Reflecting on this past year (2011), I realized it may not have been the most fun or carefree year, but I definitely appreciated as a year of growth, more so than I've ever been conscious of before. I'm much more aware of my thoughts and how they've shifted this past year, along with many other aspects of my life, school being no exception.
This past semester I've no doubt learned something nearly every school day, but it's been a more unconventional type of learning, not what typically comes to mind when you think of public high school. What I've learned, about myself and my thoughts, hasn't been the traditional writing exercises and boring literature associated with 10th grade English. My learning hasn't really been about a specific idea or school topic at all, it's more been learning how to learn. Although that may sound pretty vague, it's how I'd describe what I've learned so far this year, I've learned how to open my mind to new ways of thinking and doing.
Writing the original poem, for example, was something that required a lot more mental stretching than I would've thought. It's not like I was learning how to write a poem though, that's not really something that can be taught, it's something that's gradually learned through time and experience. What I really learned through the process was how to take direction and the opinions of someone else, even if I didn't necessarily agree with them, as a way of gaining new insight and perspective. Writing the poem became much more an exercise in working outside my comfort zone, because I was working within a process I wouldn't have used if I were on my own and I was taking into serious account another person's opinions in an attempt to ultimately better my own writing. This was a new way of working for me, and it provided me with an interesting perspective shift that I wasn't used to working with, which is why I feel that it is probably the most valuable thing I've picked up from the poetry writing process. Not to say that poetry writing isn't valuable, I just think learning new styles of thinking has been more my focus this semester, a focus that is much more complex and thought intensive than textbook or curriculum based learning.
When things do get very thought intensive and stretch the mind past its comfort zone, I've found it increasingly important to sort of take stock of my thoughts and organize myself. Keeping with the repetitive word theme (learning how to learn) I've noticed that I've been doing a lot more thinking about my thinking, blogging (this blog in particular) being an easy way of doing so. When my thoughts get confusing or overly complex, which seems to be happening this year more than ever, usually the best thing to do is just decompress and reorganize my mind to relax it a little bit. With my creative thought being pushed further than school ever has in the past combined with the fact that I'm trying to figure out what my life after high school might look like (see blog 4), my head can get pretty jumbled. But, I've found I'm learning more, about myself and how I think, through blogging and metacognition than any assignment I've slaved over in the past. On more than one occasion while writing these blogs I've felt a sort of "a-ha!" moment where I think of something really insightful that I knew had been buried in my mind somewhere, but I'd just uncovered it then. I can feel that my thoughts are progressing and changing, I'm definitely not the same person I was in August, and I've found one of the most important things I've learned this year to be how to keep up with them while continuing to keep my mind open to more development and growth.
My learning this year has been very introverted so far. Not that it's a bad thing (at least I hope not), but I've noticed a lot of my "mental breakthroughs" have been within my own head, not something like an assignment I've written. I know I've taken pretty big steps to becoming a better learner and thinker, but there are always things I'll be able to do better. The best thing I can do right now is to just continue to open myself up to other people's ideas, and keep in mind that I'm not always right, it's a lot easier to learn when you're willing to admit you're wrong. I think I could also work on taking advice less personally, because I've realized I can get offended pretty easily when my thoughts are challenged. As for now, I guess I should just keep doing what I've been doing lately, learning how to learn and thinking about how to think. If I've seen positive results from things like opening my mind and reorganizing it with things like blogs, then I might as well continue. I've come to terms with the fact that this may not be a year where everything makes sense, I get confused and disorganized pretty often lately, but I think I've made quantum leaps on how deep my mind works and how it's really matured. So even if this does turn out to be a sort of utility year where all I seem to do is a lot of thinking and contemplating, I can definitely appreciate the learning I've done and the growth I've made as a thinker and as a person (cliché as that may sound)
January 5, 2011
It sounds like you’ve learned a lot this year! That’s why this blog post struck me, because when I think of learning a picture comes to mind of a teacher or student explaining something to another person. It’s a strange notion that introverted metacognition can be just as important, but your writing for this post shows that it has been really valuable for you. I think metacognition is often underrated in a student’s life. Pressure to be involved in class discussions can take away from time to organize your own thoughts and reflect. I don’t blame teachers for putting that pressure on us though, because after all, they can’t see a difference between someone who’s thinking and someone who’s spacing out. Still, it’s good to hear the ways in which reflecting helps because I sometimes don’t appreciate it for what it is.
ReplyDeleteOne such result of metacognition is learning how your own mind works. It makes me think of the phrase “star-charts on the inner walls” from that poem Stone by Charles Simic that we read in class. Simic uses a metaphor to say that although metacognition looks boring from the outside, on the inside there is something much deeper—like star charts, the progression of thoughts through incredible places. I also got a sense of this message in your writing. Like you said, time spent contemplating isn’t wasted because it helps people grow and develop. At the same time, I agree that it’s important to have other people’s opinions as a part of your thinking, too. You’ve highlighted a good balance between having an open mind and reflecting on your own thoughts.