Course Reflection

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Brandon Collins

Course Reflection

English 111-63

December 8, 2009

This fall I enrolled in classes for the first time ever at Tidewater Community College. The first and only class I took that was not conducted online was English 111. I decided this would be an important course to take in an actual classroom instead of on the computer. I was right. It just would not have been the same without watching all the videos of “The Boss” on the big screen in class. Who ever thought Bruce Springsteen’s music and lyrics could be so closely related to discussions about the use of the English language and rhetoric? It makes perfect sense now. That is just one of the reasons I found Paul Gasparo’s course to be interesting. He seems to have a knack for finding ways to turn boring, drab information into something interesting and at least somewhat fun.

Being that this was my first college class, I did not really know what to expect at first. I am not sure if this course was a good example of what’s to come during the remaining years of my education, but it was surely interesting. Paul was always full of bizarre analogies and strange, yet funny jokes.

Paul seems to be a bit scatter brained at times, as I’m sure I would be, given his amount of responsibility. I would like to have seen some of the assignments graded sooner. Having instructor feedback on some of the first assignments, especially the rhetorical analysis essay, would have been a great help when writing the argument essay.

There were many changes made to the course calendar, which was confusing at times. Being that Mr. Gasparo is relatively new to teaching, I know that he is still learning the best ways to schedule things so, I’m sure his future courses will be a lot more fluid and cohesive.

Overall, I am satisfied with what I learned from this course. My writing skills have greatly improved over what they were when the semester started. I would surely recommend Paul as an instructor for anyone who is looking to take English 111. I do not doubt that there are more experienced professors out there teaching the same class, but I am sure there are much worse. Paul adds a nice twist to the normal way of doing things, which always kept me attentive during class. This is important to me because I usually have a hard time paying attention to teachers. So, as I write this, I realize that I probably got a lot more out of this class than I normally would have with a different, more traditional instructor. My reflection on this course is one of success. No instructor or college class is perfect, but perhaps, this one was perfect for me.