Final Blog Posting from Sarai Glass

The blog is a great reflection of how our class has been so good at thinking outside the box. Both the blog postings and blog comments just show how creative our class is. I think that this form of writing, what I would consider authentic writing, provides great insight to how our class thinks, and even I would go as far to say, insight to the success of the class. What is significant about the blog is the fact that we are writing to prompts directed by our class, and responding in a fashion that is uninhibited by a grade scale. This setting is what causes it to be authentic writing. I think the post about authentic writing was one of the most important posts because to know what authentic writing is, and to know when you are reading authentic writing, can be both very compelling, for the former, and comforting, for the latter. Overall the blog was a great way for our class to take the classroom out of the classroom setting. I really enjoyed the blog and hope that next year ’s class has even more interaction with it. The blog was a perfect venue for writing for honors students.

Our Little Blog

Although my affinity for the blog hit highs and lows, overall I’m thankful for it. Because our classes could not always cover the materials as extensively as we hope, the blog provided a separate outlet. In the beginning, we really had no need for the blog, except to say that we looked forward to doing something that we could blog about. Then, as the class progressed, our opinions, beliefs, and general outlooks on situations came forth. It said everything that we did not say or were thinking.
I could remember thinking that I had nothing to say about the subject, what would I do? And the necessity to blog sort of made me think about something that I had put on the back burner at the moment. In the search to post something new and original, I really had to think about it. What were my opinions? What were the facts I was basing my beliefs off of?
Also, reading what everyone else impressed me so much. It helped me communicate with my classmates, without directly communicating with them. We all talked about read the same materials, made comments on the same topics, and discussed the same issues…all on our own (well, with a little encouragement from Professor Bateman).

To Stop and Reflect

Just like almost everyone else in our class, I was a little hesitant about participating in this blog for the first few weeks. In fact, I probably had a few choice words to share with anyone who was unfortunate enough to be in the room with me while I was blogging...but then I actually started to like it. I would go back and read comments posted after mine to see if anyone would respond to what I said, and I even started pouring a little bit of myself into my comments instead of writing dry, boring responses. I think that the idea of being able to say whatever I wanted without having to worry about offending anyone or watching someone roll his/her eyes at me allowed me to, well, really be me. I really just wish that we could have spent more time discussing the blog posts in class, because I found that some of the most interesting commentaries and ideas were presented here, and then they simply died without living. Bad analogy - I apologize.

This blog, at least in my opinion, has allowed our class to experience a different level of intimacy; so many people were so much more open with their thoughts on this blog that I think it (in a very strange way) made us closer as a class. Please continue to use it as a teaching device - it is incredibly effective and really brings another facet to a discussion-based course.

Reflection -- All's Well that Ends Well

I feel that this blog gives a very honest, “right down to it” impression of our class. It is not riddled with our “scholarly personas” and really allowed us to evaluate the aspects of the class that were most meaningful to us on an individual level. I have never had to blog for a class before but seeing and hearing everyone’s interpretations put a whole new face on the writing process. Instead of sitting with only my thoughts before writing a paper, I had the thoughts of fifteen other students to help inspire me. Our real-life, unfiltered experiences with Project Angel Heart and the material are extremely significant. Again, we got “right down to it.” Our blog is completely unique to our course and a lasting reminder of what sixteen freshmen at the University of Denver learned about illness, service, and the public good one winter back in 2008…

Blogging Reflection

I’ll admit that this blogging assignment was initially a bit of a stretch for me: the idea of writing “publicly” was a little hard to swallow. However, I think that throughout the past few weeks, this blog has provided a wonderful opportunity for us to learn more about each other as a class. I enjoyed reading about the various events that have impacted other students’ lives and understanding of illness (the very first post); it certainly provided new insights that added depth to our in-class discussions.

Overall, I think that this blog does an excellent job at reflecting the dynamic and passionate nature of our class: no one hesitated to speak freely in their posts, and the online discussions often paralleled the arguments and discussions we had in class. Moreover, this blog could be a great way for students in future service-learning to gain insight into what lies ahead in the quarter. Perhaps this blog would also be helpful to Project Angel Heart staff if they are interested in learning more about the mindset with which volunteers approach their organization and the experiences that they take away from volunteer shifts. Although there are many different ways in which the blog could be used, I think it should, above all, be used as a resource for other people to use and apply in their own lives, teaching, or service opportunities.

