Dear Jane,
Sadly,we’re coming to an end,it’s weird me saying sadly because i’m usually happy when i’m done with my classes but this class taught me a lot.I haven’t been on campus yet but I can tell you for sure that if our class was on campus,it could’ve been 1000 times better but it was even fun taking it online.Looking back at this long semester,I’ve changed a lot from the way I started to now and even my laziness has changed and thank you for that.Let me tell you why,my first day attending the class,I thought it would be one of those classes,I can just open my laptop and go into zoom and mute myself and continue sleeping because on Mondays and Wednesdays. I usually started at 8 so by the time we had our class,I was exhausted so at first,I thought oh nice,i’ll just sleep later on in the semester.As classes came by and you calling on one each one of us even though, I never felt comfortable being called on to read but in this class,I felt like I was so comfortable in this class and like to thank you for that also.I told myself I have to be fully up and take the class because I might get called on to read or to answer a question at any point.I feel like you made me personally fully engaged by calling on random people for different things because I didn’t want to be called on and me and not being fully present .I started making a cup of coffee and rather than opening my laptop on the bed because I always felt like the environment you’re in effects you alot so I started sitting on my desk so I don’t feel sleepy.As the days went by,our class time was perfect and I made sure to sleep early to wake up ready for my class and that growth for me because i’m not going to lie being online has been a tough deal but your class has to taught me how to be fully ready and also fully ready to listen to a different song every class till 12:35 and present for a class!
At the beginning,I thought it’ll just be a class that i’ll try to get a good grade in but in the meantime I realized, that it’s not just a class to get a good grades in but to learn new things which is rare because many kids now all they care about is grades but not if you leave the class with skills that you’ll be using for the rest of your life.I improved a lot by now reading the my papers, I wrote in this class which was the formal letter and I thought I was just writing my goals down but like in paragraph form which wasn’t a bad start at all but I addressed how my parents deserve all the happiness and at the end of the semester we wrote our creative choices and you can tell the depth
and the specific examples I gave.I was so solid and not specific and the second pic which i used more imagery and more vibrant and that I learned in this class which is to engage the reader and not be boring because I wouldn’t want to read a 5 page paper and be bored so that’s something I learned to be vibrant and to make the reader there with you in every moment. At the beginning of the class,I was writing to fulfill the assignment’s requirement but I never thought about how the audience’s part is a very important part of the assignment too and that was because of our peer evaluation and that helped me grow a lot. Since,i started putting the audience in my mind ,my way of writing has completely changed.Now when I write i think to myself does this sound interesting enough and will the reader be engaged in what i’m saying and that was one of the main things I learned i this class.This was your comment on my creative choice and after I read your comment,I felt like I achieved something because the way I always write is not boring but solid with no feelings but now I have learned the only way to engage the reader is to put your feeling out there so that whoever is reading is there with you.The first picture was my Opd-Ed piece and that’s how solid it sounded even though i had the opportunity to make it sound more vibrant and better by giving details on how bad covid affected my dad and explain exactly how I felt rather then putting my feelings into the paper,i just wrote words such as depressed and sad and that for me now is solid because i need to make the reader feel how i was feeling through words.The second image shows how much you can imagine and that engaged you and my peer who read my assignment.I’ve learned when you put all your feeling out there,your reader would be interested in reading your paper and that has been something i was struggling with.
I’ve achieved many things but as well need to work on rereading my papers and that was one of my goals but I’d have to work on it because once you reread your paper you’ll find some grammatical errors because when other students reviewed my work the was on of the comments that was always there.
Another thing this class has taught me was to look closely at what other people have to say about my work so like in our peer review,I had a chance to see people’s work and how people’s minds are different and that their strategies can be useful to me while writing my pieces.I was also glad to have a class full of good smart people and all engaging to learn and that can help anyone because especially now that’s it’s online you feel like you’re kinda alone but those great people I’ve met in this class they made the class more and more interesting!Our guest speakers were something I’ve always looked for,when we had one because they were really interesting such as Felice Neals and she specifically made a change to my point of life.How she said that she said that she has been traveling and living life and that it is what it is.She has been going to different places and learning different languages and that’s one of my goals too.I want to learn new languages and go around and see different cultures and people.I felt the guest speaker that was hard during the class were all very cool people and that each one of them that came had a connection even if it was small.I also personally feel like I improved a lot as a writer and as a person because I was never afraid to express myself through our pieces or even in the class.Sometimes you asked me a question and I would respond with I don’t know or I’m not sure and you would just call on other person to answer the question.Many other professors won’t do that and that made me very comfortable in the class because it doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong or you don’t know but what matter is that you learn.It was truly a pleasure working with you, such a great person to work with and all my other peers.
Sincerely,
Nada Elhelbawy
