In-Class Reflection

Success, or Failure?

(Self-Evaluation: Strengths, Weaknesses, Goals)

This year has been one heck of a journey. Not only in this class, but in my other classes and outside of school as well. I have learned more than I ever though I could have, and I have grown immensely as a person and scholar. This class has pushed me to my limits and beyond, to a place that I never thought I could travel to. Mr. McGee has such passion for what he does, and he genuinely loves to teach and loves the students that he teaches every single day. I have never seen him have a bad day, and that was extremely inspiring to me each day. I had days where I would not want to be at school, and just by walking into Room 303 my mood brightened and a smile spread

I believe this to be my number one strength because I feel like I learned more about myself through this strength, than any other that I have. The in-class lectures that Mr. McGee would give to us about certain pieces of literature were always interesting and never basic. We would go so far off the grid when we would exegete a poem, that it was astounding. But during those off-the-grid sessions, I learned a lot about myself and a lot about life as well. I always found that there was some philosophical meaning rooted deeply in the poem that was easy enough for me to understand and take into consideration. My life choices and life experiences were constantly getting self-evaluated on a daily basis. It was amazing the transition I made from a person who did not think too deeply about things, into a person who loves to philosophically analyze my life choices and my life in general. I dove into each lecture because I knew that there was something that I could learn, and I loved to learn. I dove into whatever I was doing because I wanted to be challenged to think about what the text was saying both on the page, and in hiding. It was such an amazing feeling when I finally began to understand what I was reading without having Mr. McGee to explain to me what the text was saying. It was a feeling of accomplishment and growth, and the second I felt it I knew that I wanted to feel it as often

I think these goals, if reached, will most definitely help me to improve on all levels possible. They would definitely help me to become a better student, both inside and outside of the classroom. This is a perfect goal because I am not always going to be inside of an academic classroom. The world is your classroom if you wish it to be, and if I can improve on both of these goals then I can learn anything, from anyone, anywhere in the world. Monkey mind is something that everybody has because it is programmed into our brains as human beings. Most people do not even realize that they have it, until they are made aware. Once that awareness is brought to light, things can begin to change for the better. Energy conservation is the same idea. I had the hardest time organizing my tasks in a way that was the most efficient, therefore I was expending copious amounts of energy that I did not need to be expending. I could have done the same amount of work, at a higher quality, in less amount of time during my first three years of high school if I would have just understood how to do it. Mr. McGee taught me how to do that, and that is through energy conservation. It really is not difficult, but for some reason takes a long amount of time to master. It may be because I have not done it for seventeen years, and now I am rewiring my brain to do things a different way. It will only benefit