Day 88
Student #1
I feel that the semester went well for me. I felt that the way that we were taught was effective at making us understand history rather than just memorizing facts. Although, I do feel that we should have at least a few more lectures than what we have already. I think that although the teaching style may seem arbitrary, some people really do learn better if there are a few lectures thrown in to help people more ground their knowledge to actually history. Overall, I truly enjoyed this semester! It helped me think more outside the box and a lot more creatively than I have in years.
Student #2
This semester has been completely different from what I expected. When I walked into this class on the first day of school I expected a packet and a textbook. To my surprise, I found out there wasn’t going to be a packet or a textbook. I was genuinely scared because for so long my definition of learning was memorization and that’s what I was good at. In the beginning of the semester, I thought I was going to do poorly in this class. My mindset shifted fairly quickly. The first time I really realized I understood what I was learning was when I understood the definition of pastoral nomads and could list examples of them. This was a topic we covered extensively in APHG but I never understood what it meant so I just memorized a definition. Then, my brothers were talking about foot binding and I knew what the meant and I was able to follow along in the conversation which was probably the first time in my life. This semester made me realize that I enjoy learning, even if I don’t necessarily love the subject. I enjoyed this semester a lot and I enjoy APWH.