Awakened Ocean
Splish. Splash. Splish. Splash. The sound of the oars hitting the ocean surface was constantly crawling into your ear. You were gliding through the water with ease. You gaze into the beautiful, peaceful, vibrant blue mass, the ocean seemed to be sparkling. The waves were calm. The ocean seemed to be like a sleeping child. You get lost looking into the ecstatic beauty. Unfortunately, that did not last for too long. Thrash! Thrash! Thrash! The waves were crashing against the frail kayak! Quickly, you snapped out of your daze! Your once peaceful ride quickly transformed as the ocean turned angry! You gripped the side of kayak tightly your hand turning white in the process. You felt yourself moving up and down while, coursing through the strong tides. The kayak getting dragged like a rag doll. After, what seemed like forever, it stopped. The waves returned to their once tranquil state. Numerous thoughts and questions filled your mind. However, weirdly everything made sense. That's the way life is. Nothing is ever so easy. So peaceful. So simple. There will always be obstacles one way or another. However, there is always is a happening ending. Cliche. I know. But, bear with me. The scenario above is how I picture my experience in my American literature course.
It all started in August, the normal back to school routine. Woke up in pure sorrow and resentment to move. But somehow manage to get up and get to the hellhole also known as, school. So, here I am at school it was time to go to my fifth period. With all honestly, I walked to class with pure dread as I was quite over the whole welcome back speeches from other teachers. Finally, I reach the classroom. Right of the bat, I knew this class was going to be different. The decor of the room said it all. The walls were so simple yet, carried meaning. I was surprised there was no seating chart somewhere present. Freedom! That is what popped into my head. I indubitably loathe seating charts. Oh, and the desks! They were no islands or groups! The desks were scattered in a "U" shape almost like a seminar. Typically, I hate grouped desks because I feel the teacher is trying to order us around like animals more than actual human beings. I take a seat at random. My eyes still scattering around the room. Landing on the my new teaches. He was sitting at his desk never looking away from the computer screen almost like he was in a trance. At last, the bell rang. Immediately, my teacher springs from his seat seeming extremely enthusiastic.
In terms of first impressions, this particular teacher made a great one! He spoke to us as people. Like, actual people. Not like that standardized teacher to student talk like an authority figure. No, he was different. His choice of words and syntax played well in expressing his character and personality. Although, I was aware that this course would not be like any course I've taken before nothing prepared me for what came next. My teacher began to explain he wanted us students to decide how this course would be taught. And yes, us students! He gave us students the option to choose! Crazy! Right? Before, making our decision my teacher made sure we knew both our options in depth. One option, was to follow the infamous teaching technique that abides by the textbook like a bible. This option seemed to very vague and too familiar. In contrast, the second option was to use open-source learning. This was new to me. I had never heard of this teaching method. But, my teacher was successful explaining how it a type of learning where there is no structure. It was a diverse way to express ideas and read several sources where we can reel express ur views/opinions freely while, gaining knowledge at the same time. After explaining the options, my teacher exited the room to let us students come together and make a decisions. My classmates and I look at one another dumbfounded. I make eye contact with a close friend of mine and we give each other this knowingly nob. We both stand up and ask the class whose in favor of each option as expected, we all chose open- source learning! That decision changed it all!
Nowadays, in school students are under this control feel vibe of authority always have the upperhand but, what I experienced in that class was nothing like the usual classes. The opening line in Charles Bukowski's poem, The Laughing Heart, couldn't have said it any better, "your life is your life don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission. be on the watch. there are ways out". The option of open source learning was y way out of the normal boring teaching style.
Next, after the decision making. We started right away. The first thing presented was our journal entries. An journal entry was where my teacher would provide a prompt and us students would write half a page about in our personal journal. At first, I thought I was going to hate these because I thought the prompts were going to be those cliche school topics. But, thank goodness they weren't. The prompts forced me as a student to look deep within myself and my memory to write these passionate short passages which I enjoyed greatly. For example, my favorite best journal entry was my very first one! The first prompt was to explain the most memorable moment from class the day before (first day of school). I wrote a full page about how I felt freed from the shuckles the school has put on students today. My mind was free and just so focused. In simple terms, I was in a state of mindfulness that created a nice journal entry filled with insight which I never knew I could do before. All in all, the journal entries our significantly demanding but, once you get the hang of the routine the ease starts to pour in.