New Perspectives

A Final Blog Post

Considering the blog assignment, I really appreciated the opportunity it gave the class to be more candid about our thoughts. I personally believe that I express myself better in writing than in speech (though I am attempting to find a balance here). Overall, I think this blog serves as an archive of our thoughts as the course progressed, for it is not very realistic to think that we can preserve what we talked about during lectures and discussions. Looking back, this blog is able to preserve the topics of discussion, points of contention, etc. that arose during class time, especially because its timeline followed so closely to our reading and writing assignments. I am personally grateful for the opportunity to have a class-related blog, not only because it allowed us to expand upon our thoughts, but also to go off on tangents that were not necessarily discussed in class. Overall, I think it was an effective teaching tool, and while we did tend to get hung up on some topics, I believe the class had very well-developed responses, especially those that were-student led. It gave us the opportunity to direct our discussions, which I especially enjoyed. I believe this blog assignment portrays us as a mature, open-minded audience, and though most of us are very opinionated, we did enjoy discussion (and at times, contentions) with our peers.

This blog was a little different for me. I don't know about you guys, but I have never been one for post my ideas all over the internet. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer a good-ol' face-to-face chat with people when I discuss issues close to home. Now, this is not to say that I found this blog to be a waste of time. In fact, it actually helped me become more relaxed in my writing and forced me to realize that when you are composing something you don't always have to treat it as a piece of art. Sometimes, the best writing is when you don't try to hide it behind intricate phrases. Some of my favorite posts on this blog avoided a pedantic tone that made me feel as though I was being talked to, not at. And it is this concept that I think is essential. Furthermore, the more I look over this blog, the easier it is to see who these bloggers really are, and see past the face they portray as they write. Call me crazy, but I found way more value in the pieces that had some history, some personal weight, behind them, because to me that what matters most: connecting to people through shared experiences, the bridge to what is intrinsically us, rather than merely to the extrinsic mask we create when we write for a specific audience.

Blog Culmination

I found our blog to be a helpful place for disscussion on topics introduced in class. It is always easier to write about things and the online environment provided an arena in which everyone could share opinions and thoughts. I found this to be beneficial to my understanding of the course topics as well as a good way to observe the remarkable insight and talent of my classmates.

There were a few blogs that I particularly enjoyed. The first posts related to AIDS provided an effective method of viewing the disease through several different lenses. Also, the blogs relating to Project Angel Heart were interesting to read. I enjoyed learning about other students' shifts with the organization, since we did not all volunteer together. And it is always inspiring to hear the testimonials of fellow volunteers and what they got out of the experience we all shared.

Overall, I feel this blog was an effective technique to include in the course, as it instigated thoughful reflections and in-depth consideration of class topics. I enjoyed the opportunity to be open and honest and to hear the candid opinions of others in my class. Thanks to everyone for the additional education that the posts and comments provided.

I have thruoughly enjoyed this blog, simply because it has given me a new avenue to get to understand my classmates. I feel like I know some of the students better because I have been able to read their thoughts on sincere issues. Much of the writing gives me access to more develpoed thoughts than typically come out during class. I am able to read others' posts and bounce ideas of of them with ample time to reflect and articulate well what I really feel. Reading the blog, it is obvious that the class is filed with smart motivated students interested in many types of civic engagements. It is clear that we have come from many different backgrounds and have highly varied lifew experiences but that we are all interested in similar aspects of the human condition. We think very different thoughts but I can see that the thought processes are are related. We come to different conclusions but there is very little animosity among the class which speaks to our openmindedness as a whole. While the blog added amny aspects to the class, the most important for me was the lens that it gave me to magnify my understanding of my classmates through.

Reflection on course blog

On the whole, I have been very impressed with our course blog, in terms of both its content and its originality. I feel as though as a class we have done a wonderful job in coming up with insightful observations and wording them in original, thought-provoking questions. It is interesting to review the blog posts now that we are almost done with the class, as they essentially provide a mirror to the strengths and weaknesses of both the class structure and the individual classes themselves. Towards the middle of the blog, for example, the subjects being posted got fairly repetitive; we had several in a row that were entirely focused on the rhetoric of disease, and we found ourselves straining to find new topics. This could be taken as a sign that we spent too long in this class covering this particular topic, that we were effectively beating a dead horse. We had several blogs, however, on both the government's and our own roles in the public good, each having fresh new perspectives and ideas. Perhaps, then, we should have spent longer on this subject, as it seems as though we could have said even more on this subject. I do wish we had discussed the blog more often in class. There were some very insightful comments made every week that rarely got any credit. In short, I feel as though the course blog was a very helpful tool, but I would make it a larger focus of the class.

