What I've Learned This Semester

At the beginning of the year I wasn’t sure what to expect from this whole new school and new teachers. I was told that Stevenson would be a lot easier than St. Mikes, which brings me to the first thing I learned, which is that English class at Stevenson is as hard if not harder than the one I had at my old school. I learned that English class can be the worst and best class of the day.

When I wrote my first day of school paper, I had no idea what the grading scale was in this school, or what to do to get a good grade. When I got my paper back I was not very happy with myself because of the grade I got, so when we were going to start the rewrite, I decided to work harder, this is the second thing I learned, which is that you have to try your very best to succeed in writing and from trying your best you are rewarded with knowledge.

The third thing I learned was not a life lesson, but it had as big of an impact on me as the lessons I learned did. I learned of something called the Rwandan genocide. Up until this year I don’t think I even knew that there was a country called Rwanda on this planet. I knew about the genocide of the Jewish people in the Holocaust, but never knew that there was another time in history where that happened. I learned about all the different groups of people who were involved or not involved enough in the genocide, like France, Uganda, and even my own country. One thing that I found most disturbing during the genocide was that the Hutu people (MRND) had a radio station set up to instruct the Hutus on how and when to kill their neighbors, the Tutsis. I found it strange that the Hutus were not smart enough to think for themselves.

The next thing I learned I had only used twice before, but it wasn’t used the same way. I learned how to write a thesis statement. In the 7th grade I did a science fair project and for that I had to write a thesis. That thesis had to be an “if”, “then” statement and use both those words in it. It took me a long time to understand the purpose of a thesis. In 8th grade I had to do the same thing, but for a half year long research project. The concept of how to write a thesis was clear to me now, it had to have an opposing side, the words if and then, and have support throughout your paper. When I got to 9th grade, my image of a thesis was twisted, when I wrote a thesis it was always fairly long, but I learned that a thesis doesn’t have to be a paragraph, or have the exact word if or then, as long as you get your point across and express your idea clearly.

I also learned how to margin note. Margin noting on papers or articles can help me to understand the article and help me not to have to re-read the article; I can just summarize what at certain paragraph or line said in the margins. I can also highlight the really important parts so I know what they are or what the main idea of the article is.

The last thing I’ve learned is that harsh, correcting criticism is a thousand times better than no criticism at all. I have learned that being told that you are wrong when you are wrong is better than being told you are right when you are wrong. In other words, I appreciate harsh critics because they make me a better writer. I have improved in my writing skills so much this half a year that I ever have, so I would like to thank Mr. Fielder for all the critics he has given me this semester, I truly appreciate each and every one of them, so once again thank you!