Course Reflection: Pick Yes or No

“Constructive criticism is about finding something good and positive to soften the blow to the real critique of what really went on”. This quote was said by the singer Paula Abdul. I am writing about if I think other students should or should not take Paul Gasparo’s English class. I believe that no one can say whether or not a teacher is good for a student or not, except a student themselves; so I am going to write about what I liked and what I did not like about him and his teaching and let the students pick for themselves.

Mr. Gasparo always made his classes interesting; he did this by having class discussions about the topic of our papers, so the students could get into their topic and not just read about them. Also by doing this it kept most of the students awake and attentive in his class. He is great a keeping everyone up to date through blackboard and for important items he did so through e-mail. Sending an e-mail to Mr. Gasparo is the best way to contact him and he responds back very quickly. There are some bad parts about his e-mail system though.

When a student e-mail him, they have to do so in a format that he show the students the first day of class and that he put in the coarse outline. With e-mails, he requires that the subject line has to be in the correct format or he will delete it without even reading the e-mail; As a result I do not think he is a very approachable teacher when it comes to e-mail because most students are scared that they will accidently send the wrong information on the subject line. With saying that he does not communicate well with the instructions on his assignments; most of the time students needed to read the prompts very slowly and carefully to make sure they understood the whole assignment. Also, the student need to make sure they have a computer and printer that are in working condition or have time to spend in the library. This is because he makes the student print enough work in one semester, that will fill about a two inch binder with paper and honestly he does not go over half of it, but he might, so students should print out every item he asks them to.

I did have a couple of favorite assignments that Mr. Gasparo had assigned. My most favorite of these assignments was the argument paper. This paper took a huge amount of planning and organizing, but it was a fun paper to write; I think most students would enjoy this assignment as long as they get a topic that means something to them. The other paper I enjoyed writing was the Rhetorical Analysis essay. In this paper I got to look within my life and how the rhetorical tools were used to help make me who I am today. That paper gave me a challenge because it was hard for me to write about myself, but it did create a great challenge for me.

Of course, there were assignments that I did not like as well. One of these assignments was the blog that his classes have to do; I do not like to write papers and I really do not like the whole world being able to read those papers. The other paper that I did not enjoy writing was the Annotated Bibliography; this was because I did not really understand what I had to do and he never gave us a copy of it back nor did he show us what we did wrong. This paper was to help us with are bibliography on a research paper, but since he did not give them back, we did not know what we did wrong or what we needed to change.

Mr. Gasparo has some good and bad teaching methods, just like every teacher does. To know if he is a good teaches for a student, the student would need to ask themselves what they can live with, with a teacher and what they can get out of a teacher. I am not saying if a student should or should not take him; I am saying it is up to the student to think about what I have said and pick yes or no for themselves.



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Final Diagnostic Essay Draft: Got to be a Kid Again

Have you ever been on a Vacation that just seems magical and fun, like a little kid exploring a toy store? I had just that experience with my family when we went down to Disney World in the summer of 2008. While we were at Disney World I got to do what I wanted to do, see what I wanted to see, and I also got to bring that one special person in my life; being only eighteen, it was amazing to be able to bring along Earl, my boyfriend, on this trip.

As with every trip my family goes on, my mom woke us all up early; she was trying to get us up and moving so we could get to the Magic Kingdom before it opened, so we could be one of the first waiting in line to get in . When we got to the park we were one of the first groups of people out of thousands of people waiting to get in the park. Our goal that morning was to hit three main rides, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Haunted Mansion.

As soon as the ticket collectors got the okay to open the Magic Kingdom, we saw a mad rush of people going into the park, like it was Black Friday at Best Buy. When we got into the park my whole family looked at my dad and told him we would meet him at Space Mountain. So my mom, my brother, Earl and I ran straight for Tomorrow Land and ran got into the line that was already forming. We waited there for about five minutes before they opened up the ride, as soon as they did, we all ran straight through and got right on. I rode in the front of the coaster and it was so dark I could not see one thing in front of me. Going up and down, back and forth and only seeing lights blinking was so much fun, but it was over in a blink of my eye. Then it was back into the crowd of people, which had begun to smell like sweat, thanks to the heat.

