Essay #3 Draft

           Teachers are an integral part of the K through 12 education system, without them there would not be one. As such, you would expect there to be some pretty extensive requirements to become a teacher. After all they are influencing future generations and therefore the future of this country. However, surprisingly the requirements to become a K through 12 teacher are just a bachelor’s degree and a teaching certificate. Now that’s better than no requirements at all, but again they affect apart of our future. Wouldn’t you want someone with that kind of power to be highly qualified? Therefore what needs to be added to our K through 12 education system is higher requirements and better training for teachers. The addition of these to our education system would end up solving numerous other problems.

            The higher requirements to become a teacher could be that you need at least a master’s degree and a teaching certificate. This would at least make it so that teachers would be more educated in their subject and therefore they would be able to teach the subject better. The better training for teachers could be training that is required before you start teaching. It could include learning creative and effective ways to teach classes to how to be prepared and organized for each class.

            Unfortunately in our education system we do have teachers that don’t know much about their subject, which ends up hurting the students. One of the problems that John Gatto presented in “Against School: How Public Education Cripples Our Kids, and Why” was that in our current education system kids are bored. In his article he explains that the reason the students were bored was because of the teachers. He writes, “[Students] said teachers didn’t seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren’t interested in learning more.” So since the students were not learning anything they were bored. If the higher requirements and better training for teachers was implemented, then this problem would be fixed. Through the extra requirements the teachers would have to know more about their subject and therefore would always be able to teach the students.

Another problem with our education system is that students don’t truly learn. This problem was brought up in Paolo Freire’s chapter “The Banking Concept of Education”. He writes “The student records, memorizes, and repeats these phrases without perceiving…” Anyone who has gone through the public K through 12 education system has experienced this at least once. Often times as students we will cram and memorize as much information as we can for a specific test, but then shortly after the test we forget the majority of it. This is not true learning. As Freire wrote, by doing this we do not actually perceive the information and as a result we forget it easily. In order to fix this problem we need better and more creative ways of teaching that don’t have students just memorizing information. The implementation of the higher requirements and better training for teachers would do just that. The extra training would provide teachers with ways of teaching that would help students perceive and fully understand the material.

Another problem with our education system is that it is not engaging or challenging enough. Mike Rose discusses this problem in his article “Mike Rose’s Resolution on Education”. In this Rose writes a list of improvements that need to be made to our education system. His number one improvement is “To have more young people get an engaging and challenging education.” This is very true and very important. An engaging education is critical because we are in the day and age where there are numerous distractions, from technology to other people. So an education that is not engaging will do very little because it will not have the students’ attention. A challenging education is very similar. It is critical as well, because if the material is not challenging then the students will not be engaged and will become bored. As a result they would most likely not learn much. The way to solve this problem is to use creative methods of teaching that keep the students engaged and at the same time challenge them. If the higher requirements and better training for teachers was added to the educational system, then we could fix this problem. They would provide the teachers with more knowledge, which would allow them to make the material challenging, and arm the teachers with engaging teaching methods.

Implementing the higher requirements and better training for teachers would also solve the issue of having unqualified or unprepared people working as teachers. We saw an unqualified teacher in the video Back in Black – Education Crisis, in which Tony Danza became an English teacher. He was very unorganized and one of his students even said, “I am actually very concerned he is not qualified to be an English teacher”. Another time that we saw unprepared teachers was in the movie Chalk. In this movie Mr. Lowrey was a first year history teacher, so he had no previous teaching experience. His nervousness and lack of experience showed as he was unprepared. The better training for teachers would help teachers like Mr. Lowrey because it would provide them with useful teaching methods.

Notes from Chalk

• 50 percent of teachers quite in their first three years
• Possible movie takes place in Texas
• Starts out on the first day of school 
• Mr. Lowrey - first year history teacher
• Mrs. Reddell - Assistant principal
• Mr. Stroope - third year history
• Coach Webb - second year PE
• Mr. Lowrey is not very prepared, awkward, stumbles a lot, tries to use humor but not very successful

What makes good teaching?

What people think makes good teaching is different for everyone. What I think makes good teaching is having someone who is very passionate about the subject they are teaching, because how is a kid suppose to be excited and want to learn if the person teaching them isn't excited or passionate. Also having a teacher that is very educated in the subject makes for good teaching. I'm sure a lot of us have had experiences where we are taught one thing and that becomes what we know, but then later on we find out that it was incorrect.

Practicing Quoting

In “The Banking Concept of Education” Freire states “The student records, memorizes, and repeats these phrases without perceiving…”

bell hooks writes “By the time most students enter college classrooms, they have come to dread thinking.” (8)

Citing Sources

Freire, Paolo. “The Banking Concept of Education.” Pedagogy of the Oppressed.  New York: Herder and Herder, 1970. Print.

