essay 3 final draft

Riley Stueven

Essay #3

In the grander scheme of things, teachers are without a doubt one of the most important figures you have in your life. In addition to watching over us through the majority of our adolescence, they are in fact one of the greatest molders of our lives. They begin to mold and shape us at a fairly young age, teach us the values of hard work and discipline, and impart endearing tidbits of wisdom that stick with us the rest of our lives. There are many fine educators in the world, and while in my opinion they are already underpaid, they are also greatly underappreciated. A successful educator shouldn’t merely be a babysitter; they should allow the student to develop interests on their own, and encourage the student to ask questions. This essay will be focusing on what I would do personally as an educator, and how I would choose to educate a group of young students similar to the movie Chalk (Mike Akel, 2006). I would begin with treating the students more like adults, making the curriculum more hands-on, and incorporating the schoolwork into the students everyday lives.

      To begin with, let’s say the students are in junior high. They are at that awkward phase of their life where they wish to be treated like adults, but they can also still be somewhat lacking in maturity and difficult to deal with. One of the most important things to consider is how you interact with and treat your students, but also how you portray yourself while in front of them. Speaking to them in a patronizing manner could easily make them feel frustrated, so instead I would take a different approach and speak to them like adults; I would be up front and honest with them about everything, positive or negative, and in turn this would allow them to respect me more because I’m trying to actually be on their same level, not on some kind of pedestal. I would try to incorporate class meetings, and let every person’s voice be heard. Hopefully, the students would learn to respect me as an adult, a teacher, and as a friend. The important thing, however, is to not be too friendly. I wouldn’t want the students to walk all over me and think they could get away with it, as seen in the movie Chalk. I wouldn’t pester them about their homework, because I would make it abundantly clear that it’s their responsibility to turn it in on time. Another thing to keep in mind would be my confidence level. As demonstrated in the movie Chalk, one of the teachers acted nervous and incompetent around his students, and as a result, they tore him apart. They didn’t respect simply because he didn’t give them any reason to, and they soon came to the realization that they could walk all over him because he wouldn’t fight back or punish them in any meaningful way.

      Another aspect of successful teaching I would employ would be to make the curriculum a lot more hands-on than anything I experienced in junior high. And yes, textbooks and standardized tests are integral to a successful school district, but I would want to go beyond just the minimum requirements. For example, if I were teaching a unit on marine biology, I would take the students on a field trip to a large aquarium or museum, so they could see up close all the things they might be reading about in their books. It makes much more of an impact on a person if they can see the subject with their own eyes rather than just reading a boring paragraph about it in a textbook. Also, I would try to get the students actually interested in the curriculum. I can’t count the number of times I fell asleep in class, simply because nothing I was hearing or seeing interested me in the slightest. A boring subject might not give an accurate representation of a student’s abilities, because when their interest is piqued, a student will actually put forth a lot more effort because the subject actually excites them.

      In addition to the methods previously mentioned, another way I would get my students interested in the class would be to incorporate the work into their everyday lives. Rather than have them simply read about some person in a book who died hundreds of years before they were born, I would rather have them utilize things in their everyday lives to help them with their schoolwork. For example, they could keep track of everything they eat in a month, and I could show them how using this information teaches them good organizational skills, how to keep track of calories and nutrients if they ever wanted to diet, and if they kept track of the costs of all the items, that in itself could be a lesson on budgeting themselves for food when they eventually move out on their own. The aspect of all this that I would want them to realize is not the material that I’m teaching them, but the connection between everything they’re learning and how it directly affects their lives. Reading out of a history book shouldn’t just be to learn of past events; it should show how the world is forever changed by important events and people, and while the students might not want to think about it, they in fact are the future, and someday will fill the history books for others to read.

      Although this was previously mentioned, I feel I should reiterate to emphasize the importance of the relationship between the teacher and the student. While I would want to be looked at by my students as a teacher and mentor figure, that can’t be the only thing they would see me as. If I were just considered their teacher, nothing more, then they would essentially only look to me for advice involving their schoolwork. If I can reach out to my students and actually make a connection with them, then eventually they might feel comfortable enough with coming to me for advice in their everyday lives. After all, I would be spending a large amount of time with these students, and the more I can help them through their adolescent years, the better. These years can be some of the most awkward, tension-filled, and embarrassing moments in a person’s life, as they are just beginning to figure out who they really are and come into their own. My job, as an educator, wouldn’t simply be to go through the motions, and help them slide by in their classes and move onto the next year. I would want to help them develop as young adults, and use the knowledge and advice gained from me in order to help improve their lives long after I’ve taught them.

