Reflection

Well, it’s over. All those months researching and creating my product have lead to one moment earlier today. It all went so fast; both the year and the presentation. I did not know what to expect going into this project. I thought it was going to be just another project but it turned into something so much more. I learned so much during this keystone process; both about my topic and probably more so, myself. I have definitely grown as a person, student and researcher since October.

Ever since that day we learned about the JFK assassination in US history last year, I have always wondered about the assassination. When the keystone project was assigned back in October, I immediately knew that I was going to do that for my keystone. Thinking back to October, I originally wanted to some model of the assassination but that was quickly changed when my advisor suggested doing some kind of lesson. This was then morphed into doing a unit on the assassination for a fictional class on Presidential assassinations. I was then off on my journey.

I learned so much during the keystone process, about the JFK assassination and myself. Let’s start with the JFK assassination. Going into the project basically all I knew was a basic understanding of the warren commission and that there were many conspiracy theories. Now I can explain in depth five different conspiracy theories and I have an in depth understanding of the entire Warren Commission Report and can have a full length discussion or lesson (as I did this afternoon) on this topic.

Not only did I learn about the JFK assassination, I also learned a lot about myself. The first thing I learned is that I need to work on meeting deadlines. I almost definitely missed all at the very least most of my deadlines, except for the big one of course. That is something I need to work on during college because college projects won’t have as much leeway in terms of time like this does. A second thing I learned about my self is that I can in fact do a project like this; a complex independent research project that required many parts. I did the research, I mastered the topic and I gave what I believe is a pretty good presentation. I know in college that there will be something like this project and I now know that I can complete it and do a pretty good job. During the process, I have also learned that I need to get better of thinking on my feet. I feel that my presentation was great but the question and answer part was not. I feel that I did not do a very good at answering questions. Looking back on it, I know all the answers and if I was asked now I could answer them a lot better than I did during my presentation. But during the presentation I just could not answer questions. I don’t know what it was, whether it was nerves or something else. On a related note, however, I learned that my fear of giving big presentations and public speaking is gone. I was nervous before my presentation, yes, but it wasn’t really fear about the presentation itself, it was mainly the question and answer part. I think at least part of the reason for my loss of the fear of public speaking has to do with Class, Race, and Gender/Media Advertising. No, I’m not just saying this because Mr. Pollock is my keystone adviser. I truly believe that the three presentations and the graduation speech really helped me conquer my fear of giving big presentations.

There were many ups and downs during the whole keystone process. One up was when I finished the first lesson of my project. To have something tangible that proves and validates all the work I had done up until then was indescribable. Another great moment was when I closed the rings of my portfolio right after the final paper was put into it. That was the second greatest feeling of the process. The biggest up was the moment after everyone finished applauding, looking back at all the work I put in an being done, that was a moment I will remember for a long time.

As it goes, with ups come downs. There more downs than I thought there was going to be, but talking to some of my fellow keystoners, my downs seem to be trivial compared to them. Most of my downs include little things like not knowing which conspiracy theories to focus on and not knowing how to condense such complex things like the conspiracy theories and turn it into a twenty-minute presentation. However I did have a few bigger problems. I had trouble figuring out what, in addition to the conspiracy theories, I wanted to add in my lesson plan. I knew I had, and wanted, to teach something else other than the conspiracy theories but I didn’t know what. I didn’t know until I ran into the JFK vs. Lincoln facts. Those just blew my mind. I knew the minute I saw those I wanted to put that into my lesson. In my presentation I mentioned that that was one of the reasons I believe what I believe is because of those facts. However, my lesson is base upon the fact that the students come to their own conclusion, and I put it in there purely for entertainment value. Also one of the hardest parts of creating my lesson was writing the test. I thought that was going to be the easiest part since it was basically off of what I was teaching, but coming up with challenging non-obvious questions, especially essay questions is a lot harder than I thought. I have a lot more respect for teachers after this.

All in all, I really enjoyed the keystone process; the research, the creativity, the freedom it gives you and the presentation. It taught me so much. I know many more things about myself that I can carry on to college.