School Year of International English in Review- 2015/16

This school year of International English has been quite informative and interesting. I have learned a lot, history of the English language, about immigration, the digital revolution, global challenges and education/work abroad. I also improved my history knowledge by incorporating it in my projects, even if I did not know so much about what I chose, I quickly learned new information, which I can use in the future.

Personally, I found the larger tasks that we did this year thought provoking, to say the least, some of them are things we do not think about in our daily life. For example, the global challenge concerning the future of the global financial system. It is not something people really think about  (if you are not an economist), but it is of large importance to why the job market is what it is, people just write it off as something too complicated to understand. Modern slavery is not something that is talked about much in the media, even though tens of millions people is in bondage, right now. The big topics I worked on, I have enjoyed them to some degree, because they encompass unusual subjects, which make you think. I am probably on of the few in class that enjoyed the “Reluctant Fundamentalist”; the book gave us an interesting point of view of Media’s res, back and fourth, throughout the story. It had a strong message of the American dream and in what ways it changed people. The In-depth work we did was probably, the largest topic I have worked on to date, but felt it was fulfilling in its own right. Something I had not really studied before and would probably not know much about if it were not for my knowledge of American history. I thought the work was good training for the future, being able to write a bigger in scope paper.  

I found the use of the blog as an interesting writing and communication method, not always delivering boring documents was a nice change of pace. You could see errors later and fix them before a deadline, instead of delivering them on the spot. It also made your learning experience more personally designed, with pictures and videos. This could potentially attract other students better to read your content and get feedback, compared to sharing a black and white paper. 

When I think about personally, I do not have any particular criticisms. However, if I had to say the least interesting things we did was English grammar. I improved my English writing skills immensely, compared to last year, but I still do not find it too interesting to acquire. The spot checks was not particularly fascinating either, maybe because we do something similar in almost all classes. 

In conclusion, it has been a fun English school year and one of my favorite courses, up there with history classes. I broadened my history knowledge and learned about several different new issues.    

Picture Sources: http://therightbraininitiative.org/2012/07/the-right-brain-initiative-year-in-review/

http://galleryhip.com/end-of-school-year-quotes-for-teachers.html