      Essentially, the most important factor in the success of my classroom would be the approach I would take in their curriculum. If I can’t get them interested in education, I fear they may become disassociated with their high school careers, and drop out before they have a chance to flourish. Similar to the movie Chalk, the students seemed to identify more with fun, happy-go-lucky teacher, who got on their level and approached them as a fellow human, rather than a stiff-necked and ‘proper’ approach. And at the end of the day, a good teacher learns just as much from their students as their students learn through them, and the key to this exchange is in the approach to communication.

Works Cited:

Chalk. Directed by Mike Akel. Performers: Chris Mass, Troy Schremmer, Janelle Schremmer, and Shannon Haragan. Virgil Films, 2006.

Gift of grit article post

I can agree with a large portion of what was written in the article. I agree that children should be nurtured at a young age in order to encourage growth, as this helps with their confidence and social skills. However, as mentioned in the article, there comes a time when this can be the downfall of many students as they find that the next grade level is much harder, and they might not be used to the difficulties they're now faced with. one thing that needs to remain present in a child's education is consistency. They need help from a younger age, yes, but they need to be gradually introduced to more stressful activities, as this will instill a stronger sense of a good work ethic and accomplishment.

Post on Smitherman's ideas

Geneva Smitherman's article really helped me to understand that language isn't simplay a form of communication; it can signify your age, your place of birth, and even your social status. It provides a representation of who you are, as well as your upbringing. Although, many people seemed to be judged too harshly based on their dialect. Like the saying goes, you can't teach an old dog new tricks, and it can prove difficult to try and reeducate someone and 'fix' their speech. An individual can be a well educated member of society, but some may pass them off as unimportant simply because their speech may seem different.

Teacher Comparison Essay, final draft

Riley Stueven

Teacher comparison essay

There are many types of teachers in the world. Many of them genuinely try to educate their students and impart messages of wisdom and intelligence, while others seem to just coast through the curriculum, hope their students understand the basics so they can pass the class, and simply wait for the nest paycheck. Then, there are the other teachers who truly break the mold, and attempt to truly connect with their students on a deeper level before they go out on their own into the world. In this comparative essay, I will be examining two teachers that, while fictional, truly made a difference in their students’ lives and learned more about themselves in the process. Bill Rago, portrayed by Danny DeVito in Renaissance Man (Penny Marshall, 1994), and Dewey Finn, portrayed by Jack Black in School of Rock (Richard Linklater, 2003), are both people that have not taught before, and they are thrust out of their comfort zones in order to educate a group of individuals to make a quick buck, they both have an unorthodox method of teaching their students which is discouraged by the people who are in charge of them, and they both begin to identify with their students by sparking their interest in their own hobbies and looking at things from their students’ perspectives.

            Mr. Rago, for example, previously worked as an advertising consultant, but after missing an important meeting, he gets fired from his job. In order to keep a steady income, he takes up a job teaching soldiers at a military base that are deemed illiterate. These soldiers are referred to by everyone else on the base as Double D’s, or ‘dumb-as-dogshit’, which for some reason they seem happy to embrace. At first, he seems to hate his job and the base he works on, and his students aren’t exactly fond of him either. He soon begins to sympathize with them, because none of them are very smart and they don’t seem fit to be in the military; however, he soon sparks interest in them by reading his favorite book, Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare. They soon become enthralled with the story, and actually seem interested in the story.

            Dewey Finn, however, begins teaching under much different circumstances. After getting kicked out of his own band, he steals a substitute teaching job from his roommate, and is then assigned to teach young teenagers at a prep school. At first, he is uninterested in the students and their curriculum, and he simply gives them easy assignments to pass the time. After he watches them in band class, however, and sees their musical potential, he becomes enamored with them and changes his approach.

            In order to help his students fully appreciate the genius of Shakespeare (seeing as how they’ve never read any of his work before), Mr. Rago assigns each student a role in the story, and begins to go through the whole story with them, helping out with parts they may not understand. Their interest in the prose is peaked when he mentions the themes of love, betrayal, revenge, and incest. This approach is frowned upon by his students’ drill sergeant, because he doesn’t care about them learning poetry, he only wants them to be smart enough to make it through basic training, and considers his own physical training to be of the utmost importance. He doesn’t even allow Mr. Rago to administer a final exam on the grounds that most of them would fail and get kicked out of the army.