Course Wrap-Up

The blog gives the impression that we are a class of conscientious students who care about these issues and the context that they have in our lives. This blog reveals the themes and topics that we covered comprehensively in this course. The most significant discussions in this blog were pertaining to illness and metaphor, stereotypes, and the connection between these issues and the public good. These are the topics that brought our opinions and thoughts to the forefront. The final conclusions that I can draw from this blog are that it greatly added to what I learned about rhetoric and thinking in this class. It made me aware of everyone in the class's opinions and what others can offer in way of new perspectives and outlooks.

The other last blog

The blog provided an excellent avenue for expressing my opinion about the different issues presented in the class.  I really enjoyed the fact that we can extended discussion from the classroom.  Nonetheless, I think that the most significant aspect of the blog is that it can kind of serve as a vault in time much like the seed bank being established in northern Norway.  If the world were to be wiped out, save for a few million people, they could access our blog: Engaged Rhetoric and study what it takes to form the basis for society.  Our blog really could be the Sparknotes for polis building.  Who knows, maybe one day people will write laws and mandates in acrostic poetry.  Of course Project Angel Heart, or some manifestation of PAH, will become the mainstay of every family's mantelpiece, but more importantly, their and our focus on AIDS will lead to an absence of social stigmas.  This may be because of its lack of importance in a world recovering from massive population loss, yet our explanations concerning the problems in associating people of a particular set to AIDS will serve as a bulwark against much social prejudice.  

Assuming that this massive population loss will occur at the hands of nuclear warfare, there is a strong possibility that birth defects will become commonplace.  Thus our blog will show people that there is nothing wrong or different with people, who have eight eyes or eight legs.  I can thoroughly and honestly say that a society built off of our blog will make an excellent society.  

Reflections: openness of thought

I find it interesting that the blog allowed us to essentially step outside of the class and view it from an outward perspective, considering what our involvement and our service learning at PAH really meant from a larger perspective. I think we posted and responded with incredible honesty, particularly when considering the role of 'forced volunteering.' In re-reading our posts, I see an openness in sharing thoughts and a willingness to look at the class and our service learning from "outside the box" (sorry, cliched expression...) I think this ultimately made for a healthy and productive learning experience.

Wrap Up

This blogging experience was significant because it's the first time a class has ever gone in this direction. I like the intimate atmosphere provided through this out-of-the-box classroom discussion. I do wish that every week we had gone over what was talked about earlier in the blog, that way we could incorporate the ideas further in to our learning and we could comment on one another's opinions and "present" our own posts. Maybe we should have posted one blog a week also, instead of two, that way it would be more indepth and meaningful and we would be less inclined to hate our lives everytime we had to sign on and complete a blog! It has been fun, the whole blog-deal, but it could be perfected and the process could be made more smooth.

Reflection

I have really enjoyed this method of responding to class. It gave me an opportunity outside of class to reflect on what we had discussed, to think about what had been said without having to think quickly before the topic passed.

I believe that the blog we have produced represents the discussions and class topics well. You can see the occasional frustration and anxiety as well as the passion through our writings. I would hope that to the rest of the world this blog shows the depth to which we analyzed the issues of the public good and illness while learning about their place in society and our developing world. Due to the fact that all the posts were written by the students and the topics as well were openly created by the students, I think that this blog is a significant representation of student opinion and learning in this class. Rarely do you encounter a situation in which a teacher allows the students to create the topics for response and I believe that this gave us a greater amount of freedom to discuss the issues that we personally had with the material and to tie up any loose ends from class that we wanted to continue to discuss. By giving the students the freedom to lead the blog, the blog seems more realistic and personal. It was created by the students about the topics that we personally wanted to discuss rather than forcing us to respond to issues raised by the teacher. Even though I'm sure the issues still would have been thought provoking, it gave us our own chance to lead and reflect as a class.

Although keeping up with the new posts was at times difficult, I really enjoyed this method of reflection. It was simple and innovative considering the amount of time that we as students spend on the internet. No other teacher I have had has used a method like this to enhance our learning outside of the classroom. I think it was a very beneficial method and I hope that other teachers will use something similar in the future. It just goes to show how taking chances can create success, not to mention a deeper understanding.

LAST BLOG!!!

Because this is our class' final blog, we wanted to do something a little bit different. Taking the phrase "public good", write an acrostic poem. List the letters vertically down the screen like this:

P
U
B
L ...

and used each letter to write a word that you feel relates to the "public good". Don't stress, it's easy and even fun! Show us your creativity, you could also have individual phrases coming off of each letter and each phrase could even RHYME!

Don’t hold back,
Travis and Sarah