Reflective Essay...My Senior Year with Mr. G

This year has been an extremely overwhelming year. I began my senior year in complete confusion, I didn’t know what to expect. I had previously heard many things about your class that kind of scared me. Everyone who asked me who my English teacher was, anxiously awaited my reply and after I said your name all I got in return was “Ohhh no! Get ready for the hardest class you will ever take!”. That scared me a lot. I still remember how petrified I was when I walked into your class the first day of school. Luckily my opinion quickly changed.
I remember the first explication we did on “Red Shift”, I felt as if I had some what of an advantage over some other students because my sophomore year teacher made us explicate almost every week! It was a bit insane if you ask me, but I guess it worked out for the better. My favorite assignment was re-writing the poem, it was our first some what creative assignment. It gave me an opportunity to use my own ideas to create something that meant a lot to me. I still hold a copy of that poem. As the year continued I started enjoying your class even more. Every assignment was fun in my opinion. I think the only time my grades started slipping was when my computer crashed. It was difficult for me to spend as much time as I wanted on all the assignments. When I owned my own computer I did not feel the need to rush on all my assignments. So that is why at one point my grades were not as good as they were when I started the year.
As the year progressed the stress of applying to college began to fall on me. One big thing that caused major amounts of stress was my POSSE interviews. It caused me to be really upset and edgy for a while. Luckily I was able to come to you and vent when I needed the little extra push (thanks a lot for that Mr. G). With the over abundance of work that I was getting from other teachers, I still found myself doing English homework. I don’t believe I ever skipped a homework assignment just because I did not want to do it. I enjoyed doing my English homework throughout the year. All the assignments helped me write better and even tap into my creative mind.
The books that we had to read this year were great too. Although A Portrait of an Artist as a Young man was a bit difficult to read, I found it to be interesting. I liked the class discussions that we had too. I did not find myself speaking during all the discussions as much as I should have but I found them to be really worth it. They helped me understand what was going on better, and they also helped me express my deeper thoughts on the novel. The discussions allowed me to voice my opinions easier, since I am normally shy when it comes to public speaking it was a challenge for me to speak in front of the class. As the year went on I found myself becoming more comfortable with speaking. Another thing that I was introduced to this year was critical essays. It was extremely interesting to read those essays, it opened my eyes to different aspects of the novels and why the author chose to do certain things. It also helped me gain a more concrete opinion on what I thought about the books. Another book that I found great was The Stranger. That was my favorite book of the year. It was a great read; I think that is why I worked so hard on the final essay. It was probably my favorite piece of work that I did this year.
Something that I gained from this year was organization and time management. With this English class, since there was so much work I had to learn how to complete my work on time and on my own. I am used to having a set date for everything. I felt overwhelmed because I am used to having homework daily and I was on my own this year with staying on task. Luckily I did not fall to much behind I caught up quickly and learned time management. This is a skill that I am going to need forever. So in closing I want to say that this year has been a stressful, but awesome year not only because I had a GREAT English teacher but I learned so much about myself through the writing assignments I had to do. Especially my college essay! So, finally I say thank you so much for making my English 12, H class memorable.


P.S. Thank you so much for writing my college recommendation letter! As you know it was a great success.