Reflection

I have really enjoyed this class a lot this semester. With it being my last class ever before I graduate, I was expecting to dread it tremendously and have honestly only heard bad reviews about AWD.

First off, and no offense to older teachers, I have liked the atmosphere that has been created with having a teacher who closer to our age than pretty much every other teacher I have had. It made me feel that I could express in both the classroom and our written work more of how I naturally express things. Being able to talk freely about issues going on and social media in particular and how it’s changing society has been really cool to talk about to someone who actually relates to it.

I also think the dynamic of our class is really awesome and has contributed to how great our discussions have been this semester. I was really impressed with our first day of everyone’s introductions and explaining the co-ops they have just come back from. You can tell this class is full of really diverse and determined students and, as a graduating senior; it’s really great to see the upcoming classes be so determined in their work. The fact that this class is so discourse concentrated really showed off the creativity and intelligence of this group of students. I was always really impressed with the material written in the blogs and the presentations that were given about each project.

I also really enjoyed the blogs. Overall it was awesome to read and comment on the awesome things that were written in them. I also liked that we weren’t given a dead specific topic to write about and how we had the freedom to expand and write on a general topic. I think this really added to the discussions in class and shaped some pretty great conversations. I feel like each student in this class is really unique and brings some diverse topics to the table.

As for my writing, even though I won’t be applying it to my discourse for the rest of college but now to real life, I think I have examined my discourse possibly more closely than in the past. What I have learned the most in this class, which I feel is going to help me the most going out into the work world, is how to present my discourse to those who are not in the community. I am so used to talking about what the field consists of and how we interpret among my classmates and teachers that understand the same vocabulary and references. I almost forgot that 95% of the people I encounter on the interpreting job is not going to understand mainly what I do and what it means to interpret. Giving these presentations and writing these context memos to explain what interpreting is and why it is important to have it is going to be extremely beneficial for me in the months to come.

Overall, I think this class has been designed very well and every aspect, from the assignments to the blogs to the comfort to speak freely in class is going to leave a wonderful impression on students to come and will help them tremendously in their future years.