Entering the second week, the COVID-19 memory project was the priority as the Special Collections and University Archives introduced it to the students. Mary Rubin provided a presentation for the students to present and I participated in the presentation as a speaker. This participation was due to my experience working in archives at SCUA and I relayed my experience to the students. Most students seemed very eager to participate in the project, especially in the creation of questions such as how COVID-19 has affected students in a wide variety of areas. Students began to ask questions and participate actively as they are responsible for collecting oral history for the project. Dr. Murphree has tasked me to be the project coordinator over the students, managing their contribution to the project and guide them properly. I tried to push students to begin thinking on who they would like to interview by next Tuesday as a means of encouraging them. I am expecting them to email me by Monday to state who they are interviewing and why so that they have a foundation to begin the project. Procrastination was always a characteristic of my undergraduate degree which lead me to this assignment.
Dr. Murphree and I spoke about student interaction in the
class as I voiced my concerns about it due to the presentations this week. This
class lacked any discussion about historical discourse, yet I concede that the
importance of these presentations was significant. Students seem to be a little nervous or
anxious talking as it is the second week. Mary did ask for them to pair up and
formulate questions for the project which did get them talking for a brief
amount of time. Going into week 3, I would like to see more active
participation from the students in the class.
While students have been passive with participation in the
physical class, their online participation is very well done. Dr. Murphree
assigns weekly discussion posts for students to write on the assigned readings
of the class. The students are able to voice their own reflection of the
readings which asserts that they have potential of leading and participating in
discussions in class. Week 3 will see discussions between students which I will
try to observe their discussion and provide my own experiences with the class
and in graduate school. Discussing historical discourse is vital to the major
and practicing public speaking.
Student interaction with me seems to be improving as
students have been emailing me about questions regarding the class. I am
honored that the students have, in this aspect, approached me. Most of the
emails are mundane questions that can be answered fairly quickly. There is one
particular email that has an extensive amount of detail that requires me to
carefully guide their career opportunities. It is critical that I provide the
best and clear answer for this student’s email as it will impact how they proceed
in the history major. While there exists pressure of providing the student with
answers, the satisfaction of guiding them has taken priority. This aspect of
the internship was my main passion when Dr. Murphree presented this opportunity
to me and I am glad to be doing it.
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