Usually, I'm not the biggest fan of English classes, but I'm inclined to think that was just a symptom of the questionable high school and dual enrollment teachers that I've had. This English class definitely felt like a breath of fresh air in comparison to other courses I've had, especially with the emphasis on originality and creativity with the projects (especially project 3). Other classes, you were typically given a monotonous, uninteresting topic and were forced to write about it, be it from the whim of a teacher's random number generator and a list of topics, or a book the entire class was subjugated to read (Shakespeare is not my thing). This isn't to say I never liked writing or reading, but I definitely didn't like the way it was presented in the education system I was so accustomed to. Now, I realise after having completed this class, that writing is something I most certainly enjoy, I just needed the key to collar around my neck that bound me to previous expectations of writing.
One of my favourite projects in this class was definitely Project 3: Multigenre Persuasive Campaign: I loved the multidisciplinary elements that were incorporated into the project, not only needing adequate writing skills for the project, but also good contextualization, efficient understanding of the relevant rhetorical appeals surrounding your context, and of course, creativity. I had initially thought that the artifacts I set out to create were a bit cumbersome relative to the time I had to create them, but damn, did I prove myself wrong. I definitely have to attribute the motivation I had to the fact I had actual FUN creating the project. If I were otherwise forced to develop artifacts for a topic I couldn't care less about (god damn it, Shakespeare...), it would've most certainly been a trudge through the mud to complete the project. Creating the website for a hypothetical teacher was a blast, especially trying to get all the elements you would expect to see in a stereotypical blog post correct: side bar with links to relevant socials, a headshot, etc. The infographic was challenging in the sense of thinking of a way to adequately present the information I wanted to given the context: easily digestible graphs and visuals, while also making them simultaneously appealing to the eyes. I think in the end, the infographic came out pretty well, though, I definitely would've played around more with the colour scheme a bit more, perhaps creating some alternative versions that could be used depending on whether the viewer is using a light theme/dark theme. Finally, the golden child of the group, the YouTube Short video. I thought this artifact would be a pain to execute, but, I Canvas luckily had a fantastic video editor tool that filled all my needs for creating the video. I like to think it turned out great, despite being a bit rough around the edges in some parts (I'm no stellar video editor).
Overall, this class taught me, or rather, I taught myself, how to efficiently approach large projects that would otherwise seem overwhelming. Sure, the topics being relevant and interesting to me definitely helped, but I learned how I should go about creating these projects as well. For larger, more verbose essays, rather than meticulously plan, I prefer to just write and review as I go, reading over what works and what doesn't. I could go on and on about the things I learned in this class, but for the sake of conciseness (Oh, and the word count), let's keep it brief: I learned a lot.
p.s. I don't hate Shakespeare, but reading works by him for 2-3 years straight is absolutely draining