Cassandra Whitman

Maya Alapin
5/13/14
English 220
Reflection Letter
Over the course of English 220 I have learned how to further my skills in writing and
how to use different kinds of multimedia to express my thoughts and ideas in ways other than
typing them down on paper. Over the course of three projects, peer reviews, and many online
and in class discussions I furthered my knowledge on education in general. I was introduced to
new ways of thinking and views on education through the thoughts of Plato, Rousseau,
Montessori, Clinton, and Gandhi. I agreed and disagreed with all of the authors in some ways,
but I appreciate the opportunity to explore their ways of thinking. Now at the end of English 220,
I feel that I am a stronger writer, my mind has been opened to new ideas, and I feel like I have
had a lot of hands on experience with multimedia.
At the beginning of class, I kind of had an idea of what Ms.Alapin meant when she said
multimedia. I knew that videos and giving speeches were ways, but I had no idea that songs,
food presentation, jewelry, and a variety of other things were a possibility. I used baking as a
way to personally express the point of my first project. Because we were analyzing Platos
Allegory of the Cave I decided to bake a batch of man shaped cookies to represent the
prisoners of the cave. If the men were smiling they symbolized the released prisoners who found
the level of enlightenment Plato talked about. If the cookie men were frowning then they
represented the prisoners still chained to the walls of the cave. I also learned how to create a blog
as a different kind of multimedia piece. For project two I researched and reported on one of
former President Clintons big ideas for education. This showed me a way of communicating
with a whole new audience, bloggers. Finally, I created a power point presentation for the third
project. That was easy enough, but I also added in a voice over. I decided to go with this
approach because I wanted my presentation to be taken seriously and professionally. And of
course, I created a Weebly website so as to publish all of my projects in one location. Because I
was introduced to many different mediums of multimedia I feel confident that these acquired
skills may help me in the future, whether I am giving a presentation for work or helping my
future kids with one of their projects.
I felt differently about all three projects. For the project on Plato, I found it a bit
challenging. At first, I could not find a lot of connections between his allegory and what he
thought on education. I thought we were just drawing conclusions from a famous work of his.
But after doing research, I began to see a few connecting factors. I began to see what he was
alluding to when referring to the cave and then finding our way to enlightenment. After doing a
lot of research, I was able to write my paper and I must say; I feel like I did well for not really
understanding the reasoning behind it at the beginning.
For project two, I was excited to make a blog. I was even more excited when I learned
that a blogs formatting is less formal than an actual paper would be. I was able to really state my
opinion in a relaxed setting. As for the topic of my writing, I was pleasantly surprised by my
interest in Clintons idea of comparing the top twenty schools in our country and applying their
way of teaching to all of the other schools in the nation. I was so interested that it became the
fuel for project three.
Project three was by far the longest project we were assigned. I did not mind the writing
part since I had such an interesting topic to write on thanks to the previous project. However, I
was slightly concerned when it came to part B. I was nervous for the voice over. I did not know
what to say and it was quite a dilemma since I have become passionate about the topic of
education reform in America. I thought I sounded weird and insecure in my speaking. After a
few tries I finally got confident in my work. Even though this was a long project, I have enjoyed
this one the most. I was able to pick a subject I was really interested in and that helped me fill up
the pages.
I have gone back and made a few changes to my projects. I have better introduced my
quotes in all three of my projects, as we have learned to do so in class. For example in project
two, when referring to how the board of education in Finland is not run by, and I quote business
people, military leaders or career politicians I followed up by saying As in, the people making
all of the decisions that determine the future of their education are educators themselves who
have hands on experience in the schooling system. In class we learned introduce a quote and
then to follow up with explaining the quote in our own words to better integrate it. By doing little
things like this I realized that it has made my paper read smoother; there are no longer hanging
quotes.
I looked at the responses given to me by Ms. Alapin on project two and three and made
the appropriate changes. For example, for project two, one of the feedback points was that my
links to my sources on my website were leading to advertisements. I double checked and
although a couple of the links may send you to an advertisement at first, all one has to do is exit
out of the ad and it will take you to my sources page. I tried relinking it, but I always get this
result. Secondly, project threes feedback urged me to be more specific in my reflections on all
of my projects. I followed her advice and made substantial changes to all of my learning
outcomes. I gave examples and went into more detail on how I created and presented my
projects.
Overall, I am very happy with how this course has changed me and my work. I am
leaving with new skills which I know will help me in the future. I enjoyed interacting with my
classmates during in class discussions and through chatting online through Blackboard. The peer
reviews were remarkably helpful. By having a new set of eyes reading through your work really
helped catch all of the little snags I never would have caught on my own. By writing out the
SLOs it helped me through the writing process by seeing what worked in one project and seeing
if it would work in another. English 220 has been by far the best English class I have taken in my
college career. The work was challenging but not too much so. I loved how Ms. Alapin
integrated technology with traditional learning styles. She definitely has made the learning
process open to new things. The readings were interesting, and I liked how every author had a
different view on education. It helped me, as a student, to form my own ideas on how I think
education should be like. I really enjoyed my semester in the class and I will definitely
encourage my friends to take it as well.