My Experience In This Class

As we pulled up to the massive elementary school building, I begged my mom to let me stay home from school, just once. As usual, she said no. Realizing my attempt to get out of school was futile, I shouldered my backpack, swung open the door, and trudged over to the front door. I would rather be anywhere else than here. For the majority of my life, I attended public schools. It wasn’t rare for me to fail a test or even a whole class. It was because of these failures that I would get even more demotivated and threw away the idea of working hard or completing quality work altogether.

Well trying to learn in my English class it was very hard for me because I did not understand the way in which the teacher is teaching because it did not appeal to my learning style, which I figured out while doing our second paper. The way I figured out that help was needed by only my second paper was when going over the paper and seeing what were the problems with the paper I still was not able to correct what I was doing. Overcoming this was particularly difficult because when coming to the teacher for help I still was unable to grasp the learning. This is when I turned to peer for help which helped me tremendously while in this class, as well as, visiting the AAC on campus where someone sit down with you and go through and help you improve your writing techniques and skills that what helped me achieve a passable

Furthermore to expand on the classes I had taken before I had never learned how to write without just actually doing work and feeling enthusiastic about it. Most of the time we would learn about something or topic would be given. There would be

Throughout this class I have learn many different writing styles. We used APA form of writing to type our paper and essay. I have also learned that it’s good to take your time and spend more time thinking about what to write, other than just righting a paper right off back. I have learned that it’s not a good idea to write a paper on the day it’s done, that’s more like a ruff daft. My teacher have helped me understand different point of writing. Which all writing deal with an ethos, pathos and logos, either one or all of them will run through anything that tell you anything in writing. From what emotion are there to who have the rights to speak at the moment to what are the facts to agree with this person. As a class we have read articles, bio from many people to understand that it’s more then what the person is writing. Reading between lines and analyzing a part of the story can tell you more then what the writer is saying. Working together to understand something and work better than being alone thinking about a situation you can’t understand.

I used to consider writing as tumble words from your mind, write, read it through, fix minor mistakes, and done. However, you rarely get successful. The truth is many students, including myself, struggle with starting to write a word, or getting stuck in the middle without knowing the main point of the writing. After completing English 101, I can explain the writing process, evaluate the strengths of my essay, and identify my weaknesses.

Entering the class, english comp. one, I had many fears as to what the class would be like. I had no idea what to expect as a senior in highschool. During the past english classes I had, we wrote papers, just not a different one every day. Going into english comp. one, I figured it would be the same method in english just like the past classes I had. On the very first day in the class, I quickly found out that I would have to buckle down a little more than I have been in the past. I knew then, from what Mrs. Garth had told us, that I was going to have many weaknesses while writing my papers, but I would also have many strengths from what I had learned in the past about writing.

I was always good at math. In third grade, this meant finishing classwork faster than my peers and getting all the answers right. I only had one real competitor in math-- another student. That is, until I was promoted to the enriched math class, where everyone was around my level. For the remainder of elementary school, I participated in all the math competitions offered at my school. My definition of being ‘best’ then was doing well on math competitions, as I usually did. I still have my purple honorary mention ribbons and my prized blue first place ribbon hanging on my bedroom wall. It may seem that those ribbons from so many years ago are unimportant now, and in fact, I doubt anyone else kept their ribbons for so long. But they were-- and still are--worth much more to me than pieces of cloth. They hold my memories of the class in which I made two of my closest childhood friends, learned how almost any real life situation could be applicable to math, and the class that I looked forward to every day.

The first day of class I was lost and could not find the English Composition room; however, I saw my former Akron Experience class teacher and asked her for directions. Right next to her was you (Professor Thoenen), and you stated to me “ The class is right there, go have a seat and I’ll be in, in just a second”. I immediately thought to myself “It’s going to be a long semester.” From there I was a little discouraged about taking Comp I and really didn’t know what to expect.

