The day started out much better than the last Saturday class. There was no homecoming dance to chaperone, so I was able to get to class with more than 4 hours sleep, and this made all the difference in the world. I felt more awake and like I could concentrate on the class and not struggle to stay awake.
Earlier in the week before class we received the writing prompts for the next paper. I will honestly say that none of the prompts jumped out at me. I spent most of the week thinking about each of them, hoping that one of the topics would speak to me. Honestly none did and that made this the most challenging assignment I’ve had to work on so far. I thought that writing in a scholarly way was a challenge, but wow, writing in a scholarly way about something that does not really interest me is even more of a challenge. To be quite honest I came into class with no clue which prompt I would choose. Once we were given a chance to write a strange thing happened, the prompt that I chose spoke to me. I started writing and writing, by the time we were told to stop I had written about 4 pages, and was getting ready to write the conclusion. Well maybe not quite that far, but the frame of my paper was there with opposing view included.
Then we were told that the other cohorts were not ready to do a peer review, so we got more writing time. This helped me out more than anything else. By the time it was time for the Longwood cohort to share papers, I was able to present almost a complete rough draft.
We also talked about the last part of the assignment, the oral presentation that goes with it. Speaking in front of groups is not my favorite thing in the world. Looking back on my educational career, I wish I had listened to all of the people who told me to take the public speaking class. So much so that I tell young people all the time, “listen to the advice that you get” I was one of those who knew it all. I digress, I can speak in front of large groups, I do it frequently, once I get the first couple of minutes over with I calm down. I feel like it is harder to speak in front of peers than it is to speak to students. From what we’ve been told this presentation will be in front of a few of our classmates and a professor. Well I’ll be nervous, but confident – bring on the butterflies!!
Looking forward to this last Saturday class, I can’t wait to exchange papers with the other cohorts. Our cohort has gotten close, and i think that we know each other pretty well, it will be a nice change of pace to read what the other cohorts are writing.
