The beginning of week fourteen brought much stress and tension among students in our class. With the buildup of anxiety from the election and the highly controversial results, to the stress brought by the incoming final exams of our first semester, the pressure was truly on for us. However, with the two-month long winter break that is soon to be upon us, students are giving it their all and pushing through these last few weeks.
Our final full week of class began with our session on Tuesday, and like always, we started with our daily class check-in. Spirits seemed high with the results of the election, however, many noted their stress levels being at an all-time high with the impending exams. Following the class check in, we discussed about writing in business and went over numerous things about it. Firstly, we were taught the “6 C’s” of business communication: clear, concise, courteous, correct, consistent, and complete. This information was especially helpful because communication is something that is extremely important when one finishes college and searches for a job. Next, we went over the eight main strategies for writing in business, something that I was looking forward to as I am considering a career in business. To wrap up our lesson in writing in business, Mr. Blom gave us helpful UNC resources that we could use in the future. We then went on to have a discussion about creative writing. During this, we were instructed on the important steps of writing a story and how it is essential to have a good theme, an interesting hook, a fully developed character, and a scenario populated with characters. Lastly, we participated in an activity that involved constructing our own predicament statements. Upon completing this activity, I felt as though it truly helped myself and others as we developed more of an understanding for making a story. In addition, the story we made brought much needed laughter to many students.
With our penultimate class session, we started with our daily class check-in like usual. This day, however, was mainly filled with stress due to our impending final exams and the unfortunate outbreak of COVID-19 again. Following the class check-in, we went over any questions we had about the UP3 project and discussed any troubles we had when making our rough draft. We then went on to compare the priorities, values, and goals of the disciplines we have learned throughout the semester. This activity really helped as it allowed us to gain insight on how each of these disciplines relate and the aspects of them. For the remainder of class, we were sent to our breakout rooms to take part in our workshop for the day. This workshop allowed everyone to give and receive information on the UP3 rough draft. This was especially helpful as it gave me a different perspective to how I could improve my project and it also allowed me to get additional ideas as I was editing someone else’s rough draft.
As our semester comes to a close, I have realized how much I have truly gained from this class. For starters, the group I am in that is known as SACCC brought much joy and laughter (while still completing all of our work of course). With all the hardships that were brought to us this semester, having a group like that helped reduce much stress. Secondly, I can speak for our class when I say we are all extremely grateful to have Mr. Blom. I have never had a teacher that cared more about his class outside of their school life. He always sent us helpful information to guide us through this pandemic and always checked in on us if something bad happen around campus. Along with that, his teaching ability truly helped me learn so much about writing and made me a better writer as well. Mistakes that I made in the past have been fixed through the various writing assignments we had and the constructive criticism from Mr. Blom. Hopefully, I will be able to reunite with SACCC and/or Mr. Blom in my future here at UNC.
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