Monday, June 8, 2009
Extreme Growth
As graduation comes closer I wanted to speak of the growth I have exhibited in the class as a group and myself after taking Advanced Placement English. Prior to beginning this class, I was not able to see comparisons between literary pieces with great ease. In addition, I would not interpret works as applications to my life. Furthermore, I have seen great growth in our class as a group. Not to sound like a mom or a teacher, but the class has come so far. The growth was seen most in our seminars. Personally, I was quite scared to partake in the first seminar on Oedipus Rex. I didn’t know what to expect, nor did I know what to say. I feel as though we all relied on Mr. Bruno’s guidance. However, when it came the time to conduct our own seminar, the conversation came with easiness. We were also asking questions other than those given by Mr. Bruno. I thought I would talk of Robert Frost’s, Mending Wall yet again and relate the class’s growth to the poem. The neighbor in the poem represents the group at the class’s beginning. The neighbor relies on his father’s wisdom and does not ask his own questions. He does not know why “good fences make good neighbors.” Our group followed Mr. Bruno’s guidance during the first seminar and shied away from forming its own opinions. The speaker represents the group at the class’s end. During our last seminar, the conversation was conducted with Mr. Bruno’s absence. Additionally, we asked our own questions because we simply enjoyed discussing the novels. Overall, without sounding like a mom or a teacher, I’m really proud of our class.
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I feel as though I'm a person that observes the people around me rather than reach out and have a conversation with (the shy guy) basically sums it up. So once the seminars and class discussions came about, it was very scary mainly becuase I felt like I would be called on in the middle of no where and not know what I'm talking about. But once I realized that it was more of something where one could voice their opinions when they wanted, I felt like it was up to me to say something for my own learning. When I did give my input I felt like I got something out of speaking forth my opinions. I also witnessed the growth that Heather was talking about at the end of the year. We always had Mr. Bruno at our seminars, but we held our final seminar as a class without Bruno and it was amazing. We got through most of the material and the opinions voiced were very intelligent and showed just how our class grew.
ReplyDeleteBefore this class, I had a major problem with putting my thoughts into words. It's pretty frustrating to know what you're trying to say, but not being able to say it. But, with all of the crazy writing and intense class discussions, I'm proud to say that I'm better at it. Of course, there's /always/ room to improve; I'm not saying I'm the most articulate person here, but right now, it's a personal best.
ReplyDeleteI have definitely become better at articulating my thoughts and making a point. I am still not an amazing writer but I now know that i am capable of writing a 15 page paper, even if it's not that good. I feel very prepared for my upcoming college english classes, which will be as minimal as possible. I have become more able to open up to people because it was required of me throughout this class. I now look deeper for the meanings of things in books and even in things such as songs that i hear on the radio.
ReplyDeleteBefore the class, I was a words kind o' guy. After this experience, I've learned how important the age-old saying, "less is more", really is. This was the first class where I learned how important words were, and how to use them. I mean, I used to speak all the time, but rarely, truly considered the whole meaning of what I was saying. I'm glad I went through such an experience.
ReplyDeleteI liked how we could say whatever we felt in class regarding literary topics whether we agreed with each other or disagreed with each other and it wasn't so much of a typically narrow-minded English class where there is only one set way of interpretting something. The seminars made me nervous at first too but I think they were good to give time so that we could hear everyone's diverse or similar opinions. Plus since Mr. Bruno wasn't allowed to answer questions are really speak it gave us the opportunity to argue and correct each other on what we say and give our own input after we hear Bruno's input in classes before hand. Especially with the last seminar, most other classes would slack off and not do it, but everyone was interested and participated in the seminar. So I think we all instilled a part of ourselves where we are more eager to discuss literature than we were at the beginning of the year.
ReplyDeleteBefore I took this class I was in regular English. My memories consisted of not wanting to get involved and I also hated to write. I never read a book that I was assigned. Pretty much I didn’t care about English. When I signed up for this class summer of last year, my goal was to improve myself so I can enter into higher education without failing the first year. I was sad when Mrs. Black left to Colonial Forge and I thought that I would not like AP English and also that I would fail. I started liking the class when we started discussing the book that we over the summer and about ethics. Then the more assignment that we did the more comfortable I felt with the class. Like I discussed in one of my other blog comment, I felt that the poetry paper was a huge turning point for me. This class has helped me challenge my writing capabilities. I have grown so much this year because of the life lessons and the literature lessons that I have learned.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mr. B
It's scary to think how much we all have actually grown up and learned from this class.
ReplyDeleteI think no matter what I do in my life, I'll always be questioning myself and i can thank Mr. Bruno for that.
haha jk..
but for real, I've been given some deep insight to ponder on from this class.
:)
Guys, this is really impressive. It is like the Gibran poem from the Prophet says, you found the threshold's of your own temples of knowledge and had the conviction and courage to push open the doors.
ReplyDeleteIf you hadn't noticed, I make jokes sometimes; however, the one constant is that I never take my job as a joke. I take what I do very seriously (which is hilarious if you'd known me in high school) and I am happy to say that I don't need to be proud of you. You all just confirmed that what I saw in you from the beginning was true.
Best of luck next year and all of the years that follow; I expect nothing but the best from you all.
Oh, and...
Happy Thinking,
Mr. B
Before this class, I tended to be very superficial with literature in general. Yes, I coud point out symbolism like a champ, but I could never make the connections between that work and another piece of value. Seeing the master of segues being..quite literally, the master of segues, I was able to notice the finer details at which to look at.
ReplyDeleteI also learned about the blasted turtles and how there's a never ending cycle of turtles. Ah yes. And there is no box. THAT. Absolutely blew my mind.
I feel so much more comfortable writing lengthy papers now! I also really love how our class has turned into a family. We have grown to know each other better- we have inside jokes and arguments, but even when our opinions differ we let it go in a mature fashion. I don't know about everyone else, but I really can't think of another class that I have had where so many different viewpoints have been presented but all respected at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI definitely saw the growth, it was cool how as the year progressed, at least in my case, I had more and more of an opinion for something. Maybe that happened to other students in the class? But I feel like we were a family in more than one way.
ReplyDeleteI feel like my life and the lives of the people around me matter! Despite the fact that we are amoungst billions of people, everyone matters, their feelings matter and their actions have an impact on someone. I feel like out of everything we've learned, that's one of the things I've gained! Also, I've learned that knowledge truly is the most powerful thing one can have. I was in awe when Bruno would lead discussions and provide such intellect and insight! It made everything make more sense and granted him so much more respect in my eyes. I liked his humopr too! Everyone in that class was welcoming, intelligent and cunning, and I really enjoyed our class!
ReplyDelete