Honors Class Reflection

I started taking honors type classes in third grade, when my elementary school had an optional class for gifted students to assist in developing our problem solving and literature skills. From fourth through seventh grade I was homeschooled. The curriculum I was using was more advanced and more involved personally than what I'd experienced in my regular elementary school classes. It wasn't simply a classroom where I was handed a packet of work and the teacher walked away. I was allowed to talk through my work and analyze my ideas deeper, instead of simply doing questions by rote, which helped greatly in learning more complicated subjects instead of only memorizing them. As I entered back into public school in the 8th grade, I was immediately placed in honors classes, which continued the more in-depth aspect of my lessons. Concepts were analyzed and I was encouraged to ask questions,

I was never simply given a worksheet. Instead, I was told to share my ideas on a subject with a group to form collective opinions as opposed to being fed a lesson word-by-word from a book. This further inspection of my lessons allowed me to genuinely retain information I was taught, making sure I truly learned instead of repeating back information mechanically. All of my advanced classes I was involved in abetted my love of learning, which is why I'm also looking forward to honors classes in college. They will allow me to learn in a way that has proven to be more effective for me. Also, I have found that honors teachers tend to be far more involved with their students than what is considered usual, which engages me far more in a classroom. Assistance and personal attention from teachers allows me to grow in my knowledge, in addition to making the class feel more involved and useful. Contrary to this, regular classrooms feel a lot more cold and impersonal, which has never been a suitable environment for