English Journey Reflections

Hi everybody and welcome to my e-portfolio! My name is Kathi Crow. I have spent the last twelve years as the single parent of three sons now aged 25, 20 and 16. I work full time as a medical assistant. I am fortunate to have a job I love and am taking classes in order to further my career in the healthcare field. The ability to take online classes has been tremendously beneficial for me. It’s true, the responsibility of having to work full time, go to school, and take care of family responsibilities has been challenging; but, being part of an online learning community has made it possible.

I have found English 101D to be a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. I have always wanted to try writing and have found it to be very difficult. Being able to think about things and analyze them is easy. Trying to put the thoughts on paper is a very different story. During the course of the class, we have examined identities, communities and traditions.

The identity unit made me realize that many things affect the way we form our identities. Something as simple as which lunch we end up in can contribute to the way we identify with who we are. As described in the essay “High School’s Secret life” by Emily White, “devastation comes when a kid draws the wrong lunch” (16). We start forming our identities at birth and our upbringing play a large part of our identity. Community and tradition play a part as well.

The community unit changed my perspective of what a community is. Before taking the class, I never gave a thought to what a community is. I probably would have described it as the place in which we live. Through reading the essays in “Remix” and further discussion with the group, I now realize a community is much more than that. A community is a place of like-minded people. As demonstrated in the essay “A Secret Society of the starving”, communities are not always good for us. The essay discusses online sites that promote anorexia. Mim Udovich describes this online community as “a close community, close in the manner of close friendships of girls and young women”. As described in the essay, we do not even have to leave our homes in order to be part of a community.

In the tradition unit, we were challenged to examine the way traditions are being affected by pop-culture. Steven Johnson defines this best in his essay “Everything Bad is Good for You: Games” when he states, “the media ecosystem has been churning out popular culture that has grown steadily more complex over time” (416). The readings and discussions from the tradition unit readings made me step back and examine how some traditions are disappearing.

For my E-portfolio, I have chosen the following pieces: Critical Thinking Piece, Timed Write 2-Crossing Boundaries: I chose this piece because, the activities from this unit were my favorite and I feel the resulting paper shows my best analytical skills. Revision Piece, Time Write 1-Outside, Looking in: I could have chosen any number of pieces for this because I think they all need a revision. I chose this piece because it was the farthest one off the mark. Awareness of Audience and Voice, Tradition DB 2-Pushing Buttons: This was my favorite post. The resulting discussion and questions from classmates gave me the opportunity to ponder what life would be like without the invention of the microwave and other modern day conveniences. Writer’s Choice, Unit 2 Blog-Community Involvement. I chose this piece because I really had a lot of fun writing it. The identity unit really helped me to analyze what it means to be a community and I feel this paper does a good job of reflecting that analysis.

My statement in the very first discussion board “I have spent the last 20 some odd years alternating between Washington and Montana, spending an almost equal amount of time in each state. The difference between the two cultures makes it hard to believe that only 1000 miles separates them!” shows that I had a clear understanding of cultural difference from the start of the class. I had no idea in that initial post however, just how much I would come to learn about how cultures play a part in the way we form identities, communities, and traditions. While I started out with the attitude that I would get an A in this class, I had no idea of how much of a course load it would be. At times, I felt overwhelmed with the shear amount of work in this class. A few times, I even doubted my ability to pass the class. However, I stuck with it, and it was incredibly challenging and I did it! Although I was not able to achieve the A that I strived for, I am incredibly proud of the fact that I have grown academically, professionally and personally.