Coming into freshman comp at the beginning of the semester I was worried this would be my hardest class and that I would hate it. Walking in the classroom on the first day and hearing the words, “you will be writing a 10-12 page paper by the end of the semester,” gave me so much anxiety and made me very nervous for the class. As the class is now coming to a close it has made me realize I should have never been so worried about this class and that I would learn many new things I did not know about writing such as writing strategies, metacognition, and how to write a good research paper.

Are teachers mean or do they want whats best for you? I think thats what some people have to ask themselves. On the first day of school I knew I was going to do well

When I was still in scouting, several friends and I spent a week at a scouting camp. Boy scout summer camps are usually secluded in the forest. While I was there I became more confident in myself and learned the value of connecting back with nature. The reason for this is they want you to get away from the city and get you back into nature for a week. This idea is unique and there are no longer many places who do this anymore. While you are in the camp you forget about what you were doing back in the city, and you just focus on nature and hanging out with your friends in camp.

This course has affected my development as a student in many ways. It has taught me the importance of being stress free. I have learned that using the time and stress management tools and strategies has helped me get closer to my goals. Achieving my goals depends mainly on me and being less stressful. Time and stress management go hand to hand and one doesn’t work without the other. I learned to become better at time management. This has allowed me to get more important task done and put off the not so important ones. This course has prepared me very well for my academic success. It has taught me about my learning styles and what works best for me. Although I’m a visual/ auditory learner, I sometimes find myself wanting to take things hands on. These are some of the things that has affected me in my development as a student.

I believe I have achieved most of the course learning objectives as I pass this class with a c or higher. I undertook the writing process we learned in class and it has helped me become a better writer. Before I entered my freshman year of college I didn’t know how to write. But as I undertook the writing process I was taught in class I now know how to write. First when it came to writing my assignment papers for my class I grabbed a notebook and did prewriting . I brainstormed a list of ideas for my papers. I then had a plan on everything I was going to write about. I then sit down and write my first draft. I make sure my first paragraph is a strong

“Welcome Class to Composition one.” Those words were voiced by my professor, Mrs. Robinson, on the first day of school. Initially, I thought to myself, do I even belong in this college course class. Before school had even begun, the stress over the summer about my English skills was eating me alive. Why? Well, in my past English classes I received A’s on all of my essays, but this college class did not seem so easy. Also, I was always fascinated by all the arts and sciences, but English never struck interest in me. I never thought that I could write any decent essays. The reason I insecure about my writing skills was because of the ACT. Since the ACT is the talk about how smart an individual is, my ACT score was not very high. As the course continued, the first essay approached quickly. I remember being stressed about this essay because of my writing insecurities. Although I managed to acquire a decent grade, I promised myself to strive to make myself a better writer. I started to read Norton Field Guide to Writing handbook also known as the yellow book, and slowly but surely started to develop knowledge of good writing skills and tips to improve my essays. This allowed me to grow as a writer and slowly my insecurities started to dwindle, and I began to gain confidence in myself. I never would've thought that the next time I took the ACT that my English score would be my highest. When getting my score back and realizing that I had improved so much, I began to wonder how I

The one particular class I had a good experience in was in my Algebra class in 12th grade. I say this because that was a class I needed to graduate High school. Let’s just say I wasn’t the best student in my previous grades. The teacher I got for Algebra was Mr. Hernandez he was a young teacher, fun and concerning of his students. So the first day of class I told him that this is the class I need to graduate. He told me “Don’t worry, we will graduate together”. So every day after school, he would have me come over to his class and go over the subject to make sure I really understood what he was teaching. All of this was paying off because on test days I would pass the test, not with the perfect “A” but I would do good. At the end of the year I passed the class and graduated. I told him that he was the best teacher I ever had and that I didn’t know how to repay him. He told me that I already did repay him by graduating high school. This is why I say that Algebra was one of my good experiences in school, because I never had a teacher that cared so much to help me pass a class to graduate.