Josh Walker e-Portfolio

Goal 3

Honors American Literature has been my least favorite class in all of my years as a student. My professor was Dr. Van Ness who I thought could be irrational at times in his grading and his expectations. Yes, it was an honors class, but I believe he went overboard. From the start he made it clear he did not like me. The first day my friend Nathan and I went to introduce ourselves to him and all he said was, “I don’t like when guys sit in the back, but if you do it again I’ll invade your personal space.” That brushed Nathan and I the wrong way. Anyways, for his grading, we had to put the Honor Code on our works, but if one single thing was wrong with it, he would automatically take off 5 points. Also, if one citation was wrong, it was a 50 right off the bat. He wouldn’t even look at the rest of the work if any of the citations were wrong. Our class had to memorize quotes from books and multiple definitions of symbols in deep detail for the midterm and final exam. I didn’t enjoy any part of the class, but I did bond closer to Nathan over our shared stress from the class. This class helped me learn that no matter how hard I try, I won’t be good enough. That was hard to swallow, but it was a reality check that there will always be someone smarter than me and I still need to try in difficult situations even if the odds are against me.

I gave this presentation about captivity narratives on September 7th, 2016. This work is a presentation that I had to give in front of the class, but I was graded on the information on the paper, not my presentation. I had to do this the second or third week of school, so it was a reality check on how fast things can come at me and I should expect the unexpected all the time. My presentation went well, but I guess the information on my paper wasn’t enough because I got a B- on it. This was my first college presentation, so I will give some leeway to myself to improve on future presentations.