I suppose there is something to be said for a good solid routine. First of all, when one establishes a routine, he or she needn’t think too much; everything just seems to fall into place day after day after day. Once we have our routine down, it simply becomes a matter of setting it in motion and watching everything unfold just as it did the time before and the time before that. Not only do we avoid thinking too much, but we also eliminate that cursed need to demonstrate creativity. Who needs that hassle? In grammar school, teachers taught us the importance of memorization and strict adherence to the order of events. In history, “In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” In music, “Every-good-boy-does-fine.” In writing, “Put ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’”. By the time we made it to junior high school we had been convinced that there was one way to do something, and to try something new was out of the question. Is this still our attitude toward education and life in general? I carried this point of view with me through elementary school, junior high, high school, and through five years in the Army. Writing, especially, had been tedious for me. Called upon to write anything, I began with an outline. I used the same format I had been taught in seventh grade, and I adhered to it. I used the basic rules of grammar I had learned-never realizing that grammar was evolving nor realizing the purpose of what I was doing. I wrote using words that I recalled from vocabulary lists. And, I never dared be creative. My writing was dull, dry, and as uninteresting to read as it had been to compose. So there it was; I hated writing. A freshman at 23 years old, I was required to take the traditional English 101 course a... ... middle of paper ... ...uppose that it is as easy to fall into a routine while teaching as it is while working an assembly line. I mean, for crying out loud, who is a teacher but a worker on an assembly line who gets to touch a student for a relatively short time before he or she moves along the educational conveyer belt to the next teacher in line. Some teachers recognize that things may not be as they should, but rather than slow down the flow of the line, they watch as misinformed and under-educated students are conveyed in front of their eyes. As educators, it is our responsibility to recognize when the line should be slowed down or even stopped. It might seem as though we are taking up the slack for other workers who have not done their jobs properly, but teaching is a challenge, which cannot be evenly distributed. A teacher not up to challenge, perhaps, has chosen the wrong occupation.
Throughout my childhood, I had a very strong dislike for writing and reading. I found it boring and unexciting. As I progressed through elementary school, each writing assignment always came back with a mediocre to poor grade and to be honest, I didn’t really care because I disliked writing so much, so it meant nothing to me. Even throughout middle school, I didn’t care. Because all grades in elementary and middle school didn’t count towards anything, so I just didn’t put in the effort. I got bored so easily when completing a writing prompt for the state standardized testing exam called CSAP, later known as TCAP, then progressing to become PARCC. Writing just never appealed to me.
Before this quarter started I was fairly confident that I had what it took to ace English 101. After the first paper, I realized I was mistaken. Throughout this quarter I have had numerous problems with my writing that proved I needed to do a little more studying to help take my writing to the college level. Although I did not fail any of my papers, there was plenty of room for improvement. All the areas I needed to improve on are all areas that I think every English 101 student should know. I believe that every student at the college level should know how to cite sources correctly, know how to use good transitions, and know how to properly elaborate their examples.
My first college English class was ENC 1101 at the State College of Florida. In this course, I learned a vast amount of information about writing, reading, and grammar. When I first walked into ENC 1101 in August, I expected the class to be like any other English class in High School; with rushed busy work and a lot of useless tests and quizzes. However, throughout each week of the semester, Professor Knutsen’s class made me beg to differ. This class was not like any other high school English class. In this class I actually learned important information and did not do work just to complete it. This class had a few assignments here and there, enough to maintain, in order to learn proper information. I learned a lot in this class because I was not rushed to
In John Gatto’s essay “Against Schools” he states from experience as a school teacher that are current educational system is at fault (148). He claims that classrooms are often filled with boredom manufactured by repetitive class work and unenthusiastic teachings. Students are not actively engaged and challenged by their work and more often than not they have either already covered the concepts taught in class or they just do not understand what is being taught to them. The children contained in classrooms have come to believe that their teachers are not all that knowledgeable about the subjects that they are teaching and this advances their apathy towards education. The teachers also feel disadvantaged while fulfilling their roles as teachers because the students often bring rude and careless attitudes to class. Teachers often wish to change the curriculums that are set for students in order to create a more effective lesson plan, but they are restricted by strict regulations and consequences that bind them to their compulsory teachings (148-149). An active illustration of John Gatto’s perspective on our educational system can be found in Mike Rose’s essay “I Just Wanna Be Average” (157). Throughout this piece of literature the author Mike Rose describes the kind of education he received while undergoing teachings in the vocational track. During Mike’s vocational experiences he was taught by teachers that were inexperienced and poorly trained in the subjects they taught. As a result, their lesson plan and the assignments they prepared for class were not designed to proficiently teach students anything practical. For example, the curriculum of Mike Rose’s English class for the entire semester consisted of the repeated reading of ...
English composition has always been a weak point for me. I despised the thought of having to write down my thoughts on paper in a manner that was appropriate for my teachers. English 1301 introduced me to a new tool to soothe those crazy thoughts through stream of conscious writing. At first I was very skeptical, but it proved to be valuable in understanding that I had more knowledge of the topic of discussion than was realized. Although that tool helped tremendously, it did nothing to quell the quality of my procrastination skills. In high school, I completed most of my homework at the last minute. Coming into college, that clearly could no longer be the case but it still stuck. One concept that utilized my procrastination skills to my advantage was peer review. Peer review forced me to write all of my essays ahead of time in order to make the grade. Not only did it help with my procrastination, it also gave me lots of feedback on my writing. During the narrative essay draft one, I was given a lot of revisionary advice, and that was due to the fact that I wrote the paper at the last minute. Knowing that, when it came time to write the argumentative essay I spent more time actually putting better grammar and diction into my essay because I did not want my peers to think any less of me academically. As
English 101 is one of the most common college courses in the world. When I enrolled in the class, I was bothered that I would have spend forty hours in a freshman writing class; along with at least another forty hours throughout the semester writing for the class. What surprised me, was that when I began writing my essays I was not annoyed or bothered; I actually enjoyed the assignments. Most importantly, throughout the course of the semester, I have become a better writer and have ultimately met the course goals of English 101.
