Daniel Alvarez
Dr.Preston
Expos Comp & Writing
1 June 2014
Masterpiece
Reflection
A desk, book, a pen, a paper and a teacher standing
in front of the class lecturing you on the lesson of the day. That is exactly
what a traditional classroom looks like. Everything in today's society seems to
evolve yet our classrooms maintain the same "old school" techniques.
Pun intended. Luckily this class was a breath of fresh air. No books were
handed out, and we had control of our class. It is called Open Source Learning.
It's the evolution of our education. We learned new techniques, new ways to
learn. Utilizing the internet and the rest of today's technology to expand our
knowledge in today’s learning field.
Opnsl is very independent. The class
becomes less structured which in turn, can cause the students to feel a bit too
much freedom. This is why it’s important for the teacher to trust his students.
As well as the students earn their trust. Once the trust is built it is all smooth
sailing.
Throughout the year we were taught about
expository writing and composition, but the great thing about opnsl is that we
are not limited to that. We learned about life beyond the structured classroom,
life beyond high school. Since day one we were lead up to the point of our
masterpiece project. We were about to take the class into our own hands in
order to teach about our interests and passion. Becoming a master at your topic
takes time and work which is what helps you learn just how interested or in
some cases, uninterested, you actually are.
From day one I knew I wanted my project to
be on cooking. I love it. It’s my greatest passion. The funny thing about
presenting was the fact that I didn't get nervous at all speaking in front of
the class because it was my field of knowledge. Normal classes force students
to present on things that have no interest to them, incorporating their
interests into that would greatly improve the outcomes. Presenting was exciting
and rewarding. Being able to share my passion with others and imprinting the
highlights of cooking on their minds was a great and satisfying feeling. This
was by far the best way I have learned; teaching others about cooking taught me
even more about it. Not only did I realize how much I know about it, I also
realized that even after all the deep research and studying I am still eager to
get out there and learn more about it.
I think the unifying fact about our
presentations is that we all learned more about ourselves then we did before.
Whether we rediscovered our love for our masterpiece or found out that it wasn’t
the route we wanted to take, we all learned something. Not forgetting to
mention we all tested the limits of our work, seeing just how much we could
challenge ourselves. In my opinion it paid off too, all the work opened up our
eyes to realize that the future really isn't too far away. This class taught me
so much about myself as well as the real world. Opnsl is definitely the most
effective learning I had because to learn to teach and teach to learn.
