Reflections and Take aways

A reflection from my Periodization project, that I feel represents my FLEX experience:

"While I personally believe I made many mistakes in this project and the subsequent data collection, I also believe that those mistakes and the learning environment that FLEX introduces around them, are invaluable. Part of the learning process is making mistakes, learning from them, and coming up with different solutions to the same problem. In many other classes, especially math or science based, the process follows a controlled and premeditated path. You don’t necessarily come up with a method and test it, in its entirety. Often, you discuss ideas and come up with new ones. And, while this process is extremely important to learning, I also now realize the value of simply doing the wrong thing. Following the wrong method doesn’t get you the right results, and it certainly doesn’t tell you exactly what the right method is, but when you look at your data and realize “Oh! I know what I did wrong here” or “Oh! I have no idea what I did wrong here”, It gives you motivation. When I look at my results in this project, I see a ridiculous amount of room for improvement, and I want to make those improvements. I don’t just see this as a school assignment, I see it with personal investment. I created this method, gathered the data, and I want it to be useful. So when I see it only providing a small amount of the use I think it could, I want to go back to work on it. To me, that is the value of the FLEX process. It instills an intrinsic motivation that many teachers struggle with in their students.

Beyond this motivating aspect, FLEX also provides an opportunity to grow a large number of skills, all at once. I have, within a semester alone, improved my writing, reading, scientific analysis, processing of novel information, my ability to generate completely new ideas and find sources to check these ideas. I have improved my ability to focus my passion, one of my largest struggles in all of FLEX has been time management. I continually would get side tracked by some cool, new piece of information and go down a rabbit hole about it, even though it didn’t apply to my project at all. So it soon became important for me to be able to focus, and train my passion or interest on specific topics without becoming distracted. This was hard, but also quite a good learning experience. On top of this I also learnt that cramming doesn’t need to be the only time I sit down and work for hours. I have spent a very large amount of time on this project, and many others. And in doing so, learnt a love for writing and interpreting information  for long periods of time. Overall, I went into FLEX just needing PE credits, but I leave the course with deep enjoyment and completely new ideas for how I want to approach future 

learning and personal development."

1. What worked in FLEX?  

The space and time I had to explore what interested me. And, the subsequent lessons I learned from that exploration.

2. What did not work in FLEX?  

Due to my own time management skills, the time frame of FLEX was difficult.

3. What could I have done differently to make FLEX more successful?  

I wish I had laid out more specific time lines for each project.

4. What could my team (Ms. Thielen) have done differently to make FLEX more successful?  

As far as I'm concerned, this process was extremely smooth and fun.

Would I recommend FLEX to others?  Why or why not?

Yes! I would certainly recommend FLEX to others, especially friends of mine who I feel are very interested in specific topics which they could learn about, for credit, through FLEX.

What did I learn about myself as a learner?

I learned that my favorite way to learn is to sit down and read through something for a long period of time. I really enjoy learning about a wide range of topics, and just giving myself the time to read about them really helps.

What did I learn about myself as a human being?

I have gained an understanding (and theory) of learning that I think applies to all humans. That learning happens best through intrinsic motivation based exploration. And, when someone finds a topic they truly enjoy, it's important to let them explore that topic.

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