Week 8: How I Have Changed

Creativity, by definition, is the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas. Simililarly, I think of it as doing something that is different from the norm and making ideas interesting, instead of boring. When this class first started, I did not have much creativity. I would never try to think outside the box and would do exactly what the requirements ask me to do. However, after completing many different assignments, such as group presentations and rhetorical analyses, I believe that I am now a bit more creative. In an attempt to make presentations interesting for the audience and to make my essays less boring, I tried to think of ways to be creative. This included adding funny pictures and using different fonts for presentations and using descriptive words and transitions for my essays. For example, in the RIP video project that my group is currently working on, we decided to use modern pop figures such as Beyonce, Jay Z, and Drake to represent the characters of a nineteenth century German tale. My group members and I thought that it would me more entertaining for students our age watching the video. Below is a slide that shows Beyonce as the princess.

Before this class, I would have just used typical pictures of kings, princesses, and frogs. This class has helped make me be more creative by making me think how I could use outside the box approaches to convey ideas.

Flexibility, on the other hand, is the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands. I think of flexibility as being able to handle changes in circumstances. Coming into this class, I was pretty good at adapting to situations and could take action if changes needed to be made. Through this class, my ability to be flexible was tested and I think I got even better. Group presentations and the writing assignments have tested my flexibility. This is because sometimes changes would have to be made to the presentations if the requirements are not met. That would mean starting over or making major changes and revision. Specifically, in my group's RIP Video Project, we received feedback from peers about how we were lacking in terms of rhetorical analysis. That meant that we had to go back and try to find ways to improve our work. In other cases, while I am researching and finding sources, I would realize the source that I found does not fully support my point and that I would have to try looking for another one. For example, in my Rhetorical Analysis Essay, some quotes I had were a bit unrelated, so I decided to take it out and find a better quote that could support my claim. Below shows the sources that I am currently using after taking out the bad ones.

In cases like these, it was important not to freak out or give up, but instead keep a clear mind and take things step by step. I am confident that when I run into difficulties in the future, I will able to apply what I have learned in this class and adapt to circumstances so that I can overcome the problem.