jmschrpp-blog

[jmschrpp-blog]

Alphabet Project

A- Alphabet

I was in Kindergarten when I learned how to use the Alphabet. I was in K-A  and our classroom had the letters on the walls. In class, we were given workbooks each about different letters. We would read, write, and color in these books. After working on each section, our teacher would review the letter with us and we would take a quiz. At the time, these quizzes seemed very difficult and impossible. We were required to write the lower case, upper case, and a word with the letter.  This went on for months and months and at the end of the year it got extremely difficult. When we finished the whole alphabet, we had to take a test. Our test was we had to write our whole first and last name, to prove that we learned the whole alphabet. This is not hard now, but being a six year old and barely being able to hold up a pencil, this was not easy. Everyone in the class were shaking in their seats and we were scared. Little did we know that we had the best teacher in Kindergarten hall and she taught us everything we needed to know. After completing our test and getting good grades, our teacher awarded us with candy.

B- The Boy in  the Stripped Pajamas

I first heard about this novel when I was in fourth grade. I watched the movie and felt as if I connected with each of the characters. After creating that bond, I could not stop there. I decided to go out and rent the book from my school library. I was so excited to reconnect with the characters in the book and immediately went and found a bean bag. I cracked the book open and started reading. During middle school, we had a break between classes and I would always go read in the library. I would also go scarf down food in the cafeteria then run to the library and start reading again. This was the first book that I had ever wanted to read, because I loved the movie so much. This was also the first book that I read that I felt like the characters were telling their story, and not just the author. This book spoke to me and will forever be one of my favorite books.

C- Crucible

In tenth grade, I had to read the Crucible. Nobody in the class was excited, because we had heard from our older friends, that the book is terrible and the tests were hard. Our teacher required us to finish so many pages and then take a quiz over what we read the next day. I had no problem doing that, but I like to enjoy a book and not just read because I have a test the next day. When I am reading a book, I like to try to cope with the characters as much as possible. I am trying to learn what is going on and why is that happening. Anyway, we had to read huge chunks of this book at a time and I would always fail our quizzes. Due to many of my fellow classmates just smooping or reading spark notes. Our teacher had to make our quizzes very detailed and very difficult. This book a lone dropped my English grade down to a C and I was never able to bring it back up. I hate this book for this very reason.

D-Doctor Seuss

When I was a young boy I enjoyed my Doctor Seuss books, especially The Cat in the Hat and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. I would constantly run to my mom yelling "Mom, Mom, Mom, can you read me Doctor Seuss". She always knew which books I wanted to read and which ones were my favorite. She would always say "Of course honey, I will be up stairs in a minute". I would then sprint up the stairs and already have my favorite book sitting my my side. For some reason these books just never got old to me. I loved these books with a passion and even tried to read them on my own. This was not the best of ideas, I did not really understand what was going on. The only thing I understood were the pictures, I knew what was going on because my mom had read to me over and over. These were my two books that sparked my reading career and I loved these books so much as a young boy.

E- Eighth Grade

In Eighth grade, I had a terrible teacher. We read two books by the same writer. I'm sure everyone has heard of him. His name is Mark Twain. My teacher was so in love with him and his books. She would constantly show us pictures and tell us about how she went and visited his town. Everyone in the school dreaded going to her class, because we knew it would be about the same thing and about her love for him. The first book we read in the class was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I enjoyed reading this book, until I looked at her syllabus and saw we were started Huckleberry Finn right after. I knew what this meant, more lectures about him. When we were finally done with all the Mark Twain lectures and books, it was finally time for her exam and of course I Christmas Treed it and ran straight out of that classroom.

F-Frankenstein

During my senior year of high school, I was required to read the book Frankenstein and write a research paper on it. The book was not long and it was not boring, but of course my classmates were so lazy that they just read Sparknotes right before the quiz. My teacher soon caught onto them and decided she needed to make the quizzes extremely detailed and then that class got real. We walk into our first "real" quiz and of course my classmates go onto spark notes and start reading. As soon as the bell rang my teacher got up and started passing the quizzes out. I figured I would be fine because I liked the book and read it the night before, then I read number one. Number one asked, "When Frankenstein was peering through the window what color were his eyes". I read that question and froze, because I could not even remember. I read through the rest of the quiz and the same thought went through my head. I decided to just use my best judgement and guess on the questions. My teacher soon came around and picked up our quizzes. To my astonishment nobody around me knew the answers either. My teacher soon came around and gave us back our quizzes and the average grade was a two out of five. She then said that we should start taking notes on the reading and take her quizzes seriously. In the end, I still failed every quiz on Frankenstein for the next three weeks.

