The Living Jerusalem course was one of
the most unique and interesting courses I have taken so far at Indiana
University. I took this course because I thoroughly enjoyed your (Professor
Horowitz) Human Rights class last semester. In addition, I wanted to learn
about Israel, Jerusalem, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. By nature I am Jewish,
but have never considered myself religious. While my family celebrates holidays
such as Hanukkah and Passover, I have never attended services or engaged in the
“religious” aspect of Judaism. I think this class did a great job of teaching
me the background of the historical roots of Jerusalem and made me feel more
acquainted with my own culture. I’m going to start this evaluation by
discussing all the parts of the course that I found interesting and/or exciting
(in no particular order), and finishing with the components of the course that
I think could be altered. Furthermore, I will include various recommendations
for how I think the course can be improved in the future.
First
of all, I think the reading responses for each class are a crucial component of
the class. They serve to keep the students engaged each and every day, and let
us express our thoughts. There were many readings where I thought to myself,
“how am I going to write about this? What connections can I make? I’m so
confused.” However, the responses challenged me to try my best and come up with
something…anything. I found myself thinking deeply about topics I had never
before considered. For example, for one response we were asked to give our
views/position on the Israeli-Palestine conflict. I didn’t have one-so I
thought. After critically thinking about the issue and conducting outside
research, I found that I could develop an opinion about a topic I knew nothing
about just ten minutes before.
Another
aspect of the course I am a proponent of were the class discussions we held
near the end of the semester. I think it was a great idea to discuss our blogs
rather than comment on them. The entire semester I was hesitant to comment on
classmates’ blogs. I was afraid of being judged or being ‘wrong.’ However, as
soon as people started opening up and discussing their blogs (as well as
others’) I felt more comfortable. I would recommend that throughout the
semester there be more class periods dedicated solely to discussion between the
students. Each discussion I got more and more comfortable listening,
questioning, and evaluating others’ opinions. Furthermore, I learn far more
about the material, as well as my fellow classmates by discussing our thoughts
(vs. commenting on their blog posts). They bring up points I never would have
considered myself.
One
of my favorite elements of the course was my classmates. I’ve been a part of
many classes where I never really get to know anyone else in the class. In
fact, I’ve had classes where I never had the opportunity to get to know
anybody’s name. We just show up to class, take notes on a dull PowerPoint, and
then regurgitate six weeks worth of material back onto a piece of paper. This
class was different. The structure of the course allowed me to get to know the
other students in the class, thus giving me a further appreciation for Living
Jerusalem. Also, I don’t think I’ve been part of a course where the students were
so engaged and enthusiastic about what they’re learning. I was really impressed
with the level of knowledge my classmates possessed in regards to the issues we
discussed. Although I didn’t know about many of the topics we talked about
throughout the semester, I was still able to learn because of the caliber of the
students in the class.
Yet
another part of the course I enjoyed were the final presentations. When the
project was first introduced, I was really excited to hear about the liberty we
would have in choosing what we wanted to research. The first thing that popped
into my head was “sports,” and I stuck to it. I found it fascinating that
sports could help improve the Arab-Israeli conflict. It gave me hope for the
conflict. It showed me there are so many ways the conflict can be reduced. I
highly recommend keeping the final project as part of the Living Jerusalem
course. Just as important were the other presentations. It was an opportunity
to see our classmates’ creativity, viewpoints, and passion for various
subjects. In addition, the final presentations allow for people to communicate
and connect with other individuals. For instance, I learned about the
backgrounds of multiple people in my group. I learned why they took this
course, and what they were looking to get out of it. While there are many
fantastic components of the course, there are also parts I would look to
improve for the future.
As
I briefly mentioned above, blog commenting created a nuisance for myself. From
the very beginning, I felt uncomfortable critiquing others’ work (especially
when I didn’t know them). It made me feel as if I was disrespecting their
opinions. For some reason, it made me feel a little awkward when I walked into
class the next day. They knew my name, they knew what I looked like, and they
knew what I had said about their work. Also, seeing that we didn’t discuss our
comments in class, I felt they weren’t necessary. If we were to discuss our
comments in class, I think I would have put in more time and would have tried
to connect on a deeper level. With that being said, I would recommend holding
some sort of a “verbal in-class blog comment discussion,” where students could
ask questions about what others wrote. On top of this idea, I would make it
optional to talk about your blog (after all, classmates can read their blogs
online if they wish).
One
of the biggest pieces I felt was missing from the course were current events. There
were a handful of times where we talked about current news regarding the
conflict, but not nearly enough. I think it would be a great idea to start off
the day (maybe 10 minutes) discussing any news in regards to Jerusalem, Israel,
Palestine, the conflict, etc. History is great, but it doesn’t replace what’s
currently going on overseas. I think the discussion of current events serves
many purposes. First of all, it makes students more engaged. It makes us feel
like we can make a difference, and that we can still influence others to take
action. This is one of the reasons I became so engaged with our final projects.
The organization I studied (Football 4 Peace) was currently helping bond Arabs and Jews together to help reduce the
conflict. It made me want to keep researching and finding out more. I wanted to
help!
For
each class period, I think it would be a good idea to assign one student to
report to the class about any current events pertaining to Jerusalem. This way,
not each and every one of us has to attempt to keep up with the conflict on a
daily basis. Rather, we can put trust in our classmates to come to class
prepared to share their findings. This is a change to the course that would be
very simple to implement, wouldn’t alter the structure of the class, and would
provide students with the most up to date information regarding the topics we
are studying.
The
only other part of the course I would advise to be fixed was the constant
syllabus changes. While I understand that it’s not easy to plan out every class
over a 16-week period, it also caused a lot of confusion and misunderstanding.
There were times where I would complete entire reading responses, just to find
out that I read the wrong set of articles. I would then have to read a new set
of articles and complete an entirely new response. In addition, there was
multiple times where I didn’t turn in a response on time because the due dates
on the syllabus didn’t match up with what was announced during class. While
this is a very minor critique, it would make the course more clear and less
frustrating.
Again,
I want to reiterate the how great this course was. I would recommend it to
anybody who is looking to challenge themselves, likes working with other
students, wants to learn a lot, and likes to have fun while doing it. I’m
excited to the changes made to the course and where it ends up in the future.
