Foster 1 Hunter Foster Ms.

E ENGL 1101-17 16 October 2013 Learning from ALL Experiences Most of us recall either being a writing wiz at a young age, or struggling due to picking our boogers in the back of the class. For myself, it was quite easy to develop my writing skills; I enjoy writing and I excelled in writing throughout Elementary School through letters, handwriting, and sentence structure. Writing was somewhat of a gateway to put my problems and experiences that bothered me down on paper so I could practically vent in a sort of fashion. This, and other writing such as simply creating my own stories that I would make up and type on my Moms computer improved my language and literacy skills excessively. I would take the first recent memory that would come to mind, think about it in ways that seemed almost impossible, change the names of the characters up a little bit, and basically form my own personal narrative. Although this was intriguing and an easy way for me to pass time at a young age, not all influences throughout literacy experience are positive, or at least they may not all seem that way. This is when it is critical to focus on turning a negative experience into a learning experience in order to strengthen yourself as an overall writer. By learning from the positive and the negative experiences, it helps us realize the requirements expected of us for the future and challenges us to be the better writer. A strong positive influence I was fortunate enough to learn from was my 2nd and 3rd grade teacher, Ms. Risher. She was so inspiring with her enthusiastic ways of teaching, making writing especially a fun experience that I was determined to request her as a teacher the next year. Ms.

Foster 2 Risher pushed me to my limits, and farther. Thats what I needed; to be pushed. Pushed to the point where I wanted to write. It was always enjoyable to write for Ms. Risher, because she would credit students so much on their writings but always addressing the improvements that could be made. Comments such as, Oh Hunter, the use of vocabulary is wonderful, but the grammar could use a few adjustments, were what pushed me to excel even farther in writing. Because everything always had room for improvement, it made it hard for Ms. Risher to not find something to improve on. But in the end, I am extremely thankful for that honesty. On the other hand, my 10th grade English teacher Mr. Czar (Zarr), was dedicated to putting me down for every piece I wrote. Not a single paper I worked on, no matter how much effort I felt like I was putting into it, would receive over a 70. The only problem for me was I wouldnt understand when he would try and correct my writings. It was as if his grading system was more like his own bias opinion on the argument of the paper, rather than using a legit pointsystem of grading making it easy to fail an assignment whether or not I felt like I completed the requirements of the prompt. So many of the papers I would receive back would have feedback such as, not a fair argument, provide more detail, or even a big fat X across an entire paragraph full of what I perceived as vital information. I finally set back and asked him what it was I could do in order to pass an assignment with a grade worth being proud of, and the responses I would get would be extremely complex to the point I had no idea what he was talking about, or a figure it out for yourself kind of deal. So this was exactly what I did; I figured it out for myself. I made sure to listen to exactly what he would say was necessary for a required work and follow instruction as best as I knew how. Next assignment, flunk. Everything was completely off according to Mr. guy whose last name was always too difficult to pronounce so everyone shortened to Czar. How could this happen? I made sure every detail was correct,

Foster 3 but even through the end of the class I ended up receiving a 72 as the final grade. This pissed me off, so much that I was determined to prove that mustache-wearing Grinch of a teacher wrong. For this is my specialty, proving someone wrong brings slight satisfaction in knowing I was able to do it, not just for them, but myself as well. This being the case, I was determined to have a positive rebound my next few years of High School, in order to prepare myself for the intimidating threats of collegiate English. Thankfully, my 11th and 12th grade English teachers knew exactly what they were doing and not only made the class a better experience as a whole but worked on increasing skills individually as well. Ms. Paysour was the best about improving my grammar, spelling, and word usage throughout my eleventh year. I could not count the amount of note cards I went through making flash cards for all the different vocabulary we were required to learn. But without those flash cards, I would probably not use or understand half of the words I come across daily. Following this, my senior year I had the pleasure of receiving Mr. Furguson as an English teacher. And boy was he an expert at teaching how to make writing a fun experience. Mr. Furguson pushed limits because there were none, teaching us as seniors getting ready to enter college to stretch out farther to environments such as satire and the hidden meanings behind every piece of writing. I recall reading one very influential book entitled 1984. It seemed like the most boring, waste of time book you could ever read but as we broke down the pages one by one, we as a class realized all the deeper meanings behind the actions of the almighty ruling Big Brother and his upper class parties that dictated the power hungry world. It taught me to look at life in a larger picture, that maybe there is more out there that really meets the eye. Needless to say, these professors were exactly what I needed my last couple years of High School, and I have them, and at the same time Mr. Czar to thank. Because without his

Foster 4 critiques I probably would not have made such an effort to improve my writings the following years. If he could only see me now right?