SMART Goals
I set for myself two simple but effective goals at the start of class:
-Pass this class with at least a B by the end of the semester.
-Have this class help me gain an understanding of how college works in comparison to high school and to help me be prepared for a traditional college.
As said in my abstract paragraph I would say that I definitely passed my goals by a significant margin. For the first goal, I am confident in being able to explain the different subjects explained in class even after I initially studied for them, those being Ocean Properties/Chemistry, Tectonic Plates, Principles of Tides and Waves, and Atmospheric and Oceanic Circulation. Because of this, I am confident that when I speak with the teacher I will finish the class with a B, more likely higher than that. As for my second goal, I would say that this class has given me a great start on the transition to college. I am driving myself to class, fully managing my own studying, and adapting my previous methods for college-level work. Now that I have a grip on those aspects, I would say I am ready for a more complex class with letter grades and more lab experiments, which the Geology class I'm taking in the spring semester should cover.
Methods
In my previous reflections I provided several methods I use to make sure I understand and learn the topics being presented, some of which came from my previous online schooling. These include making sure I have a clear head when studying/working on projects, keeping clear and consistent communication with the teacher, and balancing study time in both of my schools with personal needs. I also make sure to review my previous notes to see if what I wrote down was important and where I could look in the future. Similarly to my smart goals, I am confident that I did my learning methods justice as they helped me stay ahead of the class and retain the important information within it. So far I have never missed a class day and am meeting the set deadlines. To this day I have always shown up early for class and will continue to do so for the remaining periods. I feel like my work communicating with the teacher and learning has cleared any confusion I had studying for both projects and quizzes. Not counting the ~3 hours I spend in the classroom weekly I would say that I spent about 11-14 hours working on projects at home, but this has lessened in recent weeks. Even if a project is going to take multiple hours on multiple days to get done I know I'm going to get through it with enough hard work. Because I have been up to date and even ahead in this class, the only projects I've really worked on in the past 3 weeks as of December 3rd were the SLO 2, Lab Experiment on November 15th, and this Final Reflection. As for general skills I'm picking up from class, I would say I'm mostly learning how to do things on the technical side more efficiently. Studying, navigating various websites, gathering information for a project, and especially my writing quality is all things I've improved on due to this class. I would definitely say the way this class was set up has complimented how I personally learn while still opening my eyes to how I can improve.
Conclusion
I would say that I have been very successful in this class and that this class has been very successful for me. I've completed every assignment with checkmarks the whole way and I feel like my being in class was helpful for me and others. When it came to group projects such as jigsaws I often took charge of finding and recording information due to knowing parts of it already, and I feel like it helped everyone understand it better in tow. As for skills outside of Oceanography, I feel much more confident working in group settings as said before, but specifically, in feedback for SLO 4, it helped me improve my writing greatly when I previously thought it was already top bar. As for how much knowledge I truly retained from the weeks in class, I think that alongside the textbook for clarification I could teach a class this subject as you have for me. As for how this class has impacted my life, it definitely got me much more confident in my driving as I drove there twice a week. It also helped reinforce and improve my perspective on the environment as even before this class it was a definite passion point for me. I feel like now I understand how environmental changes affect everything including past individual animals and ecosystems, and that to fix it many different changes must happen. As for what I'm proud of accomplishing in class I would say a large part of it is the four SLOs I've completed over the semester. I personally like writing in essay format, so being able to do a lot of it about subjects I'm interested in was nice and I'm happy with the end results. The experiments in your second lab also felt rewarding to do, it was nice getting my literal hands on some of those processes and I look forward to more of it in your Geology class. With everything I've learned and demonstrated, I would say I've solidly earned an A in this class, and with how I've been keeping up with communication with the teacher I think we're on the same page. As for final thoughts, I feel like everyone should have a class like this one about our world whether it be Oceanography, Biology, Geology, or really any natural science to help them connect with our world and realize how connected it is. If more people do just that we might have a chance of keeping ourselves on this watery one-in-a-billion life-supporting rock in space.