My growth in this course has been nearly nonexistent. My closed mind kept me longing for this open source learning environment to turn into a traditional classroom. It was very difficult for me to express my opinion in the classroom because I was intimidated by the amount of knowledge that all of my classmates had. Almost everyone seemed so confident in what they were talking about. A large aspect of open source learning is trust, without it the whole system would fail. In the beginning everyone deserved the amount of trust they got. As the year went on, however, the majority of the students, including myself, forfeited a lot of that trust due to the lack of consistency in our work. A lot of students found it hard to stay motivated especially when the instructor is not always there; understanding that the absences were for good reason.
On a lighter side of the course, there was one moment that stands out when I think about good laughs. While doing review multiple choice questions as a class, Dr. Preston said, "Omar is going to do great on the AP test. If you're not planning on studying with him, you should rethink your plan." (I think it was something like that) Omar then immediately looked at our table group and with a straight face said, "I'm not taking the AP test." I'm not exactly sure why, but Daniel, Jordan, Miles, Emilio and I all thought that it was hysterical. That moment has stuck with me because for that one moment we were all on the same wavelength which I think is pretty cool.
Through this course and the completion of my masterpiece, I was able to remember why I love the outdoors and spending time alone. I've always enjoyed hiking and just being in nature, but with sports and school recently I've been too busy to experience it as much as I would have liked to. These past six month or so I have spent a lot more time joking and finding new places to explore and it has been wonderful. I am very thankful for this course because of it has helped me to find my love of nature again and remember how soothing it is to be alone.
A hero's journey is a hard one to complete because a hero is a highly praised character with high expectations. Many people would think that I haven't exactly overcome anything this year and that I just flew under the radar. What people don't know is that on March I began suffering from anxiety and an overload of stress which actually affected me physically. I started having trouble just sitting in class because my heart rate would suddenly rise and unwound get a shortness of breath. The stress got to the point where my hair actually started falling out and I do have a bald spot because of it. It took some time and medication but I am now at the point of getting better. My hair has almost completely stopped falling out and the loss of breath has become minimal. This is something that only my family knew about and I was mostly dealing with alone. Being able to overcome this is something that I am very proud of because it was very scary to deal with.
I found a mentor in each of my classmates. Every person enjoys and knows about at least one thing that they could talk about for hours. I enjoyed learning about what everyone was passionate about throughout the last few weeks. A reoccurring theme that I noticed in a few presentation was altruism: feelings and behavior that show a desire to help other people and a lack of selfishness. I saw this in Siera Betts, Stevie Wisz, Michael Hall, Hannah Hurd, Judith Lee, Sierra Sanchez, Victoria Tonascia and Melissa Sobzack's masterpieces. Siera Betts was very selfless while feeding the people who live at the Good Samaritan shelter. Stevie Wisz, when she made the goodie-bags for the ill children in the hospital as well as her plan to do something similar on a larger scale. Hannah Hurd, Judith Lee and Sierra Sanchez volunteered their time at the boys and girls club over spring break to spend time with the children and teach them some sports and games. Michael Hall took his love for riddles and brain teasers and brought the class together to see why he enjoys them so much. Melissa Sobzack and Victoria Tonascia talked to homeless people to hear what they enjoy and are in to. They listened to people who regularly wouldn't even be looked at by most people. I think all of these are awesome and inspirational.
It may seem as though my growth in this course was minimal but I have learned a lot in untraditional and unexpected ways. I surprised myself in how much I learned in this course by just listening to what everyone has to say. It's unusual for teens and students to be able to just state their opinion, but in this course we were even heard which is even better.
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