After reviewing everybody’s PowerPoint presentations, I accumulated a list of ways that our writing class could be improved. First, I liked the idea about there being three different classroom set ups (independent, collaborative, and teacher led). Sometimes I feel that listening to a teacher present a PowerPoint and providing a corresponding assignment can be a bit repetitive and monotonous. While I still find value in teacher led lectures, this new idea of incorporating different classroom environments provides a decent and appropriate amount of change. Another idea that caught my attention was the idea of field trips. Classrooms are great in accomplishing a traditional lecture, but some of my favorite classes last semester were those that were taught else where. While I understand it is impossible to have an extravagant trip, I think there is plenty of things would could do in the community or even on campus. For example, say we had a paper that was about different cultures within The United States. I would find more motivation and inspiration by exploring cultures here in Oxford. Whether that be a walk through campus or a ride on the double decker bus, I think field trips would be a fun activity to do during class time to add variety to the curriculum. In addition to adding variety to our writing class, I liked the idea of having people or possibly other professors, with experience or insight on the material we are discussing, coming to our class and speaking to us. This is another way to gain more inspiration and motivation towards our writing. Lastly, one group mentioned the idea of having more group projects. While I tend to dislike group projects, I think that researching or accumulating ideas within a group setting is a good idea. In the past, I have found myself stuck on a particular assignment with no idea about a topic to write about. By having group discussions and research days, I think it would help provide not only fresh ideas, but fresh perspectives. Overall, I gained a lot of ideas from reviewing other classmates’ PowerPoints.
Looking back at this post I realized how the alterations we made to the class was really beneficial. At this point in the semester I didn’t understand how independent the changes would make me both as a writer and student. With this being said, I think that my list that I made (posted above) really showed how close minded I was as an individual. After reading the list I realized that had we done these things I suggested, I would not be the student I am today. That list doesn’t promote individual thought and problem solving which I desperately needed to become a better educated student.