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Reflections on my Work

The minute I stepped into my English classroom, I knew it wasn't going to be an ordinary English class. Once I saw all of those computers I felt like this wasn't going to be an easy class, either. I have to admit that I'm not very good with computers and that I felt a little worried. I was always used to sitting in class, listen to the teacher talk and talk and then writing some notes down in my book, but that all changed. It says it all in its name CYBER ENGLISH. What does that really mean though? It means that now instead of using paper and pen, we would type our work and then post it online!! This was big change into my work habits because it dealt with learning new things and adapting to a whole new environment. At the very begining of the school year we already had projects to start & look forward to. It may seem a little to quick but in the long run it wasn't as hard as it seemed.

Ever since I started writing and doing essays for this English class I have noticed that I have improved through the months, through the essays. I think that I can show how much I have grown and how I have made progress through my work. Looking back on the early days of my English class, like October 1st, I noticed alot of improvement. In those days I was just starting to get the hang of things and just starting to write my essays. Those were the days that I was just beginning to understand all of those HTML codes. Fortunately there was the Style Sheet, that helped me get started and it helped my pages look more creative. Besides showing the many tricks to make your work look more attractive it taught you how to center your work, make it the right size and just putting your work in the right place. When I look back to these days and look to the now ,I see that my work has gotten stronger.

One of the first projects that was given to us was the I AM essay. This project mainly dealt with ourselves in comparison to our genius. We also had to give some examples of our life that dealt with our genius. Being a genius doesn't have to mean that you are very smart, but it's about the many qualities that we as humans have. This is one of my favorite projects because it deals with me and with my past experiences. I mean what could be better than to write about yourself, about your life. So far I have 6 words out of all the twelve that we were given. My twelve qualities of a genuis are, according to Awakening Genius by Thomas Armstrong, curiosity, playfulness,imagination, creativity, wonder, wisdom, inventiveness, vitality, sensitivity, flexibility, humor, and joy. My I AM essay has really improved from the really beginning because now I have more to write about more to relate too. All of those qualities have to do with the person you are, with the work that you have made or what you have become because of past experiences. In the beginning I didn't know how to start this project, but now there are alot of things that I can write about. I didn't realize until after that this project really showed your trueself and that all those qualitites do really relate to us. This project has changed me in many ways. By writing about my past experiences, it helps me reflect on my past and makes me want to improve in the present, the NOW.

We didn't only have to relate to our qualitites as a genuis, but to books we read too. At the very beginning of the school year we were also given a list of books to choose from. We had to choose a book for each month to do a Book Review So far I have chosen books that have some similarities to my life and books that really have a lesson to teach. I have read these books so far: THE OUTSIDERS, SPEAK, HOLE IN MY LIFE, and THE LIGHT in the FOREST. All of these books have greatly strenghtened my writing because it also deals with part of my life. I have noticed that the greatest change in my writing is that, before I had to write about topics that were given, but now almost everything deals with myself. I chose all of these books because it somehow deals with real life experiences, real life problems, that go on today. What really surprised me about the book HOLE IN MY LIFE was that it was about a real life person. That it wasn't made up and that all of those horrible things that the young man in the story went through were really true. I also enjoyed reading SPEAK because it was about a problem that many girls in the world have to deal with. What I enjoyed reading aobut this book is that this book not only talks about the problem, but it gives suggestions and solutions to it. I have enjoyed reading all of the books that I have chosen because it teaches me things and opens my mind to situations that I can further write about. Doing a book review doesn't only have to be about rating the book or recommending it to someone else, but it really opens up and strenghtens your vocabulary. All the reading you do helps you to write better essays and better express yourself. These books have totally different topics and situations going on, but that is good because it gives me a sort of perspective of what others may be living through and how they deal with it.

