The experience was an interesting
one for me. At first, I was a hesitant to
do a Journey Grant. I was not sure if I
had time or energy to do it, especially over the summer. When I finally decided to do a Journey Grant,
it began the long process of picking what to do. Many of my friends were doing the British
Teachers’ Education Program, which I could not fit into my schedule. I wanted to do something that encompassed my
passion of literature and education.
Over the last three years at Jewell, I have combined my interests of
globalization, modernity, English, and education. I knew I wanted this project to be the same. I asked around for help from professors as
well as family and friends. I ended up
focusing on epic poetry. I had only
previously read a few of the epics I discussed, so it became an opportunity for
me to read more (which is always helpful) and explore how to teach these texts
to our students today.
This experience was beneficial for
me as a reader and teacher. I had to put
myself into a career I have not started yet.
I had to think like a student and a teacher. What would students find exciting about a
text they were not familiar with? How
can I teach the relevancy and value of these ancient texts? It was an enlightening experience. I had the opportunity to read The Epic of Gilgamesh, which was written
centuries ago, to Paradise Lost, which
was written in the seventeenth-century. As
I wrote the synopses every day, I become the student, dissecting and analyzing
language, plot, character, and theme. At
the end of the week, I morphed into the teacher. I discussed allusions, relevancy, themes,
characters, and how they all tie into our modern society. This blogging experience, in the least,
broadened my horizons as a reader and a teacher of readers.
Not only did this experience help me
grow and gain new insight into my future career, but also it helped me become a
better writer. The old cliché is that to
become a better writer, you must write every day. Clichés are tried but true, and it is accurate
in my case of blogging. As I wrote every
day, I noticed my own voice (as a writer) become stronger. Throughout the first three years of college,
being an English major, you are asked to write analytical papers over
literature. Critical thinking over literature
that Jewell requires you to do is integral in becoming an excellent reader and
writer, but blogging added a different dimension to my writing. I blogged every day, probably over 500 words
a day (although I never counted). This
experience inspired me to try my hand at writing, which I have done over the
summer. It has started a spark in me
that might not be profitable in the future, but can help with future careers
(if teaching does not pan out) as well as my own catharsis.
There were pros and cons of choosing this as my project. I enjoyed the freedom blogging gives as well as making my own schedule. With being involved in basketball for the college, I could work out and coach in camps, and blog every day. Saying that, blogging was time consuming. When I had vacation or had to work a residential basketball camp for an entire week, blogging became difficult. It took me approximately three hours/day to blog, which does not include the reading I had to do every night so I could blog the following day. It was not the experience I expected, because it was—at times—daunting. It was time consuming, but that being said, I do not regret choosing this as my project and blogging as my forum.
Strengths and weaknesses are
revealed throughout anything in life. As
far as weaknesses, it all comes back to the time consuming aspect of this
project and also the longevity of the project.
The blogging started the first of June and I finished at the beginning
of August. It took a lot of time and dedication
to do it. There were definitely days I
grumbled about having to blog. There
were days when I complained the no one was actually benefitting from what I was
saying. There were days when I thought
to myself, “Who cares?” However, as with
life, the good outweighed the bad. My
mom was my biggest advocate for the project.
She encouraged me when I was down.
She complimented my writing, and was truly impressed. Since she was my biggest supporter, she
spread my blog around. She words for
Landmark Company, a banking company out of Columbia, MO. Her boss, Mark Landrum, came across my blog
because of her. He admired my blog, my
cause, and my writing. There were other
instances where people praised my writing and what I was doing.
As for the future, I am excited by
what I have done so far. I am going to
attempt to see if I can get my final blog post, essentially a paper written
about why epics should still be in curricula, published on a website devoted to
education. I also think, as a teacher,
it helped me think about the importance of texts I will teach in the
classroom. It made me focus on the
relevancy and value of a book, and how to give that message to modern
students. I would like to learn more on
the actual teaching of these texts. It
would be interesting to see research and units done over each of these texts,
as well as anecdotes about student responses.
It is nice to talk about the theory of teaching these texts, but I want
to learn about the actual application of them in the classroom. As for doing this project differently, I
would focus on, perhaps, globalization, and how the growth of technology and
modernity affects the teaching of these texts.
I would look at the teaching of them not only in our classrooms, but
also around the world.
In summary, the project was a
success for me. I learned about myself,
new texts, and how to become a better teacher.
I appreciate William Jewell for allowing me the opportunity to enhance
my educational experience. I am not sure
where else a student can have an opportunity to do what I did, as well as other
students. I would also like to thank the
people who read my blog and helped me get to do what I love for an entire
summer.
Thank you all for everything,
Cassy
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