I believe my thinking has evolved a lot since the beginning of the school year. In English, when the quieter students were encouraged to speak up a bit, I learned that participating in a discussion is very different from observing one. I can’t say that I now participate in each and every discussion in class, but I have made an effort to be less of a listener and share my individual thoughts. This has taught me the value of discussion because saying something out loud can be very different from saying the thought in your head. I have found an interesting way to contribute to a discussion is to share my thought process out loud, even right as its happening. My eyes have also been opened to the importance of sharing one’s thoughts due to the effects the thoughts of my peers have had on me this semester.
My thinking has also changed in terms of my writing process. Doing this very thing actually, writing a blog, has taught me a lot about getting my ideas on paper. I have adopted a technique of getting all of my thoughts, ideas, and feelings down on paper and then going back later to see what had been on my mind before and decide which parts are usable. In fact, I used that exact process when writing this. I try not to backspace or look at what I have already written until I have gotten all my ideas on the page. This lesson in thinking has dramatically changed my creative writing and has opened new possibilities for learning and reflecting.
A note on my thinking in life as a whole, I believe I have begun to learn to think in the present. Not worry so much about things that have already happened or that are going to happen, but concentrate on what’s going on now. I think “living in the now” has made an important impact on my thinking and learning so far this year.
