Mid-semester reflection

by Elliott Hauser

16 Feb 2016

We’ve come a long way in a short time! This exercise is to help you take stock of where you’ve been, what you’ve learned and what you want to learn during the rest of the semester.Mid

The Assignment

Submit a refelctive post of 1000 words or more, containing 3 or more code samples in Trinkets.

In the post, reflect on your journey up to this point. The emphasis will vary with each person But here are some examples of the questions you should ask and answer:

  • What have you learned?
  • What has excited you?
  • What has frustrated you?
  • What are things that you have done well?
  • What are things you’ve struggled with?
  • What are your go-to Problem Solving Strategies? Which ones do you want to work on?
  • What are your go-to Problem Solving Attitudes? Which ones do you want to work on?
  • What skills, attitudes, and strategies will you develop in the second half of the semester?
  • How have discussions, collaboration, and pair programming with partners impacted your experience?
  • What are the positive and negative aspects of working with a partner? How could you maximize the benefits?

The code samples can be exercises you’ve already completed, new code you write to illustrate a point, or even classmates’ code. The main requirement is that they help illustrate your reflection.

Take your time and make your 1000 words (or more) count. Pick a thread, such as your journey to understand a concept or two, or a theme that you’ve used in your turtle programs, and follow it.

You can use an online word counter to count your words as you write, with the caveat that your YAML header and code embeds etc will make it slightly overestimate your count.

The Criteria

Here’s what I’m looking for:

  • Evidence of serious thought about your learning processes
  • Well-integrated code examples, clearly illustrating your reflections (with static code blocks if needed)
  • A clear plan for what’s next for you or what you want out of the second half of the semester

Why?

Meta-cognition, or knowing what you know and don’t know, is a huge part of learning. Have fun with it!
The more effort and thought you put into this one the more benefit you’ll get from it and the more I’ll be able to help you.

Elliott Hauser is a PhD Student in information science at UNC Chapel Hill. He's hacking education as one of the cofounders of Trinket.io. Find Elliott Hauser on Twitter, Github, and on the web.