Metacognition

As I swiftly moved along through the Advanced Placement: World History course and thoroughly analyzed my behavior during the class, I found that my habits of mind include the following: I have learned to understand the significance of the past to my own life, both private and public, and to my society, to perceive past events and issues as they were experienced by people at the time, to develop historical empathy as opposed to present-mindedness and to understand the relationship between geography and history as a matrix of time and place, and as context for events. These habits were attained through constant reading and associating that which I read with my life, not only as a student, but as an ordinary citizen, for I took that knowledge and applied the historical past to my present life. As I did so, I noticed a pendulum; I found that the history of the world does not change, but instead revolves in one circle, going through the same cycles over and over again. Next year, during the Advanced Placement: US History course, I will be achieving more habits of mind in order to become an increasingly better student: the most important habit of mind I want to attain is learning to prepare to live with uncertainties and exasperating, even perilous, unfinished business; most importantly, realizing that not all problems have solutions.This is important to know that life is not perfect and that not all problems can be fixed; a lesson that will help me, not only in school, but throughout my entire life as an ordinary person. This class has really changed me into a better student, for I learned study habits that will be helpful next year when I have more than only one AP class, I have learned how to write concisely and to the point, and, most importantly, I have learned major organization skills. This history course was great and I hope to have such a great one next year!