So far the projects that I have written about have been not to difficult to accomplish, but two essays really gave me a hard time. The HARRISON BERGERON essay and the XENOPHOBIA essay really dealt with a lot of thinking and concentration. In one hand we have the Harrison essay in which we have to write about what equality really means. I mean it sounds really easy but we also had to include other stuff. We had to write about how "differently abled" and "handicapped" are different. On top of that we also had to relate to the story and to our past projects. The topic about equality wasn't really that hard, but what I think I learned through this project was much more important. I have to admit that it was my fault for letting this project be such a pain. I was slacking off and really not putting all of my effort into this project. I have learned that it is better to do things today, when you have the chance, then to leave it for tomorrow and stress out. These essays are very influential and they give a sense of accomplishment when you finish them, because the topics relating to them are very important. Just like the Xenophobia essay. We had to compare many articles to this one word, Xenophobia. What does Xenophobia really mean though? This is what I thought of when I heard it for the first time. See what I mean when I say that you learn alot of vocabulary with these essays. Before this project I wouldn't have even know what this word meant. Now I can relate it to articles that talk about serious issues that go on in the world. Xenophobia may look like a very strange word, and it really relates to that description. Xenophobia means the fear of strange and foreign things. Through this little word I have learned a lot of many different people and why this world is how it is, without peace.

Talking about peace and trying to bring serinity and joy to the world, I'd have to talk about the piece I did about QUOTES. Even though I don't have alot written the quote I chose says alot. In one little sentence it tells you alot about life and it can relate to everybody in this world. The quote I chose talks about only having one life, one opprtunity to live. This may be a bad thing to some, but the quotes says that there is more to life than just living. Eventhoguh we do have only one life in this earth, it doesn't have to be a bad life. The quote states "You only live once - but if you work it right, once is enough", and this to me means that when you work things right and if you do good deeds and be a good person, living one life is more than enough. If you work right and things the right way, than the only one life in this earth may not be so bad. I like this quote becasue it teaches me alot about my self. It teaches me that I have and will always have a decision to make, and that that decision will affect wh I become. Because only I have the power to either make the right choice or the wrong one.

Choices, choices choices. They will always have to be made in order to get somewher or accomplish something. Just like the choice that I had to make in order to deserve a ninety for my work. Reaching for that ninety was like a QUEST to me. This quest essay taught me alot about myself becasue it was about me and my quest. It showed me the many mistakes that I had done in the past with my work and it showed me that I had to catch up on my other work. This essay wasn't just any ordinary essay, it was an essay that would show and talk about all of the work that I did, and how I would mantain that ninety in my work. In this quest essay I also had to relate with poems. These poems obviously related to making right choices and going towards the right road. The two poems that I really enjoyed were THE ROAD NOT TAKEN, by Robert Frost, and THE EMPEROR'S THREE QUESTIONS. I really liked THE ROAD NOT TAKEN, because even though it might have confused some, it came straight out to me. I found the meaning behind this poem almost immediately and I knew how this related to me and my quest. This poem has once again stated about making right decisions, right choices, and not letting anything control your decisions. It states in the poem that the person in the poem took a differnt road, and that had made all the differnce to him. To me this means that sometimes people follow other people in order to be a part of them, but beign your own leader is what makes a bigger difference in yuor life. The story of THe Emperor's three questions was nother one that made me realize its meaning almost immediately. it teaches you a big lesson in life and how to accomplish somethign yuo really want. All the poems that I read for this essay has taugh me alot, both about my work and about myself. For one, i think that I learned that when you have people that are doing the right thing around, you then that wil help YOU do the right thing too. Just like a quote says, go to someone who has succeded and learn from them if you want to succeed too.

Poems were a big part of this essay, and also for a very famous classical story. Who hasn't heard of the EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES. At the beginning of the year we were told to read this classical story and write a poem about it. At first I thought this was going to be easy, but then I realized it really wasn't. I hadn't written poems ina long time, but I was sure that i could do it. the trick was thoug, to answer questions in the poem. that gave it a little of a twist. I tried to make the poem rhyme alittle, becasue I always thought that rhyming poems were more fun to read. This small poem also had its effect into my work, becasue it involved some thinking in order to better orgainze the answers to the questions from the poem. This was a very quick and short project, and after reading it through a few time, some things didn't actually make sense. just like Mr. Nellen, my english teacher, says "what looks right today, may not look right tomorrow."

With all the things going on in school, and all the work and the stress, I could express myself through my JOURNAL. It's not a very personal journal, but I still write in it very often. I mean most of the things that I talk about is about my work and how I have progressed. I also tal about the new projects that are coming up and new essays that I have to write. In this journal you can alos check out my past work. I mean you can see how I have improved through the months by clicking on one of the date links. For instance, I remember back on November 19, how my homepage looked very dull and gloomy and most of my work ws only half way done. You can see that I have added alot of more projects and that the pages look more attractive. These archives also help me to prove that I really am improving and that the work is getting done. I really like writing in my journal becasue sometimes it reminds me of projects I have to do or tests that I have to take, it really helps me alot.

