AlessiaSaracinoFendi's Journal

I am currently in the office hours for today. Although i find it a very interactive and interesting platform, I have found it difficult to follow and would benefit from a vocal discussion office hours.I really like the recorded audios of past classes because it lends itself to a more introspective and reflective engagement with the readings in the sense that if I've missing something or if I need a few minutes to think over or listen again to something you've send, I can, which is really wonderful from a pedagogical perspective. Also, in the strange times we are living in, with in more distractions due to family, health concerns and overall uncertainty about the coming months, the recordings allow students the added ease of being to listen at any time.

I have been having trouble with this website wiki in general. I had so much difficulty finding the journal memo you wrote. I hope it doesn't seem that I have not been interacting enough for the course. I thankfully was helped by a fellow classmate over the phone to find my way around the webpage. I am worried I might miss an important announcement you make for the course because I am still trying to find my footing with the website, but I check in with my classmates to make sure on Tuesdays/Thursdays. I think my hope to have a vocal conversation for office hours is also also connected to my technological difficulty using this platform. Maybe in your next recording, if possible you could maybe state any further assignments we should expect to be working on in the coming weeks.

Hope you and your family/loved ones are doing well in this difficult time and are staying healthy/safe.

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I listened again to April 2nd’s lecture because it really resonated with me, in the sense that Professor Moglen was talking about how he has been teaching a course about how to be a lawyer, about the life in the law and specifically about Law School and law students for 30 years and how I in a sense just being a first year law student really felt out of my depth like the first semester of law school and felt like it was going to be an uphill battle. His course about how to be yourself, how to be creative in this profession, gave me a lot of hope and excitement. Unfortunately, this pandemic has really felt stifling and has in many ways reinforced those feelings of stress and anxiety I had in my first semester because no one really knows how life will be like and how to live in the new normal we are faced with.

The lecture in many ways encapsulated how I've been feeling when trying to listen and engage in my classes, participate in zoom, and do my readings. I use to enjoy my readings and look forward to engaging them in class. However, now that I feel so isolated, with so many outside and internal stressors that affect how I process the material, I don't feel like its being processed or digested in the same way.

The conversation on growth versus change and how in our Western Society the focus is constantly on economic growth, I feel from an educational/pedagogical perspective this growth isn't happening. There was growth I was hoping to gain during my first year of law school and I find that the economic stressors and the inability to see my professors in person and feel the normal day to day life of before the pandemic are really impeding me from engaging with the sinews and nuances of the materials, which I feel is what is necessary for later being able to fulfill a hypothetical exam successfully. Even though the pass/fail system has liberated many, its not this semester that will truly demonstrate to the administration whether it would be a good switch for the students in the future because it won't be an adequate reflection of our "creativity" and of ourselves because were are in the midst of traumatic and isolating event. It is a sad truth, but I hope nonetheless we are able to rise to occasion during our exams.

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