It was the end of summer when I was actually excited for signing up for classes, meeting new people, having a class with my friend, and having new teachers. I was still caught up with the whole summer deal that I forgot to do the early sign ups. I kept on delaying sign-ups, not deliberately. Being as cautious as I am, I tend to first visit Ratemyprofessors.com and look up any teachers I have in mind to choose to teach me something new for the next sixteen weeks. I sat in the waiting room and waited for my name to be called by the counselor that’s next on the list. I wanted to ask the counselor what classes he/she recommends I take. Before my name was called, my friend, Erin, showed up and suggested we should take the same English course since we are on the same level. I agree with this idea, thinking it would be better to have a class with one of my friends. She picked a good time that fitted in our schedules, and did not even worry about what the teacher was like. We both enrolled in English 111-Paul Gasparo.
When I went home, I looked up the site, Ratemyprofessors.com. When I looked up Paul Gasparo, I was not all the way pleased. I noticed many “tough teacher” comments. So a tough teacher isn’t that bad but I did not feel like working extremely hard. The first day of his class was an interesting one. It was hard for me to understand him at first as he talked very quickly. As the course went on, it was a lot easier for me to understand him. I just knew this class was not going to be an easy one like the others before this English were.
Right from the start, we have an assignment. This course being a writing class, I was a bit nervous on how my writing skills were. We had to choose one of the topics for the Diagnostic Essay that we would like to write about. I thought that choosing from some choices was a good idea because when a student has a little bit of power of what they want to write, their writings improve. I liked writing about my favorite vacation. Everyone likes to talk about vacation so putting all the talk on paper isn’t all that challenging.
Gasparo then wanted us to set up a blog that included our first paper and anything else we would like to post in there and other writings at the end as well. I thought it was a good idea to put them on a blog for easy access to look at all writings. Although, after this course, I don’t believe I will ever visit that site again, it’s a good idea for students who love to write and want to post blogs about it.
My favorite writing was probably the Revised Diagnostic Essay. Taking an essay we wrote in the beginning and revising it was actually enjoyable, while showing everything we learned at the same time. My least favorite was writing Argument Essay. It was something that we had to learn as students to argue on a topic but it was tough for me to do so. I believe Gasparo gave us enough time to work on the essay, obtaining tons of information on our topic. What I liked most about this course was when we had to peer critique other classmates’ papers. I liked the criticism I would receive and would use the feedback in my paper.
Gasparo is a difficult teacher and challenges his students. He really makes you work hard, think about your papers, and makes sure you know to not delay on starting any papers he has assigned. However, I did procrastinate a few of my papers till the day before. Do not do this! You will end up staying up pretty late trying to put it as much information as you can. I realized when you start a little earlier; these papers are not that intense. I didn’t like how once you were completed with one paper, you didn’t have time to breath; it was time to start a whole different assignment. Many students stopped attending his class, maybe because they did not want to show effort, (bad work ethic). Over all, I think Professor Gasparo is a rather fine teacher, having his own strong opinions on certain subjects and always lets us know we can ask questions, although you may not receive the answer you wanted or thought you would find.
Picture source
Ratemyprofessors.com
When I went home, I looked up the site, Ratemyprofessors.com. When I looked up Paul Gasparo, I was not all the way pleased. I noticed many “tough teacher” comments. So a tough teacher isn’t that bad but I did not feel like working extremely hard. The first day of his class was an interesting one. It was hard for me to understand him at first as he talked very quickly. As the course went on, it was a lot easier for me to understand him. I just knew this class was not going to be an easy one like the others before this English were.
Right from the start, we have an assignment. This course being a writing class, I was a bit nervous on how my writing skills were. We had to choose one of the topics for the Diagnostic Essay that we would like to write about. I thought that choosing from some choices was a good idea because when a student has a little bit of power of what they want to write, their writings improve. I liked writing about my favorite vacation. Everyone likes to talk about vacation so putting all the talk on paper isn’t all that challenging.
Gasparo then wanted us to set up a blog that included our first paper and anything else we would like to post in there and other writings at the end as well. I thought it was a good idea to put them on a blog for easy access to look at all writings. Although, after this course, I don’t believe I will ever visit that site again, it’s a good idea for students who love to write and want to post blogs about it.
My favorite writing was probably the Revised Diagnostic Essay. Taking an essay we wrote in the beginning and revising it was actually enjoyable, while showing everything we learned at the same time. My least favorite was writing Argument Essay. It was something that we had to learn as students to argue on a topic but it was tough for me to do so. I believe Gasparo gave us enough time to work on the essay, obtaining tons of information on our topic. What I liked most about this course was when we had to peer critique other classmates’ papers. I liked the criticism I would receive and would use the feedback in my paper.
Gasparo is a difficult teacher and challenges his students. He really makes you work hard, think about your papers, and makes sure you know to not delay on starting any papers he has assigned. However, I did procrastinate a few of my papers till the day before. Do not do this! You will end up staying up pretty late trying to put it as much information as you can. I realized when you start a little earlier; these papers are not that intense. I didn’t like how once you were completed with one paper, you didn’t have time to breath; it was time to start a whole different assignment. Many students stopped attending his class, maybe because they did not want to show effort, (bad work ethic). Over all, I think Professor Gasparo is a rather fine teacher, having his own strong opinions on certain subjects and always lets us know we can ask questions, although you may not receive the answer you wanted or thought you would find.
Picture source
I hope students will always find the power to write about what they want. I don't think there were any essays where students could not choose the topic or at least the theme of the essay.
ReplyDeleteOften you can make the assignment your own if you choose to, unless the instructor is very restrictive. It's up to students to take the power.
I like how you wrote about work ethic from your argument.