Chris Li, and Marc, three individuals who didn’t fully complete their minimum requirements. I voted that Imani and Chris Li receive credit even thought Imani was missing one credit and Chris Li was barely near completion. I would never forget the class’s eruption when they found out that Chris Li go the credit. From here on whatever I say am simply I expressing what I felt about other people’s actions, they’re not necessarily what I think about them. I could understand Raliecha’s frustration with the Chris Li verdict because she felt that by voting for Chris Li then Imani’s case’s credibility would be naught. However when the class erupted, I felt sick. Suddenly Eugenia sitting next to me goes, “Man, what the fuck, yea that’s write Raliecha!” I mean how inconsiderate can this class get. I personally felt like shit after everyone erupted and I believe I can speak on behalf of Chris Li and people who voted for him. I know Andy had valuable reasons why Chris Li shouldn’t get the credit but personally I felt I took a gamble by saving his butt because I felt he was someone who could hold his ground and finish his work. Then the class made the point that Marc too should get the credit since Chris did. That was stupid too even though technically it is true. Andy even made the point that Marc’s alibi was complete crap. Here we have the class skipping a class vote. I understand that some people would’ve been prejudice but I would’ve personally voted for Marc too. We could’ve voted on new consequences or something for different peoples.
The Inevitable And Probably Important Movie Review:
I would say that something cool about the class thus far would be the roof top activities and the self-awareness exercises we do because they always show me something interesting about myself. I’ve encountered these experiences in my daily life, whether it would be feeling myself or smelling something, but I’ve never drawn my attention to them. I find these exercises useful because in away they’re slowing down my fast paced life, allowing me to think about anything for a few minutes.
If I were to say something disappointed about class this period I would say the class itself, and perhaps the lack of movies shown in class.
My Reaction To My Reaction:
I would say my reaction to my reaction has stayed the same since it’s almost the same unit or the continuation of the unit. So I guess my reaction last reflection is almost echoed in this reflection. “My reaction to the class is predictable. I don’t like to think that I’ve been suckered into liking this class just because of the freedom.” What remains consistent would be the fact that I’m still trying to utilize the class’s freedom in a way that is beneficial to me and not necessarily take it for granted. Something that has changed would be the fact that I feel that I’m no longer learning from what other people say. I just lost respect for certain individuals in the classroom because I feel they’re diminishing the very thing I set out to do in class for others and myself.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes:
I plan to participate more in class in order to change the way things are done. I think other individuals should wake up and do the same thing. And I think the entire class should just be better people.
I do not think that my participation in class remains the same since my last skills reflection. Class discussions in my opinion have become more and more volatiles as two types of people emerge from the class; The people who are frustrated with the direction of the class and have given up, and the people who for whatever reason have taken a stand against Andy. Instead of taking a second understand, if not absorb what he says, people, in my opinion, have begun to brush off everything Andy says. I feel this degrades the values of his assignments and making them harder to accomplish. Personally I feel that one of the strongest ways I can tell if I am learning or not is through writing. Writing gives me a chance to test and train my thought process and make sense of everything. I feel I haven’t been doing as much as I should be in order to make the class more enjoyable and smoother for others and myself. I always have a proposal in mind in the beginning of class but I feel that the class doesn’t really care about how they spent their one or two hours in humanities. At times there are things on the agenda that I do not want to take part in but I always stay silent because I feel that making a proposal based on how I feel that day would be selfish and would not be in the best interest of the class. Andy isn’t the best/perfect teacher and yet we may not be the perfect students but I feel that we’re literally using a miniscule fraction of the freedom Andy is giving us and in the wrong way.
Like I said I feel that writing is one of my strengths. Through the year, I have been trying to work on proofreading, making my writing more concise and less bullshitting, sentence crafting, and grammar. Grammar, I feel is something I need to work on since most of what I write comes straight from my mental dialogue with myself. The snowball paper writing process has been a grueling process. As of now, it stands at six pages. It is just a continuation of chunks that I’ve written from time to time, taken from in class writings, thoughts, and my journal. In the beginning it was hard to even begin because I started off with a thesis that I didn’t whole heartily agree with. It’s hard to write when you don’t have anything to say about the topic. I feel my snowball paper is a direct reflection of how class is progressing because the any faults that happens in the class whether they are discussions turned petty vendettas, proposals with secret agendas, or rigged voting sessions, is reflected in my thoughts and when nothing comes to mind as I sit in the front of the computer, I feel like I got nothing from class the day or week before. The snowball paper is progressing slowly. Looking back at it everyday is definitely helping me in terms of grammar, re-working how I phrase things, and most importantly writing more. Being given almost total control over the snowball paper has encouraged me to devise new writing strategies, from handwriting it (since they say a pencil can job the mind), to spacing the writing out over a course of a few days.
