English has always been one of my favorite subjects. I have never really had to work hard in or or study for tests and I have always done exceptionally well. I figured this semester would be no different. My first class, I was excited to see that Mr. Paul Gasparo was energetic and not boring. I have a hard time paying attention in class so it's always a plus to have an interesting teacher. The work load was a lot, more than any of my classes. More than I ever got in high school but Paul did warn the class the first week that we would have a lot of homework.
We had a lot of things to read and print out to bring to every class, a lot of them we never discussed, which was a waste of time, ink, and paper. He expects that everyone knows how to use a computer well and if you don't it's up to you to figure out how. (Thank goodness I did, or I would've failed the first week). I know a few people in my class who struggled with this and had to drop the class. I don't think that this is fair to them. This class is on campus not online. Computer skills are not required to take this class. It seemed like we had more than one assignment to work on at a time, like a paper due next lass via email, and another writing assignment due next week via the blog for example, and this was always confusing to me because I never knew what was due when. Speaking of due dates, the course calendar was changed so frequently it was pretty much impossible to keep up and I never knew what to expect when I walked into class. Paul is also extremely strict about how you turn things in. While I understand his reasoning behind the file formatting, I think it's unfair to give a student a failing grade on a paper because they named an email "Eng111-49...." instead of "111-49...".
On a more positive note, Paul knows what he's teaching. He knows a great deal of other things too. He keeps the class informed of upcoming events in the community. He was very good about informing classes about updates on the calender and upcoming due dates, etc on blackboard which was helpful. He also responds to questions, emails, chats, in a timely manner. He gave us many opportunities for extra credit such as emailing papers, seeing movies and writing about them, presentations on campus, etc. so there were many things students who were falling behind could do to catch up. The texts, videos, and comics he had us read (even the ones we never discussed) were, for the most part, pretty interesting and supported the things we did in class. For a few weeks we did creative writing, which I really enjoyed. It allowed me to write whatever I wanted to on the selected subject without having to worry about my spelling or grammar. By the end of the class we had learned about said subject and my opinions had usually changed. I wish we had done this the whole year, I feel it taught me a lot about myself. I met new people and was exposed to new ideas through class discussion. I would definitely recommend this class only after explaining the work load and need for computer skills, I feel this class helped me realize I'm not in high school anymore and it's time to grow up and get motivated, Overall my experience this semester in English 111 was a positive one.
