My literacy experience begins at my house, a two-story house with a big living room.

In the living room my mom, a teacher of 27 years, would help me learn letters and words and began my experience of reading and learning. My mom would spent time with me every day teaching me letters, numbers, and some words. By doing this she really started my learning early which was a positive thing because by the time I went to kindergarten I already knew how to do most of the things that others were just now learning. I remember my mom giving me a sheet of paper that she kept of my first taught attempt to write. It said, I love you mom. I went back after she passed away and went through all of my schoolwork she kept and the feeling that, that was the first thing I wrote was overwhelming. Now this was not incredibly legible but it was the first thing that I learned to write. My mom had impacted my reading and writing so much but affected how I did my schoolwork over elementary and middle school years. In 5th grade my mom was diagnosed with malignant cancer, a lot of responsibility was placed on me to help with the family and balance schoolwork as a twelve year old this was hard. I worked hard for the years she was with me trying to make her proud, but at the end of eighth grade she passed away. I was 14 and preparing to go to high school. I did not have a care in the world now to do well in school and my high school Grade Point Average suffered. My mom really valued her education holding a Master Degree and wanting more, she instilled the education value in my life but after losing her I lost that value. I was allowed because my mom passed away and previously worked at the high school I was attending the faculty felt sorry for me for my loss and moving out of my dads home that late assignments were overlooked and I slid by in high school. I was suffering with personal issues in ninth grade that made me think back to how my mom felt about the C I received in fourth grade and how that it devastated

her so I began in high school to start taking my schoolwork seriously and found out there were teachers who had a lot to offer to the students willing to accept it. Another factor that contributed to lack of interest was family issues with my father. When I turned 16 I moved out of my dads home due to conflicts. By myself I began to work along with go to school and because I had to fund everything I did, my attention was on forming a padded bank account to allow me not to return to my fathers home. I moved into my bosses upstairs that was not being used and paid rent and went to school during the days and worked for them after school and on some weekends. I was working at the daycare they owned, the fire department, and working on receiving my EMT-Basic certification. These jobs exposed me to the great men of the fire department I joined and created bonds that enabled me to stay focused on school even when I was overwhelmed. Things like moving out at age 16 really complicated my learning but also drove me to be better so I would not have to depend on anyone for my well being. Striving to do well in my English class was extra important because the rest came easy to me. English was difficult because of Attention Deficit Disorder and a slight stuttering disorder I had developed after the passing of my mom, which made writing a speech easy but not performing it okay. Attention Deficit Disorder was a known problem for me when I was younger but my mom kept me on track, the stuttering problem, as a grief therapist said would go away once I was further in the grieving process. This was a problem I had when I had to perform my senior project before three judges due to the ten minutes of speech explaining the product I had composed. My fourth grade classroom was a blank cinderblock room with a separated chalkboard and white board. No art or posters were on the walls to show the lack of personality of the old bitter Jan Langdon. Mrs. Langdon was an older English teacher who

has white curly hair and worn thick bifocal classes and dresses everyday. She would begin class with a mini lesson and would give us a topic, such as writing about the North Carolina State Fair, Halloween, and Christmas, and we would have to write for thirty minutes each day to prepare for the fourth grade-writing test. We sat in the standard row by column desk arrangement so there was a lack of group work and we were all standardized in her eyes as she taught and walked around. All AIG students occupied the classroom, Academically Intelligently Gifted, which meant everyone would be gone one day of the week to go to the AIG center in Smithfield. So by us missing one day we had twice the amount of work on the previous and next day so that we wouldnt fall behind. I truly felt punished for going to this program, even though it was for those that strove to be better we were getting more work and it was felt that we were supposed to succeed. Some of us were faster workers and would pull out other work for another subject. When we did this and did not get a 100 on the assignment she would call home and schedule a parent teacher conference. I made a 97 on the assignment and pulled out my science fair work and began working on it and I had my mom called. Of course, I had never gotten a C letter grade and never received one later in my life either but the work she assigned was too traditional and lacked originality which lost my interest. So due to lack of interest and Attention Deficit Disorder I received my first and only C in English. This grade was given to me due to the four papers that were two pages each I wrote about different topics, such as a story of a perfect week would be for me, the papers had some spelling and grammar problems I received 80 on the papers and received a C. My mom a teacher of AP Chemistry and Biology was livid so even though I could not turn in the assignments the way Mrs. Langdon wanted my mom realized I needed change and I could accomplish the work and produce a well

