Honors History Blog #4

1. Discuss your successes as an honors student this past semester.
I think that there is definitely a difference between being and honors student and not being one. When it came to Math or Biology, I didn't really see the huge difference, the new material was already challenging enough, but Humanities was a different story. I don't know the experience decaf had, but one of the things that was difficult about honors if the extra reading. I'm not a strong reader and I don't pick up on a lot of symbolism or extra tid bits. Even so, this semester got me thinking a little more about literature and the messages it carries. There are still a lot of techniques I can't quite decipher, but I can understand an overall idea of the story. I like how your interpretation of a story could be anything because there really is no right answer. That use to be a weakness of mine. In math, there is always a right answer, like how one plus one obviously equals two, but in english it wasn't like that. I do wish that tests would become more like that instead of like, "What was the message you got out of the reading?" "Um, I think the author is showing that individuals can be successful." "WRONG, he's talking about college." I think in the end, the main success I had was understanding interpretations in books. I admit, I didn't really like reading some of the books, but "Into the Wild" and the supplementary reading got me thinking about what I thought of those people.

2. Discuss what you might have done differently if you do this past semester of honors over again.
I'm not sure what I would have done differently. I think I took honors well this year, I think it was actually effective. I can see how it's more challenging, like how we had to write an evaluative essay versus what the rest of the class had to write. One of the things I would've done differently is maybe be a little more choosy with my books. I want to enjoy reading something and be asked what I think about it. We did that for "Enrique's Journey" in Lori's class, I think, and I thought that was the greatest thing ever. Another thing we had in Lori's class that I enjoyed was those half class discussion groups. I'm probably going on a tangent, but I thought it might be a good suggestion. Anyways, I can't really think about what I could do better. I could do my essays better, but that is sort of a self process I'm trying to wort out myself. It is a mix up of learning how to use the loop and incorporating evidence.

3. Discuss your goals for honors in the second semester.
I'd like to see how much honors has to offer for the next semester. This semester, it was more about testing the waters. I remember telling my mom that there was no way college could be harder then this year because there was so much things to get done. This semester, I was actually disappointed at how much work we had to do because it was all coming too fast. I productively scheduled my time and I barely finished everything. I'd really like to have more time to accomplish work I'm actually proud of because honestly, if I look back on this school year so far, I know we did a lot but I have a hard time remembering what, excluding the calendar. One of my goals is to learn about the loops better because I think it is an amazing tool that actually makes sense in writing. It's a good way to display your ideas and to show your level of thinking without confusing a reader. I'm relatively good with organizing my ideas, but sometimes people have a hard time connecting the points. I think that's another thing I should work on, connecting points in my writing.

4. If you could choose any parts of literature and history for our honors work, what would you pick and why?
Truthfully, I forgot all the writing we did. This question made me look back at the work I've done because none of it was memorable for me. I think the honors writing #2 was pretty interesting. Being put in the shoes of someone who is trying to get someone else elected is an odd situation. In a sense, we all sort of try and persuade someone to our side, but doing it for someone else it much harder. You have to know what you're talking about and make sure to bash the competition a little while you're at it. I didn't really like my "Beloved" essay, but I did enjoy the "Dying for Dixie" reading because it had those aspects that makes you go, "What the heck is going on with these people here…" I think talking about that reading was one of the interesting things about the first novel essay we did. Being able to compare a book to an observation by someone who has visited the area gives you two perspectives, which I liked. Even so, I would have hoped to put a little more of my opinion into it and make it less like this persuasive essay talking about the messages in the book because I think behavior would've been interesting. To be able to compare the people of the past to the people in the same area now a day brings you to the reality of how people act and how behaviors are passed down from parent to child.