The First Day Of English Class

It all started in the classroom. I was in the back, sitting away from Jonathan. Ring, ring. The telephone rang. Mrs. Bargmann, my first-grade teacher, stopped teaching so she could answer the call. When she responded to the phone, the class erupted into chaos. I used my innate ability to block out all the sounds. Mrs. Bargmann announced, “Quiet down children. Steven, can you please go to the office? Your parents are here.” I gave no response as I doodled on the table. “Steven, your parents are here. Please go to the office,” she repeated. Again, Mrs. Bargmann received no response. She came over to me and continued, “Did you hear what I said? Your parents are here. Please go to the office.”

When I arrived at P.S. 206 for my first day of the 4th grade on September 2nd, 2008, I was not fluent in English and a complete stranger. Since I went to a modest religious school in an insignificant town in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, I was only used to interacting with a small number of students and teachers each day. Not surprisingly, I clutched my lunch bag with anxiety to protect myself from the never ending crowd of boisterous children in the lobby of my new school. Needless to say, I was frightened and incapable of speaking up when asked where I was supposed to be. Fortunately, a teacher came up and attempted to engage me a conversation; however, my face was full of confusion. Despite her generous assistance, my day was filled with anxiety from my bizarre surroundings. My basic abilities had suddenly been torn away from me.

This year I decided to not hide and write a speech on the fear of public speaking to inform everyone of my fear. I worked extremely hard on it to clearly express by phobia, I even asked the Mrs. Carmen for tips. While working on the speech I kept having flashbacks of grade 1, I was frightened it was going to happen again. Instead of focusing on the structure of my speech I decided to pay more attention on getting over my phobia. I began reading aloud and practicing my speech in the mirror. After two weeks of learning and developing my public speaking skills I attempted to say my speech in front of my parents. Surprisingly I read my speech fluently to my parents, I started convincing myself that I could do

School is ridden with the requirement to give presentations. My panic begins long before the presentation, worrying preemptively for my turn as the center of attention. I hated it. I cringed as I watched other people who could effortlessly glide in front of the class, talking if everyone were their best friend. I wanted to be like them. So, I decided to do something about it. I would attack the thing I feared most – I would speak and speak and speak until the fear was shattered.

About a week or so later, the day finally arrived. I presented my speech, and to my astonishment, I wasn’t as scared as I thought I would be. Don’t get me wrong, I was terrified, but once I actually walked to the microphone a sense of calm washed over me. I said my speech and walked back to my seat on the stage, just glad that whole thing was over with. I didn’t place, but I was honestly just proud that I faced one of my biggest fears. The entire experience taught me that if I wanted to share my passion of writing, I would have to get over my fears and just do it.

Throughout my first semester of English in college I have gained a significant amount of knowledge in writing. Each writing assignment encouraged me to use and try new approaches to writing. They also encouraged me to a take my writings a step further than the previous papers I have written before. My writing is more academic and formal rather than casual and informal. I have taken the tools that I have learned throughout the semester and articulated those tools into each writing project. With many hours of dedication to my papers as a whole, the time that I spent was a time for learning and advancing the skills and tools I already had from high school.

The first day of school has the major influence on the way an individual will eventually turn out in the future. Many actions have occurred in my life long ago, some fail to recall, and some I still clearly remember. I was going into my first school in America. I had moved from Kenya, a long distance from the USA in order to link with my family, who had been here for almost 4 years, expecting America would help my future. My father told me It would be better if I go to school here, so I registered in the local high school in my city. I was frightened how I would do in school as I have never been to school in the US before. First, I met new people with different cultures, second it was a whole new experience for me in which success depended on me, and third it was the first day that I went to school in the US. Finally, I won’t forget it very easily because lots of things were accomplished in my first day at school.

