Final Thoughts

Favourite Assignment: My favourite assignment from this year was definitely our final project: My Buried Life. Not only did it allow me to be creative and make a video to represent my 25 items, it gave me an opportunity to learn a bit more about myself and what I want to do with my life.

Least Favourite Assignment: My least favourite assignment from this year was probably the newspaper blackout poetry. I thought that the idea it was really interesting but I just honestly didn't enjoy it as much as I had enjoyed our other assignments.

Friday Reading: I found it hard to read during the Friday classes because I'd much rather read on my own time than in class. I find it difficult to concentrate sometimes when you're in a room full of other people and you're trying to get into a book. Even if no one is talking, it's just that I'm aware that there's people there and it disables me to invest all of myself into what I'm reading.

Monday Written Reflection: Out of the two reflections at we'd do on Monday (reading and writing) it's easy to say that I preferred the writing reflections. I don't necessarily like writing about what I've read (I'd rather have an actual conversation about it). What was different with the writing reflections was it allowed me to catch myself up on what we've been doing and the progress that I've been making in the class. It was also just a good chance to brush up on some of my writing skills.

The WRN: I really liked the idea of the WRN. Although I used my blog more than I used my notebook, it was a good place to keep things that I may not have felt like sharing on the internet or even just wanted to keep a bit more personal.

The blog: I would have never thought that we'd be making blogs in a creative writing class. After some time I warmed up to the idea and started to really enjoy it. I thought that it was a good way to be able to see what other students in the class have been writing about and to be able to share your work with them as well.

Tweeting: I wasn't too sure how well Twitter would work when it came to using it in the classroom. I was pleasantly surprised though when I realized how convenient it was when it came to tweeting our items off of our bucket lists. It was perfect for doing that because you really don't need more than 140 characters to share an item or two. It also allowed me to connect with my grade 4/5. I thought that that was really neat because not only did it allow her to see the progress I've made in the past six years, but it showed me how Twitter really can be used to connect with people.

The integration of technology into the course: I think that integrating technology with this course worked out better than I had been expecting it to. It was honestly a little weird being able to see your own work online at first but it allowed us to view other students work by simply clicking on a link. It's definitely a clever way to get students to put in more effort with what they're writing because it's no longer only you and your teacher that have access to it.


What you learned about yourself as a reader, writer, thinker, and creator: My main goal coming into this course was to be able to transfer my thoughts from my mind into words on paper (or in this case on my blog). I feel as though I've grown as a writer throughout this semester and that I can say that I've achieved my goal. I think that all it took was simply going for it. Less thinking, more writing. I have a tendency to over think what I'm about to write so all it took was pushing myself to let my fingers take control and keep going from there.

Comments/Compliments/Constructive criticism for Ms. McLauchlan about the course: I am really glad that I took this course and I really enjoyed it! I thought it was a great way to encourage students to take a different approach to writing by giving us assignments that we weren't exactly used to.

Advice for future CW students: My advice for future Creative Writing students would be to keep on top of your blog. Don't allow yourself to fall behind because it will be time consuming when you try to catch up. It's a really good course if you actually apply yourself and put effort into updating your blog or WRN. There's some really different assignments that you'll get to do so be ready to not perfect everything right from the start! This course is a great way to challenge yourself in ways other classes wouldn't allow you to and I would definitely recommend it.