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Elementary Writing....The Longest Name in the Class
I remember surprisingly vividly practicing my writing
out on a picnic table in my backyard. I remember singing the letters to my
name like they did on Sesame Street and writing my name over and over
while I was in preschool. My dad used to tease me and say “your name is
so long it’s bigger than you”. Unlike other children I had to learn space
management at an early age. While other names like Max or Sue could easily
fit on the space that was assig ned for the name, Mary Bridget often
trailed off the line and looked scrunched on the paper. I had to adjust
my letters to make them look neat and full. Despite the trouble it
caused, I still loved my name and I loved it because it was original and people never forgot it once they learned it. I didn’t fade in with the
Katie’s and Jenny’s and I liked it that way. Although it was long and a
pain to learn to write with that silent d in there, I would not trade it
for the world.
The Letter People..... The Best Year Ever
Another one of my favorite memories was The Letter
People. I will never forget coloring new letters each week and hearing
their story. Whether it was T with the tall teeth or E Ms. Exercise, I
always looked forward to learning about the new letters and watching the
letter people movies. My favorite day of Kindergarten was the Letter
People Parade. On that day all the Kindergarteners walked down the halls
dressed up as their favorite letter person. I was Ms. A Achoo! I had
Kleenex pasted on poster board with a big A in the middle. My hair was in
pigtails and as I walked by all the parents and older students I felt
pride in my costume and my letter. I will always remember that memory, and
I will definitely remember my mom taking a million pictures.
Primary Grades..... Creative Musings and Lined Paper
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When I was younger I always wanted to be creative and
original. When I was assigned writing assignments I would think long and
hard of something original that nobody else in the class would do. My
stories were often crazy and unpredictable and I loved them that way. I
would think of crazy plots and characters in my journal and sometimes my
ideas were just
 plain weird. An example of this was near Halloween in
second grade. We were told to come up with an imaginary monster and write
about what he was like and what made him scary. While other children wrote
about monsters that hid in their closets I chose to write about a big
cement wall that scared anyone who went by it by sneezing loudly. Looking
back I cannot believe that I chose that to write about and my teacher must
have thought I was a nut case. However a sneezing wall is a pretty scary
thing, so I guess I wasn’t too off base. I always did not like the lined paper
they gave us to write on. No matter how hard I tried my handwriting never
looked as good as the teachers. However, I did like cursive writing and I
tried to teach everyone I met how to do it. I would write short stories in
cursive and make covers for them and try to make them look like
professional books. When we went to fourth grade and we started using
erasable pens and the lined paper was gone I thought I had reached the
height of adulthood, I was not a baby anymore.
Junior High....Compositions and Grammar
Beginning in my seventh grade year, my teacher Mrs.
Phoenix began to teach us how to write a composition. She gave us topics
to write about, vocabulary books to work on and sentences to diagram. For
two years my English skills were honed in this way. After that experience
I have become extremely handy at naming
 nouns, direct objects and
fragments. Although she was opinionated and strict, she was the best grade
school teacher I had ever had in the English Department. Even though I
have had pretty decent training in grammar, I still never feel comfortable
with my writing. I always feel that it is inadequate and unprofessional.
Many of my English teachers in high school taught me the ins and outs of
thesis writing but I still feel a little in the dark about argumentative
writing. I am always very concerned that I do not have enough support of
my statements in writing and am often nervous before I turn in a paper.
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