Steven Stallone
Course Reflection
12/10/2022
History of Florida
My
favorite part of this class by far was reading the book “A Land Remembered”. I
really enjoyed the way it was written. I usually get bored of reading and my
mind wonders but with this book, I couldn’t stop. Patrick Smith made reading
the book enjoyable and each chapter was full of adventure. I had read the
entire book by the 3rd week and I was sad it was over. I moved to
Tampa in 2001 and lived all over Florida since then. I wish I had read this
book years ago when I was growing up so I knew the history of the places I was
visiting.
The
history of Florida book was good, but I didn’t enjoy reading the different
styles of writing in each chapter. Some of the authors really lost me in the way
they wrote and sometimes used so many unnecessary big words when the sentence
could have been much simpler. I can’t remember which author it was but at one
point I was looking up 3 or 4 words per page. I understand this will expand my
vocabulary, but it makes reading and understanding the message much more
difficult. I was really interested in the first European Contacts and learning
how the Spanish originally explored Florida. The part that was so intriguing is
that a lot of it happened right where we live so it was relatable. I enjoyed
learning more about Castillo and how it was used in different ways over the
years.
The
American Civil War was another area of history I was really interested in.
There was a lot I didn’t know about Florida and the Civil war. I am taking
American Federal Government also so I was able to connect the two together.
I’ve learned so much about slavery and race in the History of Florida. It was
amazing to see the timeline and how history played out over the last 200 years
in the United States. I think this class was perfect to learn about Florida’s
history, especially because of the political challenges we are facing today. It
opened my eyes to a lot of things.
The
instructor did an amazing job with the work. Some of my other classes are
basically just tests and reading. The variety of learning was great in this
class. The podcasts, Cornell notes, current events, blog posts, site visits,
and chapter sheets made it very exciting. It’s been the best class I’ve taken
so far. Great job!
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