Once this becomes the norm for teachers they tend to become uninteresting, and students are the ones reaping the consequences. Rose acknowledged this cycle of learning apathy, writing, “But mostly the teachers had no idea of how to engage the imaginations of us kids who were scuttling along at the bottom of the pond”(1989, p.2).
There are occasions when teachers rather go by the book and never go out of the box because it will seem too much work for them to do. The teacher of Mike Rose would mention he had been teaching for two years and he clearly had not real life experiences. He did not know how to handle his students and rather go by the book than making it interesting for them. In Mike Rose, short story, “I Just Wanna Be Average” he states, “I developed further into a mediocre student and a somnambulant problem solver, and that affected the subjects I did have the wherewithal to handle.” (126) Mike did not have any more energy to do anything because the teacher cannot handle on making the subject good for him to understand. The teacher did not have any experience in making the class interesting or involving for the students. When there is a good teacher there must be some experience and involvement that can connect them to the real world, but at the same time be compassionate. It shows how some teachers have no expectations for their students to learn and rather be lazy about it and have them fail. Like Mike states, in his story that some parents did not know if they student were being taught correctly or how he was placed on the wrong level classes and had to stay there for two years. It also shows
Writing is a process I’ve grown to despise. Ever since grade school, I’ve had problems trying to express my ideas on paper. My writing process involves thinking about what’s being asked and trying to reflect my thoughts the best way I can on paper, but my thoughts don’t always come out as clear as I want them to be sometimes leaving a question not fully answered. My writing process isn’t a consistent set in stone process, but since being in ENC 1101 I always follow some of the same parameters such as revising my drafts, grammar usage and considering context and audience.
Once I reached high school my love for writing dimmed. I was taught a formula on how to write the perfect essay. The dreaded five paragraph essay was engraved in my brain: An intro with a hook, a thesis, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Constantly being told my creativity wasn’t formal, so when I wrote papers it was more facts and evidence and less short stories and experiences. My writing became dull to me and reading over my papers and stories was a dread because I could see the drastic amount of lost creativity. Although I still received high praise it felt as if the papers I was writing wasn’t
The section goes into detail about practices that have been designed to prepare future teachers. In chapter one, Feiman-Nemser discusses three phases of learning to teach: preservice education programs, induction, and on the job experience. She makes three arguments that serve to set the tone for the remainder of the section. First, she argues that the manner in which teachers learn to teach in a preparation program does not agree with what professionals know about learning. Principally, many preservice programs ignore basics of learning while preparing teachers for their future classroom. Secondly, the author discusses how unintended lessons may contribute more to a person’s classroom philosophy than formal courses. For example, a teacher may learn steps that are convenient or helpful, which are not based on best practices. Teachers often learn how to manage a classroom based on experience or observation, but it may not be the best way to handle the situation. The preservice program often contains an element of practicum and student teaching, which can be effective, but can also lead to bad habits based on short-sighted goals and incorrect observations and experiences. The first chapter also investigates the induction phase and identifies differences of thought and implementation that can hinder a program’s effectiveness. Finally, the author discusses the in-service
Habits of the Creative Minds is a simple textbook with a particular twist. I began reading the book thinking it was going to be a basic textbook, but the author,Richard E. Miller and Ann Jurecic, changed the tone of the book and put it into a metaphor. This metaphor was about the reader in your writing, or for anyone reading should feel like Alice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The reader should be reading, and figuratively fall into the reading, by this the authors means the reader should not want to put that book down. They should be engulfed in the book and read from cover to cover. The attention must be maintained and the best way to do this is by making the writing unique. The authors of this book puts
Being a teacher is not an easy task as many people could think. To be a teacher does not only imply to know the subject to be taught, it also includes being willing to constantly improve oneself integrally, as much as updating the resources and materials one uses in teaching. Reflecting and analyzing over and over again the best way to teach to learn and how to make students to extend what has been learned. The many hours spend in the classroom will never be enough to plan lessons, prepare materials, review pupils tasks and exams, as well, all the administrative requirements one has to cover for whatever institution we work. Besides all this a good teacher, a professional one, will have to find the time to keep preparing to improve oneself.
My class was ENG 100. I hoped that this would be an easy class. The teacher handed out the syllabus and explained what we had to do for the rest of the semester. First, we had to get a laptop, since the class was a “hybrid class”.
In today’s classroom, the teacher is no longer viewed as the sole custodian of knowledge. The role of a teacher has evolved into being amongst one of the sources of information allowing students to become active learners, whilst developing and widening their skills. Needless to say, learning has no borders – even for the teacher. One of the strongest beliefs which I cling to with regards to teaching is that, teaching never stops and a teacher must always possess the same eagerness as a student. Through several interactions with other teachers, I always strive for new ideas, techniques, teaching styles and strategies that I might add to my pedagogical knowledge. Furthermore, through personal reflection, feedback and evaluation...