Final Reflection: (((feels))) 2 - Electric Boogaloo

Today is 5/18, this year we’re doing our reflections 4 days earlier. But that doesn’t change much since school ends for us 8th graders on May 30, a week earlier than last year. School will end in a little less than 2 weeks. I know I’m going to cry at graduation.

“What are the three most important things you learned this year?”

I consider these three things equally important, the order of them doesn’t matter.

1. How to help your Peers with their work

This year in Mrs Larson’s ELA class, we worked on our peer editing skills a lot, we often discussed as a table over each others work, and helped each other improve our writing when we were writing essays. For example, in our Argumentative unit, we helped edit other’s essays, even if we didn’t agree with their message.

2. Annotating better

In our Of Mice and Men unit, we focused on annotating a lot. Through practicing, I improved my ability to make effective annotations, which will be an important skill in high school.

3. Narrative Writing

Writing Narratives isn’t really my strong suit, but in our Narrative Unit we were taught skills that would help improve our Narratives. This skill is important to me because it is a skill I didn’t really work on until this year.

“What is something we did this year that you think you will remember for the rest of your life?”

One thing that we did this year that I think I’ll remember for the rest of my life would be the Serial Unit. Even though the unit wasn’t that long, it was very fun and gave us many opportunities to interact with our classmates.

Along with that, the Serial theme and the text that appeared in the beginning of each Serial episode will probably stay stuck in my head, (Piano Notes) “THIS IS A GLOBAL-TEL LINK PREPAID CALL FROM Adnan Syed AN INMATE AT A Maryland correctional Facility...”. 

“What was the nicest thing someone in our class did for you this year?”

I can’t think of a single nicest act that someone in our class did for me did this year. Not because no one was nice to me, but because everyone was nice to me. The nicest thing they all did this year was trying to talk to me.

“What is something you taught your teacher or classmates this year?”

If I taught them anything, it was probably that you should involve yourself in class and try to have fun. They probably noticed that I didn’t abhor this class and actually enjoyed it, there’s no point in trying to not enjoy a class, that’s just shooting yourself in the foot.

“In what area do you feel you made your biggest improvements? What is something you accomplished this year that you are proud of?”

I think I made my biggest improvements in writing, like actually writing things myself. I’m proud of being able to make poems and narratives for the units that we had to, mainly since I was expecting to make something that I would never want to reread (I’m not usually proud of my work)

“What was the most challenging part of this year for you?”

For me, I thought that our Poetry and Narrative unit were the hardest units. I’m not very skilled at either, since I don’t usually write poems or narratives. 

“What was the best piece of writing that you did this year? Why do you think it is your best?”

I’d say my best piece of writing this year would be “The Ordeal” that I wrote for the narrative unit this year. I think it’s the best I’ve done this year because it was one of the few that I satisfied with, I actually enjoyed writing it.

“Of the books you read this year, which was your favorite? Why?”

I’d say that the best book that I’ve read this year would be Origin by Dan Brown. I noticed that Lorin praised the book, and offered for me to read it. I accepted, and read it within a week. It was a VERY good book, the topic was something I found interesting. I recommend it to anyone who has the time to read it, but remember that it’s going to be very hard to find it at a library.

“What advice would you give students who will be in this class next year?”

I’d tell them to try to enjoy this class. Some students say that Mrs. Larson is mean, but she isn’t, she just wants you to learn something from her class. If you get involved in the class, you will probably enjoy your time in this class. If you decide to not, you’re basically shooting yourself in the foot since you’re missing a good opportunity to learn.