Charlie Barrios
Period 3
AP English Literature
June 2, 2013 A Passage Through School
Since I have begun school, in pre-k, I have learned many things that I can benefit from. In elementary school my most influential person was my magnet teacher Ms. Sanders. She taught me many things like not settling for anything low and trying to achieve the highest possible standards. She also made it really clear that she wanted everyone in our magnet class go to an institution of higher education. I learned that hard work does pay you back with awards and if not, just personal feelings of a job well done. I owe a lot to my elementary school, the teachers, for being able to teach me things that have helped me out now that I am older.
A project during elementary school that helped me understand something a lot better was about circuits. Even though I still don’t quite get how it works anymore, I know a simpler version of it. Now that I’m thinking about it I do get what the main points about the project were and of how they work. That project, science fair project, was able to get me 1st place in the science fair. I now know a lot more about circuits because of my AP Physics class. If not for my prior experiences with circuits, I would’ve had more trouble with understanding circuits.
In middle school I didn’t really have any influential adults in my life except for my parents. I know they went through a lot during middle school because I would get in trouble at school a lot. They even got surprised when I recently got in trouble at school because it had been a long time since I had done anything bad. In middle school I had to figure out ways to stay out of trouble but because I didn’t go to a good school, it seemed as if problems were always looking for me so I had have to cope with those imperfections of my middle school. I somehow believe that they were surprised that I was able to culminate from 8th grade, but in the end they were really proud of me. They would help me set standards for myself especially my dad who made me work hard towards my grades with his influence on me. I would go on time to school everyday on time and be prepared. Contrary to how go to school now, tardy at least once a week to the first period at the start of school. My parents taught me enough to now be able to look out for myself without them telling me anything. Senior year might’ve been an experiment for them to see if I was ready to live by myself in college. In a way I failed them because I didn’t have the same consistency in my grades as previous years. My first semester GPA plummeted almost 1.5, compared to what I regularly got in my three previous years at King Drew. But nevertheless I have learned what my strengths and weaknesses are and hopefully I don’t fall behind in college, just like I did senior year.
The teacher who has inspired me the most was my 10th grade teacher Mrs. Estrada. She had a way of making you get interested in the topic she was teaching. Even later on in 11th and 12th grade year, I heard some teachers having a conversation about how to teach a lot more efficiently, and about what methods she used. Everyday in her class it was fun and she’ll make her lesson of the day so interesting that people would want to go study at home, even though it was history. That history class, in my opinion, my best class ever. The only class that came close to that one, in success of learning the material, was my 9th grade algebra 2 class with Ms. Woodleif. I learned many things including how to present better, do my homework on time constantly, and that I was really good at memorizing things visually, for example states of Europe. Since then now I try to memorize thing as visually as possible and also with color.
Another teacher who has had a major influence on my life has been my AP Art teacher, Ms. Aubrey. What she has taught me is patience and perseverance. Whenever I would try to finish a piece of artwork really quickly, I learned