Saturday was another interesting day for the Longwood Cohort. Class was exciting and exhilarating as we worked together to discuss our writing, our styles, and the purposes for writing. We all became somewhat tickled over the “fuzzy” writing and “fuzzy” thinking concept. It became apparent that we all suffered from the “fuzzy” writing concept and needed to adhere to the writing tips presented in class.
While working in groups, we soon found that we needed to “talk out” our ideas and build upon the themes of our assigned topic—Saturday’s topic was adaptive challenges. As the professors worked independently with each of us, the other classmates worked steadily back in the classroom to polish up those rusty skills we all call research! We practiced using Ref Works and shared articles that we found online.
I also discovered that to become a better writer, I needed to stop, reflect, and put my thoughts together in an outline format. I found I write better when I begin with the big
picture. I write my abstract first and then begin to break the pieces apart to make my outline.
Working in pairs and sharing our ideas also helped each of us attack the concepts assigned and allowed us to work more closely with each other. You see, true learning was taking place. Classmates were helping each other and asking questions about sentence structure, punctuation, citations, etc. Everyone was involved and working! We were learning from each other and bonding as a cohort.
To many of us, writing is very personal. You have to begin to feel comfortable with each other before you can share with others. This was evident as the class commented
that we were glad we had the opportunity to share with each other instead of peer editing over the internet. I know that this opportunity to write, discuss,
and think out my ideas in a calm environment will help me in the long run. I felt more comfortable and I think I will feel better about sharing my writing online
with my classmates in the other cohorts the next time we meet.
In closing, with each class period so full of activity, I often find the class is over before we have had a chance to work together in pairs to clarify assignments, discuss educational ideas, and concepts that we might want to explore further. For these reasons, I send a shout out to the Longwood instructors— thank you for letting us share and
grow together— we needed it and gained so much on Saturday!
