History Reflective Statement:
To start off honestly, this presentation was one of my favourites of the ones we have had
this year, as well as during our entire 4 years of history. The focus on more related topics
allowed me to not only research my own but by proxy also others’; since I greatly enjoy
learning history, this was definitely a benefit for me. However, because I ended up with
so much knowledge about the broader subject, here the aftermath “calamities” of
World War I, it was difficult to organise it all in such a way that I would only include
relevant information in my presentation. With this matter, my group helped greatly, as
the constant reminders and cooperation among us allowed to maintain focus on the
primarily important aspects of our topic, especially since I was able to take their
perspective in many matters. I cannot exaggerate how much differing views aided me in
cutting out irrelevant facts and events, since they were able to keep their vision much
more narrowed to our topic; that is not to say tunnel visioned or narrow minded in what
we did, but simply that my habit is usually to include many more things than I need to.
Another one of the useful aspects of cooperation was the sharing of sources among
group members. Here again the more specific topic comes into play, as many of our
sources cross referenced our different points, and I found that here, using books, albeit
digital version, was much more useful for a proper historical report than websites or
articles. This occurred, I presume, due to the broader details and scope of information
that is given in a longer written work rather than simply the concentrated facts that are
expected of a shorter report. Moreover, I was very satisfied with my concentration on
authenticity and the fact I was not tempted to use AI at any moment; especially since I
strive to maintain as much originality in my work as possible. And while on the topic of
elements of pride, though we did go over word count, our projected time, courtesy in
part of me, was to be higher, so though we could have done better in keeping the word
count in the constraints, I’m content that we did not go too high over. That being the
greatest problem we faced, I think overall, we managed to work together well enough to
complement each others’ weaknesses; it certainly helped that everyone showed a high
level of engagement in the topic, as I think we all enjoyed it. This experience certainly
helped develop my teamwork and accommodation of others in a group; not only that,
but as I mentioned before, I was able to improve based of the unique work ethic each
one of us had, an improvement I’m sure will come in handy in the future.
I would’ve liked to include many more facts which, in my opinion, were quite relevant,
though perhaps not specifically in my part, so I think something I can work as well is
communicating my ideas for others to use rather than keeping them to myself if they are
not pertaining to the topic I’m pursuing. Once again, I cannot emphasise enough my
gratification at the way this project progressed, especially since I must say, in the past
such activities in history were less engaging. It is my hope that we will continue to have
such enjoyable tasks in the future.