P4 Berenice

Have you ever felt that your writing isn't good? Have you ever think that reading is boring? Well none of this questions is true, they are all lies. From the moment we learn how to write we are writers. There is no one that is a bad writer. When I first came to this classroom I was very very scared because I used to think that writing was a very complex procedure. I used to think that only a few people could write. The first day i was expecting another kind of teacher. I was expecting someone strict, someone that wouldn't care about content in your writing, someone that wouldn't care about students, but for my surprise the teacher that came in was something else. She told us that if we know how to write, we are writers. I dare to say that for many of us this was something new, we have always think that grammar, orthography and all of that stuff was most important than content; but it wasn't true.

My experience with english before this class was ok. Since I was a little girl I have took english classes because english is not my first language, my first language is spanish, so I have been familiarized with both languages since then. When I was little I used to hate going to English classes because I used to think that writing and reading in English was boring. When I became 10, I read my first book in English, and it was a whole new world in there. I found out that reading in english was as exciting as reading in spanish, so since then I started to develop my reading skills in a more active way.
Unluckily for me, my writing skills were not as good as my reading skills. I hated to write in english because I used to think that everything was wrong or had grammar mistakes or something like that. When teachers told me to make essays I freaked out because I had no idea of how to make essays, I was so afraid of making mistakes or sound bad, that I preferred to do nothing. In that time I would never ever imagined that someday I would be writing an eight hundred words essay, not even in my dreams, writing was something very far for me.

This class has helped me to Improve my writing skills in a way that any other class has. When I made my thea test, I failed my writing section twice, I felt hopeless and insecure. Few days ago the test was applied to a group of students, my self included, and for my surprise I passed! I couldn't believe the numbers in the sheet of paper in my hands, I was just stunned. This class has made me a writer, and a real one. Now I feel confident about myself, and I know that I can write, no matter what some teachers say, I can write, and my writings are good.

I think that the things that help me the most were peer response and discussion. I have never been able to talk with much people, and less in English, but here in this class I learned how to do it without feeling ashamed or insecure about me. The truth about sqrs is that I had never made an sqr before. When the teacher told us to write an sqr, I felt that my world was coming down because I had no idea about what an sqr was. After we were told what they were I did my best to make them the way the were supposed to be. Peer response and discussions helped me a lot because they helped me to feel more confident about what I write and read.

The experience I got from my projects is something very important to me because those were the first projects that I made as an student of an school where English is the main language. I must confess that I was very exited about my first project because I felt that it was like some kind of game or something, I didn't see it like a challenge or something like that. I used to think while making my first project as something fun, I wasn't scared at all.

Of course I had some problems like all of us may have had, but I faced them and I did pretty well after that. I faced problems with my writing structure and also I wasn't confident enough about my writing. With my projects I had some issues with making the interviews because I had no idea of what kind of questions should I ask, but I guess that those problems are the responsible of giving me experience about writing, reading and learning, which made me a better writer.

At last but not least I must say thank you to all of you people of english 1320/1301 :) it was an awesome experience, it was the best writing class ever! Thanks for all the discussions, talks, revisions, laughs and experiences we had together. You helped me a lot and I did learn a lot from all of you. I hope that you never forget what you learned and never give up :D remember we are all writers, no matter what others may say...