Kids have no idea how revealing their conversations are. One kid who, to put it politely, is a reluctant learner, used a term I’d never heard before. I kept listening, because the group of boys sitting around him in the lunch room seemed to know exactly what he was talking about.

After lunch, I casually asked him what MMA clothing was. He pointed to his shirt, which had words and symbols on it that made no sense to me. So I asked what MMA stood for. This answer, the kid knew: Mixed Martial Arts.

This “new” combat sport combines a mixture of all martial arts. I did some research and learned that MMA is related to the ancient Greek sport pankration. Now there’s a way to reach a reluctant learner when studying ancient Greece and its culture. But first you’ve got to overhear, ask questions and understand as a teacher.

My first task as a teacher’s aide is to correct a huge stack of essays from a grade 9 class.  The teacher thought it would be appropriate for me to try my hand at correcting the classes dissertations and see in what capacity I would be able to help her out in.

This will be my first time correcting any assignment and I hope it goes smoothly.  I think I will have to develop some sort of routine as to how much time I will spend correcting each paper and what criteria I am looking for in the assignment.

I have been told that I need to make sure that the students include a thesis statement in their essay that ties in with the topic.  I’ve also been given the marking guide as to what the teacher expects for the certain grade ranges.

Hopefully things will go smoothly and I will be able to get them done in a timely matter.

While I usually enjoy writing essays, some of the essays that were assigned to me this term were good and bad.  Some were designed to expand your horizons and increase your ability to think, while others were basically a waste of time.  Let me share with you some thoughts on those essays that I thought were good or bad over the term.

My favorite essays are wrote were an arts essay studying pottery designs from Egypt and a management essay that studied the effect of hiring techniques in small business firms.  Both of these studies open my mind to new areas that I had never considered studying before.  It was nice to have the opportunity to develop opinions and thoughts in these areas. 

What I really didn’t care for was a sociology essay that was assigned to us to study the causes of divorce in America.  I found that we might have been too young to understand the implications or relate to the material.  Also, with the large attention that the media gives to this topic, it turned out that we’re really did not learn anything "new" in this area of study.  I was very disappointed that my sociology class turned out the way it did.

I am so proud of my daughter. She is working on her admission essay for college, as she is going to finish high school a year early. She has worked hard for this, as her best friend is a year older than her and they wanted to go to college together. She has been planning for this since they were in junior high school.

She has written so many book reports over the past few years and has given up many fun things that kids her age are doing, so that she could stay home and study and be able to graduate a year ahead of the rest of her class. I think that she is very relieved that it is almost over and I think the effort that she put into this will have her better prepared for college.

Even though she will be younger than the rest of the first year students, she will have the edge, as she certainly knows about studying and deadlines. She will not be one of those people scrounging to find a custom essay because they don’t have time to write it for themselves.

I remember back in college when I wrote my very first psychology essay and got a very poor mark on it.  I didn’t understand as I had always had good grades on my papers in high school.  I knew that my writing had not changed so I was curious as to what had happened.

I decided the best thing to do would be to get some essay assistance from a student who had been in college for more than just a few months like I had been.  I wanted to know why the grading was so much different in college than it was in high school.

I figured that I was not going to be able to cut it in college, as I had tried my best on a paper and I had failed.  I figured that if I was going to make it through and get a degree that I was going to have to buy essay papers from the Internet.

Luckily for me, I didn’t have to stoop to this level, as I eventually learned what the professors wanted and I started writing good essays.

With only one more assignment to go, I am getting very excited that the school year is almost over.  Though it has been long, long term, it will be so nice to finally be done.  Though it has been a good year, it is always nice to have a break.

All I have left to do is write a philosophy essay.  The nice thing will be that I have my choice of essay topics so that it should be easier - at least in theory.

Anyway, I figure that it will take a couple of days of writing to do a good quality job on the essay, and that will be it.  I guess it will be bittersweet when I write those last few words - it will be so great to be done.

Well, I’ll be done writing anyway… I will still have some finals to write as well.

With the increasing tuition rates, students are forced to work jobs during the school year just to make ends meat.  The results of working are usually negative, with many students ending up with lower grades.

Instead of getting your college degree by attending a regular school, many students are turning to the Internet to get their college degrees online.  Perhaps the biggest benefit of learning through these means is that you can work on your courses and assignments whenever you want.  There are no set class times, nor any long commute to get to the university.

I have been looking to see what kind of degrees are available online.  I found colleges that offer online paralegal degrees as well as business degrees online.

So if you find yourself needing to work, but you would like to go to school and further your career, consider getting your degree online.  It is much more convenient to have the opportunity to study in your own home.

I am currently working on my application essay for college. I did not think that it would be as hard as it is and I am putting as much effort into it as I can. I wish that I would have started it sooner, as I am working on it in the midst of studying for exams and trying to finish other assignments.

I have decided to go with the online essay, as they are usually processed faster than the ones that get mailed in. I figure that this will give me a little bit more time to work on it and I won’t be feeling so rushed. It is a fairly new feature that the college has and I have to say that I was relieved to see that I had this option.

I am also currently working on a big research paper for one of my science classes. It is worth forty percent of my final grade, so I am trying to do a really good job on it. I think that I am doing alright, but we will see if I am able to tie it all together properly. In a few short weeks, I will be done with both and I will finally be able to breathe again.

I was recently asked if I would be willing to help out in the student writing center and help my fellow students to write their research papers.  The reason that I was asked was because of the mark I received on a term paper that I had submitted from English class.  The professor was so impressed with the work that he suggested that I could help of my fellow students work on their writing.

For the first few days that I helped out, I was helping some students in a first-year English class write their book reports on the Great Gatsby.  I had also read that book in my first year of college so wasn’t very hard for me to offer some opinions on their work.

It was a little more challenging for me to help on papers that I had no background knowledge of but I helped the students out where I could.  I think that this teaching experience will turn into a good learning experience for me as I feel that you can learn more by sharing what you know them by keeping it all to yourself.

When I was preparing to teach my very first university class, I was so nervous. I was worried that the students wouldn’t respect me and that I would either assign too much or too little coursework for them to do over the semester.

I decided that for my first class that I was going to assign two essays and gauge from there whether I would need to assign more the next time. I put together a list of topics that the students could choose from. I wanted the topics to be something that would interest me, as I would have to read all of these when it came time to hand out grades.

I was very impressed with my first class of students. They were all very nice to me and I believe that they respected me as their leader. They had great essay writing skills and I found it to be a great joy to read their papers. In fact, I believe that this class did far better than any class that I have taught since.