Page 1
Hannah Hurd
Dr. Preston
AP English Literature and
Composition
7 June 2015
Open
Source Learning 2015
I
heard stories of how this course was going to be, but in the end it was an
experience that I couldn’t have prepared for. I was scared there was going to
be homework up to my neck and it was going to be hard to balance between all my
other classes that I was taking, but I was wrong. AP English and Literature is
like college in the sense that you get out of it what you put in it and it’s an
experience that is personal to everyone and not the same for any individual. In
this course I along with everyone around me including Dr Preston had a lot of
trust and we all deserved that trust for the most part, but sometimes there was
lapses in our judgment. Sometimes students get lazy and want to rebel or not do
the work and teachers can get discouraged by that attitude and it’s a hard
relationship to balance and sometimes the students I think took advantage of
certain situations, like any would do.
Page 2
Throughout the course
I didn’t learn how to better use my time and technological skills because
before I had no idea how to make a blog post or write an essay in pictures and
I think that creativity is important for the future. The Canterbury Tales was piece of fiction that resembled the idea
of our education system. We mock education and don’t take it as seriously as we
should and in America we pass judgment based on education and in school it is
many different backgrounds coming together and many different stories that are
intertwined for the sole purpose of graduating or the “end goal.” Hamlet was a fiction piece that
resonated with me as well because I am very indecisive and it’s hard for me to
feel like I am doing the right thing or what the right thing is to do. I know I
need to grow up sometimes like Hamlet and in order to do so I need to learn how
to think and do things fro myself. The last piece of fiction that we read in
class that jump started my idea of the course was The Poisonwood Bible because it dealt with alienation and feeling
alone at times even when there was a family around you. Sometimes life gets
lonely and I know I have felt alone at times and that people don’t really
understand or “know” me to the extent that I want them to and its hard to
communicate what you are feeling to those around you and that is isolating. When
reading these pieces of fiction and throughout the course I think I really
found that I like being a kid and not taking things to seriously. This year was
a lot of work and it’s important to find the fun in any situation and I think
with that idea I am going to move forward in my education and try to continue
the idea of balancing fun with school n integrating the
Page 3
two because as weird as it sounds I
do like school and I want to make the stereotype of school something positive.
The
best times in AP English Lit and Comp were when we would have discussions as a
class and the comments made about a video or a story we made and they were
purposely made to be funny. The times when we watched the giraffes jumping in
the pool was pretty funny and it made me giggle because it was so awkward yet
cute and funny and I had never seen anything like it so I enjoyed it very much.
During
the masterpiece presentations I think a common them throughout many was the
idea of connecting people whether that be the same age to the same age or old
to young or just spreading a message to get people aware of the world round
them. In Noah and Alec’s presentation they were all about connecting with the
youth and giving themselves a voice to help others, that is directly connected
to mine Judith’s and Sierra’s presentation because we wanted to be role models
for the next generation. Imanie’s presentation as about educating high
schoolers on what high school is all about and showing the older generations
how school actually is and what’s its like to be loaded with as much work as we
have which corresponds to the idea of connecting the youth with the youth as
well as the older generations. Matt H’s and Ashlyn’s presentations were about
connecting people with the world around them and showing the students how other
people see life through their eyes
Page 4
and learning about different
cultures and conditions so people are less sheltered to the things in life that
we can’t see.
In
the end I don’t think I am a hero to others, but I am a hero to myself. I set a
goal and I accomplished it. My goal this year was to get a 5.0 and finish high
school with all A’s and make myself feel like I deserved it and I think I
accomplished that. Looking back at my 4 years at Righetti I can honestly say
that I worked hard every day to accomplish something whether I knew it or not.
I stayed true to who I was and I think in the end I have a better understanding
of what I want o do and how I want to do it. I wish I had found a mentor that
was someone I didn’t know so I could pick their brains and really understand
something that I didn’t know so I think that is something I am going to do in
college to better myself and complete my hero’s journey to the full extent that
it deserves. My life is a flower and I am merely a bee that spreads it further.
(I wrote this on word so the page break up is where my pages were broken up on the word document)
