When I first signed up for AP English Literature and Composition I had no idea what to expect. Will this be one of those difficult classes or will it be easy and laid back? I had heard different stories the previous year about some students stressing out over numerous assigned essays while others were ecstatic about creating their course blog. I was also briefly told about the whole open source learning concept, something I had never even heard of before. On top of all this I was instructed to create a course blog in which I would post all of my assignments on. To say I was a little bit nervous would be a great understatement!
Walking into class on the first day of school I felt just like Suyuan Woo from The Joy Luck Club did when she arrived to America; apprehensive and lost. I was still very hesitant over the whole open source learning concept but, to my surprise, I started to find myself loving everything about it. As a student, I was given a lot of trust with things like homework, studying, and quizzes which is very rare for a teacher to give right away. Because of this trust, I felt obligated to really work hard throughout the year in order to honor it. When we started to really use our blogs I felt like John the Savage from Brave New World. Just as John was excited to visit and learn about the new world, I was excited to start personalizing and posting on my blog. Though the course blogs were an amazing aspect of this class, I would have to say the final masterpieces were my favorite thing both to create and hear about in this class overall. I remember how funny it was when everybody found out that we were not going to be creating senior scrapbooks, but instead, creating something amazing and following our individual passions. Everybody was so shocked to hear about this and after the idea settled in, everyone became confused and scared about the idea of not having a set rubric to follow. Overall, I am very proud of my final masterpiece and how it turned out. I am also very proud over my blog and feel accomplished just as Beowolf did when he saved the Danes from the demon Grendel.
A big theme not only in the masterpiece presentations, but also the class as a whole, was passion. For example, Allyson Brown, Daniel Rucker, Edmond Yi, and Bianca Ramirez and Ashley Hong all talked about their fields of interest they wanted to pursue. Allyson presented her prezi with a lot of enthusiasm. You could tell she was not only very excited to share her topic of genetics, but also that she knew what she was talking about and teaching. Unfortunately, she lost track of time and was unable to fully finish her presentation which shows just how much she got into her project. Daniel also ran into this problem. Even though he presented his project with absolutely no powerpoints or prezis or notecards, he talked all the way until the end of class. Edmond's passion was shown throughout his writing. Even though this was a project that would be graded, Edmond is still continuing to write and perfect his novel even after he graduates from school. Bianca and Ashley also plan to continue creating and sharing their comic strips. They shared their blog of all the comic strips they created and while they were reading and explaining some, you could tell how proud they were of them. Out of all the masterpieces, I believe Rudy Valentine's, Jasmine Beebe's, and Lauren Lascina's carried the most passion. They worked really hard at creating a music festival to put on in our community park and even though this first attempt failed, they are not giving up. Putting on a festival is a huge task but they didn't let that stop them as they immediately started planning and raising money. Even though they weren't able to get a festival together before graduation, they are still trying to get one together in the future as they believe this could be something huge.
In conclusion, this course was definitely an adventure I will never forget. Though it was challenging and confusing at times, there was always someone to fall back on and help you out. By the end of my journey I believe I was able to reconnect with my own passion. I was able to do this by connecting what we were learning about in class to my own life instead of just memorizing a lot of information I need to know for the next test. Instead, I was able to study aspects of my own career and utilize it into my work such as my masterpiece. When I am older, I hope to start my own business whether it's a fashion boutique or a blog such as the one I made as my masterpiece. I was able to study different marketing techniques on how to get your business known to others and how to make it presentable and attractive to the eye. In this course, I've learned a lot about how to collaborate effectively with my peers, how to create and manage my own website or blog, and how to make connections with potential mentors and experts. Overall, I am so glad I signed up for this course as I'm walking out of it as a new person with an abundance amount of new, helpful information.
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