I treated the first few weekly reflections as a true reflection into what happened in the class. It was really a mix of Korean History material and learning tools that we needed to have to be a successful historian. This made a true reflection on what we learned in class a little harder and I felt like I personally focused on the skills we learned and if we needed a whole class session on what we focused on. For example, week 4 we learned how to check sources, and for me, a college sophomore who took AP english classes in highschool, I felt like this was a waste because it was a skill that I had already worked on in the past; sure, extra practice is always helpful but 4 weeks in felt a little too late. Week 3 we planned the course material which was something totally new to me, as every class I’ve ever taken, I had no say into what was taught. So I used this reflection as a tool to really discuss how I felt about this and my feelings moving forward. Week 2 was used purely as a review of the class period, because I still wasn’t sure what to expect from class or myself, so I was still trying to take baby steps in the development of my reflections. FInally, Week 1 was rough because I was confused about what exactly we had to do and I wasn’t sure what was sufficient enough, so I used my peers’ posts as an example and a guide to move forward. Week 1 set up the standard to how I felt the reflections should be used. In terms of historical skills, there’s a huge emphasis on questioning everything. As a historian, nothing can be set in stone. You have to approach everything as a mystery and try and piece together what’s actually happening based around the accounts you have. One account will never be good enough either because there is the possibility of subjectivity and bias being put into an account. An example of this would be a diary; although it provides an up close encounter with the event, it would be filled with personal opinions and biases that couldn’t be accounted for. The skill of a historian would be collecting enough of these opinions to form an educated account using enough personal stories that would be able to be backed up with facts of the time period. Connecting this to the topics I’m interested in, I think that I need to analyze the Edo period in Japan and Korea very closely. I need to be careful in the collection of topics, making sure they’re from credible sources, and if they’re personal accounts I need to make sure I can find academic research that could enforce the ideas I’m finding in the account with solid facts. I’ve found the tools that a historian uses very interesting. As a biochemistry major who aims to enter the research world I understand how important credibility is and how vital it is to be able to back up what your claim is. I think it is very interesting to look through a different academic field and understand how they work; for me, it shows how similar these academic fields can be in a broad sense
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