Survey

Friends,

This is for academic purpose only.

As part of my project for my agency intern, I need to conduct survey. In this part, it will be an informal survey. Please visit the Resilient Family Service website at http://www.liveresilient.org/ and make a comment in this blog about your visit . I accept both positive and negative comments. Just based your comment on questions:

• What did you like about the website?
  


• What did you not like or what would you like to see changed in the website?

Go back to my blog after visiting the Resilient Family Services website to post your comment.
Thank you very much.

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.

Close your Eyes and See (Revised Diagnostic Essay)

Close your Eyes and See (Revised Diagnostic Essay)

I can still remember the best vacation that I ever had. It was a trip to my mother’s original town in Visayas, which is in my country, Philippines. I was 15 when I, together with my mom and her sister, went to their town of Borongan. My mom’s visa immigration was approved so we had come to visit her family before she would fly over to America. That was also my first time to be there and meet my mom’s family.

When I was small, my mother used to tell me a lot of horror stories about their town. She told me those supernatural creatures that lived on their town. My mom told me that they are real especially the ‘manananggal,’ a creature, mostly woman, that is half body that flies with wings like those in bats.

It was a 24-hour travel. The road trip was fantastic. Although I had this motion sickness, I was surprised that I didn’t throw up during our road trip, I assume it was because there was no that much traffic on the road we were traveling with and the bus was travelling fast. We rode on a bus, since air transport was not that very well-known yet, very expensive and had a limited airport station. Philippines is an island and there are more small islands, Visayas is one of them. When we reached the boundary of land, we had to ride on a ferry boat, a small ship. The ship could fit 10 buses inside, which were on first floor and all the passengers were on second floor. When the boat was already in the middle of the sea, all that I could see was water and sky, while the breeze of mild wind is touching through my face. I enjoyed the view. After crossing the sea, we already stepped on Visayas region but it is still quite far from my grandparents’ place so we rode back to the bus. This time, the road that we are traveling is smooth and winding. All the views were hills and mountains. It seemed that we were traveling in the middle of a mountain that was broken apart. We arrived at noontime on my mom’s place, since we also left noontime the day before.

I was again surprised with the cleanliness of the town, which was a lot different on the city where we lived in the Philippines. I couldn’t imagine towns like that where some supernatural creatures lived, so I did not totally believe that such creatures still existed. From the main road, you could already see the beautiful view of the ocean which was just less than a mile away. We went straight on my grandparents’ house, a nipa hut, a house made from bamboo skin and roofs from tall grasses. Most houses were nipa hut on that town. There was no pollution so no doubt of breathing fresh air. The next day, I went to the ocean right away together with my cousins. We rode on a fishing boat we called ‘bangka’ and then we swam in the water. The second day, we had a family gathering on a resort called ‘liliputan’. The water in that sea was very clear like crystal that one could almost see anything that’s underneath it. My mom and I walked through the shore and picked up some shells. Then, we reached a cave and went inside. Inside the cave, I could hear my voice every time I spoke. I let my auntie took many pictures of me because I really enjoyed the place.

On the third day, we went back home. Unfortunately, my motion sickness attacked. However, I just ignored it and just reminisced all the happy moments that I experienced. I really had a great time on our stay. Moreover, I was also happy to meet my grandparents, aunties and cousins over there. I really love that place and I will visit again that place in future.

Imase source can be found here.

Diagnostic Essay

Jobelle Mesina
Diagnostic Essay
Eng 111-60
31 August 2009

My Best Vacation

I never forget the best vacation that I ever had. It was a trip to a town of Visayas, which is in my country, Philippines. I was 15 then, together with my mom and her sister, we went to their town of origin, Borongan. My mom’s visa immigration was approved so we had come to visit her family before she would fly over to America. In addition, that was also my first time to be there and meet my mom’s family.

It was a 24-hour road trip. The road trip was fantastic. Although I had this motion sickness, I was surprised that I didn’t throw up during our road trip. We rode on a bus, since air transport was not that very well-known yet, very expensive and had a limited airport station. Visayas is an island, so we also rode on a ferry boat, a small ship. The ship could fit 10 buses which were on first floor and all the passengers were on second floor. When the boat was already in the middle of the sea, I could see nothing than water. I enjoyed the view. After crossing the sea, we rode back to our bus. We arrived at noontime on my mom’s place, since we also left noontime the day before.

I was again surprised with the cleanliness of the town, which was a lot different on the city where we lived in the Philippines. From the main road, you could already see the beautiful view of the ocean which was just less than a mile away. We went straight on my grandparents’ house, a nipa hut, how most houses were built on that town. There was no pollution so no doubt of breathing fresh air. The next day, I went to the ocean right away. My cousins and I rode on a fishing boat we called ‘bangka’ then we swam in the water. The second day, we had a family gathering on a resort called ‘liliputan’. The water in that sea was very clear like crystal. We picked up some shells on the shore and went inside a cave. I really enjoyed the place.

On the third day, we went back home. Unfortunately, my motion sickness attacked. However, I just ignored it and just reminisced all the happy moments that I experienced. I really had a great time on our stay. Moreover, I was also happy to meet my grandparents, aunties and cousins over there. I really love that place and I will still visit that place in future.

Image source can be found here

Diagnostic Essay