Reflection on Discussions

Overall, I liked how the presentations worked out. I genuinely enjoyed hearing about everyone’s interests, and I thought that everyone did a good job finding something that represented their major and that kept the class intrigued. I think that it might have gone more smoothly if we had our whole cohort, which I guess is only 2 more people, so maybe that wouldn’t have mattered…the point is that maybe more perspectives/contributions would have taken the discussions more in depth. Plus we all know Brady would have stirred things up.
As usual, I felt like the readings kept me thinking about things outside of my own bubble throughout the semester. Even though this is a liberal arts school, I think that we get so focused on our classes/major (especially as we get into upper-levels) that we really need something to pull us out of our own minds. I really enjoyed Steven’s reading. I’m not going to lie, I cheered the day that I finished with my Biology credits…but the excerpts we read were written in such an interesting style—one that I’ve never associated with science. It was a nice break from my Kinesiology work. I probably wouldn’t take the time to read anything like that if it weren’t for our discussions.
If we continue to do this next semester, though, I think we should all lighten up a bit. I know that I was a bit sense about picking a topic and about presenting…and I think that it would have worked better if I wasn’t so worried about making it into a presentation. I think if we approach as just talking about something we think is cool, everyone will feel less pressure to turn it into a formal discussion. I think our cohort does a good job in discussions, though. We’re all relatively talkative and I feel like we all bring something to the table.