Thursday, March 5, 2009

Reflections


English is my second language. It was difficult to learn and in some ways I'm still learning. Getting in a college level English course was not that difficult. When I took the entrance exam, I spent most of the time getting the written and reading comprehension part right. Upon passing, it was determined that I was prepared for an Eng 111.

However upon getting into one, I felt overwhelm. My first time in Eng 111 was stressful. There was paper after paper. The three major papers that were done came with a presentation. At that time, I hated public speaking so I barely did the presentation. It became too much that I decided to just drop out.

After a year, i went back and took another Eng 111 class. Since taking a 16 week course is too long and I might just chicken out, I decided to take the 8 week course. Knowing that the work load might be more I can handle, I went on ahead and thought it will still be the same old class.

On that first day, when Mr. Gasparo gave out the course outline, I knew it will be different. Instead of writing narrative, descriptive, and definition essays, we wrote restaurant reviews, rhetorical analysis, etc. There was only one big paper and one presentation.

Mr. Gasparo made use of technology. There were no textbooks. All the material was online. I never met an English teacher who uses images and videos to make his point across. I would have never used a blog for assignments. I would have not known how to even use a blog without Mr. Gasparo. I really enjoyed his class.

What I learned was that technology is not scary. I was never into the whole usage of the internet. I have e-mail but that was it. I don't use blogs, livejournals, chatrooms, and search engines that often. I rely on books, magazines, and letters for communication. After taking this class, I will make use of the internet more.

I would recommend Mr. Gasparo's English class to anyone who likes something different. Anyone who likes technology will like this class. Anyone who wants to do something other than the regular, boring assignments, take his class. Anyone who don't want to buy and carry around the textbooks, his class is the best for that person. I already started spreading the word to anyone going to TCC. Try his class and enjoy!

1 comment:

  1. I'm glad you could learn that technology is not always the frightening beast some think it is. Though sometimes it is.

    It's learning how to interact with the technology and how it interacts with you is the secret.

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