Enjoying school work is OVERRATED

My favorite article was Floating in an ideological hot air balloon. I enjoyed reading this article solely for the last two paragraphs in the piece. The questions that she pondered were great questions to think about. For example, do students have to like the assignments to benefit from them? This is a great question not only for a professor to ponder but for students as well. Her answer to this question was, no, students do not have to like the assignments to benefit from them, but it helps when they do enjoy what they do in the classroom. My experience in college leads me to the same conclusion. For example, I have disliked many group projects because of a lack of motivation by some fellow group members, but I have learned a lot from the various projects that I have completed, such as my Project Citizen project. On the other hand, I remember more the projects that I have enjoyed, which probably means that I got more out of them.

In general, I enjoyed reading the articles that discussed the ways blogs lend a personal touch to academic works. Carlton Clark discusses how his blog has allowed him to open up to his students. This in turn has created a more open classroom, in which the students are more comfortable talking aloud. I can understand how this could be true. I tend to be intimidated by professors who are too "professional". On the other hand, I tend to be more comfortable and willing to approach professors for help when they seem “down to earth” and approachable. The articles have helped me realize that because blogs are personal, students take more ownership, which creates better work.