On taking time to reflect

Someone who’s not in this class did ask me what I’ve learned in this course so far. I told him that I thought I learned a lot, I learned how to create a blog and how to write posts on it, something that was unimaginable for me before. I also learned how to respond to my peers’ posts. I continued sharing that when I finally become an English teacher, I will require my students to set up a Google account and create a blog so that they can write their homework on there instead of wasting and killing off trees. I find it to be a faster and easier way for our class to be connected even out of class. I also informed him, however that after speaking to my instructor, I am not meeting the required expectations of the course. I am not keeping up with all my written blogs, and I am not tweeting. When he asked me why I wasn’t doing the expected work, I went silent. For such a long time, my excuse has been, “because I hate computers and technology.” But now, I can’t say the same thing anymore because now that I understand a little of what I am doing, I enjoy it. I still strongly dislike Twitter, and know that I need to begin tweeting and sharing and reposting stuff. Because I have not done so, I am lagging way behind my classmates and have very little proof of my learning process, mainly because I have not learned much in the twitter department. This is a problem because in order for me to be able to use Diigo or Storify, I am going to need to tweet. If I were a person who naturally enjoyed and understood the virtual realm, this class may be a bit easier for me. Not only do I lack the knowledge and the confidence to start up, let alone maintain, a virtual life but I lack the passion for it. I like having a checklist, examples of what the teacher expects from me, for example: How many tweets a day/week/month is expected? How many independent blogs should I be posting? When responding to my peers’ posts, what exactly am I looking for to respond to? The one good thing about this though, is that it can only get better. I look forward to advancing to be where I need to be. I look forward to growth, and even though its uncomfortable, it will only make me that much more effective as an educator.