1435 words by nuwaezuo
Write a reflective blog seriously evaluating each of the following course goals:
1. Give students a level of expertise in the discipline of biblical studies.
2. Provide the tools to read the Bible in an academic and critical manner.
3. Improve student’s ability to effectively communicate and to write clearly matters involving critical thinking.
4. Improve the world.
Do you agree with Paul or James in the Faith vs. Works conflict? What was the best part of this class? What was the worst part? Do you think that courses such as this should be part of the core curriculum at Xavier? Why or why not? What does this course have to do with your major field of study? Now, count up all of the words that you wrote in all of your blog entries (and by the way I hope that in the future when a teacher asks you for a measly 10 page paper you confidently laugh out loud) and complete the following sentence: “After writing (number) words in this blog, I now believe that . . .” Congratulations, you are now finished. Thank you for your hard work.
Gives student a level expertise in the discipline of biblical studies:
I think this course gives a somewhat level expertise in the discipline of biblical studies. We have shared many discussions about various biblical issues. However I don’t believe that we have actually been taught many hard core facts about the Bible. I feel like this class is very controversial and certain people could be offended by the things we talk about in class. Anyway this class has covered many different scriptures and stories. Some of these stories were familiar to me and some were not. It was very interesting learning about the scriptures that were unfamiliar to me.
Provide the tools to read the bible in an academic and critical number:
The only tool we really used this semester was the bible for dummies. I think that book is actually great! Its hilarious and educational all at the same time. I’m pretty sure everything we discussed in class could be found in The Bible for Dummies. This book gives students a very quick and strait to the point answer to questions. This book is a great assistant to the bible. If there is something in the Bible that is confusing then the Bible for Dummies could clear it up.
Improve student’s ability to effectively communicate and to write clearly matters involving critical thinking:
I think this class definitely improves students ability to effectively communicate. This is because we engage in many class discussions. This class is all about voicing your opinion and speaking your mind. By doing this the entire semester I think that my communicating skills have improved. Of course these million word blogs definitely improved my writing skills as well. Even though I feel that these blogs were entirely to long, writing them has opened my mind to be more creative.
Improve the world:
By assigning us a project this class has helped us make the world a better place. My project is tutoring kids that are enrolled in the public school system. I think this will improve the world by brightening the future of our children. Overall I think this class does reach the goal of improving the world.
The best part of this class was learning about all the scriptures and stories that I had never heard about before. Mostly the bible mysteries were very interesting to learn about. My favorite mysteries were learning about why Michelangelo depicted Moses with horns, and about the weeping prophet.
The worst part of this class is the blogs. I don’t necessarily think that the blogs should be completely eliminated. I think that they are entirely too long. Maybe if they were worth more points then the class would be more enthusiastic to do them. I think it is unreasonable to expect students with difficult classes such as chemistry and biology to have enough time to write 1000 words a week. I also thought the midterm was a bit difficult based on the type of lecture we have. We don’t really take notes in class so I didn’t expect the test to cover so much information. Honestly I believe if the test is going to be that difficult, a curve should definitely be taken into consideration. I really hope that the final is not as difficult as the midterm. Even though I did not do that bad on the exam I still wish I could have done better. Other than that this class was not too bad. I wasn’t sure if the FE policy was in effect or not but I tried not to miss too many classes. I didn’t want to jeopardize my grade just because of too many missed classed. ut other than that this class was very painless and informative.
I honestly don’t believe that this class should be apart of the core curriculum. It should just be optional. I just don’t really see how this class is necessary to everyone’s future goals. I feel like I’ve blogged about this subject a hundred times but I don’t really feel like this class directly pertains to my major. I do however feel like this class has strengthened my faith which will eventually help me reach my goals.
I agree with Paul. Faith is the most important than anything else. Hard work is very important of course, but I definitely believe faith comes first. The fact that James believed that hard work was the most important thing is the reason why his end came up short. Paul however put all his hard work into trusting God and he was successful.
After writing over 15,000 words in this blog, I know believe that writers are very motivated. Because writing all these words every week was a whole lot of work. I actually hate writing so doing this was definitely a drag. Overall I’m so glad that this class is over! Not for any particular reason but just because this semester was really long!