For me, the process of selecting my artifacts and writing the reflections is pretty simple, but there is one problem with it: starting. Something I have always struggled with is knowing where to start, whether it be on an assignment for class, or on a self-imposed project. To get over this hurdle, I did what I always do when I encounter this problem: I asked for help. Asking for help is something that sounds and looks easy, but actually doing it, admitting that you are struggling, lost, and confused, is more difficult than you would think. So, I went to someone I felt comfortable asking for help with selecting my artifacts, my instructor for my ART-214 class, and together we went over each criteria for each artifact, getting suggestions on what types of artifacts would fit each one the best (for example, how for Critical Thinking you could use a lab sheet from BIO-110), as well as clearing up any confusion I still had. Once I had an idea of what I should be looking for, I began sifting through my artifacts. This was less time consuming than I initially thought it would be, seeing as for this part I skim read through each artifact to be sure it was what I wanted to write my reflection on. After selecting my artifacts, I then went back to my instructor and went over the artifacts I was less sure about choosing, this being the final step in the selection process as I would make my final choices after this meeting. From there, I only had two steps left: fully read each artifact and write a corresponding reflection. Before beginning fully reading my artifact, I would first check the assignment in Moodle for each reflection, and then move on to looking at examples from people’s ePortfolios that had already graduated. I used these examples, combined with the instructions, to get an idea of what I was being asked to write. Once I had this information, I went and read my artifact all the way, refreshing my memory on what the assignment had been, as well as the work I had done for the assignment. I then began setting up my reflection in a word document, blocking in each paragraph and writing the beginning sentence for it so that I would know what it was I was going to write in each. From there, I would just write, checking the assignment criteria on each break I took every 30 minutes to make sure I was still meeting the goal of the assignment. By breaking down the writing process into steps, I was able to much more easily write each reflection and make sure it was as good as I could make it, not aiming for perfection, but something that I could be happy with. So, through all of this, I went from lost and confused, to feeling more confident that I would be able to successfully write each reflection, making it all so much easier. What I have learned about myself is that I’m stronger and more capable than I generally think I am, that despite all of my struggles, from being confused on what is being asked for and struggling to start assignments, that I am eventually able to overcome these struggles through breaking everything into small steps and working through each step, as well as simply asking for help when I recognize that it is needed.
- shag5014