G- Grades

During my school career, I have been pretty good at English. I could do all the fundamentals, but when it came to writing I was not all that great. I always spend so much time writing and try my hardest and my papers come back looking like my teacher gave her child it to color on. I never could figure out why it was so bad or why it makes no sense when I wrote it and rewrote it one-hundred times. My teachers in high school typically made us rewrite a paper if it made under a sixty-five and I think I had to do that just about every time. I would work so hard and use my teachers tips and then get my paper back. My paper usually looked just about the same, but I made about a seventy.

H- Huckleberry Finn

I have already stated in this project that I now hate Mark Twain. I think I know every place he has been, every comet he has seen, and even the meaning behind his name. Anyway, after reading his book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I felt as if I could relate to his book. I grew up in the small town Marion Arkansas. I am about five minutes away from the Mississippi River and cross it about everyday. I have always hung out with my buddies Max and Layton that live just down the street from me. When I was younger, me and my friends used to take the boat out and launch it in a small river behind his house. We used to just float up and down the river all day fishing and swimming. We also used to camp out in fields around our houses on long weekends and wake up in the morning and duck hunt somewhere nearby. This is how I related to Huckleberry Finn.

I-Intelligent

I like to think of myself as an intelligent and bright guy. Through middle school and high school I typically had good grades. My teachers also always said that I was intelligent, normally when they hand me something back and said I made a bad grade and should have done better, because I was smarter than that. Anyway, the only times teachers ever complemented my brain power was when I failed, and my parents normally did the same. Whenever I do something wrong or something just flat out stupid, they hit me with the same old thing. They always like to say "You are way smarter than that" or "Why did you do that, you know better. I know you are smarter than this". I normally am shocked but just take the smart part as a complement. Anyway, thats how I know I'm intelligent.

J-Jungle Book

This was my favorite book I had to read in high school. I'm an outdoorsy guy and love animals. At the beginning of the year when I saw we were reading it, I was so excited. I knew this was going to be the book I wrote my research paper on. This was my first big essay of senior year and I was surprised at how excited I was to write it. I think it was mostly because I knew after that paper, I was halfway done with research papers in high school. The other half of me was ready to crack this book open and start reading it. I loved the movie so much and honestly loved the book even more. It was my favorite book I read in all of high school.

K- Kindergarten

Kindergarten was the year, that my academic career started. I remember sitting at my table with my new friends, and trying to read the letters on the walls. We had the whole alphabet a long the walls and shelves full of books for us to read. My favorite part of kindergarten was not the reading though, it was defiantly the parachute. Me and my buddies, were the trouble makers and probably are still considered that today. We always would wait for everyone to lift it up and then we would run to the other side and take our other friend's spot. My teachers would yell at us every time we did that and we normally went home with a yellow card every day. My other favorite thing to do, was when we used to get cans of shaving cream and cover our tables in it. Our teachers let us do this, when we were working on writing out new letters in the alphabet. We would do this about once a week, when we were moving onto a new letter in the alphabet and everyone loved doing it.

L- Let Down

During school, I defiantly had my share of ups and downs. I made good grades and I made bad grades, I made good decisions and I made bad decisions. High school for me was defiantly full of trial and error. I always felt like I was a let down, when I came home with a test and my parents see that I failed it. They always would yell at me and then tell me that I should have studied more. They would always make me study extremely hard on the next chapter test for that class, even if its a Saturday night and I don't have the test for two weeks. I also felt like a let down when I expected that I did good on a paper, then I get it back and the guy next to me made an A and I have "see me after class" across the top. Seeing that is always worse than an F, this to me usually means that you got such a low grade that the teacher wants to give you points to get a higher F.

M- Mother

Throughout school my mom has always been there to check up on my English papers. She is extremely good at writing and has actually started writing her own children book. She seems to always know what my papers are missing or what needs to be corrected, even if she has never read the book. My mom actually used to be one of my teachers and had the opportunity to teach my brother and I. This was at a very early stage in my school career, but I find that very interesting. She has always been very good with every subject, but math. She was my English tutor when I needed her most and I appreciate everything she has ever done for me.

N-New School

After my sophomore year I decided to transfer to Briarcrest. This was not for any other reason than I wanted to further my baseball career. My goal was to play college baseball and to keep playing for as long as possible. Of course this never happened. What I found when I transferred though is that I actually began to enjoy school. I made better grades and has closer friends. I found that having good teachers made my school life very enjoyable. My English teacher was by far my favorite teacher. I had the opportunity to have her for two years and I became very good friends with her. Her class was very difficult, but she understood that and took extra time out of class to help us out. She even would stay after school for two hours, so we could get help or just talk to her about any troubles we may be having. She was a great teacher, and even will shoot us a text from time to time telling us that she misses us and hopes we are enjoying college. I like to drop in from time to time and say hello to her and socialize with some of my younger friends. My English teacher was a great teacher and changed the way I viewed high school.

