Looking back into !995

It's August 1995 and I prance into Mrs. Bolt's classroom in a little pink dress with blue kitty cats on it; its the day that I begin to learn the complex language of English. To start with we learn the how the ABC's sound, we already knew our ABC's. Each day for 26 days we learned the sound of a new letter; each letter was printed on these long rectangular cards (portrait way) in upper case, lower case and with the pronunciation at the bottom. Behind the text was a picture that began with the letter that it was representing. For example the "A" card had an apple depicted in the background.

(this little apple is the closest picture I could get to help you visualize what I was seeing as a 5 year old)

The phonics is how I begin to learn the proper way to pronounce words, and as each grade progressed I was learning how to read words by sounding them out and then spelling by sounding it out. Finally I get to middle school and "BAMM" I am hit with grammar. In six grade I begin to learn how to diagram a sentence and that there are things like past participles, verb tenses, and adverbs; it's not just nouns, verbs, and adjectives. And you know what else I discovered in six grade...a noun is not just a person, place, or thing it can be an idea too. O my gracious the English language just keep getting more complex, and it has continued through my lessons at Meredith College, I am still learning new things about the English language.

I suppose I really begin learning/ discovering language when I was a baby through my parents saying word and me gradually learn to repeat them until I could formulate sentences that made sense from that moment I begin adding onto the scaffolding my parents provided at those very crucial early years.

My previous years of learning experiences have really impacted me today as a student learner. As much as I hate to say it I feel that I did not have the strongest elementary teachers which as resulted in me not being the brightest in the grammar area because I struggle in many areas like subject-verb agreement and commas. My elementary teachers were brilliant in teaching me to read, but really lacked in the area of grammar. This as really impacted me as a student learner because I struggle in producing professional papers for my education teachers, and lets not even mention the English department. Because of this I want to strive to soak up all I can in college, which means using all my resources such as the learning center, so I can be a elementary teacher that teachers her students proper grammar that can stick with them forever. Because my elementary and high school years didn't prepare me for as much as I would have liked for college it just means I have work extra hard in college to be a super teacher in the future. I know I will not be perfect and I will never fully master grammar, but I know will master good enough to teach my future students to succe in their futures.

If any parents are reading this I challenge you to challenge your child's teachers. Read every letter they send home, make sure they write well because they are teaching your students and if they are mastering areas then how will they be effective in teaching your childern, our future leaders?