Educators, paper # 2

When you think about it just from K-12^th grade, we have quite a few different teachers and subjects. The first seven years are just one per year then your last six years you have most likely six different teachers for each period of the day, and that adds up to 43 different educators. So how do you pick out just two to compare or contrast, or how do you pick any if you feel as if every last one of them are just “average”. Throughout the years I have encountered many teachers, I haven’t had 43 in those 13 years, but pretty close. I grew up mostly in Poulsbo, I had only attended a school in Spokane for about 2 years and I can’t remember either of those teachers at all. My memories of classes are quite faint, not many teachers really stood out in anyway and if they did it isn’t because of a whole year filled of different experiences. I never really observed their teaching methods until now, quite a few years later. How was I to pick a couple teachers who made enough of an impression to write about them? When it came down to it I thought of my 8^th grade English/social studies teacher Mrs. B and my 9^th/10^th grade math teacher Mr. D.          

                When I think of a good teacher I think of one that of course gets their point across clearly and affectively but also will make a connection with their students, because they genuinely care about them and their education. Why would you want to spend your life teaching if you truly didn’t care if people learned whatever it may be, I’m sure as an educator you accept that some people just aren’t willing but you try to help them. With that said I think Mrs. B has been a perfect example of an excellent teacher. She is one of the most upbeat and vibrant teachers I have ever encountered. The atmosphere that she had created made her classroom nothing but comfortable. She could almost make you feel as if you were her friend, but of course she kept her teacher boundary. She had been one of my favorite teachers because of these aspects. When it comes to conversation in general I don’t usually feel comfortable and I like to lock up and keep to myself, but she had a way to not only force us to talk but make me feel complacent with her group discussion times. She had shown us she care for us as students and people.

                Not many teachers had taken their class out of the traditional classroom setting, but in Mrs. B’s class at least once a week we got the opportunity to have our group discussions in what was called “the pit” at Poulsbo Junior High (or what is now Poulsbo Middle School). When we had our discussions about whatever our topic was we each had our chance to say something, or we were more like forced to say something. Everyone had their own turns as we passed around the circle Mrs. B’s favorite stuffed monkey called “Moe”. Usually these situations made and still can make me feel very uneasy but with Mrs. B’s comforting personality it made the group feel more at ease and less judgemental than the average classroom aura.

                Many teachers didn’t really send off any sort of vibe to me that they even slightly cared about each individual student and their educations, I get it there are hundreds of students and they all come and go throughout the years, so why should they care? To most it just seemed like it was their 9-5 job, their paycheck and that’s all that mattered. I know this isn’t the nicest thing to say about my many teachers but it is unfortunately how it felt. In some way Mrs. B made me realize teachers really do care though. It may be a strange memory but I still remember I had this light blue shirt I used to wear that had “I need a hug” written on it with the picture of a drawn puppy. My friend who was also in Mrs. B’s class always begged me to wear it, just because at the time she thought it was so cute. Well, one day I was wearing that in class and Mrs. B brought the whole class out onto the balcony to have one BIG group hug just because. With how shy I am it was almost strange but I will never forget it because it made me feel cared about. When she created these small connections it encouraged me to focus on the topic of her class and feel comfortable with my surroundings, which is very important.

                When it comes to bad teachers, they don’t necessarily have to be unknowledgeable about their topics but just about the way they approach teaching them. Mr. D had been a very nice man just like most of the teachers but he didn’t seem to care much about teaching his subject, which was math of different levels. I feel almost unfortunate that I had him two years in a row, almost as if I was missing out on some education I had deserved, the reason I was attending school to begin with. To me there was never a true focus on the math we were supposed to be learning and my time sometimes felt virtually useless.

                Everyone knew how to distract him, just how to hit the perfect buttons for the teenagers. A vast majority of students had only wanted to be at school because of the social aspect and didn’t entirely care about what they were learning. So to those students his class was just the right fit.  Every day was pretty much the same old story, we arrived and then someone would bring up an “interest” in submarines so he would spend his whole day talking about them and same went for football or the navy. That was great if you want to hear about how enthused he is about these subjects and maybe learn a little about them but it was entirely against the purpose of our class time.

