Kristina Huntington ENG 101 Essay 1 Draft 3 2/21/13 Exploring My Horizon About four years ago, I was sent away because I stopped attending public school. It was my first year of High school, and I was going through a lot of personal issues at home. Not to mention, I couldn’t understand any of the material that my teacher was teaching to the class. I felt like other kids were much smarter because they always asked questions, and seemed to understand more than I did. I had become very discouraged and insecure with myself, and my learning abilities. My mind was constantly in another place rather than paying attention to what was going on. I just couldn’t stay focused at all. I felt completely hopeless at times, so I finally stopped going to school all together. The court systems of Berkeley County obviously didn’t approve of such a young child not going to school for so many repetitive days, and sent me off to a boarding school, called The Board of Child Care, located in Spring Mills, West Virginia. I thought this was the worst possible thing that could have ever happened to me at the time, but fortunately, it turned out to be one of the greatest experiences of my life. I remained at the boarding school for almost two entire years and changed my entire life around educationally, mentally, and physically. At first, I resented everything and everyone. I didn’t know anyone, and I immediately felt alone and angry. I didn’t want to accept the fact that I had been taken out of my home, and placed somewhere new and unfamiliar. I didn’t pay attention in my classes at first, and I was negative about the entire situation. My attitude quickly changed though. I went from being down in the dumps and negative about everything, to smiling all the time, and actually enjoying and understanding things in life, things like learning, and why it was so important. I had always wanted to be successful, I just had some struggles and delays on the way. I had realized that nobody was going to hand me anything on a silver platter, if I wanted to further my education and become someone in life, I had to work hard for it, and do it all on my own. This is when I first became open minded to the thought of education and knew I had to start paying attention, and actually trying regardless of what my personal issues were. After being sent away for a couple weeks, I started writing down all of my problems and thoughts in a journal, and it became very therapeutic and calming to me. I was never much of a reader or a writer until this time, probably because I had all the time in the world at this point in my life. I felt I could express myself in words and nobody would be able to judge me. Writing was a getaway for me, and it became a sincere passion of mine. I wasn’t much of a public speaker or a reader either until I had Ms. Ashley, who was the English and Reading teacher at the boarding school. She was such a kind, patient, and understanding person. Always full of life and energy, with an upbeat attitude. She was just the type of person whose presence would light up the room, and make you feel happy to be around. She helped me tremendously with my comprehension, vocabulary, reading, and writing skills. She loved to read, and always had her students reading books too. She would make us stand up in class and read our reports out loud to get practice for the future. Although I struggled with reading, she worked with me, and helped me every step of the way, and now I can’t stop reading books. To be honest, I often get so zoned into them, and before I know it, its hours later. Even though she has helped me with my reading skills, I still will admit; if a book or passage doesn’t interest me, than I usually cannot follow and comprehend it. This is something I’m still working on, but I am open minded to learning any new material that I can. I have developed such a positive passion for writing and reading, and I would love to be able to progress my learning abilities and take my skills to another level of comprehension, which is partly my reason for taking this class. Throughout the two years that I was in Ms. Ashley’s class, we became very close and developed a great bond. She would always take the time to sit down and go over essays that I didn’t quite understand how to do, being very supportive and answering any questions that I had. She helped me understand English a lot more than just writing about my own thoughts, but also understanding how others express their thoughts, expressions, and characters too. Although, I am not the greatest writer in the world, I feel she helped me a lot with my schooling, and got me back onto the right path. She was teaching me in a way that I could comprehend and actually enjoy learning. I wasn’t the only one who liked Ms. Ashley so much. The entire class loved her and enjoyed her company and teaching skills as well. I’m not positive, but I can almost guarantee she has made an impact on several people throughout her lifetime. She’s just that outstanding of a person, with tons of knowledge to share. She has been one of the most inspirational people who has come into my life so far. I am extremely thankful that I had the opportunity to be a part of her class. She is definitely a person that I have great memories with, and someone who I will cherish forever. Since I have left The Board of Child Care, I still continue to talk to Ms. Ashley. She tells me about all the new books she’s reading, and encourages me to read every single one. I often think about what I would be doing today if she was never a part of my life. She helped me to not only read and write, but also grow as an individual. I went back to High School my junior year and I didn’t feel so discouraged anymore. I gained the confidence that I was lacking, and didn’t feel so helpless. I came back to school feeling fresh, and like a brand new person. My grades improved dramatically compared to before I had went to the boarding school, and my problems seemed to vanish. My life had gotten so much better, and I had a completely different mindset than before. I was going to be successful, and I wasn’t going to let people or problems bring me down. I have really enjoyed every English class that I have taken since. I participate in class more often, and I did and still do all of my assignments from then on out to the best of my ability, even if I don’t quite understand it. I enjoy writing and expanding my thoughts and creativity more and more all of the time. I look forward to taking class with you this semester, and learning some new things that I have yet to learn about. These are some of my personal experiences that I have been introduced with in reading and writing.
