Reflective Essay
I have to admit that I have actually enjoyed this class. I know going into this class I was a bit worried that it would be extremely overwhelming and I would be extremely stressed out. This class however has been everything but stressful. I have enjoyed having a teacher that has understood that the summer semester is much shorter and was able to break this semester down it down to be more manageable. I also really enjoyed having a group that I was able review each of my papers and give me feedback that was very helpful in my final revisions. I appreciated that our teacher would give us choices of the different writing types.
Class Objectives
The course objectives state that upon completion of this class students shall be able to write in multiple genres. This class has taught us many types of genres and as I student I find it helpful for my other classes to be able to use different ideas to better write a paper. I know that teachers are always looking for creativity and notice the amount of time a student puts into to an assignment. With having learned the different genres a student will be able to become a better writer.
As part of the course objectives students will learn to effectively work with others. Throughout the whole semester we had to submit all our outlines, rough drafts and final drafts to a group of students we had been assigned to. After submitting our papers others students were able to read and critique our papers. This not only help me with my own paper but to see other writing styles that other students had used. I also learned that by reading and revising other people’s papers I had to look for grammatical errors which in turn helped me to become a better writer. I also really enjoyed the peer reviews because as a writer you can sit and look at the same paper for hours not seeing some mistakes. It is good to have a fresh pair of eyes to spot what you may have missed.
Working with peers
As stated above I really enjoyed working with a group. Not only was it nice to have someone else re read your papers but it was nice to know that I wasn’t alone in this class. I can remember in the beginning I had a few questions and was a bit confused. I soon realized I wasn’t the only one with questions. It made it nice to have someone else help answer your questions because sometimes there was someone who answered it right away. I know that for me personally knowing that I’m not the only one to have homework gives me a weird sense of comfort.
I enjoy the fact that other students had posted their work online so that others could see. I found it to be helpful when I had any questions or confusion as to what was expected. I was able to see what others had written and was able to form my own ideas and was able to clear up my confusion.
Suggestions from my Peers
I found it very helpful to have other people read my paper. They always seemed to have good suggestions that I was able to use to improve my paper. They would often see things that I didn’t see such as spelling and grammatical errors. Also they always seemed to great ideas that would “pretty up” my paper. When submitting a paper I often think did I do the assignment right? Did I include all that the teacher was looking for? For this semester they were my extra set of eyes. I always feel better submitting a rough draft first. To be sure that the information I have is correct. After reviewing the peer reviews I like to make the changes if I feel they are necessary. While reviewing my memoir the reviewer had said to add pictures that relate to the topic at hand. After thinking about the picture I had already choose I decided that the reviewer was right and I found pictures on line that I thought were more appropriate.
Life of Brent Anderson
It’s a wonderful life…
Fifty two years ago the world rejoiced when Brent Anderson was born. His parents were so blessed to have a perfect baby and dreamed of what his life would be like. Would he grow up to be a lawyer, a doctor, or a dentist? His parents had big expectations and knew that there wouldn’t be anything he couldn’t accomplish. As the Years went by when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he would always reply “I’m going to be a school teacher”. His parents believed that he would grow out of this dream, and become a carpenter like the rest of the men in his family. Soon came graduation and his parents couldn’t be any more proud. As a graduation gift his father handed him a tool belt and said “Son you will need this”.
The start of something new…
Four years had passed, and after working in the family business, doing labor intensive work, he realized that he did not want to do carpentry for the rest of his life. The next day he went into the local college and applied for classes. He had no idea what he wanted to be when he grew up but realized he needed to figure it out soon. After a few months of thinking what it was he truly wanted to be, he decided he wanted to share his passion of learning with others. He knew from that day forward that he would become an elementary teacher. He enjoyed learning new things and being able to help children. Learning came easy to him and he wanted to be able to help others. His parents were disappointed that he wouldn’t continue in his father’s footsteps, but knew that his deep love for children and his passion for learning would make him a great teacher.
The struggles of a college student…
Just like many other college students he understood the feeling of being poor after paying for all his classes, fees, and of course the dreaded text books. He knew right away that the price (even then) cost more than they should have. He thought hard about having the book and succeeding or not having the book and trying to succeed without it. After buying a few books at full price he figured he wanted to find a cheaper way to buy books. He soon found that it was much cheaper to split the cost of books with a friend and share the book. They found that not only did they save money, but it was best to study together. After all two brains were better than one.
Life as a teacher…
When he finally graduated from college and began prepping for his first class. He realized he would have to decide on classroom text books. Brent came from a frugal family and saving money was what they did best. Because of this he carried his frugality into his professional career. Being frugal was the key when dealing with a small budget. A small budget is one of the biggest challenges for teachers. After much thought and research of the books, he decided on what he thought was the best for his class. Having had dealt with the price of his college text books, he only thought it would be appropriate to save the school money. He decided to order the cheaper books. Rather than buying the packaged book that came with a cd, (which cost more money), he would buy the individual book.
