Reflections

It has been eight long years since my last high school class and much has changed since then. I married a wonderful man, bought a home, mourned deaths and celebrated new lives. I enjoyed life and I dreaded it. I gave and I took. I lived and I learned. I decided to take this course as my first step of the long stride towards my teaching certificate. I loved English classes in high school and used creative writing studies as my electives. I wrote many poems and short stories and hoped to focus my career in English. I had always been confident of my abilities as a creative writer and thought that this course would be a gentle dive into my college education. I did not know that I would be plunging into a raging river of white caps.

I am a creative writer, and I have never written a college paper, nor had I even heard of MLA until this course. I did not think this course was going to be easy, but I also did not think it would be so difficult. I figured that an online course was all about independent work but I was very wrong. The first time I saw that we were to post a blog I about had a heart attack. What is a blog and why do I have to post my writing into the world of cyberspace? What do you mean that I have to post my opinions and have an online conversation with my peers? How is this going to work?

Despite all of my apprehensions, I feel that I did rather well. I learned that it was okay to share my thoughts and that most people are accepting of differences in opinions. The diversity in the course was interesting to explore. I have been through many diversity training courses and they are usually one sided. I always feel like an outcast because others tend to side with the instructor instead of expressing their true feelings. It has never been hard for me to express my feelings or stand up for what I believe is right. It was interesting to see how different people reacted to different subjects.

The subjects we explored during this course were; identity, community and tradition. I feel that the subjects flowed very well together and allowed me to reach a higher understanding of culture. The identity unit was interesting. I learned about many different identity markers, aside from the basic race, religion and sex. I learned how Gloria Anzaldua used language to identify herself, why Queen Latifah chose to call herself a “Queen,” and that Firoozeh Dumas thought her name defined who she was. I was very fond of Dumas’ essay, as I could easily relate to it. Dumas states “My name, Firoozeh…means “Turquoise” in Farsi. In America, it means “Unpronounceable (85).” My name is not an ethnic name like Dumas’, but it is just as hard to pronounce and spell. My full name is Seanantinia and I pride myself on having a unique and beautiful name. I feel that after reading Dumas’ essay and seeing how upset she was about her name, I appreciate my name more than ever. However, my name is just one of my identity markers.

The community unit was a little harder for me to relate to. I learned that a community is not just where you live or work, but groups that you associate yourself with. I was given an assignment of writing a blog posting by filling in the blank; “____________ is a community.” This was incredibly hard for me. I read so many of my peer’s postings and they had religious communities, fitness communities, political communities and online communities such as Facebook, and Twitter. I did not belong to any community that I could think of. I chose a community that was rather new to me. “Angel Learning is a community.” At the close of the community unit, I found myself wishing that I had a better community in which to belong, but all in all, I love my family community the most.

The final unit explored in this course was tradition. I feel that this unit ended up being one of the most controversial due to the writing assignment given. The writing assignment prompt was “Develop a 3-4 page paper that analyzes how a specific cultural tradition has been challenged, altered, or undermined, therefore having some impact on society as a whole.” Many people chose very controversial topics such as teen pregnancy, religion and the pledge of allegiance. I was torn between many topics, but I chose one that was touched on in the required texts. The topic I chose was the dissolve family mealtime. I researched many articles on the topic and found that I am not the only one concerned with the dissolve of family mealtimes. I plan on becoming a part of some of the councils that are advocating for more family time. I learned that there are many traditions that are being challenged and worry about the possibilities of them disappearing.

For this portfolio assignment, we were asked to look back at our work throughout the course and choose four pieces that meet the following criteria; Critical thinking, Revision, Awareness of audience and voice, and a writer choice piece. After a long process and countless changes of mind, I chose the following pieces to represent the assignment:

Critical Thinking choice - For this piece I will use a paper that was written in the tradition unit. The title of this paper is “The Dissolve of Family Mealtime.” I chose this piece because I paid extra attention to analysis and put in extra thought of how to show the reader examples of my thesis.

Rewrite paper – For this piece, I chose our first timed write. This assignment was to write a thesis driven paper about what it is like to be an outsider, based on the film “Spanglish.” I chose this piece because we were given an hour for the assignment and I feel I could have done a much better job given a longer time period.

Awareness of Audience and Voice – For this piece, I have chosen my first blog assignment. The assignment was to describe what somebody might think of you based on the contents of your purse or wallet. I enjoyed telling a story about what you would find in my purse and this assignment allowed me to use my creative writing skills.

My Choice – For this piece, I chose a discussion board post that was part of the community unit. In this assignment, we were to respond to an essay about community and state how the author explains that “communities accept us for who we are.” I chose this piece because I feel that I used critical thinking, analysis and awareness of audience and voice.

I hope that you enjoy my portfolio. I feel that this course has challenged my critical thinking skills and introduced me to the world of college writing.