You, the student
- Are you an engaged learner?
- Reflect on your experience in this class. How can you be a more active participant in class?
- What are you learning about yourself as a student? Are you willing to work hard at your studies? What if you won’t be directly rewarded by that work?
Learning across disciplines
- Reflect on your experiences in other classes this term. How are your current classes (and ones from the past) combining? What are you learning from the intersections of those disciplines?
Generally
- why are you in school? Specifically, why are you in this class?
I am definitely an engaged learner. I think this class has truly made me think about the concepts we talked about and I understand my stance on the subjects much better. I took a Christian Morality class and we talked alot about PAS (and wrote ALOT of papers on it), but we were always supposed to defend that PAS was wrong because of all the reasons catholic and christian religions think that it's wrong. I never actually knew what my stance was until this class. I'm still a bit wishy-washy, but I have a general idea of what I stand for and thats a good feeling...not just for the concept of PAS, but for everything else we've talked about.
ReplyDeleteI feel that when I work harder at what I'm learning, I always benefit. If not directly, indirectly. For instance, I'm taking a physics class and I'll never use physics in my life...but its still fascinating to learn how the world works, and that understanding helps me to understand how the body works. The more classes I take, the more I realize that Physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, philosophy...they're all intertwined. Learning about one IS learning about the other.
That alone is a good reason to be in school. Not only am I learning skills and knowledge that I hope to apply to becoming a veterinarian which will fulfill me in my desires to provide for my family and interact with animals, the knowledge I gain is teaching me about who I am as a person and who I want to be (not just career-wise, but as a human being). Philosophy is especially tied to that, and that is why it is a worthwhile class to take. Part of being a human being is mortality. What does this mean for creatures like us in the western world who live each day as if we were immortal and find a kind of shock at the end of life when we look at our old wrinkly faces in the mirror and finally face the most sure and infallible fact of life-we will die. I want to face that fact now, in vitality, so that when I'm old and weak I can just accept death like the end of a good book. I want my final chapter to be one of peaceful closure, not one of stress and unrest (like Ivan Illych). But if you never stop to think about death, you don't even realize the possibility that you could mess it up. Its good to think about it (not to over-worry about it), but to consider mortality when making decisions about the future, about relationships, about who we are and what we will become. We are the sum of our actions. If do shallow actions for shallow reasons, we will become shallow and die with regrets. This is what I'm trying to avoid.
Most of the time I am an engaged learner. I thought this class was very different from my other classes. I have had discussion classes but, the teacher talked the most. I also hated talking about death. Once i fouind out that this class was all about death I almost dropped out because I hate talking about it that much. However, I learned alot and found out that death isn't always a bad thing. In the begginning of the semester I didn't talk at all. The whole corner I sit in didn't talk. Once I became comfortable in the class I thought I talked a good amount. It just took me a little to get used to how the class went. As a student I am finding out that it takes me a little to get comfortable with new things. Like I have never been in a class like this and it took me a little to get used to it. really none of my classes combine with this class. Yoga is the closest just with how much interacting we do with eachother.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest reason I am in school is because I want to have a college degree. That has been something that I have wanted to accomplish and something my family would love for me to accomplish. I am close to being done and this class is a core requirement. That is the main reason I am in the class but, after taking the class I am glad that I got to meet everyone and talk about one of my fears.
I am an engaged learner if it is something that I am completely interested in. If I do not care for the topic, then I tend to zone out.
ReplyDeleteIn this class, I could have read more than I did. I read the chapters but it was more of a fast, get this done, read. I should have paid more attention to what I was reading so I could have participated more in the discussions.
As a student, I have always been willing to work hard. With whatever I am doing, I do my best because that is how I am going to get anywhere in life.
I am in school so that I can do what I have always wanted, and that is to be a teacher. I would never have acheived that dream if I did not go to college. So, I am extremely excited to actually finish this year up and move on with what I want to do with the rest of my life. The reason I am in this class is because I needed a Philosophy class and Human Nature sounded very interesting to me. When I found out it was about death and dying, I was very nervous and was not sure I was going to be able to handle the class. But, I ended up really enjoying all of our discussions and I learned so much from everyones different view points and from the text in general.
I believe that I am an engaged learner. Not for the fact that I have to be right in the middle of the action but being able to take in all of the engagement in the arguments that people make in class. I love to hear people and their stance on things. I believe that I have learned a lot more this way. Taking in many different views about topics allows me to be more well rounded. I really like this class format for that reason.
ReplyDeleteWith having a previous class with Dr. Cate, I realized my views on topics were likely to change and I was correct. Hearing a different perspective on topics makes developing your own opinions both easy and difficult at the same time. While hearing someone else's views you may see a different side and sympathize with that view which could shape your own view. I am learning that my views on subjects such as PAS and end of life care are constantly changing and morphing to a more in depth idea which is the purpose of this class.
ReplyDeleteComing into TMC I wasn't exactly sure which area of Biology I wanted to go into I quickly decided Physical Therapy and with that also realized Thomas More does not have a program nor do they offer many classes corresponding to that area. I see my friends in other majors being hands on in the area of their study (teachers-practicum; nurses-clinicals, etc.) With being a Biology major I was not taking courses related to what I wanted to do for my career and it was very discouraging. At first, I did not apply myself to classes because I had other commitments I thought were more important and wasn't interested in the classes I was taking anyways. But I quickly realized I had to apply myself to those classes in order to have a better GPA for the PT doctorate program.