Reflections on Learning

First off, I registered myself in this class when I realized I had problems with my writing skills. Resume cover letter (as mentioned in my previous post) and my lab reports. I thought I should improve on these if research is going to be my career, with all those crazy reports to write. I didn’t want writing to be an obstacle. As much as I realize that communication skills can never be thought in merely 3 months, I wanted to get certain things right. What you ask me, I have no idea. I just know this will be something to complete my university education, like a missing piece of puzzle. I did contemplate for a few days (during the bidding period) if I should require this or not. I was thinking if this will be just another English class. Now I can say I never regret taking this.

So, what have I learnt this semester from ES2007S?

When I registered for this course, there are a few things I expect to be thought in the class. Those are the basics like business letters, resumes, interview tips, and etc. I must say that the peer-teaching learning experience was awesome. Not only we get to ‘practice’ before our oral presentation but I guess we pay more attention when our peers are up there. But what I didn’t expect from the course was the polishing of my soft skills, and the emphasis Brad puts on them. There are so many things I learn from the class. Some of them, I already know at the back of my mind but never put into practice and so many fresh tips I get learn both from Brad and the rest of the class. This is truly a two way learning class

During the course of blogging and writing various assignments, I have been more critical in my choices of words and grammar. I have been known for notorious grammar since young and frown upon by my mum for that. In school, I didn’t really care much about my English grades but I guess since I’m in university and I’m graded for it, so it makes a difference. The constant blogging (although not that many, just 7) definitely did some good to me.

I must also say the blogging buddy system was good. Without someone reading my work, I won’t be able to spot my mistakes. It’s a good practice to adopt. Only challenge is to get someone to read my work. There will not be any problem when its 250-500 words but I guess it will be a challenge to get someone to read a 10,000 word paper. So now I know why people employ editors.

Although not much tension happened at my group, I still definitely learn a lot working in my team. I am very thankful for being able to work with a group of nice girls with great sense of humour. Team work is essential and not having much tension doesn’t mean I don’t learn anything from it. If one of us decided to be a bad member by not showing up, there won’t be a smiling Wonderwomen group already. The most tensed moment in the group was during proposal editing when we decide what the phrases we should adopt, grammar usage are and even how the conclusion and abstract should be. There was a lot of trust in our group which made things went easy. I also appreciate the constructive criticism we gave each other and how each one of us took them. Being a life sciences student, working in the lab involves a lot of team work and I believe I will be able to put my skills into practice very often.

Mirror mirror on the wall,

I feel very blessed and honoured to have such wonderful group members. Everyone worked on their own parts, came for meetings and contributed ideas. Our group met up twice before the presentation day to rearrange our slides and speech to make sure it flows well. I think if I can squeeze in a little bit more time for the presentation, I will be more satisfied with my performance but there are just too many projects and also other presentation to prepare. This was one of the first (presentation) so I did allocate enough time but I’m just hoping I had more. Well, I guess you do get short notices at work in the future.

During some of my past presentations, when I did not prepare enough and was over confident, I get tongue tied because my points do not flow. For this one, I did prepare notes using powerpoint and even printed it out to read because I had a class before the presentation. Gwen's our PowerPoint guru! She helped mend everyone’s slides. I think it was good because under one pair of hands, everything flows better. I thought our slides were pretty well structured except for the outline part. We did have an outline actually, at the ‘Objectives’ part but not very well emphasized probably.

During my presentation, I was a little nervous in the beginning but calmed down after that. It happens to me all the time when I speak in public. I think I just need to do more presentations to make it go away (but I hope not!). During my part, I also related to Gwen, Jas and Sherlynn in attempt to connect things together. Brad said I have a good voice projection and posture so that’s my strengths as well.

However, I think I shouldn’t have brought my piece of paper during the presentation. I can afford not to look at it. It’s my safety blanket, really. It’s a mistake because it showed that I didn’t prepare enough and perhaps lack of confidence as well.

I also stared at the slides a bit too much, disrupting eye contacts. Sometimes, I couldn’t help it because I can’t remember some of the points. Maybe if I rehearsed a little more, I could have done it but as I said, this is a hectic week. Actually, I thought I have no problems making eye contacts until I heard Brad’s feedback. On the same line on too little preparation, I actually forgot some elaboration I noted down. Also, I think I could have had a little bit more hand gestures but I am not sure if I had any because it’s subconscious and I was focusing on the points. If I’m conscious about hand gestures then I think I’ll have too much.

I think I just need more practice.

Don’t be afraid to post your comments :)

p.s. I just want to say I love you girls! WONDERWOMEN ROCKS.