Jacob Businger
Mr. Jones
GSW 1110
27 August, 2015
Who Said Senior Year Was Easy
I can still picture my six year old self sitting down and watching “Reading Rainbow” when I was a little kid. I would always get up and watch it right before I would leave for kindergarten. I can remember sitting in my school clothes eating a cherry pop tart and watching the show with my mom before she took me off to school. The show was on during the winter time mostly, because I remember that it was always dark outside. It was from this show that I learned how to read words the most. Also, I learned how to spell from it too. Yes, it took a while for this to happen, but this show helped me a lot. This is the first memory I have of knowing and learning how to read and write.
Another memory I have of learning how to read and write would be in first grade. I remember specifically my phoenix class. This class was basically an English class for first graders that teaches you how to read and write. I remember sitting down at my desk with my little notebook and big pencil and writing down three letter words like; dog, cat, hat, bat, and so on. This class helped me learn not only how to sound out the letters and vowels in the words, but also combine them into making bigger words. Also, I remember my teacher, Mrs. Ponzi, also sitting down with me at m y table to help me with the words. Without the help of her, I would not of gotten the words down as fast as I did, and I may not be where I am now.
Fast forward to my sophomore year of school, one of my teachers’ really helped me develop as a writer. I started Mr. Whiteman’s class off getting B’s and C’s on my papers, and that was not cutting it for me. So one day after school I went in and talked to him about my papers. He gave me some really helpful hints and by the end of the year I was getting g A’s and B’s on all of my papers. He even recommended that I take AP English my junior year, which I regrettably did not do. Another key, and perhaps the most important, moment that I think developed me a writer would have to be my senior year of high school. During this year, we were asked to write as senior paper. This paper needed to be anywhere from fifteen to twenty pages. At first, I blew this off as being no big deal, thinking it wouldn’t be as hard as it sounded. As the due date started getting closer and closer, I was getting more worried about my paper. Then I remember what Mr. Whiteman told me, and how he had made me such a better writer my sophomore year. Throughout all the different stages of the paper, I would remember the advice I received, and it pushed me through. In the end, I finished my paper before many others in the class did because it eventually came easy to me. Thanks to all my teachers help, Mr. Whiteman’s especially, I got a ninety seven percent on this paper, which was worth thirty percent of our final grade. Also, this grade helped boost my confidence to write more papers my senior year and be more confident when I turned them in. Additionally, I needed to type one final five page paper before I was able to graduate. This paper was about our senior project, which is when we had to go out and shadow a professional in the field in which we would like to go into once we get out of college. Thanks to the huge confidence boost my senior paper gave me, I was able to write this paper in no time and I passed it with flying colors, so I was able to graduate.