Reflections 'n' such

Probably my last blog post, here it goes.

Earlier this week I was looking back and realized I was pretty lucky in my choice of story. At the beginning of the semester I planned on writing my story about the effect of climate change on salmon. After seeing Keith struggle to get in contact with reluctant government sources I was glad I had settled on doing my story on wildfire. I know other people too struggled with some of their sources but I guess that can be expected in any reporting class.

Although I did have some problems getting in touch with some of my sources I found I had more information, more aspects to this story, than I could fit in 1500 words. In fact I think this entire class could have written about different aspects of wildfire if we were so inclined.

As far as actual classroom activities I think things were put together well with a lot of important information but I had some question about use of class time. There were some days when I felt I could be using my time more wisely working on my story or catching up on sleep when I was in class learning about percents. I realize this information is important to some class members who may not have known how to calculate certain equations but if I would have known ahead of time I might not have come to class that day and came to class instead on another day that I missed. I do realize that attendance needs to be required because we went over a lot of important information in class but I think we, as students, should be aware what we are doing each day in class so that we can plan accordingly.

In class today we talked a little bit about the grading process and transparency. Throughout the semester I didn't feel the small assignments were being graded as much as the final product. The entire time I was working toward the finished product and not so much sweating the smaller steps along the way, which I now realize play a crucial role in my grade. I understand grading in such a course cannot be entirely objective but I guess I agree with Lindsey that there could have been a little more transparency and discussion in terms of the grading process. Not until Tuesday on the last day of class did I have any idea of where I stood as far as grades, I would have been fine with whatever grade I got, well maybe not any grade, but I would have liked to know that grade, or at least some measure of my standing in the class, a little sooner and more frequently.

The book. I purchased the book fully expecting not to read it this semester and I didn't, probably a self fulfilling prophecy. This was fine with me though. First, it wasn't a required text, I chose to buy it so I can't be mad about being forced to buy it and not using it. Second, I think it will be useful in the future and fully intend to read it, or parts of it in the future.

Overall I think the class was a good experience. I have never worked on a long term project like this before. The closest I have come was about two weeks of work I put into covering the unionization of academic student employees last semester. I liked our overall theme and I liked my section. I think the project came together pretty well after some kinks and I look forward to
getting it online at The Spokesman-Review.