Tests, tests, tests, the worst part of being in school. In Cyber English it really wasn't a problem, until VETY was introduced. Vety was another word that I had no knowledge of. I mean we used to take vocabulary tests in the past, but this was kind of differnt. Vety deals with the prefixes or suffixes of words, in other words word roots. I didn't really see the meaning of taking these weekly tests in the beginning, but now I do. Vety has greatly improved my writing becasue it helps you find the meaning of longer words and makes you understand the better. By knowing the roots of words you can better understand bigger vocabulary and their relationships with other words. Vety at the very beginning looked very easy to me, but as time went by I noticed that I was getting lower scores on it. I guess thats what I have learned from Vety, to be more responsible and try to take care of the work at hand.

In doing all of my projects and essays and poems for the past few months, I have to say that I have changed my way in learning. I always thought that when you do something, you write it up hand it in and its over with, but this English class has changed this. Mr. Nellen, my English teacher, has always said that no work in here is ever done. We have to keep on checking it over and over and not forget about it, because what seemed right then, may not seem right NOW. I think that I am very responsible for my work but sometimes it seems like there isn't enough time for everything that I have to do. Of course then I get stressed out but now I have changed in the way I learn. I mean now I am less of a procrastinator, and try to do work on time and even before it's even announced. Since every week there is a VETY quiz I have learned now to be aware of what is coming and be more prepared. This is even easier to do when our projects are always posted online so we have better access to it. Even if the teacher hasn't announced the project yet, it gives you an opportunity to be ahead and start on the job before than anybody else. I think this is a very good way to become even more responsible.

I think one of the essays that will be very important to me in the long run for this school year will be my Quest essay. This essay explains the way in which I will defend the right of me getting a ninety. I have learned a lot of stuff, especially about me. When you come to think about it all the essays that I have written have a little of me in it. I feel proud of all the work that I do. The two essays that I especially feel proud of are my quest essay and my Xenophobia essay. For me these two essays were the hardest ones and seeing that I have written a lot and that I have expressed myself the way I wanted too gave me as sense of accomplishment. When doing all of these essays we had to peer edit other people's essays. I think peer editing is a good idea, but I think many people don't take it seriously. So far I haven't gotten many peer reviews, but those I have received have given me help especially in grammar. Overall I think that peer review isn't working. Many people really don't have the time to check out other people's pages and that's what makes peer review even harder to accomplish.

As you may see everything is being done through the INTERNET. Before we had workbooks and textbooks, and it was fine. However, there is so much more to learn and look for or find out through researching online. I think it is more efficient. I do prefer it through published sources because doing research online gives you a more advanced search engine. It also contains everything you need without having to pile a lot of books by your side. There are though some disadvantages with using the Internet in doing research. Since we all know there are a lot of stuff that appear on the Internet that may not be appropriate and sometimes aren't what we are looking for. But besides that doing Internet research is far more efficient, faster and much more interesting. Like I have mentioned before ever since I stepped into my English classroom and saw many, many computers I was confused. I have to admit that I am not very good at using the computer and doing all those HTML codes so I was very worried in whether I was going to do well or not. Now that time has gone by I have grown acccostumed to the computers. After Mr. Nellen taught us the basics, we got into our daily routine, opened our program, PUTTY, and started writing our essays. I have learned how to use the computer in order to further help me in my schoolwork and so I feel very thankful towards the computers in our English class. I never though of an English class with computers, but now I know it's possible.

The computer is a very useful tool and I think it has helped me in writing my essays. I think that I would most likely want to TYPE my essays than WRITE them. I think that when you do your work in PUTTY and also keep the page in which you are working in detail and creative is more helpful to me, and also more intersting to the reader. When typing my essays I can express my thoughts faster and not forget them. So I think that I would rather use the computer than write my essays and projects out. Even though this is the first time I have ever taken CYBER English I have to say that I really like it. Cyber English is very different than ordinary English classes in many ways. The fact that you do everything online and type it and post it is what I mostly like about CYBER English.

All of the work that I have done so far comes to show that I have really learned alot from this class.