Theme #7:RD

So as I was looking through my writer’s notebook I realized that I didn’t really write about anything too important. Mostly I complained. I complained about writing the journal entries, and I complained about Mr. Juliani’s class, also I complained about school in general. So I thought I would take this opportunity to complain a little more.

I think that Mr. Juliani’s class has been a great learning experience for me in the way that I have definitely learned I do not like analyzing poems and quotes that I personally feel do not need to be analyzed. Sometimes people just say what they mean, and there is nothing else to it. Yes, people can talk about what they said and debate about what the hidden meaning could be, but what’s the point; you will never know what they really did mean unless you personally ask them.

Another thing I learned from Mr. Juliani’s class was that I am not a good writer. I have tried very hard on many of my papers and yet they all seem to come back with C’s as a grade. I no longer fight him with these grades but just except the fact that language arts is not my subject and am not a great writer.

The next thing I learned from Mr. Juliani was that I am a very slow writer. Despite how long he said our tests should take, I would never finish. I have not finished one of Mr. Juliani’s test this year, and do not plan on it. I write as fast as I can and usually know most of the answers but cannot figure out a way to get all my thoughts down in forty minutes. Most people in the class find a way to finish, which must mean that I am a slow writer.

Mr. Juliani’s class has also allowed me to learn that I am not very creative. With all the different projects and free writes and fun activities we have done in his class, mine have all been boring. I always thought that some cool, creative idea would come to me, but none ever did. No matter how much I thought about it, my ideas were always kind of boring.

The next thing I learned from Mr. Juliani’s class was that there are two types of reading, the first I was always aware of, just reading to read. But the second kind of reading also included interpreting. I was never aware that interpretation of every character’s actions was an expected thing to do when reading. But the tests and discussions on the book were never about what happened in the book, they were always about the interpretations of the characters and their actions. I learned very quickly that simply reading was not enough.

Mr. Juliani also likes to change his requirements for projects and due dates a lot, which I think isn’t fair. I am not usually the type of person who does things in advance but the few times I went out of my way to do so for Mr. Juliani’s class I ended up having to change something, or the due date was changed and I would’ve had more time. This has taught me that waiting till the last minute to do things is actually better.

And the last thing that I am going to complain about is the word requirements for our blogs. First of all, I do not think that Mr. Juliani really counts all the words or reads everyone’s blogs, but I still try to make them the correct amount of words. I do not see how making word requirements helps my writing in any way. I always thought writing was not supposed to be forced. For example right now, I would be done this paper but it was not long enough so I decided to add this paragraph. I was wrong about most other things and apparently this one too.

So Mr. Juliani’s class has been quite the experience for me so far this year and I cannot wait to see what is still coming. I guess I have actually gotten a lot of information out of this class whether I enjoyed it or not. And I am sure I will one day be thanking you Mr. Juliani for teaching me all that you have.