As a student in the independent study speech course, I realized and learned a few concepts and lessons that will translate directly into my life as a college student next year and the years to come. First, I learned that I should put more time into things before their deadline. for instance, with this class, I would wait until the last moment to plan things out or to even actually complete my speeches. Mainly this issue occurred with the blog posts.I also learned that I need to prioritize my tasks. In the future, I need to keep track of due dates, of things that must be completed and how to complete them. This issue is displayed in my overall grade for the class. This will teach me that I should be much more committed to my school work and to be diligent in completing assigned tasks.
The second thing I learned was that in order for myself to be motivated and productive, I should choose classes and tasks that are interesting to me. My thought process at the time I was signing for the speech course was this: “I don't need to take a class on public speaking, I do it all the time.” And, while this might be true, it was a poor viewpoint on my part. I saw the course as a pushover class that I thought I could get an “easy A” and forgot about it. Speech became my least priority, and again my grade reflects this. So, what this taught me, is that I need to take classes that are more interesting and necessary for myself to take. Another way to look at this would be to take every task as high priority and of the utmost importance.
In all honesty, I don't believe that I learned much, if anything, in regards to public speaking from the speech course. The independent study class style doesn't seem to work well with the speech course(that's how I feel). But what I didn’t learn in public speaking, I learned in knowledge for the future. It will benefit me in the long run. Although the grade I will be receiving does not necessarily reflect my abilities, it reflects the effort that I put into it.