thought out product she changed my teacher for me for the rest of the year. I received a new teacher and his teachings were more relaxed and the classroom was arranged in groups of four spread out around the room. Mr. Melvin was a newly graduate and new the new ways to writing and how to entertain the young minds that he taught. Mr. Melvin would take our writings and give us points for the writings we did. I wrote poems and long fictional stories and received 15-20 for completion. You had to reach 400 points in order to receive an A. The walls of his classroom were covered in motivational posters, and students work to represent the outstanding efforts of the students involved in the class. Unlike the helpful nature of Mrs. Westbrook, my junior year in high school I was assigned the cool teacher, Mr. Orr, the relaxed and didnt have a care teacher. We would start novels in this class and halfway through take a test then he would cease the reading and begin watching the movie. This was a fun class but not what honors English should be. No one in the class questioned this we just expected nothing and knew we would receive an A or B. The students in the class were all excited to be in this class because the other classes were having to write papers, while we watched Star Trek, The Simpsons, and Big Bang Theory. This was detrimental to all of the students in the class, we had to construct our Junior Papers that later was the basis of our Senior Project. We would work on our papers in class but didnt know if we were doing anything wrong. Mr. Orr would assign different topics for free write which was actually a good thing in my opinion because it allowed everyone to discuss topics that interested them instead of a set topic that someone might not feel strongly about. By having free write sessions I experienced a passion for writing that enabled me to better my writing skills. The paper was assigned to us to be done in MLA format and at least 8 pages with a bibliography. Many of the students in my class

began as soon as our first day was assigned for us to begin, unlike my friends and myself we would get Mr. Orr on tangents about working out. His room was covered in workout motivational posters, his cabinets had pre-workouts and protein on them, and the room reeked of chicken from his lunch every day. It was obvious that even though he was not motivated to be teaching he was motivated to be healthy and in shape. So I used this to my advantage knowing he loved to workout. I used the simplest topic for my paper, Weightlifting and the importance of safety. I meaninglessly wrote the eight page paper in two days and when it was time to turn in the papers the class turned the papers that some worked hard on, others slacked off and we all received a PASS, except one person who never showed up to class. By having this standard PASS/FAIL stamp that would be on our work those who tried extremely hard to please him began to slack off due to the standardize PASS. This class really destroyed my English ability and caused the turmoil in my senior year with workload and discipline. Twelfth grade the senior class was brought into the auditorium of my 4AA sized school, and was told that three of the four teachers have decided to leave and that only two have been replaced. There was only one that taught honors, Mrs. Westbrook. I was assigned to her class and at first I hated the class due to the workload and self-reliability to succeed was on you. Her class was covered in previous students work, her diplomas, Masters Degree from ECU and Bachelors at UNC Chapel Hill, and inspiring posters that could grab the students attention to note them and use them in life such as themes as: determination, self interested learning, growing, etc. and unlike Mr. Orr she had the passion and work ethic that backed up her motivational and determination posters. Mrs. Westbrook wore many types of colors so to say, she had so many different personalities but this made this class

interesting because she would try and appeal to anyone and everyone in her class. She would relate different topics of her life to give personal experiences for our class to be able to relate. At first due to my walk through on high school I tried to cause the teacher not to want to teach, by mini-rants, meaningless questions. But one day, she called me outside of the classroom during class to set and example but really what she was doing was trying to gain the respect of the leader of the class. I realized due to my involvement in the Executive Student Government, varsity football captain, and other clubs and rolls throughout high school, that I was her key to helping her. By doing this I realized that she knew what she was trying for us to achieve. I began doing my work and reading every passage and became the example student. Soon others in my class began to do the same and gave Mrs. Westbrook the respect she deserved. I started an interest in the books she assigned and read them cover-to-cover unlike other classes where I would ask others right before the class and I could regurgitate the information. I gained an inferable reading ability, due to her test being the type that you cant use spark notes or clifnotes. I have to think about what the author was trying to tell when he/she wrote the novel. I gained a lot from this class and this modern teaching style. Mrs. Westbrook would often give us our assignment and expect it to be done while we also were working on our Senior Project that is mandatory to graduate. I would spend my lunches in her room working on my project and gaining ideas of how I should write my product log and be able to present my product, product log, and presentation before the three random judges. She worked with me in order for me to be able to give the correct thought process that would show the amount of time and effort I had put forth for my product. I had thought that the project was the

hardest part of high school all four years but it was easier thanks to my teacher Mrs. Westbrook. All of the people involved in my literacy path to success were not positive influences, but majority were. My mom started me early so that I would be ahead of the game when it came to education. Teachers such as Mrs. Westbrook really shaped my education into what it should be for every student I learned so much in her class compared to other classes I took in high school, such as I developed a study habit that was not needed before because I slid by in school because my mom taught with the teachers I had so they were relaxed with me and my situation. Writing papers, developing a speech to educate the audience, and by the building blocks set forth by my mom I have developed so much over the past 19 years of my life.