                One day we spent our whole class period talking about how Mr. D had been on a crazy long wait list for the brand new tickle me Elmo. He was so enthusiastic about that thing like it brought him back to his childhood and maybe it really did. The day he got his new toy he brought it straight into class to show it off to everyone. So we spent another half of a period just laughing at it watching it roll and laugh over and over again. Little did he know the whole class was laughing so hard because it looked very inappropriate and it was a classroom full of teenagers who can’t control themselves from these thoughts.

                Unfortunately I feel as if Mr. D’s class was when I started to drift away from school. Nobody in high school seemed to care about their education, so why should I? Well, that’s not exactly what I was thinking but I started to feel like what is the point of going to class if we were never going to learn anything. When I was in class I had taught myself everything from the book while he babbled his nonsense. Which I eventually converted my education over to PAL, which was parent assisted learning and basically just homeschooling with a once a week meeting with my advisor.

                Mrs. B and Mr. D are excellent examples to me of teachers who are very friendly but one who can be that as well as keep their class in line and get her points across or in other words a fantastic teacher and the other who can’t quite control himself or his students and doesn’t really teach much of his school subject, which in the end makes him a bad teacher. There have been many situations throughout my school years that I’m sure could classify a teacher one way or another or just as average but with the fact that I have not been paying a lot of attention to them as teachers, not a lot of moments have truly stood out to me like these two classes.

Mama Bear

How I Learned To Become a Mother

          What does being a mother mean? Well, I’m sure to a lot of people the word mother can mean a few different things. Unfortunately to some it is just a word, most every woman has the ability to bear a child but that doesn’t mean they have the natural skills or desire to be a mom. To me, when I think of my mom I think of the most loving person I have ever known. Her love is so unconditional and she has always made sure to be there for every one of her children or family members through thick and thin as long as I can remember. She always made a point to acknowledge us and make us feel like our birthdays were special or on Christmas no one was any more favored than the other. I aspire to love and nurture my son Kaeden as well as she had my three brothers and me. To me, a mom is someone who will always be there for you, help guide you through life and help you grow.

                In my own experience I am still learning to become the best mother I can be nearly every day. There are so many aspects to being a mom, and a great one at that. Patience is a big aspect when it comes to parenting. Some days you just want to pull your hair out with the crazy fits or constantly getting into the things they’re not supposed to. But to be honest it makes it all a little more interesting, gives it a little more depth. There are days where it appears that nothing is even possible to make them happy and days where there is constantly poopy diapers or even while they are younger there is spit up all over and in places you didn’t even know. Once they become mobile things are all over the place and the house is more to maintain, and some days it can get frustrating. Patience is definitely something you need to learn while being a mother if you weren’t a very patient person to begin with. When you read this, it doesn’t really sound like a lot of fun but it is oddly wonderful. It’s amazing how you can experience so many things you never would want to deal with but you do because for some reason your child is now the most important thing in the world.

                Another part of being an amazing mother is the unconditional love. Like I have stated above there are so many experiences that sometimes can get overwhelming but there are also so many that make your heart melt. I’d say that we are very lucky parents who have a wonderful son who is full of personality and little quirks, he definitely has his bad days like any one year old, or human being for that matter, but typically he is a happy, fun, loving, independent and calm baby. Sometimes I felt as if I missed out in the beginning of his life. I personally had to get induced 11 days early because I had come down with a bad case of preeclampsia. As stated on Wikipedia “Pre-eclampsia or preeclampsia is a medical condition characterized by high blood pressure and significant amounts of protein in the urine in a pregnant woman.” I had been induced because my blood pressure was just refusing to decrease and it was important to get our baby out before it caused anymore danger to him or me. I had been on an iv rack full of things flowing into my blood and I was constantly out of it for a full 4 days. The day Kaeden was born is unforgettable but I feel like I missed out on that magical feeling some people describe because of my medications. The first two weeks were awfully hard to care for him or myself being so out of it with lack of sleep and food but we made it through both as healthy as can be. Honestly, when it comes down to it, I’m starting to realize I didn’t miss out on anything. With this past year I have realized I could never love anyone as much or in the way that I love him. With or without that first moment I still feel crazy amounts of happiness when I see him.

