Assignment 26: Sofi Tzouanakis

I don't really think my review is going to be that useful, but I have to write it, so here goes. I thought this class was one of my favorite classes of junior year. I don't think I'm the best writer in the whole Academy, but English is generally one of my favorite subjects, so I tend to like English no matter what. And I did! I loved doing these blog posts, which may not seem obvious since I turned many in late, but I truly did. They're a great way to get the creative juices flowing and to find refuge in all the math and science homework (ew). It was also fun to go through other's blog posts, as some were absolutely ridiculous/funny/stupid.

Socratic seminars were good when we all could speak in a group. I didn't enjoy doing them on the computer; I find it harder to give genuine feedback when reading it on my own and without the aid of other's feedback to work off of. I feel like I may be alone in that fact, but everyone has different preferences.

The practice tests always sucked because they were on Fridays and we're 6th hour, but they were useful for tracking progress and were not absolutely dreadful.

Vocabulary was fine, but I wished we went over the words in class a little before the test, or we were told when the tests were going to be. I generally didn't study because I could not definitively schedule a time to study, because it always felt like an assignment in another class was more imminent, so I'd push it to the next day but oh!, the vocab test turned out being the next day. I guess it's more of a me problem, but I do feel if I knew when the vocab tests were I could at least study a little.

Summer reading was good! I like reading though, so I'm in the minority there. I hated The Wal-Mart Effect though. You could've written "capitalism" on a piece of paper and written a bunch of silly anecdotes, and it would've been the exact same thing as The Wal-Mart Effect.

Overall, this class was great and I thought you were a great teacher. Your teaching style melded well with my tendency to like "lecture style" teaching. Also, you're a pretty cool guy. Expect a request from me to write my recommendation (just warning you!). But really, thanks for a great junior year.