If you are wondering why this assignment is relevant to you, there are many reasons. Sometimes people do not understand the need to read a paper, especially because they dislike reading. The reason people should read papers is because they can learn something. When people write they usually know they are having an audience. This specific paper goes through the academic career of myself. This paper will value other students especially because they go through the same exact thing. They might learn something they never knew, or realize that they had a similar situation in some cases and it happens frequently to others. Its nice to see that there are people who are very similar to you are following a specific path like yourself. When you read this paper you will see that there were worst times then better at some points, but from thereon out I had confidence and knew that they would only get better. Sometimes that gives people that push and lesson learned that you have to believe to make something you want work. There is a reason for everything, and its only a benefit oneself. With this, I can now take on becoming a better writer, and reader, whatever it may be to make myself more literate everyday. So as I go through this journey with you on my experiences of school, I hope you learn something about myself and my academic career.
There have been many moments in my life where I have felt that people are on different levels all the time. Some may be more literate then others at times. I know I am capable to read, recognize really hard words and write well, I just feel like my writing doesn't quite give people that "woah" feeling, that other peoples do. I have always been a hard worker. Always consistent with all my work, handing it in on time, getting good grades. I have been told many times through out my education that I always put one hundred percent of effort into everything I do. I wouldn't consider myself brilliant nor stupid, but average. There has been times throughout school for you as well I am sure, when you were put into a class you didn't want to take, or understand why. I was in this situation once, it was a slower help kind of class which I was put in when I was in sixth grade. It was a class that was supposed to help students improve their reading skills.
Mrs. Hamski was the name of the instructor. She was a really tiny short teacher. I would say around her mid thirty's. She had brown hair and really blue eyes. She always had these horrific red long nails, that she always clicked on the table.
Every time she called on my name to read a section from a story, I had no idea why. I couldn't understand the point of being put in this class. All's we did was read short stories, and half the time play hangman on the board. I felt like my reading skills were getting worse honestly. A lot of the students placed in this class had lower ability reading skills than myself which made it harder for me. They had a hard time reading simple words like relevant, and cooperation. I just did my best and tried to grim and bear it because I wasn't getting out. I am sure its good in the long run,
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but at that time it did nothing for me. I finally completed the course and before I knew it it was time to start seventh grade. Getting my schedule it was good not seeing the next level of the slower level reading class.
First day of seventh grade, the moment I look at my friends schedule compared to mine it didn't look like we had the same courses. I looked more in depth of mine, and noticed I was now placed in a writing slower class.What was I doing wrong? It seemed like everything I wrote or read everybody was just thinking I was incapable or something. Everybody else was ahead of the game. Of course my teacher was the same, but this class seemed like it was going to be a little different. She says we would be writing a lot, which okay I figured, but what I didn't realize is through the whole course of seventh grade, she was there to help and guide me through my writing assignments I was assigned by my english teacher. I have come to the census that maybe this class wasn't so bad. Yea, some of my friends were more quicker at getting their writing done and brainstorming their ideas, but I at least had the opportunity for someone who has a degree in english who can look over my paper and help fix any corrections and rephrase any paragraphs before I turn it in to my teacher. The class itself was small, about five other kids which was really good to because you can have more one on one time, and that way you don't have to feel embarrassed. If you didn't get something and wanted to ask questions it was easier doing it here, compared to in front of a whole class. She always told me that I was a good writer, I wasn't bad. This class was just here to help me. It did I will admit feel good getting back all papers having something above a ninety on it. The best part was, it was my work. I am the one who wrote it, Mrs. Hamski just guided me and told me some things that would really make my writing better.
Eighth grade comes around, new classes another year. This year I was not put into any kind of
slower class. In a way I actually surprised myself, because it stunk not having the extra hand to
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help you, now it was all on you, and at first I didn't like the idea of being put in a slower little help class. It was nice being in a lot of my friends classes, one of my favorite classes was surprisingly science. I am not a big science fan, but my teacher really inspired me. His name was Mr. Rohm. He was short, had glasses and had brown spiky hair. He always liked to tell jokes and teach fun lessons. He wasn't that teacher who just gives boring lectures, but one who really tried to show you in all its not that bad to learn. He took time to make sure everyone got what he was teaching. He really taught me how to write labs well. What a hypothesis exactly was in each experiment, the independent and dependent clause, and all of the above. Whenever I have to do some kind of lab or something now, I can literally word for word remember him teaching me everything about writing things like labs. He was very patient with certain things. He liked to get off track sometimes and goof around. We once and a while watched Bill Nye the science guy videos. They were pretty silly, but it was better then doing work. Ill never forget one time when he cried in class, he was very emotional because his brother died a few weeks back. He apologized because he thought he was acting weird, and all's he said was he doesn't want us getting the wrong impression of him as a teacher, basically he really cared about his students, and about them passing and achieving good grades so it was nice to see he really cared about his students.
