Beginning school was different for me compared to a normal student. Before starting school in the United States, i attended school in Jamaica. I was born and raised in Jamaica but only attended preschool while I lived there. After finishing preschool I had the opportunity to move to the United States to get a better education and so I did. I moved in with my aunt who lived in Virginia and attended school while i stayed with her. When i first arrived in Virgina everything was brand new to me and i did not speak proper english because i still spoked my native tongue called patwa. Patwa is simply english-based creole language with West African influences. On my first day of attending elementary school i was put into the first grade. I was really nervous because i did not know anyone and i was not used to the school system and how everything worked. Since i wasn't used to everything i was assigned someone to guide around school and through my day. The first class i attended was math and i knew the simply stuff like addition and subtraction so the work was alright to me. The one experience that i hated going through back then was introducing myself to people and making new friends. I tried everything to avoid doing it but ended up failing but it was a good thing i failed because i made a lot of friends during my time there. The reason why i said during my time there is because i didn't live in Virginia for a long time. It was so short that i wasn't able to finish off my school year and learn all the stuff i was supposed too. I missed out on a lot of education opportunities that could have helped me speak proper english faster and learn more material that i wouldn't of learn if i attended the first grade in Jamaica. I ended up moving to New Jersey to live with my mom and i had to begin the first grade over again. I believe moving to New Jersey and doing the first grade over again was the better experience for me because it was easier to make friends when i began school and the teachers took their time when teaching me making sure i understanding everything fully. Throughout my years in elementary school i learned so much that i know would take me longer to learn if i attended school in Jamaica but the best thing about my elementary years was that i learned how to speak proper english without my Jamaican slang. It's crazy because normally parents will have someone help their child practice speaking proper english who came from a different country but for me i didn't have that, i adopted it naturally from speaking to my friends and family members who also helped me throughout school. When coming to the conclusion of attending elementary school transitioning in becoming a middle schooler i was more advanced in english than math. I started to like writing and found it was easy for me to do, unlike math which started to get difficult for me and had to put in extra time to understand. I had enjoyed science also because there was so much i was able to learn and the small and easy experiments we did was very entertaining for me.
Transitioning to middle school was easy for me because i gotten used to living in america and understand the school system better. Middle school was way different than elementary school for me. I attended quibbletown middle school in Piscataway, New Jersey. Throughout middle school I believe that english and science were my favorite subjects. I really enjoyed both of those classes because i learned so much information and material that i never heard of before which i still remember now and i had hand on experience with many projects and experiments we did in my science classes. The reason i disliked math and history in middle school because for math things got very difficult to understand. Yea i knew the basics like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division but learning things like LDC & GCF, prime factors, absolute value, work with multiple operations, find principal and negative square roots, work with proportions, and estimations started to confuse me and was hard to understand quickly for me but i learned everything slowly. Math i can say is my least favorite subject from middle school until now in college. The reason i dislike history was because i didn't find a interest in learning about the 1900s and further in the past. I enjoyed learning about a few things for example the past wars and the holocaust which was very interesting to me. I believe i enjoyed english so much because it helped me with my writing skills. When i first moved here my writing skills were terrible and i couldn't spell words correctly. Middle school english taught me about literary analysis, critical thinking, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation, and writing skills. I also learned more polished elements of sentence structure, dependent and independent clauses, and work with parts of speech, including action, helping, transitive and intransitive verbs, adverbs and adjectives, and conjunctions. Learning all of things really helped me with writing paragraphs and responses that were assigned to me all the time. During my 7th grade year of middle school i decided to get tutored to help me with understanding all the different things i had to learn with math. I can honestly say that getting tutored was one of the best decision i made for my education personally because it helped me understanding different forms and material we had to learn so much clearer. I highly recommend students to get tutored when having difficulty with a particular subject because it really does help you understanding the information you need to learn more and it was a great experience also. After finishing my 7th grade year of middle school my mother decided she wanted to move out of Piscataway. She didn't want to move far because we had family that lived close to us and also i didn't want to lose my friends that i gotten so close with. We decided to move to South Plainfield, New Jersey which was only the town over from Piscataway. We picked South Plainfield because it was still close to our family members and the school system was better than Plainfields school system which was another town over from Piscataway. Beginning 8th grade year in another town and school district wasnt new for me and didn't make me nervous because i was used to moving and getting used to new school districts from my pass and also one of my friends from the same school i attended 7th grade year also moved to South Plainfield and was going to the same school with me. After completing my first month of 8th grade i noticed that it was that much new that i was learning that wouldn't have learned while living in Piscataway. In changing schools and getting ready to start high school i really started enjoying writing a lot and i started enjoying art and caught a interest in computers and technology. Nothing really changed for me that much during 8th grade year. I was focused in my work and was preparing for high school. I know i was ready for all the writing i would have to do and all work but i was also happen to learn new materials and information that would add on to what i already know. What i developed in english class throughout high school are analytical skills. As i progressed and started changing grades and going into different english courses the all revolved around reading novels, essays and other forms of literature. Also they required students to analyze, interpret and dissect written material in order to compare, contrast and discuss elements, like theme, characters and plot. Proficient writing skills are mandatory at this point as discussions of literature typically display in the form of an essay or research paper which in college there is a lot of. High school taught me the most of what i needed to learn and adapt for college. High school taught me the basic fundamentals to being a successful student. Some fundamentals were turning in assignments on time, time management, teamwork and bonding, following directions, having strong connection with other students and instructors, and organization. I believe that math will be my biggest academic challenge because i've always had a problem with math understanding different forms and lessons. I am willing to spend 15-30 hours per week on courses because i always have the energy and motivation to wake up and get to all my classes and since 8th grade year of middle school I have not missed at day of school. For this course it is important for me to successfully complete it because it shows that im prepared the rest of my 3 years in college and it gives me the information I need to benefit myself towards me having a successful college experience and future after college. I believe self confidence and being focused will help me be successful in my first year at Montclair State University