Now that I've arrived at the last day of the last week of this class, I thought it would be helpful to reflect on what I have learned and how it affects me as a student and person in general.
Enjoy the effort & keep on learning!
I think this is a great summary of what I've taken from this class.
Source: Growth Mindset Resources.
First of all, I'm so happy that I was exposed to a wide variety of readings. There is such a vast, seemingly endless amount of mythology and folklore out there, and I appreciate that I got a taste of several cultures' stories. Also, I now have access to so many different readings online, through the Untextbook and Freebookapalooza. I love that the Untextbook is an open source with organized units and readings; it will be easy to continue learning about mythology and folklore in the future if I choose to.
Before this class, I had not written creatively since I was in elementary school. When I found out at the beginning of the semester that we would have to write stories weekly, I felt nervous and wasn't sure whether I would be able to write anything I was happy with. It turns out that I had fun writing! It is something so different from what I normally do for school, and I think it opened me up to thinking differently than I normally do. I enjoyed having the power as a storyteller to change things I didn't like about certain stories, or to dwell on things that I really did like. I didn't love everything I wrote, but I am proud of my Storybook and will share it with my parents, and there are also some weekly stories that I felt came out well. It became easier to write as the semester went on, and it especially became easier to make myself sit down and write without judging myself. At the beginning of the semester, I waited until the last minute to write because I was afraid of how bad my writing would turn out. As the semester went on, I realized that my writing was better when I wasn't under time constraints, and I also realized that it was okay if one story wasn't very good. I think I shed a lot of the fear I had associated with writing and built up some willpower to sit down and get things done. Not only has this made me better at writing, but I think it will translate to other academic areas in which I fear that my results will not be excellent. I have learned to be okay with imperfection, and to just try and do what I can.
While I really enjoyed reading stories, writing my own, and interacting with my classmates on their blogs, I think the biggest gain I have received from this class is an introduction to the growth mindset. I am so happy that the growth mindset assignment was required at the beginning of the semester. It stuck with me, and I definitely had to remind myself many times throughout the semester to embrace a growth mindset rather than fretting about classes. Knowledge about the growth mindset helped me enjoy my difficult classes, because I knew that I was stretching and growing through the challenges. It also kept me, many times, from beating myself up over not getting something right away (although I also had many times when I forgot the importance of a growth mindset and let myself believe I was not good enough to achieve future goals - it's a process). As with the readings, I am so thankful to Laura for providing us with a wealth of resources about growth mindset and Carol Dweck's research! I know it's a big statement, but I honestly think that learning about fixed and growth mindsets has changed my life. I will certainly carry this information with me long after this class and even college are over.
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