Glad I signed up...

I signed up for this class because I needed a 3000-level english class and it fit my schedule. I would have never imagined I would get so much out of it, both educationally and personally.

I had a healthy respect for the power of language before and this course has only strengthened my respect. During my time as a newspaper reporter I learned how stating something incorrectly causes a million voicemails before 10 a.m. or how going to extra mile to make something genuine and sincere will make people you have never met seek you out for a hug. Unlike spoken words, which often fall from our mouths and die soonafter, the written or printed word is there forever and must hold its own.

I was happy to take a class with mostly future teachers. I think our generation has a lot of fresh ideas for teaching young people. As a big bro with two little sisters in the Texas school system, I'm encouraged to hear at least the young ladies in our class talking about how they want to mix things up in the classroom. The way kids are bombarded with images and ideas these days, they need teachers who were once in similar shoes and can reach them.

After absorbing all the theories we have discussed in class, the biggest thing I will take away is an increased awareness of subtext and underlying meaning in a literary work. I might want to write for a living and I think this course has added a new aspect to my juice. I have found myself thinking about the words I choose more carefully and it has made my writing projects this semester evolve into something more meaningful...I hope.

I'm not sure that I've taken a class outside my major where I had so few complaints, but honestly this course was fun. Not to sound too suck-uppy but I think the English dept. loses a great instructor when Dr. Garrison departs.