Transitioning from High School to College is tough and it does not help when Covid-19 is in the mix. For all of us our spring semesters were cut short and brought online, with that came the feeling of uncertainty and laziness. Now fast forward to today we are all back to our new normal, which can come with some shock. There is also a huge difference between High School classes and College courses. High School is a steppingstone, high school was there to teach you the necessary materials to pass the year. Everything was geared towards the final exam at the end of the year, although they were in the process of transitioning us to be successful in college. College is where it all matters, it is where a person grows and learns to become that person they want to be. Dr. Beth McCoy’s writing seminar Risks and Rewards for Academic Partnership will aid in the growth of care for accountability, personal growth, and peers’ growth.
A huge factor this course plays with growth mindset is the ability that we will be learning to assess our own works. Dr. McCoy will assist by offering feedback, but we will be assessing our works using care for accountability, personal growth, and peers’ growth. This is an amazing growth opportunity because it comes with learning that it depends “on trust, transparency, accountability, care, and acknowledging the possibility of harm” (Dr. McCoy). All of these are important characteristics to learn when learning about the care of accountability. The care of accountability is an important lesson to learn and comes with many benefits. Accountability comes with a lot of trust, you are in control of your actions, if something is not done then it is on you. A benefit to learning this skill now is that we are learning to value our work as well as building confidence, which will be beneficial throughout the duration of college as well as life. You are learning the ability to go over your work and seek out the priorities. This is a privilege that will teach so many life skills, but if not gone about properly could risk a lack of trust. You will be affecting yourself, but also your peers. If you cannot properly determine your grade it could lead to the lose of trust from your Professor and your peers.
How you go about this course is on you, but your choices and actions reflect on everyone. This course comes with its opportunities, “You have the opportunity to care for the course, for yourself, and for others” (McCoy). If there is no care for the course, then the energy you put in will not help. Caring for the course will provide you with the right motivation that will help you to succeed. You have the ability to determine your grade, that does not mean that you give yourself a grade you do not deserve. The chance to look into your work and thoroughly go through and determine how well you did on that assignment is a really great lesson to learn. With grading your own work, you have the risk of failing yourself. It is a lot easier to fail ourselves because we are our own enemy. We are so tough on ourselves that we will critique our work to a higher degree than needed. Dr. McCoy will be there to help guide us in the right direction with her very helpful notes, in fact in the syllabus she states “Meaningfully, thoughtfully, and honestly assess their own coursework based on feedback they receive from instructors and from peers” (McCoy). As much as this course is about you learning new skills, it is also about working as a team. We can help and learn from each other.
This course offers so many opportunities to receive rewards, even if that means learning from the risks. Whatever you put into this course you will get out of it. For me I am excited to learn how to grade myself with just the right amount of criticism. I am my own enemy; I am so harsh on myself when it comes to reviewing my work, so I am ready to learn how to accept criticism from others and from myself. Something I have been working towards is having a growth mindset and with this course I will be able to make that dream a reality. This course has the potential to help every student learn new skills and reach their goals. By learning about risks and rewards I have learned that everything has a consequence, it is just whether it is good or bad. But the good thing is that the risks in this course will lead to more knowledge. With this course you set your goals and limits, and then its up to you to achieve them. Practicing “How to perform meaningful, good-faith, principled self-assessment and accountability is an important professional and personal skill” (McCoy). In other words, the class for The Risks and Rewards of Academic Partnership will help you grow both in a professional mannerism and within your own skill set.
The Risks and Rewards of Academic Partnership course offers so many great skills. With this course comes responsibility for it is up to you to grade and assess your own works. This course may prove difficult for some people since they must set forth their own discipline, but for some this may provide them with so much growth. At the end of the day this course will help each student grow and develop into who they want to be if they care for the course. Caring for the course will lead to the eagerness to learn. The good thing about learning new things is always remembering what you have learned so that you can look back onto it one day. This course will give you so much freedom to explore the rights and wrongs of how to self-assess. I am ready to learn and develop a good growth mindset.