Related Essay Samples
A study into the curriculum development process
The educational constructions must be flexible to let for the integrating of course of study across the subjects in instances where such integrating would better motive of the pupils and relevancy of the content. Kaiako/teachers weave an holistic course of ...
The importance of sex education
If you do not know how to answer your child's questions, offer to find the answers or look them up together. Let your child know that it's OK to talk with you about sex whenever he or she has questions ...
Censor ship of a high school newspaper
The article is in the High School newspaper called The Tiger's Eye". The Administrators believe that underage drinking is a sensitive topic and that they should forbid the distribution of the article.
Professional ethics in education
One of the issues in the teaching profession is the issue of power in the profession. It is realistic for teachers to have powers in the field but the handling of the power is the problem.
Digital literacy making us smarter
One of the examples that technology has bring about negative effects to society is how it is affecting literacy and how people appreciate reading in the traditional sense. The thought of digital literacy replacing print literacy is alarming because it ...
Health plan with life long strategies research paper example
One of the reasons as to why the prevalence of chronic diseases has increased is the lack of a proper health plan. A health plan is needed to reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases among African American adults.
Review over article article review sample
Knudson used three excellent examples of how Californians' protect their own environment at the expense of the environment in Canada and Ecuador. In Ecuador, citizens are being poisoned, and even killed, because of the lack of environmental regulations that are ...
Ameer bardien essay
According to:" Unemployment has a big influence on poverty in South Africa because there are a lot of people that do not work, or are just not trained for a certain Job, or they Just do not want to work, ...
Leadership pathways – human resources
Human resources refer to personnel or the workforce within an organization, charged with the responsibility of performing tasks purposed to achieve goals and objectives of the institution. In addition, the dean is an effective communicator as well as a good ...
Curriculum-based pedagogy
The curriculum was not at fault, nor was my teaching the problem, the problem was that I restricted my creativity and artistry in interpreting the guides given by the curriculum; I was not confident in my own abilities but relied ...
Essay on informative and persuasive presentation
The objective of the presentation is to modify summer courses of the business faculty and to make them more flexible. According to the proposed solution, courses should be offered more intensively, thus reducing their duration and offering two timeslots during ...
Factors affecting the second language learners’ fluency essay
Although oral proficiency is a central goal of the language teaching, too little attention has been paid to the complex of factors that underlie the fluent of speech. Although quite a lot is known about the general influence of the ...
T chart
English and Literature Civil Rights Act The law applicable in this article is the Civil Right Act which prohibits any form of discrimination bases on sex, gender or age or in any other way in the utilization of government funded ...
Letter to students
As your English language and Literature teacher, I have been privileged to be your chaperone and learner. Be as independent and interdependent in your thinking as well as your actions and stay connected to your core beliefs.
The scientific method use
The method includes five main steps that involve asking a question, performing background research on the topic, constructing a hypothesis, test the hypothesis with an experiment, and then to analyze the results and draw conclusions on the findings. The third ...
Research methods in the social sciences
The first chapter of the research will consist of an introduction, in which the causes of selecting the topic and significance of the topic will be discussed. The statement of the problem will also be the part of the chapter, ...
Case 2: learning the ropes
According to Piaget, Mindy and Tanya's interaction is in the egocentric speech stage. Corbet used to make his students feel as if they " belong" in their new classroom were great.
Coeducation in pakistan
Coeducation is to educate both boys and girls together.in the modern world of today, coeducation is the new order of the day.most of the countries in the world have adopted this form ofeducation.in Pakistan too, there are some schools where ...
Understanding whiteness or white identity
James A banks in his article " The historical reconstruction of knowledge about race: Implications of transformative teaching" examines how the race was constructed and reconstructed between 19th century and 1940's, and he also focuses on significance of racial construction ...
The concept of teaching practicum education essay
Harmonizing to the surveies of Gower & A; Walters, the instruction pattern programme is the major indispensable constituent in professional instruction. The school-based practicum is designed to enable pupil instructors to detect a instructor 's existent work of work, and ...
Data collection and analysis with a real teacher-researcher
Data Collection and Analysis with a Real Teacher-Researcher Data Collection and Analysis with a Real Teacher-Researcher Chapter OneShe ought to look at literature as part of her journey to inquiry because it will give her ways to support her students, ...
Master in special education – resume/cv example
Passed the English Language course held at Al Khaleej Institute under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, General Department of Education in Riyadh with a grade A+ and GPA 95% Passed the Communication Disorders Course for Preparing Communication Specialists ...
Civic and citizenship education in malaysia assignment
Since there are weaknesses in the subject and for the sake of civic and citizenship education improvement and the quality of civic education in schools, the report recommends that civic and citizenship education should be taught through the teaching of ...
Sustainable urban mobility essay sample
In the foreseeable future the exact point in time is disputed the maximum global limit of oil extraction will be reached.* Sustainability as a social trend Because of the dramatic escalation of climatic developments and dwindling resources, mankind is becoming ...
Analysis of learning outcomes with web-based tools
However the follow-up questionnaires and interviews three months after the post-test showed that both the experimental and control groups seemed to retain the same amount of information and procedures learned in the session. The representatives of the study would be ...