The transition into high school, I did not think I was more scared then that moment. Its like you hear so many things about the "high school" and the older kids, and the work it gets you so anxious. I was thankful enough to know people and be friendly with a lot of people ahead of me, that showed me around. It was all and all not bad. It was basically a big circle. It was nice having more time between classes, because it was a little bit of a longer day number one, and because you had to switch classes every period. It was also nice having a cafeteria. I feel like we were the
only school district that in Middle School that did not have a cafeteria.
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The work load in ninth and tenth grade however was easy. Both of the years went by so quick, It was crazy! I took regular classes your daily math, english, spanish, gym but I also took other cool classes like Fashion Marketing. We got to go to the city and go to F.I.T as known as Fashion Institute of Technology, and look at some of the classrooms and the different majors and things people went to college there for, at the time it was really cool.
In ninth and tenth grade the work was easy, so I figured the work in eleventh and twelve would be harder. Eleventh grade wasn't as bad as I heard, but it definitely was harder then the rest of my years of school so far. I did take a cool class called Marine Biology. It was a oceanography class where you learned about different kinds of aspects of the ocean, and some animals. Those kinds of things interest me. As well as your basic classes again your english, math, language, gym and etc.
My english teacher Mr. Mitchell was by far my favorite teacher ever. He was very smart and really helped me with becoming a better writer. I have heard of MLA format before but never understood it until him. He made us do many papers to make sure we really understood it, as well as research many books about it and do many examples. He always liked to be a joker, and pick on people (but in a funny way.) That was always interesting to be around. He always had open hands. When you needed help he would on his only free period to eat his lunch, let you go to him for extra help. He always equipped us with study guides, and very well class discussions with books we had to read like, "Old Mice and Men," or "The Great Gatsby". We would be quizzed every week to make sure we were reading. Those were my key, I always read books that were assigned to me by a class because its such an easy grade, and if I didn't get something in the reading we could ask in class and he would take the whole 40 minute class period to go over it. I
was grateful in the end for him to (as much as we all in the class complained that we read so many
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novels,) because it only helped us out in the end for the English Language Regents which you needed to write essays and use at least two or three books you read in school. Im not the person to read on my free time, because I do not enjoy it as much, so I don't know what I would do, it was really useful.
Twelfth grade came along, and it was basically pointless. You didn't do anything which I never got why was twelfth grade easier then eleventh? It was just all about fun, and being seniors. The oldest of the school, having senior prank day was always a plus and getting ready for college. By the beginning of the year most people were already committed to a school, or at least knew where they were definitely going.
I chose to go to Suffolk Community College. Although it would be a blast to go away, at the time of deciding I was still pretty unsure with what I exactly wanted to go for, so I figured I can just transfer, and plus I didn't need to go anywhere. I still have some of my friends that go to Suffolk as well as my wonderful family, and plus Suffolk is a good place to start and figure out what you want to do. They give so many different classes its almost impossible to not figure out what you want to go for by the end of the two years. Fall 2011 was my first semester ever of college. It felt so weird being a college student. It was a lot different then high school the professors are more strict and your grade matters even more. I could say I so far haven't had one bad professor.
I really enjoyed one of my classes which was my writing class. Professor Fisher was my teacher, and he was honestly a really cool guy. He really helped with always making sure to look over your work and always give you comments back. If he thought your paper wasn't always as good he would make sure to tell you how to fix it and really take the time so it was good for your
portfolio. We did a decent amount of essays, blue books, and journals. I like writing journals in
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classes like those because it really gives you the time to think and write down your ideas on a piece of paper. He just always wanted you to like writing and understand what your writing about. One of the essays we had to write was a descriptive. He really told us that we have to basically put yourself in your writing, because it really helps, and I agree because that essay I enjoyed writing because I was pretending I was there. He also taught us how to write a cover page which was good, because in college most writing pieces now you need them, and I was never taught the proper way. In the end, It felt good that because of my work and him guiding our writing class 010, I was able to pass my portfolio, and move on to the next level which happens to be this class.
I could say so far my years of school including my first year of college so far have been an experience. Every day is different and everyday introduces us to new things. I have come to realize that being put in those lower classes back in middle school honestly had no effect on me, it was a benefit to me. As well as your teachers and your professors. They are always there to help you. To improve yourself and help you to become a better writer, reader, whatever it may be they are there to guide you through your education. I can only say now, I look forward to seeing what the future brings, and what new words and skills I can learn because I know there are so many keys to becoming more and more literate everyday.
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