            Although they are at a high-end prep school, Dewey decides to teach his students through music. After bringing his various instruments to the classroom, he finds out which students is skilled at each instrument, and begins to form a makeshift band, with himself as the frontman. He devotes all their time to music rather than their normal subjects, a truth he has to hide from the other teachers and the dean. While this is not necessarily a proper teaching method, I’m asking that you suspend your disbelief on the grounds that it is a comedy, and not to be taken literally. Furthermore, he gives them a goal to work towards by signing them up for the battle of the bands at a local theater, against the wishes of the principle. Many of the children’s parents begin to question his motives when at a parent/teacher conference, he cannot accurately give them a description of the curriculum he has been teaching them.

            One of the shining examples of the integrity of these teachers is their ability to put themselves into the learning process and identify with their students on a deeper level. Mr. Rago, for example, gets his students interested in literature by reading them his favorite book, Hamlet. At first they don’t understand any of the passages, and wonder why it wasn’t written in plain English. He shows them through similes and metaphors the poetic beauty of the tale, and they all soon learn to appreciate the knowledge he is presenting them with. He even takes them to see a live showing of Hamlet, where they are all left speechless and totally engrossed in the play. He also begins to see that the students aren’t just dumb kids; after hearing the stories of their upbringing and listening to all the crap they had to go through, he understands that they simply weren’t given a fair chance. One student talks about his father who passed away in the Vietnam war, and how much he misses him, an experience that Mr. Rago is all too familiar with.

            Dewey’s approach is much more comical; after learning about his students’ playing abilities, he begins to question them on their musical preferences, and becomes enraged that they parents discourage them all from listening to rock and roll. His lectures begin to consist of rock history and analysis, he hands out different albums and explains that their homework is to simply listen to them, and he even begins to write songs with them that they’ll perform at their show. After learning that some students are being punished by their parents for listening to the music, he is determined to have the show go off without a hitch, prove that his students are good kids, and show the world that he is not a failure.

            The most important thing that these two teachers did was to put themselves in the process. By showing their true selves and their hobbies to their students, it allowed them to actually connect with them as human beings, not simply as teachers and students. And at the end of the day, they achieved what it means to be a successful teacher; you learn just as much from your students as they do from you.

Works Cited:

Renaissance Man. Directed by Penny Marshall. Performers: Danny DeVito, Gregory Hines, James Remar, Ed Begley Jr., and Mark Wahlberg. Touchstone Pictures, 1994.

School of Rock. Directed by Richard Linklater. Performers: Jack Black, Joan Cusack, Mike White, Sarah Silverman, and Miranda Cosgrove. Paramount Pictures, 2003.

Unit 2 rough draft

Riley Stueven

Teacher comparison essay

There are many types of teachers in the world. Many of them genuinely try to educate their students and impart messages of wisdom and intelligence, while others seem to just coast through the curriculum, hope their students understand the basics so they can pass the class, and simply wait for the nest paycheck. Then there are the other teachers who truly break the mold, and attempt to truly connect with their students on a deeper level before they go out on their own into the world. In this comparative essay, I will be examining two teachers that, while fictional, truly made a difference in their students’ lives and learned more about themselves in the process. Bill Rago, portrayed by Danny Devito in Renaissance man, and Dewey Finn, portrayed by Jack Black in School of Rock, are both people that have not taught before, and they are thrust out of their comfort zones in order to educate a group of individuals to make a quick buck, they both have an unorthodox method of teaching their students which is discouraged by the people who are in charge of them, and they both begin to identify with their students by sparking their interest in their own hobbies and looking at things from their students’ perspectives.

            Mr. Rago, for example, previously worked as an advertising consultant, but after missing an important meeting, he gets fired from his job. In order to keep a steady income, he takes up a job teaching soldiers at a military base that are deemed illiterate. These soldiers are referred to by everyone else on the base as Double D’s, or ‘dumb-as-dogshit’, which for some reason they seem happy to embrace. At first, he seems to hate his job and the base he works on, and his students aren’t exactly fond of him either. He soon begins to sympathize with them, because none of them are very smart and they don’t seem fit to be in the military; however, he soon sparks interest in them by reading his favorite book, Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare. They soon become enthralled with the story, and actually seem interested in the story.

            Dewey Finn, however, begins teaching under much different circumstances. After getting kicked out of his own band, he steals a substitute teaching job from his roommate, and is then assigned to teach young teenagers at a prep school. At first, he is uninterested in the students and their curriculum, and he simply gives them easy assignments to pass the time. After he watches them in band class, however, and sees their musical potential, he becomes enamored with them and changes his approach.

