It's Now or Never

When I finished my ESL 13 and 17 classes, the first and last ESL classes that I took, I was happy because I could take regular college English classes at last. However, my experience on English 111 was not quite similar fro what I had expected to be. As I reflect upon my English 111 experience, I realized that it was not easy as what I hoped and it was not that hard as what I had expected. As a Filipino and being new to the country, it was, at first, difficult for me to follow and participate on class discussions. I had feared that my answers are wrong or I was simply afraid to be criticized on how I speak or answer. But later on, I noticed that I wasn’t that bad for a beginner here on my foreign country.

Since I was not that active on class discussions, I focused myself and do better on essay assignments. I like how Mr. Gasparo gave the topics on our assignments. All he wanted is for us to write what we know, what we believed or where we were good and comfortable. From the diagnostic assignment to the argument paper, he did not ask more than what you can give. He even had the prospectus in order for the students to propose on what argument they comfortable to argue with and make the good points. He did not make any demands for the papers due, but rather helped the students to think deeply on writing something for their essays. I like that Rhetorical Essay assignment. I like it how I listed all the things and people that influence my personality to help me became what I am today. I like how I sort and group them out for ethos, pathos and logos. In addition, I like how Mr. Gasparo gave a pass or fail assignments sometimes.

I also like the sense of humor we have in the classroom. It was fun and alive every Tuesday evening. I like the sharing part in the class. I like the peer critique activity for our papers. This has been very beneficial for the completion of assignments.
However, it was not Christmas Day everyday. I had some difficulties on the class and some things I considered ‘don’t like it’ things. First, I sometimes felt that it was a ‘more assignments, less discussion’ class. Sometimes, I felt that the instruction for assignments is lacking of details. This is the part that I found my assignments to be difficult. We depend more on student’s examples so mostly, we were learning from their works. Second, I think I got overload with all the assignments and readings we have to do weekly. I never had a time not to think my English 111 class. However, this has been beneficial to me. And lastly, I got confused with the multiple use of technology. Add up the opening folders on course texts, the discussion board, email, announcement, whew!

I’m saying this not for you to avoid class. I even recommend the class to be taken. I am saying this for the future students to be prepared and what to expect on English class, especially if Mr. Gasparo is the instructor. I believe the problem that I had is because I was doing multiple task and tried to balance and handled them all out. It was not easy being a parent, student and working at the same time. But overall, this class had been very helpful in my academic. I learned more how to write better. It also made me learned more about myself. This class should not be avoided in future, neither do the non-American students. It's now or never.