evaluation, reflection, assesment

Intro

It is the middle of the semester. Time for grade check ups to see if they're sick or just already dead. Well, this is my reflection and evaluation of myself and my blog so far in Shakespeare class. Enjoy!

Shakespeare Literacy

I don't think I've obtained 'Mastery' over this part yet, but I definitely feel like I've learned a lot more about Shakespeare that I didn't know before. I've studied Hamlet, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest, and Othello each with little index cards to write my little notes on. These notes either translated into a blog post or are lost on my floor some where. Besides that I listened very carefully in class and enjoyed all the in depth discussion about everything I read.

Critical Analyzation

I feel like this is my weak point. I think I just don't put enough enthusiasm (in the form of time) into this particular type of learning about Shakespeare. I listened in class and found it interesting, but had a hard time applying. This mostly came in when I studied Othello on my own and watched the movie along with it. I also tried to find some meaning behind the colors of costumes in the production of The Winter's Tale that we saw. I looked into the actual text sometimes, specifically in Love's Labours Lost and all the wonderful poetry going on in it.

Engaging Creatively

Shakespeare is so much fun! I feel like I have a lot of ideas of how to do this but I don't quite carry them out. I mean, I'm a photography major and I like art so I generally think in that direction. But when it comes to taking photos I like to find something already there instead of set something up. And I'm really not that great at art, I just enjoy letting my imagination take off (and right now my art classes are draining my creative juices). I've played around in paint (computer drawing program) to add some color to my blog (here and here).

Sharing Meaningfully

I haven't documented this very much but I have been talking about Shakespeare a lot with my roommates and friends. I shared one post with my roommate (three is a magic number) after explaining the idea to her. She even commented! I took another friend with me to The Tempest and she hadn't read the play before hand and so asked me to tell the story to her. I had already shared it with another roommate (she told me to stop reading Shakespeare one night. I asked why and she said it was weird for me to be reading Shakespeare, so I told her the story of The Tempest... I still don't know what she thought of it...) There is another of my roommates who was so kind as to follow me. She loves Shakespeare, too.

Self-Directed Learning

Okay, this is another point I don't feel very accomplished about but as I was reading through past blog posts I came up with these ideas and questions and commitments that I made. These are self-directed learning questions and ideas, I realized, so I really have been using this process without being very organized but still fulfilling it. I did some with the Winter's Tale (here and here) and I also outlined a bunch of stuff I could have done in my first Othello post but I didn't always completely fulfill these plans and ideas. I guess I've got a lot to look forward to!

Collaboration (to learn)

My group has been great. I have really liked reading their blogs, which has given me a way to try and comment meaningfully. I also like that they comment on my blog. I have found Cassie's devotion to commenting encouraging and Keelan's added insight makes my blog a little bit better than it is with just me at the keyboard. I've also enjoyed our discussion time in class, though I usually don't participate enough because I don't have a ton to say about it. But usually hearing my group members voice their opinions gets my brain moving and I think of some thought legitimate enough to say out loud. I'd thank Brittni for being good at that. Either way it's great to have a group!

Looking ahead

What am I going to do as the end of the semester approaches? I'm going to keep moving on and up and I'm going to keep learning, hopefully in new ways and developing what I'm working at right now (and some maybe some stuff I proposed previously). For a final project I have no clue right now but doing something sounds like so so much fun. I want to be able to get into a group and go out into the world and have fun with Shakespeare (I alone have no courage for that right now but in a group I would definitely enjoy it).

The End

And that's my self-evaluation for this middle of the semester.