                Now I have the natural feeling to protect my little one. Sometimes it can feel so silly to be so protective and say no about so many things, but a baby doesn’t really know any better. While writing this paper I had been in the library sitting by the fire and I over hear a mother walking by with her two young children. The kids were so enthused by something so simple and this mother showed perfect example of protecting her children. She let them get near it to watch it yet she so simply told them to stand back because it was very hot. The little girl continued to get closer and try to touch it like just about any young toddler would and so the mom had to step in a pull her back. The girl had begun to cry and it’s always a little hard to hear that but it was for the best. With a child you are always on alert to make sure nothing will go wrong, but still encouraging them to learn new things. I decided to share this story because it took place into mine. I as well as probably every mother would have taken the same steps this one did.

                From the very beginning of becoming a mother you have to learn self-sacrifice. You need to learn how and when to give up your personal life. While being pregnant my first sacrifice was all the food in my stomach, dear god I was sick for the first three months straight. Then I had to give up caffeine, which was probably just best for me anyways. After Kaeden was born I then had to give up sleep, oh boy was this one hard for me, sleep was one of my favorite things and I got pretty close to none of it. I also had to give up hanging out or even partying with friends, which I guess wasn’t entirely hard because I was already a homebody. As he got older and was awake for longer periods of time it took from any personal time we had and as he became mobile we had to become more alert. As time goes on we are starting to sacrifice our ears for he has all his talking and musical toys going off constantly. All of this is worth the sacrifice to help our little one grow and learn and I’m sure most moms would agree.

                Every day is a new challenge, yet another opportunity to help Kaeden learn new things. It is all so exciting, every first thing he has ever done has brought so much joy it’s almost like he became my very own talking (or babbling) toy. I don’t think I can ever forget the first time he reached for something, rolled from front to back, said dada, crawled, walked, said mama, and now kitty. It’s incredible to watch and be a part of a human being becoming more of a person. This journey will be a constant one and I could never be more excited.

Malcolm X, Franklin & Rose

All of these were about their educational experiences, just like our papers. I think that they did a good job expressing their struggle or training in the topics they had wrote about. They are all about their own lives and they have a different feel to all of them. I think that I enjoyed Malcolm X’s paper the most because it was personally the easiest to read and I found it most interesting for what he had accomplished. It took a lot of drive for him to learn to read on his own. He didn’t really know where to start or exactly what he needed to learn which I can relate to when it comes to learning most things on my own or even making a decision on where to begin. So I like where it begins to talk about how he started his journey saying “I spent two days just riffling uncertainly through the dictionary’s pages. I’d never realized so many words existed! I didn’t know which words I needed to learn. Finally, just to start some kind of action, I began copying.” It also inspires me about his dedication to learning, how he had even snuck reading in the middle of the night from the guards while he was supposed to be asleep.  I never would think about someone not being able to do something like read, I can understand not being able to retain information while reading sometimes because honestly I have a hard time with that, but I can usually get it down after reading over a couple times if I need to. Reading is just a normal part of the average person’s life, and for someone to get by not knowing how is crazy to me. But it’s is amazing that he was able to teach himself to read and read well.

My response to Mike Rose’s “I Just Wanna Be Average”

1.       It was pretty unfortunate that his test results had been swapped with another Rose and made him get put into Voc. Ed. To me it sounded like his two years there had been pretty miserable and that the teachers didn’t really care a whole lot about these students education. I couldn’t say that I can really relate to any of these classes though, fortunately in this day and age we don’t get beat in classrooms. I could say that I have at least had a teacher for a couple years that didn’t really seem to care or maybe just didn’t know how to teach the students which made me feel like I had missed out on some critical steps and pushed me to try and learn as much as I could on my own.