Next, we headed toward Splash Mountain and hit a few random rides on the way. When we finally got to Splash Mountain we waited about twenty minutes, which felt like double because of the blazing Florida sun; which came at a great time because we needed this ride to help cool us off. During this ride, we sat in a log going through a river of water, listening to banjo music and seeing bits of a story about Brer Rabbit; then came upon a large waterfall when we had least expected it and when we came crashing down to the bottom of the waterfall we all got soaked. After that we were cooled off, thanks to Splash Mountain, we headed toward our next stop the Haunted Mansion.

In the crowds, we got pushed and shoved the whole way to the ride. When we finally made it to the Haunted Mansion we really got cooled down because we were wet and the entire building was air conditioned. After Splash Mountain this ride was a nice relaxing one; all we had to do was sit in a two person chair that moved on a track through the whole mansion. The thing I like a most about this ride was at the end of the ride, was where we looked in a mirror and saw a ghost setting in between Earl and I; the great thing about this was that every chair got a different ghost. After the Haunted Mansion we went to a couple more rides and shows and then we headed back to the hotel.

This was just are first day and we still had six more days and five more parks to hit. Going down to Disney World was an incredible trip for me. I was able to feel like a little kid again with no worries or drama like I had in high school. This trip was the beginning of my new life after high school and it was a great beginning. Disney is a magical place for me.



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Diagnostic Essay: A Magical Place

Have you ever been on that Vacation that seemed magical and fun, like a little kid in a toy store? Well that is what happened to me a year ago on my family vacation to Disney World. I got to do what I wanted to do, see what I wanted to see, and also bring that one special person in my life. Being only eighteen it was amazing to be able to bring alone, my boyfriend, Earl on the trip.

It was early on a Monday morning in the hotel room when my mom woke up everyone. She was trying to get us moving as fast as we could so we could get to the Magic Kingdom before it open, so we could be ready when it did. We all ran from ride to ride, hitting them all like race cars at a pit stop. The first ride we rode that day was Space Mountain. In the heat of the morning going inside for that dark and out of this world ride felt great. Working our way through the smelly crowds we finally got to Splash Mountain. Passing through that ride you see the story of Brer Rabbit, and you here banjo music, till you fall straight down in a big splash. Next, I wanted a little scare, so we headed to The Haunted Mansion. There we turn into icicles riding around the mansion and when the ghost appeared I got a cold taste in my mouth. Following those rides, we went no ride after ride after ride and by the end of the day I was so exhausted that I slept like a log, dreaming about the day to come.

Up at the crack of dawn once again, so we all could get ready to go to Hollywood Studios. I was jumping out of my skin for the day to begin, because I was finally going to get to ride Tower of Terror. I had tried several time to do, but it never seem to work out. So of course, are first ride of that day was Tower of Terror. I had a blast with the feeling that my stomach was going to need up in my head. Right after that ride, we all went straight for the Rock ‘n’ Roller coaster because it was right next door. I love the band Aerosmith, and I got to hear their music throughout the whole ride. The music was so loud that I felt I was in the front row at a concert, sitting by the speakers. Follow the roller coaster, we want to the newest ride at the park, Toy Story Mania, this was the best ride I went on all week. Using the Toy Story characters throughout the ride, I got to put on 3D glasses and play carnival games with a Buzz Lightyear looking gun. The rest of the day was just going from show to show in the dreaded heat.

The final morning, started like all the others by getting up as soon as the rooster crowed. This time though we were going to Animal Kingdom. Best part of this day was the very beginning. As soon as we go in the park most of the crowed want right, but we went left. Looking across the big lake in the middle of the park, we saw the walloping crowd stuck behind a rope. Relieved not to be caged behind the rope and walking at a brisk almost running walk, just to get to Expedition Everest first. Once we got there we ran into the line before most of the other people. On the ride we saw the Abominable Snowman and as I was sitting in the front of the roller coaster, he almost got me. After that ride we wanted to get cooled off so off we went to “Dinosaur”, which was inside. We got to go back in time to see where the dinosaur lived and what the world looked like then, but at the same time trying not to get eaten. Last but not least we went inside the Tree of Life to become a bug at It’s Tough to be a Bug show. Watching this show I got stung in the back, it smelled like some bug farted, my legs were whipped, and at the end of the show my set kept pocking me in the butt about twenty or more times. After that we left the park early so we were able to pack up all of our items to leave.

Going down to Disney World was an incredible trip. I was able to do and see place and ride I never saw before. Being in the Parks and surrounding area brought out the kid in me. I had no worries, problems or drama down there. Disney World is a magical place.

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