Zach is in his moms van driving to his new school. He had just moved to Menomonee Falls from his old home in New York. This would be his very first day of high school, he was nervous and was wishing he could be in new york going to school with his friends. The car then came to an abrupt stopped. He grabbed his backpack from the back seat. His mom than said “Have a great day at school. I love you.” Zach then replied with “Thanks, Love you too.” He hopped out of the car and walked into the huge school. Then he pulled a crumpled note out of his pocket and look at it. It was his locker number and combination. After 5 minutes of looking for his locker he found his beat up paint chipped locker. Zach grabbed the lock and put in the combination. The locker swung open with force. He quickly put his bag in it and than slammed it shut. Zach then looked at the clock and saw the time, he only had 2 minutes to get to his class. He ran to his class as fast as he could. He entered the class and saw an old balding man with blue polo and brown pants. Zach sat down it the first seat available, it was next to a boy that looked to be his age. The boy was wearing a stained yellow shirt and purple shorts. He had on a pair of glasses on and acne all over. The boy then turned to Zach and said “Hey you look new, I am Alex. What’s your name?” Zach responded by saying “I am Zach, and yeah I am new. I just moved from New York.” Alex said, “Oh that's cool” but then was cut off by the teacher. The teacher

You are tense. Restless. Trembling. The end is near. Heart racing. Lungs chasing. All you have to do is speak. All you can do is think. You have to present in front of the class but your nerves always seems to get the best of you. Does this sound like you? If it does, you’re not alone. Approximately 75% of all Americans suffer from a fear of public speaking or, glossophobia. What is I told you, you could reduce this fear to be comfortable enough to speak in a classroom setting? It’s possible, and today, it’s my story.

In the words of Harry Wong, “The first day of class is the most important day of the school year”. Since this day is so important I will have had to prepare a few things before the day actually starts. I will have assigned seats in my classroom before the day starts, and I will have written my bell work activity for the class before they arrive. Finally, I will have all the materials I need for that day within reach, so I am prepared for transitions.

I wasn’t raised or born in the United States, where I am from we were only learning about the Congo. Now that I have moved here in the United States I started to learn more about what happened here in the United States. I remember not learning anything in junior high, High school and even history 1 because the way my teachers used to teach me I always found it boring. Now that I am in this class all of the sudden history became more interesting because the teacher used our everyday environment, she used the events that were currently happening and tried to tie it back to the old time.

In the memory of each person about school, it was something that very difficult and pleasure, especially the first day of school. My family came to the U.S in my freshmen year, the first day of school on the land of free left me a lot of memories about school, the feelings , people and classes. The first day of school for me was messed up between the feelings, it’s because everything was new to me, there were many things that surprised and challenged me in the first day of school.

Over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to learn more about myself, and my leadership strengths and weaknesses. Prior to the first day of class, I was not sure what to expect, or what I would personally gain out of the Intermediate Leadership Experience. With that being said, this was an eye opening experience. I completed several module entries that have given me the opportunity to develop a plan to improve over the next 3 to 5 years. The modules covered, included Self-Development through Feedback, Leadership and Followership, Leadership Influence on Subordinate Behavior, The Adaptable Leader, and Effective Negotiations. While each module brought to light a ton of information, I was able to find a concept from each module

When I started Century College this year in the fall of 2015. I was so certain, I was going to just focus on school rather than work. When it was time to pick out courses I wasn’t sure, I knew I didn’t want to talk classes on Friday and Saturday. I then decided to enroll myself into all reading courses, so I joined the New Students and Success 1000.07 course that was conjoined with reading 900.07. I thought choosing this course would be easy and laid back. With the reading course, it made me think we were just going to read a whole bunch of books. For the New Student and Success course I wasn’t sure at all what the course would be about.

Although the goal was to specifically focus on assessment, my week didn’t turn out quite like I had expected. However, I think that the craziness that I endured (and enjoyed) was a far more authentic to my future teaching job. On my first day of class, I did experience a rather “normal” day and stuck with my assigned teacher the whole day in order to get a feel for the literacy class that she taught six periods a day as well as the schedule I had assumed we would be sticking to all week.