I am meeting the goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the semester. I have been reading a play a week in order to reach my breadth requirement. Also, as each play concentrates on a different theme and uses different literary tenants, I have been modeling my blog posts to best represent these changes. Each post has met at least one of the learning outcomes mentioned on the syllabus and, the majority of them, have listed the outcomes accomplished in the tags portion of the blog.
So far, this semester I have read 5 plays by Shakespeare. The list goes as follows: Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, Julius Cesar, Henry IV and The Tempest. The majority of my secondary works have been derived from Internet sources. I have used sites such as YouTube, JSTOR, Wikipedia and CNN. I have also relied highly on our Shakespeare textbook for ideas and help with my blog posts. I have pursued many different types of inquiry during the semester, however, music has been a reoccurring theme for me because of my personal interest in it.
I seldom reference other blogs who have met course outcomes on my own blog, but, when I have, I feel that I did a good job of mentioning their strengths and why I liked them. Yes, I have made references to learning that is not usually related to Shakespeare, but I have always tried to put these references into context or find a way to relate them to what I have been reading.
My study of Shakespeare has been most engaging to me personally when I have applied the text to things that are interesting to me. For instance, as I have mentioned before, I frequently have linked Shakespeare to music. This has become a trend on my blog. Also, I have linked Shakespeare to the Simpsons. Both of these previously mentioned links are things that are interesting to me and have made my learning more engaging. This is helping me develop life-long learning skills and interests in that I now know how to link pop culture and things in which I am interested to education and learning.
I feel like I have done a good job composing creative, thought-provoking posts in which I have referenced the Shakespearean works I have read accurately and efficiently. I also think that I have done a good job at analyzing the plays I have read. Despite these strengths, I need to reference others’ blogs in my posts more frequently. By doing this, I will be helping our blogging community become an “active” group instead of a passive group.
Some class members that have influenced me have been Cara, Mandy and Brooke Randell. Cara has always had very interesting and original ideas. She has also organized many interactive activities for the class, such as movie screenings, that have helped me in my learning outcomes. Mandy influenced me by her comment on my Simpsons’ post. She suggested that I write a Simpsons style Shakespearean script. This is something that I think would be a great thing to do to accomplish my creative learning requirements. Lastly, I liked Brooke’s comment on my Shakespeare and Rap post. She posted a video related to my post that showed her interactivity with my blog. I appreciated this.
