first quarter reflection

first quarter reflection

The first quarter has made many large impacts on my educational life. I have learned a lot and I have discovered several annoying habits that will keep my grades down if I do not do anything about them. This year English, taught by Mr. Sutherland, has been a unique one. His lessons are not strongly based on the facts/rules/reality, but rather on the art, creativity, and use of imagination in English. I already had a year with most of my work based on reality from Ms. Valdez, so why repeat? One thing that Sutherland has taught us that I find extremely useful not only in English but in writing in general are the “quick writes” we did in class. They have made the speed of my writing increase greatly and they decreased the amount of time it takes to brainstorm plans and ideas for writing. Mr. Sutherland also introduced goolge blogs, making ASTI a more technical high school. The creativity in English makes English one of the most fun classes at ASTI. Instead of doing essays that are to be done in the exact rules and style of the teacher’s choice, we the students now have the right to freely choose what to write. The blogs are an excellent example of freedom. With the blogs, I am able to write about anything I wish (as long as it not offensive of course), an assignment I always desired in doing for English class. Probably the best blog I typed was  Are we human or are we animals?, especially since Mr. Sutherland responded with some interesting comments (which were positive of course) . The “weekly blogs” also made my typing become more quick, something extremely helpful for finishing work in short periods of time. As an ASTI sophomore, I get large amounts of homework daily and most of it is completed through typing. Due to the increase in speed thanks to Mr. Sutherland’s assignments, I am now able to finish more work and spare a few seconds editing my work.

Though I learned some useful things in Mr. Sutherland’s class, I also discovered and unfortunately developed some nasty habits. It is crucial for me to overcome and solve these issues if I am to go to the college of my choice, and time is running out quickly. One of my main troubling habits which I had been dealing with for many years is saving schoolwork for the very last moment. The rush causes the quality of my work to darken and made it more difficult to get the grade I aimed for. This is proven in the recent blogs and essays I typed for English. My most recent blog about Night, a book written by a holocaust survivor Elie, is am example when I typed and published just minutes before the due time. Another nasty habit that distracts me is how I rush. I frequently speed through my work while typing self control if possible and I do not show the amount of effort that is required to get into college. the conclusion was short and could of been better.

The holocaust blinded many into becoming totally different. Many of the survivors were pushed to the limits and decided to quit trying to win control over them. They were living like wild animals with only the fittest to survive. Though we are not in such a dreadful environment like the holocaust, we today still experience difficult with self control like through pure-pressure, stress and anger.

A possible explanation of my rush through English work is not only because of the “saving of work for the last moment”, but also a lack of effort I have given to my assignments. My mind frequently tells me that “Mr. Sutherland mostly if not only focuses on the quantity not quality, so why spend so much time on his assignments?. All it takes to get an excellent grade is to have the assignment completed and organized”. Even if Mr. Sutherland did base his grading on these two rules, this gives me no reason for me to become a slacker. Unfortunately this has blinded me into thinking English class as a club instead of a class. I have become lazier in this area of English than I ever have.

I am to change a few things if I want to be eligible to enroll into college and this change is to happen at once. Being a sophomore, colleges already are examining my grades and records. There is no more turning backs. To overcome my issues I thought of some goals that I an to attempt to succeed in this new quarter. One of my main goals this quarter is to become the best student in every class which includes English. I want my work to be used as examples by the teachers. This will be an extremely difficult goal to achieve and will require me to dedicate loads of time to my studies especially since I have a long way to go. Though this will be in no doubt tiresome, the great labor and stress will pay off. Colleges all over the United States and beyond will admire to enroll me, even MIT, all the UCs, and military colleges even though I have a poor health condition. To achieve this difficult mission so I arranged some changes that I am to follow this quarter. I decided to avoid hanging out with my friends after school. Instead, I will go to tutoring and/or the library to do my work. Even if I clearly understand and I am in no need of help, I could at least complete a large chunk of my homework there. This will lower the need for rush in completing my work and it will provide some extra time to edit my work. I can go to the computer lab after school and start on my blogs instead of spending time with my friends and playing chess. Until I get the grades I aim for, I will not do anything unproductive and focus on my work. Due to the extra time that I will gain from tutoring, I will be able to jump ahead and be more prepared for the next day. One habit that will make it easier for me to achieve this goal is to start planning and making a productive schedule and follow it. In the past I have tried to make a schedual that I can follow but I eventually become distracted and go out of order. Though I have gone a far way, I still have a long way until I reach the goals I set out for.