Rosemary Gomez's ePortfolio

Throughout my life I have always found myself to be extremely reserved and shy. I was never one to go out of my way to try and converse with many people. This grew with me even into my adult years, let’s just say I’m not good at making new friends. Taking this into consideration, when I found out that in Geography we were going to have open discussions with our peers, I kind of panicked. Although we were only supposed to choose one assignment to reflect on, I’ve decided to reflect on all the group discussions.

 

These discussion forced me to interact with other people, although I wasn’t too fond of the whole idea of group discussions, I’m really comfortable with it now. Even though the discussions we have aren’t really all that personal, due to the fact that it’s solely online, they have still been really beneficial to me. I have been able to break out of my shell and really give my true opinion on things. Surprisingly enough, I’ve always been able to avoid group work in class, especially in high school. I’ve been told by many students and teachers that I would have to get used to it, participating in these discussions was my push into group work.

 

I think these assignments have definitely contributed to better academic skills for myself. For example, now when participating in group work in future classes, I will be much more comfortable. Also, it has helped in this class as well. Now that we are working on our hazard project as groups, I find it much easier to ask questions and give my input without feeling embarrassed.  Overall, the discussions have helped me gain confidence in myself and my work.

 

Although most students say they hate when professors give out group work (myself included), I understand as to why they do it; it’s definitely an icebreaker amongst students. I have really benefited a lot from the discussions and hope that they were able to help other students just as much.