Something that I thought was extremely interesting this year was how the teachers who have visited my teachers during freshman year became the teachers I had this year. During Ms. Chaicharee’s class, Mr. Barrati visited our class multiple times, and even though I thought he was Mr. Nelson, particularly because he just looked like he’d be named Mr. Nelson, I soon learned the following school year that he would be my AP European History teacher. I think one thing I took into consideration as the year went by was that the teachers that visited my current teachers, at the time, had to be good teachers. It’s stupid, but I thought that if my teachers were friendly towards those specific teachers to the point of random classroom visits, they would be just as amazing as them. 

The one teacher visit that I found most memorable was Mr. Wilton and Mr. Theriault. I remember Mr. Theriault checking out our class during the first period as we seemed to be having a lot of fun in Mr. Wilton’s class. What made this interaction so memorable was when both teachers were playfully teasing each other and that’s when Mr. Wilton retorted with “Go back to your arts and crafts.” I honestly thought it was just a joke and had no relation to anything. The following school year, when I received my class schedule, I noticed my English teacher was named Mr. Theriault. The funny thing is, I also thought that Mr. Theriault was someone else, assuming that his name was Mr. Patton, although I’m not quite sure why this time. After walking into the first period, when we started finding our assigned seats, Mr. Theriault seemed quite intimidating to be honest, but I definitely recognized him. 

Later on, we started on our first class activity which I thought was very interesting because it all started out with drawings and coloring. Yes, we eventually moved on to taking less artsy notes, but every few activities or so, we’d have activities regarding something related to the arts. Despite taking less visual notes depending on the unit, he always tried incorporating some sort of visual note or activity that had more care put into it. There was always a correlation to the art pieces or writing pieces we’ve made. I’ve always felt grateful to be in this class because I got to experience other forms of writing through art which made it feel more meaningful. 

More recently, we began watching videos about play and people such as Isamu Noguchi, who tried to incorporate more intricate designs toward the originally bland and redundant playground. While writing out the notes for this assignment, I also got to draw pictures which really helped me stay engaged with the videos and podcast as it can be rather difficult to not lose track of what’s going on within a podcast. 

Those notes lead to the following activity where yesterday, we made our own imaginary friends. At first it seemed a little difficult as my ideas toward how the character would look were too open ended and I wanted to create something that I would be proud of no matter what as I’ve regretted many projects and creations, wishing that I made the piece better for whatever the reason might be. After creating my character, “Shelby,” I was very proud of it. She was extremely cute and had traits that I felt truly resonated with me and my interests. However, at around 8 pm, I decided to check the discussion board for our imaginary friends, thinking that it was due today. I soon realized that my presentation on Shelby was due in about 30 minutes. As I answered every single question asked on the assignment page, I began switching things around and further developing Shelby’s story. What made this stand out to me was how my imagination began spiraling into making this character which was originally just a cute character who was just made for an assignment. Don’t worry, I submitted the discussion on time, but I was in a sense relieved with how imaginative I was at that moment, as I felt that my creativity was “slipping away.”

Overall, Mr Theriault’s class has been so much fun, but one thing that I always complained about was how difficult it was for me to think of a good story and how I never felt creative enough for such an idea-filled class. I felt as though all my stories were edgy and so emotionally strung that it just felt “cringe.” I always felt that my pieces poured out my feelings but never in the right way, but seeing how I felt while writing out Shelby’s story helped me feel as though my creativity was still there. It made me feel like I could still write and that even though my previous stories were horrible, they were still a part of me and that I could still write stories. Even though it seems rather odd that the activities we’ve done in Mr. Theriault’s class are more involved with art, and with less grammar mechanics or the stereotypical things you’d learn in English class, Mr. Theriault’s class has slowly opened me into being more creative. His attempt in making a more playful classroom definitely helped tackle the challenge of creative writing, and I thank him for that, because the AP test doesn’t just ask for research papers.