What to Say About Mr. G...

My experience in English 111 is one for the ages. I must start off by saying that I can honestly say that Mr. Gasparo's class was never dull. And now I must write that while I know that there is only six allowed absences in any particular class, I was out for more, for personal reasons, not just for the thrill of not attending. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the times I when I did attend.Whenever there was a class, I knew that I would not only be educated but entertained as well, and not only by Mr. G, but by my peers as well. The atmosphere of the class was one where the students could befriend the teacher. The class would dish it out to him, and he’d come right back with it.

He may have been one of the more quick-witted of the bunch, but he was also a good educator. Mr. G knew how to not only teach, but teach in a way that would enable his students to better grasp the concept of what he was trying to get across. When he first presented the class with rhetoric, he presented with Coco-Cola advertisements, Springsteen lyrics, youtube.com clips, and a video spot for Vegan Week that made you need a cold shower after having watched it.

The assignments that were presented to us were usually creative and made the class really try and push past mediocre. The first assignment given to us was a diagnostic essay, an essay that he assigned to see where each student was at in terms of their writing “level”. One of the prompts was about having a superpower. Being as I am a girl, I wrote about making the world a prettier world with the power to make people dress better. I have encountered one too many fashion crimes and thought that this was the perfect superpower for me to have. I loved writing that paper, and being as it was the first paper I had written since my graduation last June, I liked that it gave me a chance not only to exercise my writing techniques but my creativity as well.

Another assignemnet that I liked that Mr. G gave us was the Restaurant Review. This was a favorite for me because it gave me a reason to go out and go to dinners with my friends. But it also held educational merit to it. I liked that we were already using rhetoric even though we hadn’t been taught it yet. By this I mean the power of persuasion. Good food coupled with a good paper. Too bad I don’t think he ever got it. But I know I had sent it.

And the last assignment given to us, a revision of the diagnostic essay, had us integrate the argument paper we had written into the diagnostic. I especially enjoyed writing this one because not only did it challenge me to write more creatively but I was also able to talk about the body issues that I had mentioned in my argument paper, which dealt with the perception of a perfect body and how there was actually no such thing as one.

For my first English class in my college career, I think that Mr. G did a good job at introducing me and preparing me for my future classes, and not just the English ones. I believe that he gave me the tools to write better and make my points come across better and more clearly. I can say with confidence that I will actually be taking what I’ve learned here in English 111 into my future classes and potentially my future career.