I really don't know how to express all those thoughts and feelings that rushed through me when we started 5th grade just on this piece of paper. But I will try to express as much as I can though it’s such a jumble of emotions.
Before I stepped into the class I wasn’t really nervous as some people might be. I mean.. yeah.. you don’t want not look bad on the first day, but I usually don’t care about that stuff. First impressions should be good. On the other hand, I don’t really care much about them and I dislike the
people that try so hard and give so much effort to give off good impressions. The reason is because I don’t like pretending to be this person I am not. Though some people may just be a model student, I am definitely not. I talk a lot during class, yes am agreeing on this fact, and when I pretend, my first impression to the kids is a teacher’s pet and I don’t like that kind to thing. Anyway, I didn’t really have butterflies flying around in my stomach. I actually was looking forward to class since PEAI was and still is my most favorite academy. On top of that I was curious about what we were going to learn.
When I saw the teacher I was instantly dying to know how good he taught the kids and what type of teacher he was. Now onto friends. I’ve been at PEAI since 2nd grade and most of the kids I knew were still in the same class as me so that made me really happy. There was a new girl named Irene and I was instantly friends with her. I had a pretty clear goal. Improve my skills but also enjoy the class. If you lack joy and interest, you won’t really learn much. Let’s act smart here. According to Rebecca Alber, "Engagement is a state of being willing to do difficult things, to take risks, to think deeply about issues and develop new solutions. ...Interest, happiness, joy, and desire are approach emotions. This state is one of increased dopamine levels, important for interest and learning." If you enjoy the subject you are learning you are bound to engage with the subject better than the other subjects you learn.
After a few minutes I was starting to look forward to my future classes because the teacher seemed to be intelligent and funny. Humor was one of the top priorities of mine. That’s where we get the “Ho Ho Ho” and the radiant smiles. And I knew that PT was a hilarious teacher. Also, the new girl, Irene seemed to be quite similar to me.
Giving my past self some handy advice, I’d say that 5th grade homework was a lot harder that the 4th grade homework. I actually didn’t expect to see such a jump. My mom couldn’t help me with most of it so I struggled with it at the very beginning, but as time passed on, I got pretty used to it. In addition, I would have warned myself about the literature tests. I suck at literature. I seal up my scores pretty well, but literature is this huge hole right in the middle of it. It sucks of every other talent just like a black-hole. My scores were extremely bad, the worst in class, but this as well as everything else improved greatly mostly because of our great teacher PT. Anyway, I wouldn’t have struggled so much if I had this useful advice. What a shame it is that I can’t foresee the future.
Wrapping up, this year was with no doubt awesome. I made new friends and had a nice time learning and improving, that’s for sure. I am also looking forward to next year.
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