From the beginning of his teaching career he would always try to buy the cheapest books, only if he felt they gave the students the appropriate information. When having to buy newer versions of books, he would shop around to find a fair price with good information. When he got new books he would ask other teachers if they wanted to have his old books, I hope of saving the school money. Teachers only want what is best for their students, and want them to have the best equipment. However sometimes they are unable to buy the things that they need.
Brent says that if there was anything he could change about being a teacher it would be more funding for the students. As a teacher for twenty five years plus years he has seen many changes in the budget. Brent loves what he is doing and says that he would choose to be a teacher again, even knowing the amount of money he makes.
After teaching second grade for a few years he decided that he wanted to go back to school and realized that sixth grade was the grade he would like to teach until he retired. His favorite part of teaching was seeing his students grow and to see the excitement they would have when learning new subjects. He made it a personal goal to spend extra time with the students who didn’t seem to catch on as fast. He would make himself available before and after school for any students that needed special attention. This two was one of his favorite parts of being a teacher. On the other hand the hardest part of being a teacher was that you begin to love your students and you are always sad to say good bye to them at the end of the year. However he knew that he had helped in molding each student into a successful person.
Staci Alvey
Memoir
July 2013
English 2010
Holloway
Inspiration by success of others
My parents had always encouraged me to go to college and get an education. They would always say “You don’t want to be like us when you grow up”. Of course because I knew everything at that time I knew that they were just being silly and college really wasn’t important. Little did I know that I would be inspired years later and have a complete change of heart.
Inspiration happens here…
I was sitting in the stands at the Maverick center anxiously waiting for my sister in law to receive her diploma. She had worked so hard to receive her associate’s degree in dental hygiene. I starting thinking about all the fun places she would be able to go, all the toys she could buy and all the positive aspects that come with achieving a college degree. Before then I had never thought that school would even be in my future, and I would be happy to live my life based on pay check to paycheck. After realizing that it would be much harder not having any type of degree, I decided right then and there that I needed to go to school. I thought a lot about school and constantly went back and forth between different career options. I thought about school for weeks and the more I would think about it, the more I would talk myself out of it. I was scared and knew in my heart that I wasn’t ready and couldn’t do it.
About a week later I was talking to a friend who was working on her generals and she said “Don’t be scared just do it”. I kept making excuses as to why I could not go to school. And every time I would make an excuse she would say “There is absolutely no reason you cannot go back to school”. I left and begin to think more about what she said. An hour later she called me up to her desk and said “Hey I need your credit card information”. I asked “why” and she explained that she had registered me for school, and needed my credit card information to pay for the registration fee. As soon as she said she had signed me up for college my heart sank to my toes and I knew there was turning back.
I called my dad and explained what I had just done. I have never heard my dad sound so surprised but so proud at the same time. After the pep talk with my dad I slowly began to get excited and felt as though I was going to change the world. For the first time in my life I was proud of myself. I kept telling myself over and over that applying for college is a big deal. You begin to experience many emotions and feelings that you had never experienced before. I started to stress out about where I was going to come up with money for tuition, fees and of course the dreaded books.
Oh the dreaded books…
I signed up for my first semester of school and realized that I needed five books for three classes. The size of the text book was over whelming itself, let alone the extreme price of the book. Luckily I had done a bit of research before classes started, and had a bit of time to save some money up for books. When I had saved up enough money for all my books, I went to the check out at the library and nervously waited for the cashier to tell me my price. After putting all the books in a bag the lady replied “that will be four hundred and seventy two dollars”. At that moment I felt like a cartoon character whose eyes had just popped out of their head. After picking my mouth up off the ground, I gave the lady my credit card. From that moment on I knew this would not be the first or the last time I would feel robbed at the SLCC book store.
I can remember walking out of the book store like a scared dog with my tail between my legs. For the next few days my topic of conversation with anyone who asked about school was the outrageous cost of books. I still could not believe that on top of all the other expenses I had already paid for, I had to fork out four hundred and some odd dollars for books.
Having been going to school for almost two years I have paid approximately 3200 dollars on books thus far. I know I will spend much more when I get accepted into the program of choice.
I have been trying to find more ways of spending less money on books. So far I have found a few ways to save money. I have bought books from online stores that have been a bit cheaper, I buy used books if possible, I try to buy books from friends that have previously have taken the class. I will chose to buy the book by itself rather than buying the bundled pack with the book and cd. Even after all these money saving tricks I will still pay an arm and a leg to successfully complete my college career.
As college students we must face cold hard facts that we will always have to pay high amounts of money in order to receive a great education. To buy books or not to buy books that is the question.