2.       In this setting it caused Rose and his fellow students to not get the extra attention that they possibly needed to meet and exceed educational expectations. Which I’m sure can also make it hard to be more social when you don’t feel as if you know as much as an average person.

3.       I think that high school is so disorienting to students like Ken Harvey because it is a whole new experience. Unfortunately a majority of people segregate themselves and create “clicks” in the school setting and that can scare some people to think they do not belong and they just want to fit in. For Ken he had coped with it by accepting who he was by rejecting the annoyance and the feeling of being lost and relying on his common sense.

4.       In college you have to learn to truly make your own decisions and become more of an adult. Sometimes it can be disorientating because of nerves. For me sometimes the social aspect of life can be a little bit scary and with college, like high school, you have some assignments that force you to be more outgoing and even stand in front of a class. Sometimes for someone like me that situation can make you shut down and maybe even lose your thoughts.

5.       In some situations I have felt a little shorthanded on my education, like something has been missing. I honestly probably didn’t put forth as much effort as I really should have though. Sometimes it has all been easier to accept being average and not to go above and beyond.

Cubing our writing.

When we cubed a topic together it lets us see our subject different perspectives.

Describing something means we have to look for what defines it, what makes it its own, by explaining what it may do, its shape or possibly size. When analyzing it lets us look deeper into the subject and figure out what it is made out of. If we compare it we can see what and how things are similar to it. When we apply it we look at what the topic is useful for. Associating it is a lot like comparing by seeing what it is connected to. And last, but not least we can argue for or against it depending on our point of view.

When we did this exercise in the class it let us get different information about the same things from each other, and that can help to see what others think or know about the subject to obtain more knowledge or possibly know how to reconstruct our own papers to relate to a bigger audience.
With that being said, I will use some of these sides of the cube to analyze my possible subjects for the first paper this quarter, which once again are; the responsibility and experience of the job world or what I have learned from my first year of motherhood.

The Work World -

Describing :: To start off I work at Dairy Queen. I have been there since I was 16, so a bit over 5 years. My position is a supervisor and that just means I have to make sure everything runs accordingly, moneys pulled, people get breaks, count the food order, and so on. I never saw it happening but my boss has taught me so much and I am treated well there, so I have stuck around. I know I aspire to make it farther than I have and learn more to better myself. Ultimately it's stable and very flexible while I get school going and making sure my child is taken care of.

Compare :: I could compare my life starting out at 16 in the job world and what it has made me become today. I would say in some ways I started off with a pretty bad work ethic. Everyone was friends and it was fairly easy to just joke around and not be to serious about it all, after all, I'm sure some people looked at it like it was just fast food. But when it comes down to it, you are still serving a customer and to do that you need to make sure things are prepared and of course clean. As I grew up I started to realize that workings not necessarily just a hang out place, I mean, she was paying us for a reason right? And that was to work. :) It's funny because now it can almost drive me insane when nothing is getting done and there is nothing to distract the employees, don't get me wrong, social interaction is good though and it keeps the crew like its own little family, but we still have tasks to tackle.

Apply :: I can use the skills I have and continue to receive working as a leader and a good employee in general. This job has taught me to be able to have simple human interaction at the very least. I have learned many things about making decisions or sometimes even having to say things when you don't necessarily want to. I have learned to keep busy in a work environment and always try to help out. Also, to try to always push yourself to learn more and grow as a person.

Mama Bear -

Describing :: The last year has been remarkable. I have experienced firsthand a lot of things people have said about parenting. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I'm sure I will be learning more and more as the years go on. It's funny how a practically lifeless newborn can keep you up more hours of a day more than a toddler. With the fascination of "I created that?", and well, the constant hunger, peeing, pooping and burping. It's still mind boggling that we can reproduce and help a life form. My son is one year old and it is incredible to see how much he learns and grows practically every day. I never knew one could love someone so much.

Associate :: I can associate being a parent with some of the lessons I have learned about myself in the process. I need to be more confident in my decisions, be comfortable in asking for help and possibly strange for a parent but, not worry so much.

