Reflections on Week 1

Assuming Week 1 was an accurate representation of what the rest of the year will look like, there should not be any factors that will severely limit (or aid) my participation in the class.  The only thing that comes to mind is my unreliable internet, which seems to cut out every fifteen minutes or so.  Still, it generally only stays down for a minute or two, so it's more of an annoyance than anything else.

I wish I had some awe-inspiring story about enlightenment, but my "awesome" learning experience was a mundane classroom occurrence.  The summer before junior year, I took Basic Computer Imagery as part of Hancock's free "College Now" program.  As an interesting side note, this was a direct consequence of sophomore year's career project, which got me really interested in graphic design.  There wasn't any single thing I learned that sticks out, but I was just surprised be the sheer amount of information I absorbed during such a short course.  It almost seemed overnight that I went from having no experience to knowing the fundamentals of design (and then some!).  I don't mean to say that I became exceptional--I'm still pretty mediocre--but the before and after comparison of my work was surprising.  The other people taking the course were in a similar situation as me.  There were one or two other high school students, several college students, and a handful of adults, but everyone was there primarily for the sake of learning a new skill.  During the class I discovered that I learn much more effectively through action.  No matter how well I think I comprehend text instructions, I've found it impossible to actually understand material until I've tried it myself. Now whenever I start something new (learning a new program, for example) I play around for a few minutes before diving into tutorials.

There is one aspect of this year's AP English that concerns me.  Admittedly, I'm used to not trying very hard in English.  I put in effort, but it's always been an easier subject (compared to something like math, for example).  Last year was particularly relaxed.  During the first week, this class made up a majority of my workload, which was something I'm definitely not used to--its impact showed on my sleep schedule.  Project Infinity and the entire open source aspect of the class is something I'm both excited and concerned about.  I love the idea, but I feel like I'm being pulled in too many directions.  I suspect this has a lot to do with me still be off balance from starting school again, so I'll reevaluate my position at the end of this week.  That said, I'm looking forward to the collaborative working groups.  Seeing a variety of skill sets working together toward a single goal is always exciting.  Additionally, I'm not very good at sticking with long term projects.  Hopefully this will be a good opportunity to fix that.