I really appreciate being able to read other students' drafts for Mini-Project 1 and the kind of collaborative atmosphere it sets up in class. By reading and offering feedback, it sets up structures for students to help each other, rather than to compete.

Competition and the desire to seek the teacher's approval has always squelched my desire to learn and freely experiment with ideas. I'm still trying to unlearn years of seeing my fellow classmates as competitors for the scarce "A's" to be issued by the teacher. It wasn't about the pursuit of excellence, but always circumscribed by what I thought the teacher might want to see/hear/read.