Secondly, the blogs. Yes! Blogs! The first week of school, we were focused on creating and getting our blogs up and running. Our blogs are a clear representation of our work in the course. In the beginning, it was challenging to learn how to work the blog. There were so many buttons and things you can do with the blog. It was quite confusing. However, once I figured it out it was smooth sailing. I feel that once I personalized my blog I knew it was gonna be a great platform for my thoughts and ideas. And I was right! Going into specifics, on our blogs we make posts about what we are currently learning and or discussing about in the course. So, our blogs are pretty unpredictable. For the reason, that at times we might just have the urge to put our thoughts into words and boom! A post is born! This brings me to the creation of one of my favorite blog posts! Around October, there was this request to write a short story about any moment in our life we were to entitle it, Story of my Life. This made me unbelievably happy! Literally, I was grinning ear to ear even my cheeks started to hurt. I have always loved writing short stories but, never got the opportunity to write one for a class and if I did I didn't have the freedom to write about anything I wanted to. But, now I did and it made me write freely with my thoughts running wild. I chose to write about a very influential moment in life. Therefore, my story in the post was amazing in my eyes at least. it was simply crazy to see how I could turn a moment in my life into this small story where people can experience what I felt with me. To add on, we were also required to memorize poems! And get this we had to record ourselves reciting them from memory then post the video on our blogs! This was hard to do but, what you learn from the poems is worth it in the end. In simple terms, the blog was an obstacle but, I loved the results of this obstacle.
As I continued the course, I faced the biggest fork in the road! Who knew something that seems so simple would be the hardest thing for me to do. As a writer, thanks to the beautiful school system of today, I was wired/programmed to write a standard five paragraph essay. It was like an automatic instinct I was so used to. I was so used to it, that I could write one in 35 minutes tops. Keeping that in mind, we had just finished reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, Young Goodman Brown, we asked to write an essay. But, not any typical essay. My teacher asked to me to just try. Try to break out of the five paragraph essay. To make our writing more emotional and less structured. In other words, he wanted to see the passion in our writing. So, I tried like he asked. But, as I looked at my essay. It was only slightly different from my normal five paragraph essays. So, I felt disheartened. But, I knew I would have another chance to try again. My second chance came around once we were introduced to the poem, A Dream Within a Dream, by Edgar Allan Poe. So, here comes the second essay there was improvement but, not what I wanted. Third chance, The Pedestrian, by Ray Bradbury, closer but not quite there yet. The story revolved around how technology has sucked the humanity out of people and I feared that it had happened to me because couldn't put my passion in my essays. I knew I was missing something. Something that needed to open my passion. Finally, my prayers were answered when I we read Emerson's essay, On Self-Reliance, this essay is just amazing. It influenced me greatly as a person and a writer! The text taught me many things. Like, to not look outside yourself. And that when someone says something original it immediately catches attention and or sparks emotion. Furthermore, the text explores that arrogance is when you believe what you put out there is genius. Now, the thought alone is not genius what genius is the belief putting your knowledge out there without the fear of judgement. We have this hidden voice and it will be the universal sense once heard. When we don't bind ourselves to the books we create our own thoughts/opinions. In addition, it is worth celebrating when having a contradicting opinion against most because how can you be yourself and pretend to be someone you're not. After, reading this text we wrote an essay. At last, I was happy with my writing. It was just me and my pen. My thoughts were just flowing into the paper. I was extremely happy with the end result of that essay.
In terms of continuity, after that huge fork in the road expressed above. The class just seemed to flow like a lazy river. My journal entries were always easy to write without any hesitation. My journal entries were always completed on time and I felt were very insightful. In addition, my blog was always up to date with each post being posted with the requested time. I felt like I finally got into the perfect routine that made me successful in the course.
When I first started in this course, as writer I was unoriginal. I wrote like every typical high school student that took honors english the years before. I used the five paragraph structure. My writing carried that unreal emotion. Or in other terms "fake" passion. Now, thanks to open-source learning I was able to gain the knowledge of understanding what the purpose of writing really is. The purpose of writing is to make ourselves understood. That is it. The big secret of writing. Knowing that, I feel that my writing has enhanced. Simply, looking at this essay I can see and feel my improvement. As I typing on the other side of this screen, I have a smile on my face just from simply writing this essay. In Robert Frost's poem, The Road Not Taken, he says, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference", and I did exactly that. I had to options and I chose what many people do not practice, open-source learning. It has impacted me significantly. So, the next time you are in the position of making a decision really weigh in both options and be brave you won't regret it. I know I don't.
