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My grandfather wanted me and my brother to learn Chinese poems. To motivate us, he would pay us $10 for every poem. We had a lot of fun learning these poems from him.
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In fourth grade every student wrote a book containing a moral. The moral of my story was "one rotten apple spoils the whole bunch." I loved this assignment. We even got to write an "About the Author" page.
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In fifth grade, every student wrote a book explaining some event in life. I wrote about how when the gods were angry, they created the thunderstorms that we have through their fits of rage.
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My father was worried about my verbal skills falling behind that of my classmates. He decided to encourage me to read by paying me one dollar for every book I read. Of course, he started me off with "Gone with the Wind." 1000 pages for a measly dollar! I thoroughly enjoyed it that I read every book that he recommended thereafter.
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For high school English class, every student had to write an autobiography. The autobiographies contained several type-written chapters. Thankfully we had a computer back then and did not have to use a typewriter for the assignment. I particularly enjoyed this writing assignment and have reread it on several occasions since its completion.
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I earned a high enough score on my SAT verbal to get admitted into the Phillips Exeter summer program. My parents at that time threatened that if I did not get in, they would send me to military school. That summer, I took a writing course at Exeter, which I enjoyed.
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In English class, as a group project we wrote about gum. Our project was presented so that on each stick of gum, we had one part of the written assignment. My writing part covered the life of a piece of gum, including being chewed up then trodden upon while stuck to the bottom of a shoe. I still have this project safely tucked away in my memory box.
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In graduate school, one of the toughest and most comprehensive assignments was to write a complete unit of study. Wanting to certify in physics, I centered my unit around the study of the mechanics of motion. The unit of study included all the lessons, summative and formative assessments to be used in its implementation.
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In the summer of 2003 after I passed my physics Praxis exam for teaching, I decided to relax. I finished reading "The Lord of the Rings" series in two weeks.
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Beginning in 2013, I started reading "The Lord of the Rings" with my 8-year old son. We agreed to finish the books before we watched the movies.
