Final Reflecton

It is almost over!  I will be brutally honest here; I HATED THIS CLASS!  Now let me explain why I say that; and what it is that I am referencing when I say that.  First of all, I do not hate or dislike the professor. Dr. Gross is great to work with and offers great advice.  I do not hate my classmates.  They offered great help in our partner assignments and offered great comments in my blog posts.  They were awesome. 

               I hated the websites and apps that we had to use to create the assignments.  I know that HATE is a strong word; but I HATED them.  More than anything I didn’t like the way it made me feel.  It made me feel as if I was a complete idiot.  I couldn’t get it sometimes and I felt like I had a first grade mentality.  More than anything I feel that I was over analyzing myself and created a fear that I could not break free from.  It literally took me a year to get through this class.

 I took this class for the first time during the Fall semester of 2017.  I got stumped on the Info graphic assignment and after that I just stopped.  I had the hardest time trying to figure that assignment out that I just stopped.  Looking back at it; I felt that I was just emotionally overwhelmed that semester that I should have just taken a break.  My mom was still recovering from multiple surgeries, where we almost lost her.  I had surgery on my foot in September of that year and was recovering slowly and I was just not in the right place emotionally and mentally.  I needed a break. 

Taking this class over again was interesting when I got to that assignment again.  The one that I failed at last year.  I was happy that I was able to turn several of the assignments early and gave me a three-week head start on the info graphic assignment.  I struggled on it again but this time I just buckled down and did it.  I was not sure that I completed the assignment correctly; but I had to do it, I had to commit myself to at least try.  I tell my students to never give up; but to at least try it.  So I did, and it was not that bad.  Funny thing though; I had surgery again in September 28, 2018; that I am currently still recovering but mentally I am better now. 

Screencasts, instagram, YouTube, animoto and QR codes were a breeze to complete compared to the previous one; and I was glad that I was able to learn how to use some of these applications that I can share with my kids.  Screencasts is a tool that I will use to be able to explain lessons to students when I am out or to embed in a Google Classroom.  Animoto is another tool that I will have my students use in their upcoming projects to create short videos. 

The Cartoon lesson is one that I enjoyed the most and will be using more in my classes My students are using them to create cartoons using their terms for economics.  By creating the cartoons; I feel that my students have a better understanding of the term in the way they use it in the cartoon or comic. 

Having knowledge of how these app works I will be able to show my co-workers how to use them and be able to use in their classrooms. When I become a librarian these tools will be helpful to show others how to use. 

So while I like my Professor, I like my classmates and I like the majority of the topics in the class; I STILL HATE INFO GRAPHICS!

My last cartoon