Apply :: Each and every one of the things I listed in the associate part I can use for real life as well as being a parent. To be a leader in the work place and home I need to be confident in my decisions or I will be hard to follow, you have to know what you're doing. Everyone needs some help from time to time, even if it's just a simple "can you do the dishes tonight?". In my experience as a mother it's very hard to do on your own, and why do it alone when you have your partner right there? For the ones who don't have the father around they usually have some family or friends that are willing to help in some sort of way. As far as worrying goes, well I worry about anything and everything, all the time. I couldn't tell you why, maybe I just get anxious. But I have learned I need to catch myself and realize earlier that whatever it may be is not a big deal and there is no need to stress about it.

It really helps to prewrite

Well, I'm still not even positive on my topic  but prewriting will and has taken quite a big place in the process of getting this paper on the road. So far I started to write multiple papers on my possible topics and each time I'm either coming up with more ideas or ways to change what I've already got. It has helped me even discover some things I have learned about myself or just in general throughout my experiences. Like Alice said in her blog, that ideas seem to flow a lot easier from free writing and I feel like that is the process I am taking when prewriting. It is important to get a clear idea of what you are going to write  about and how you will explain it, and to do that, it is helpful to make lists of what your points are going to be and maybe even what about them. When it comes to writing I think that a majority, if not all, of people have known the idea of prewriting basically their whole lives. Its instilled in our brains from our young school days and will help us in any presentation.

What makes the first paper "A" worthy?

To be a successful paper and short story it will need to be about an important educational experience we have had in our lives. From there it is important that we express how and what got us to what we have learned.  For it to be a good story we will need to find a way to relate to a majority of people to be able to take in their attention and keep them reading, to make that possible we will need to make sure it is interesting and easy for the average reader. We need to add facts about our lives but not get extremely personal. The paper needs to be 1200-1500 words, and to make sure it is in a proper MLS style. It has been awhile since I have written anything and I hope that I can share a story from my informal educational life that will be interesting and factual from my personal experience. To me it seems like a lot of us are still a little unclear of what our topic will even be yet. I know I keep constantly been battling myself between a couple topics. We will get there (or will have to soon!).

Responding to Malcolm X

This short story Malcolm X's "Learning to Read" relates to our first paper this quarter like the first two papers we read. In this he explains in a chronological story how he learned to read. He had truly wanted to be able to read and understand things but also wanted to be able to show himself more in the letters he had wrote. He talks about how everyday he would read a page of the dictionary over and over again just to make sure he understood it completely. In this you can just feel and see the emotion and the drive he had. He sucks you into reading this article because he can relate to the readers with having the desire to learn and shares his significant educational experience from his life. I hope that one day I will have great desire and drive to learn something specific, a passion for a hobby or career. I always envy those who know what they want and got their life on that track early. Not that I'm not interested in anything but it inspires me to see and feel how dedicated some people are and the accomplishments as well as self gratitude that come from it. I think that being able to bring your readers in and keep their attention is a big importance in writing.

Models and topic

                Well,this is all new to me, can't say I've been in the blogging world before but Ithink I could like it! Even if writing isn't my thing.

                To behonest, I'm not entirely sure how these two education narratives are going tohelp me yet. Nonetheless both are good at introducing their topics andexplaining how and why they achieved what they did. I also feel like they havea way to relate to a majority, at the same time narrowing it down to one topicthat maybe not everyone is interested in. Such as, to program a computer youhave to be interested but beyond that you need to practice practice practice!Just like, well, a lot of skills. Then, just about everyone has used google andthis guy makes you think twice about how much information you are putting outthere, but you might not have any interest still in quitting google any timesoon.

                Withthat said, maybe I'll use these papers as models by using specific examples of "what?"or "how?". Maybe I'll try to use some of the same format and go in chronologicalorder explaining the steps I took and what outcome I have received from eachaction.

                I'llthink of my official topic soon. Maybe I'll write about the things I've learnedin my child's first year, or the responsibilities and outcomes from my firstand current job, who knows it could even end up something completely different.Well, we will just see how this goes! Happy blogging :)