O-Outdoors

I have always loved being outside. I have spent many of days with my dad hunting or fishing. When I was younger, I used to always love reading books that had some form of hunting or fishing. I also used to go sit out on my back patio and read books. When I moved to Arkansas, me and my friends spent weekend after weekend working on a shed. We built this shed on the back side of my farm. It was a two story tin shed, with a deck on top. We used to hangout in the shed, grill out, and even fish off of it. This wasn't all I used this shed for though. On nice days, I loved going and sitting in a lounge chair on the deck and do my homework. Around this time, I was reading Huckleberry Finn and doing this helped me connect to the literature. I always could picture what was going on and imagine that me and my friends were doing the same things, based on stuff we did around our houses.

P-Procrastination

I have always waited till the last minute to get work done. In my head I always say that I have time, then I typically look up and boom my assignment is due in an hour. This is how my mind has always worked. I find small things to do instead of doing what is required of me. My biggest issue, is I am extremely busy now that I am in college and I also love to procrastinate. Those two things do not mix vey well. Throughout high school, procrastinating was not a big deal. This was only because the assignments were not too difficult and our teachers let us start assignments during class. Now that I am in college, getting assignments done is very difficult. I am on my own, very busy, and have lots of homework due in lots of classes. Procrastinating is something that you can not do in college and I need to teach myself not to do that.

Q-Quit

Throughout high school, I was never quitter. I would work my hardest and try to accomplish the tasks given to me. My teachers and coaches always said I am a hard worker and will go somewhere in life. This changed last year. In English we read a book just like we always do and then we finished it, took a test, then something different happened. After the test, our teacher handed each of us a paper. It said Essay on Frankenstein. It was Spring of our senior year, we were ready to get out of that class and just be free. This made every one of us mad, because we did not have that much time to finish. We graduated in a month and a half, have senior stuff almost every day, and I had baseball games every day of the week. This essay not only was the longest essay I had to write and it was the most stressful, this was because if we fail we have to keep on rewriting it till we pass. This was because without a passing grade on the essay, you do not pass the class and you do not take the exam. I had the weight of the world on my shoulders and I was nervous. All I wanted to do was quit and just be done with the essay. I was working countless hours and staying up late every night. I wrote and rewrote and looked over everything, I worked ours on this essay. A few weeks later I walked in to class, slapped that ten page essay on her desk and walked to my desk striding with confidence. About a two weeks later, I got my paper back. I got a sixty-five. I was not mad and I was not sad. I was just glad I did not have to rewrite this paper like everyone else.

R- Reading Test

Throughout middle school, me and my friends loved to read. We would got to the library every day and pick out books to read. We typically stuck to our "Magic Treehouse" and would read them almost every day. After finishing a book, we had to take an "ARP" reading test on the book. Taking these test would raise our reading grade and would allow us to read harder books, that we were typically not allowed to read. Every so often we would hit a reading check mark and would win free coupons to restaurants or we would win toys or candy. This was the biggest thing at school, because everyone knew when the library would refill the treasure chest, because we would see our librarian walking down the hall with bags of toys and candy. This always meant, when we got the chance we have to go get a book and start reading. This became a competition among the grades and we all were trying to get the highest reading score. The highest reading scorer always would get the best prizes, sometimes even including a book of his or her choice. Doing this sparked my reading flame and it is still lit today.

S-Suck at reading

Throughout high school I was not the best of reading. I tried my hardest to read books but I just could not sit down and focus. I would read each page, take notes, and try to understand what is happening. After all of that I would still sit with the book in my hand and still not know what happened. I was a decent reader in middle school and was able to read above my reading level, but that all changed in high school. The books got longer and the words got weirder. I love to read books, but the books do not like me. I try so hard to understand and read books for test, but when the teacher hands me the test its almost like I never even read the book.

T- Magic Treehouse

In middle school, I loved the Magic Treehouse series. I probably read every single book throughout sixth and seventh grade. Me and my friends loved to sit in the library and crack open the book. I loved to read these books all the time. This was my favorite series of books and I honestly might start reading them again. When we were in library class, me and my friends would always sit at the table closest to the Magic Treehouse section so we could see which books were there. We would also read the books as fast as possible, so we could trade with each other or we could go return the book and get another book. This series was the reason why I started reading and I would so read it again.

