

I just thought these pictures were adorable . . . The first is my son Marius who is now 1 month old and the second is my daughter Verity who is now 22 months. I can't believe how time flies!
But, about peer review. I actually really enjoy having my classmates read and critique my work, because they often give such a different perspective than a teacher would. I've gotten so many interesting ideas, some of which I've used and some of which have just been filed away for future reference, from having a variety of people read and comment on my work. When I was in middle and high school, my siblings and parents and I used to print out all of our pieces of writing for class and pass them around the family. Everyone would read everyone else's work and write on it in different colored pens. It really helped, especially since we were at different levels of writing (except my twin sister and I). My twin and I still email projects back and forth to get extra feedback. She just graduated from University of Maryland with a degree in English, so this is really beneficial for me.
As far as peer review in classrooms goes, I really enjoy that as well. I like reading other peoples' work because it lets me see all the different ways of approaching a subject. I've found that, even when the prompt for writing is very specific, there can be a huge variety in how the papers are approached and the style in which they are written. I know that my own style has been molded at least partially by what I have read in the works of others.
I am looking forward to reading a few papers in this class as well as seeing what others have to say about my paper!
Heidi