This week marked an interesting time for students across The University of North Carolina. Many students I know had various projects and midterms in their classes. It also marked the last week before the beloved Thanksgiving break. Personally, the week was a drag finishing numerous assignments and finding the motivation to have a productive week. With family time looming and a return to my hometown for the first time since I arrived here, I constantly found my mind wandering to places other than my school work.
It was an exciting week in English 105. It started on Tuesday when we did not meet in our usual location. Instead of meeting in Greenlaw Hall, we met in the basement of the undergraduate library. The purpose of the class was to get instructions on Adobe Premiere Pro. A faculty member of the media and design center at The University of North Carolina. He helped walk us through the different components of editing, adjusting, and recording our unit 3 video project. We spent the whole period learning the nuances of the program. We were able to practice editing clips on computers in the room.
Between classes, we were instructed to create a storyboard for our unit 3 project. The storyboard was supposed to outline a plan for our final video project. We found clips or added ideas on the music, words, and ideas into our paragraphs from our 3.2 feeders. I found the storyboard to be extremely useful in setting me up for the rest of the project. We submitted this on Wednesday and came to class ready to workshop the storyboard.
The majority of our class on Thursday was a discussion based on the storyboard. We paired up within our groups to discuss and revise the storyboards. It was helpful to hear input from other classmates who are going through the same process. I gained valuable insight from my partner that will help me with my project moving forward. The remainder of the class was spent learning about other opportunities within English 105. We learned about an extra credit opportunity within business writing. We also learned about opportunities in creative writing. It was a productive class period that helped us solidify our plans for our final project as well as additional extra credit opportunities.
With additional feedback from feeder 3.2 as well as our storyboard, we will use that knowledge for beginning the construction of our video essay. Learning new editing techniques and an increased understanding of the feedback will help propel us into the next part of the assignment. I spent the rest of the week gathering clips and starting to assemble them. The rough draft of the essay is due Monday, so we will be working hard to get that finished.
Although the material this week was not challenging, I found it to be one of my harder weeks as a student. With Thanksgiving break looming, my motivation shifted from my schoolwork to getting home to see my family and friends. Being an out-of-state student has its excitement, but it is hard to be away from home for extended periods. With work in English 105 wrapping up for the semester, students are making the final push to finish the semester strong. Although the workload is overwhelming it is exciting to be able to finish the semester strong with a unique project.
Shifting away from the classroom, my experience supporting UNC sports have been amazing. With the fall seasons wrapping up, and winter sports approaching, the time spent watching the heels has been enjoyable. The women’s field hockey team won the national championship, the football team will compete in the ACC championship, and the basketball team is ranked number one! It is an exciting time for students with the semester wrapping up, and cheering on the success of our fellow students.
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