My 4th Quarter Meta-Post

Well, the end of junior year is almost here. With the end of this school year comes a final meta-post to wrap my blogging for American Studies up.

Especially this quarter, my blogs began to develop significantly outside of the classroom. What I mean by that is that my blogs have moved from simply stating my opinion on in-class discussions of the week in class to finding new and uniquely American issues (not just topics) that I can tie into our classroom discussions. I believe that this is successful because it really makes sure that my blog is an "American" blog, with our class as a reference source. Additionally, I feel that my blogs were not as neutral as they used to be. I would frequently voice my opinion and use each blog post as an attempt to persuade my reader to join my side. While this has positives, it also has negatives because my posts could be seen as "one-sided" without giving the opposing side any voice. While My blogs might not be as neutral as they should, they do show a level of sincerity and emotion that an unbiased blog might not have.

Additionally, I have improved greatly over the course of the year in empathy for the reader. Especially in the first quarter, I would not use links or pictures to help show the reader the entire issue. However, my efforts greatly improved; just like in my essays and papers this year, I have effectively been able to give the reader as much context as possible with Berger introductions, pictures, and links.

As I move into senior year, there is no doubt that my blogging will continue. This has been a valuable experience for me and my entire class. I look forward to reading next year's students' intriguing posts for American Studies.

Here is my 4th quarter post: http://rennikss.blogspot.com/2011/05/american-obsession-of-testing.html