            In order to help his students fully appreciate the genius of Shakespeare (seeing as how they’ve never read any of his work before), Mr. Rago assigns each student a role in the story, and begins to go through the whole story with them, helping out with parts they may not understand. Their interest in the prose is peaked when he mentions the themes of love, betrayal, revenge, and incest. This approach is frowned upon by his students’ drill sergeant, because he doesn’t care about them learning poetry, he only wants them to be smart enough to make it through basic training, and considers his own physical training to be of the utmost importance. He doesn’t even allow Mr. Rago to administer a final exam on the grounds that most of them would fail and get kicked out of the army.

            Although they are at a high-end prep school, Dewey decides to teach his students through music. After bringing his various instruments to the classroom, he finds out which students is skilled at each instrument, and begins to form a makeshift band, with himself as the frontman. He devotes all their time to music rather than their normal subjects, a truth he has to hide from the other teachers and the dean. While this is not necessarily a proper teaching method, I’m asking that you suspend your disbelief on the grounds that it is a comedy, and not to be taken literally. Furthermore, he gives them a goal to work towards by signing them up for the battle of the bands at a local theater, against the wishes of the principle. Many of the children’s parents begin to question his motives when at a parent/teacher conference, he cannot accurately give them a description of the curriculum he has been teaching them.

            One of the shining examples of the integrity of these teachers is their ability to put themselves into the learning process and identify with their students on a deeper level. Mr. Rago, for example, gets his students interested in literature by reading them his favorite book, Hamlet. At first they don’t understand any of the passages, and wonder why it wasn’t written in plain English. He shows them through similes and metaphors the poetic beauty of the tale, and they all soon learn to appreciate the knowledge he is presenting them with. He even takes them to see a live showing of Hamlet, where they are all left speechless and totally engrossed in the play. He also begins to see that the students aren’t just dumb kids; after hearing the stories of their upbringing and listening to all the crap they had to go through, he understands that they simply weren’t given a fair chance. One student talks about his father who passed away in the Vietnam war, and how much he misses him, an experience that Mr. Rago is all too familiar with.

            Dewey’s approach is much more comical; after learning about his students’ playing abilities, he begins to question them on their musical preferences, and becomes enraged that they parents discourage them all from listening to rock and roll. His lectures begin to consist of rock history and analysis, he hands out different albums and explains that their homework is to simply listen to them, and he even begins to write songs with them that they’ll perform at their show. After learning that some students are being punished by their parents for listening to the music, he is determined to have the show go off without a hitch, prove that his students are good kids, and show the world that he is not a failure.

            The most important thing that these two teachers did was to put themselves in the process. By showing their true selves and their hobbies to their students, it allowed them to actually connect with them as human beings, not simply as teachers and students. And at the end of the day, they achieved what it means to be a successful teacher; you learn just as much from your students as they do from you.

How does Audre Lorde illustrate her teachers?

She showed what her teachers were like by giving as many examples that she could of what she looked like, and describing in detail how they treated the children. Describing how they acted gave a greater sense of what they were like, because you could get a better impression of who they really were and how good of a teacher they were (which they weren't). The teachers seemed uncaring and impatient, as shown by their treatment of her because she was blind, and how they would scold her for not following instructions, even if they went above and beyond.

what I value in a teacher and why

To have a successful teacher, you can't simply learn the material and repeat it back to your students. You have to have a commitment to the subject, but you also have to have a specific goal in mind; to truly educate your students, not just make sure they pass the class. You need to know your students, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and actually connect with them so that they respect you as an educator, not just some guy behind a desk. You have to want to see your students succeed, and you have to want to achieve that moment where everything clicks for them, and they finally understand and have a grasp on the material.

brainstorming ideas for paper 2

The continuing theme is education, although unit 2 seems to be more about observing the educators rather than analyzing the actual educational system. The idea so far is to pick two educators, real or fictional, and compare their methods. I haven't decided yet if I want to compare the strengths or weaknesses of these individuals, or if I even want to analyze real people or not. It's also still up in the air if I'm going to analyze public school teachers or other kinds of teachers.

Educational Experience essay

Riley Stueven

Educational Experience Essay

At the end of the day, you have to look back on everything you’ve accomplished. The majority of people would simply look back on what they succeeded in finishing, while others would look at the actual experience they went through in getting those things done. Most don’t realize this, but life is a journey, not just a destination. Every action you go through alters your being in one way or another, for better or for worse. Some might even argue that the process of accomplishing your goal and the experience you get from that is more important than achieving the goal itself. However, it all depends on the situation.

