E110: a look back

I remember when I first decided to take E110, I was pretty skeptical about how the course would really go. I was alway wondering what the passing grade would be because that's all you really needed in order to get the college credits. I figured that if I could work hard and pass with a C that that would be good enough. Looking back at the start of E110, I really wasn't looking forward to it. Our summer reading book was called This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel Levitin. As the date for the first day of school was getting closer, I could recall forcing myself to read that boring book (since it's the end of the year I can honestly say that I read some of the book but not the ENTIRE book). Because it's basically a writing course, I had to go past the boundaries of my thoughts and writing skills in order to keep up with what was expected of. I never really considered myself a good writer in the first place. Writing and reading are basically the banes of my existence. At the beginning of the year, I found myself aiming to just get a passing grade or else my parents would kill me for wasting $600. But as the year progressed, I found myself maintaining grades in the mid 90's. It's either I was becoming a better writer or Mr. Jadick was just a nice teacher. 

One aspect of the course that I found really interesting at first was the utilization of blogs. When our teacher first introduced blogs as a homework assignment I would say that everyone was confused because really it was only graded for creativity and completion. Although most people saw it solely as a grade when I first started my E110 blog I actually started getting into it. Although we were only required to write one blog per week, I found myself writing one every day when we started. It was a place where I could share my experiences and opinions openly. It was a place where I could type out whatever was going through my mind. It was a place where a specific word count wasn't needed and a place where I could talk about whatever I wanted without worrying about a topic or certain way of thinking. Whether it was past experiences or just songs that I was listening to at the moment, blogs helped me express what I was feeling at the moment. Sadly, senioritis has kicked in and I haven't been doing blogs consistently but I still may get back into doing weekly blogs. 

Overall, E110 wasn't only a way to get a college class out of the way, but it also helped me prep for the work ethic needed in college. Our schedule for our assignments was pretty spread out since we were taking a semester course over the span of a whole school year. But at the same time, I learned how to think about what I'm thinking in a writing process along with useful tools/skills that I'll need once I move on to the real challenge in a few months. I'd definitely recommend taking E110 at Newark Charter for any underclassmen because it isn't as hard it appears to be. Though E110 appeared to be an intimidating course, I've learned a lot about myself and my own writing over the course of this year.