Honestly, I haven’t been reading the assigned literature or passages. I feel like a rat saying this but the mounting amount of work has presented me with a major roadblock before we left for Christmas break. But as I am writing this skill reflection, the night before we go back to school, I feel a lot of things are back in order. I am just doing as much as I can before I’m presented with another roadblock. The snowball paper is about to be concluded but the exhibition process can be seen over the horizon. Hopefully when things definitely wind down I can take a real look at the stuff Andy assigns and really utilize the tools he’s given us.
At the same time I am also juggling my Independent Learning Plan, which is to create a 3 piece photographical exhibition of my work, with captions, and also to complete Andy’s minimum requirements. January will be strictly ILP month since my first goal coincides with the Parson’s School of Design home test. Right now I’m still going through the thought process, writing randomly in my journal and figuring out what to shoot. As of now I’m either going to exhibit work showing the influence that strangers have on me or what inspires me/frustrates me about the city. In my three pieces I will examine the theme through three different perspectives. Then I will write three 200-300-word captions for every piece of work, discussing what I was trying to depict, the process I went through in the darkroom, and of course where and why.
The Big-Idea:
In my snowball paper I said that the self does not exist, and anyone that might say that they know “the self” is merely desperate for conclusion in the life. I say this because I when I was younger I too through I knew myself. But looking back now I realized that I was a pathetic dweeb. But then the question arises, what if that was your real self and that what you are now is a total fake? The class has made me wonder about who I really am, and by doing so I sometime cause myself to be in bouts of depression but I’m only depressed because I feel that at an important time as this, I’m juggling such a silly problem; finding myself. But then again it isn’t that silly. I’m just curious how I’m going leave high school. What kind of person am I going to assume in college. I now question myself, more than ever. Am I who I really am? And the answer, whatever it may be, really frightens me because here I am determining what I’m going to spend my next fours years being, and I’m having doubts on who I really am. Hopefully I chose right.
The Highlights Reel:
One highlight would be the trial of Imani, Chris Li, and Marc, three individuals who didn’t fully complete their minimum requirements. I voted that Imani and Chris Li receive credit even thought Imani was missing one credit and Chris Li was barely near completion. I would never forget the class’s eruption when they found out that Chris Li go the credit. From here on whatever I say am simply I expressing what I felt about other people’s actions, they’re not necessarily what I think about them. I could understand Raliecha’s frustration with the Chris Li verdict because she felt that by voting for Chris Li then Imani’s case’s credibility would be naught. However when the class erupted, I felt sick. Suddenly Eugenia sitting next to me goes, “Man, what the fuck, yea that’s write Raliecha!” I mean how inconsiderate can this class get. I personally felt like shit after everyone erupted and I believe I can speak on behalf of Chris Li and people who voted for him. I know Andy had valuable reasons why Chris Li shouldn’t get the credit but personally I felt I took a gamble by saving his butt because I felt he was someone who could hold his ground and finish his work. Then the class made the point that Marc too should get the credit since Chris did. That was stupid too even though technically it is true. Andy even made the point that Marc’s alibi was complete crap. Here we have the class skipping a class vote. I understand that some people would’ve been prejudice but I would’ve personally voted for Marc too. We could’ve voted on new consequences or something for different peoples.
The Inevitable And Probably Important Movie Review:
I would say that something cool about the class thus far would be the roof top activities and the self-awareness exercises we do because they always show me something interesting about myself. I’ve encountered these experiences in my daily life, whether it would be feeling myself or smelling something, but I’ve never drawn my attention to them. I find these exercises useful because in away they’re slowing down my fast paced life, allowing me to think about anything for a few minutes.
If I were to say something disappointed about class this period I would say the class itself, and perhaps the lack of movies shown in class.
My Reaction To My Reaction:
I would say my reaction to my reaction has stayed the same since it’s almost the same unit or the continuation of the unit. So I guess my reaction last reflection is almost echoed in this reflection. “My reaction to the class is predictable. I don’t like to think that I’ve been suckered into liking this class just because of the freedom.” What remains consistent would be the fact that I’m still trying to utilize the class’s freedom in a way that is beneficial to me and not necessarily take it for granted. Something that has changed would be the fact that I feel that I’m no longer learning from what other people say. I just lost respect for certain individuals in the classroom because I feel they’re diminishing the very thing I set out to do in class for others and myself.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes:
I plan to participate more in class in order to change the way things are done. I think other individuals should wake up and do the same thing. And I think the entire class should just be better people.