My greatest learning experience came from traveling to China with my youth group the summer before I went into ninth grade. I remember being excited for the trip many months before we actually had to depart. I had never left the country, so the thought of just jumping straight into a country like China seemed like a perfect opportunity to experience something new.

The first thing our group did was to take Mandarin classes together. We didn’t take very many of them, but the classes were sufficient enough to give us a sense of the dialect over there. Not many phrases have stuck with me, the only notable ones I remember being “No thank you, too expensive”, and “Where’s the restroom?” That was the first time in my life that I had begun to learn a foreign language, and it was difficult to say the least.

Packing for the trip was also a new experience; I had only previously packed for shorter trips around the country, but this warranted a smaller suitcase, clothes that I wouldn’t be afraid to lose, and passports and foreign currency. The plane trip was very interesting; it was a twelve-hour non-stop flight to South Korea, and on that flight had to learn new ways to keep myself from getting impatient.

After the plane trip, we spent the next day in South Korea before we took another, albeit shorter, flight to China, and boy was that a culture shock. Everything from the hundreds of people speaking a language I didn’t understand to the crowded streets and odd sights of the city threw me off guard. For the first time in my life, I was the stranger in a strange land (at least it was a strange land to me). We didn’t spend very long there, but I got to try my first taste of real Asian food: It was beyond delicious, but didn’t taste like anything I had eaten previously in my life.

The next day, we headed to China, and I can’t remember ever being that jetlagged before. As we wandered the city streets, it finally dawned on me that America wasn’t the ‘norm’, and other countries weren’t ‘foreign’. The world is such a huge and infinitely interesting place with so many interesting people in it, I finally decided to just bask in the diversity. I was suddenly trying foods I had never dared to eat before, and joining in events that I would’ve been embarrassed to participate in before.

That trip was also the first time I had ever had an interpreter in my life. In the majority of my travels, most people I had met spoke English. Now I was in a place where very few people actually spoke English, and even fewer spoke it well. I never realized how difficult it was to convey a message when you don’t know the language, and body language and speaking louder didn’t help the situation. I now have a deeper appreciation for other languages, as I find many to feel almost more poetical and beautiful.

Half the group that I went with I had also never met before, so it was interesting to try to get to know them amidst all the confusion. There was frustration abound, yes, but at the end of the day, everyone had to really work together in order to accomplish our goal. Our group’s goal was to help people in need, but I didn’t find out what we were specifically doing until halfway through the trip. Our goal was to help paint an old Chinese schoolhouse in one of the region’s more poverty stricken areas. This was the most eye-opening part of our whole trip. The village we traveled to was one of the most dilapidated areas I had ever seen. There was no plumbing or electricity, no motor vehicles, essentially no modern conveniences of any kind. Staying in that place for a few days and helping them paint their school made me appreciate all the things we have here in the western part of the world.

There was also the group of Chinese students we met. They were from the city, and we had met earlier that day. We were simply going to paint the school with them, but it was decided earlier that it would be a good opportunity for us to meet and get to know each other. They were all high school students, and they all conveniently spoke English (and rather well I might add). Meeting them was a very surreal experience. They were our same age, and they had many of the same interests and hobbies as us, despite living half the globe away.

They showed us around to all of their favorite places; restaurants, opera houses, arcades, bike rides, we did it all. But just as we were interested to learn about them, they were eager to learn about us. They thought everything about our culture was fascinating, and most of them wished to see our country. One interesting thing is that when we all went to paint the old school, they were just as surprised at the poverty in the area as we were. We got to know them all pretty well, and since the trip, I know many of them have actually started to go to school here in the states.

All of the scenery and sights in China intrigued me to no end. The forests almost had a mythical air to them, seeming to hide ancient secrets and knowledge. We visited the Great Wall, which pictures don’t do justice, and saw many buildings and structures which were older than our whole country. The interesting thing was that there was no graffiti of any kind on these structures; there was a sense of respect for these monoliths, and no one felt the need to desecrate them with modern slang or spray paint. It essentially made me feel very small in the world. These structures were made long before I was brought into this world, and they will remain long after I’m gone.

The trip was a revelation; it allowed me to see that all countries and continents are so varied in their cultures, and I shouldn’t look at foreign people with disdain; they’re not weird, they were just born in a different place. We should respect other peoples’ ideologies and traditions, rather than thinking they’re inferior to our own simply because they’re different.

I haven’t had the chance to travel the world since then, but I happily anticipate the day where I get to travel once again and experience the culture of another land. This experience will stay with me forever, and I feel like I’m now a better person because of what I’ve seen and learned.