U-Misunderstood 

Throughout school, teachers never could understand what I was trying to say. I would work my hardest and try on papers. After writing the paper and getting my grade back, it would say “could not understand what you were saying”. I would read my paper over and over after seeing that. I never quite understood what they would mean by that comment. I would read my paper in my head, then take it home and read it out loud. It never made any since to me. In high school, our teachers would allow us to turn in the rough draft for a homework grade and they would put their thoughts and comments on it and return it. It never seemed to fail that they misunderstood my paper and I was back to rewording it the next day. This would always throw me for a loop, because I do not know how to reword what I am thinking to make it better known. I flat out thought that everyone would know what I am saying and it was not confusing at all. This is what made papers extremely difficult for me throughout high school. 

V-Villanelle 

Senior year of high school, graduation right around the corner. The only thing left to do is to write a Villanelle. Our teacher said she made it the last project, because it would be a fun send off for the seniors. She was so wrong. She handed us the project and immediately started showing us examples. Everyone in the class was so lost, but did not care, because they were planning beach trips and places to eat after graduation. Me on the other hand I was contemplating what to write about. About a week into the project, I decided on baseball. I started writing and just got stuck. My Villanelle just was not flowing like I imagined it. I wanted this last project to be a banger, so I decided to throw that away and start from scratch. I kept on brainstorming and settled on my favorite thing in the world, duck hunting. My project flowed, it had that rhythm and spunk I was looking for. I flew through that project and I was finally happy with the way it turned out. It was a masterpiece, something I would want to frame and put on my wall. I was jumping with joy when I saw I finished a week early and the project maybe took me an hour. This project was the worst project, because of the timing of it, but it was my favorite because I got an A

W- Writing 

I’m going to be flat out with you. Me and writing are not friends. It just does not come to me that easily and I hate doing it. I always seem to add unnecessary commas, run ons, and I can not really spell either. I always think I am doing amazing and my paper should be published, but yeah I get it back and its always a VERY low grade. If I am going to be honest my issues might be this bad, because I wait till the absolute last minute and type papers turning class. I always seem to work best under pressure, at least that is what I always thought.  My teachers always told me that my paper would have been a lot better if I did this, this, and this but then they hand it back and I always have to think “how many pens did she use to grade this”. My writing abilities are very minimal but I still give it my best and try to make my papers as best as I possibly can. 

X- X marks on papers 

My teachers were always very good at drawing X’s on my papers. They loved to strike words out and hell even sentences. I always would sit there and stare at my paper and think to myself “I’m honestly pretty sure there are more X’s on this paper than there are words”. I have had papers that teachers have graded that I felt like their five year old son got a hold of and grades because there were lines going every which direction and symbols I have never even seen before. After transferring from CBHS, my English teacher got extremely strict. She had us carry around an Easy Writer and after each rough draft we would have to write out the definition of what we did wrong, the sentence, and how to correct it. Most of the class would get it done in ten to fifteen minutes and I normally was having to take it home for homework. My teacher always picked at my essays and always would make corrections to things I never even thought existed. I always got essays back covered up in red ink, and I was never mad or sad. I just started to accept it and knew it was going to happen. 

Y-Yelled At 

I was never really “yelled” at my parents for bad grades. But they sure did like to storm in my room throwing a fit after they saw my weekly grades. I was never a bad student. I always did my home work, made decent grades on test and really did work hard. You might be asking yourself “What could they possibly be mad at” or “What do you mean, it sounds like you are a great student”. I was asking myself these same questions, but the answer is essays and writing assignments. Like I have been preaching throughout this assignment, I am absolutely terrible at writing. My parents were always mad when I got papers back because “your mother is an excellent writer” and “your father’s grandmother was an English teacher”. I had big shoes to fill and I never can fill them. Writing never came easily to me and I always struggled. I write papers and rewrite papers. I also would get my mom to read them and Hannah, the smart girl, to read my papers. I tried to make the best possible grade I would and would always come out with a C or usually and F. 

Z-Zeros 

I never once did make a zero on an assignment, that I actually did. There are plenty of assignments that I just could not bring myself to do and just accepted the zero because I didn't know what was going on. I did however make such low grades on assignments that I might as well had made a zero. These assignments were usually in math and on rough drafts. We can talk about the math another time though, because I am still not over that. On a rough draft, my grade typically ranged in the twenty-five to sixty-five range. Unless I really worked hard and worked on it all the time. I normally never did this unless I had no plans and was not playing a baseball game. In high school I had my eyes set on one goal, and that was to play college baseball. As you can tell that never did happen and that really affected my grades. It never really affected my homework, because I was able to get most of it done during school, but projects on the other hand. It really hurt my grades that were not due the next day, because I knew I had time to do them and would always just put it off till it was due. I mostly did this in English because I knew the outcome before hand and just accepted that. I made grades so low that I honestly should have just turned in a paper with my name on it. This is how my writing goes and hopefully it gets better this year, now that I have more free time on my hands.