Hooks, bell. “Critical Thinking.” Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom. New York: Routledge, 2009. Web.

Comparison Essay Final Draft

We have all grown up learning new things from many different people. Most of us went through the K-12 education system learning from various teachers. There were exceptional teachers, such as Mr. Escalante from Stand and Deliver and Mr. Williamson, who were dedicated, enthusiastic, brilliant, and believed in their students.

            An exceptional teacher must be dedicated to their work and both Mr. Escalante and Mr. Williamson were very dedicated. Throughout Stand and Deliver we see Mr. Escalante’s dedication and in particular we see it when Mr. Escalante went back to teaching just a couple days after his heart attack (Stand and Deliver). The timing of his heart attack was poor since the students had to take the AP Calculus test in just a few weeks (Stand and Deliver). The doctors told Mr. Escalante he needed to rest for at least four weeks, but he was so dedicated and knew he needed to help his students prepare that he went back to work anyways (Stand and Deliver). Mr. Escalante continued to show his dedication when he reviewed the entire calculus course in just one day. This is probably not something he would normally have done, but his students were accused of cheating and were required to retake the AP test (Stand and Deliver). It had been awhile since the students had taken the first AP test, so they were worried they would not do well on the retake. However, because Mr. Escalante was dedicated to teaching and making sure his students succeeded he took the time to review the entire course in order to prepare them.

            Mr. Williamson was my general chemistry teacher, whose dedication was similar to Mr. Escalante, and made him an exceptional teacher. He was so dedicated that he would spend an endless amount of time outside of the classroom helping his students learn and understand what he was teaching. Mr. Williamson always made himself available at just about any time a student needed help, no matter the day. When finals came around he even gave up his Saturdays and held review sessions just so that his students would be prepared and successful. He was also so dedicated that he would take the time to find the extra little resources, such as videos and websites that helped his students understand a topic and not just memorize it.

            An exceptional teacher must also be enthusiastic about their subject. This was true of Mr. Escalante who always seemed to be enthusiastic. One of the first scenes we saw in Stand and Deliver was Mr. Escalante standing in front of the class, dressed up as a chef and chopping apples into slices (Stand and Deliver). You could see the excitement in his face and how much he loved math and wanted to make it fun for his students. Every time we saw Mr. Escalante he was always enthusiastic, he would walk into the classroom and immediately want to start teaching because he was excite to teach his students and have them learn. We even see his enthusiasm at Christmas when his own son asks him for help with a homework problem (Stand and Deliver). He is so enthusiastic about teaching that he was happy to teach his son at any time, even Christmas.

            Mr. Williamson was also very enthusiastic about chemistry. His enthusiasm was perfectly shown when we started on the topic of lasers in his class. It is a day I will never forget. Mr. Williamson came into the classroom with a smile from ear to ear and was so giddy it was funny. All of his students noticed it and before long his enthusiasm and passion spread to all of us, because after that moment we were eager and excited to learn about lasers. Mr. Williamson was very enthusiastic about laser, but that was not the only thing. He was also enthusiastic about almost anything else having to do with chemistry. This enthusiasm was what helped make him an exceptional teacher because it made class more enjoyable and made the students more enthusiastic as well. 

            Brilliance is also typically found in exceptional teachers. They have to be knowledgeable about their subject if they are going to teach it. We do not want to have students learn false information, so this is an important aspect. Mr. Escalante was certainly brilliant. In Stand and Deliver it talks about his previous job working at a computer program company, where he had to use calculus every day (Stand and Deliver). So clearly he knew a lot about calculus and was capable of teaching it to others. His brilliance is also displayed many times in the classroom when he would solve a complex problem just in his head or when he would write a complex equation just from his knowledge. It was also displayed through his creative ways of teacher his students, such as the chef scene. He cut up apples into slices in order to teach his students about fractions and how to calculate them.

            Mr. Williamson’s brilliance was apparent in several ways. He had his PhD in chemistry and had done a lot of research over his career so his knowledge of the subject was definitely high. However his brilliance in the way he taught the class was a great part of what made him an exceptional teacher. His teaching method was creative and well thought out. He used excellent demonstrations that engaged the students and made us want to understand and not just memorize what he was teaching. With our desire to understand, we had a lot of questions and Mr. Williamson’s brilliance had him answering questions without actually giving away the exact answer. This sounds rather strange at first, but it turned out to be brilliant. In answering a question asked by a student, he would guide us towards the answer, but make us have to determine it for ourselves. The brilliance in this was it made us really think about and help us further understand the subject.

Finally, an exceptional teacher has to believe in their students. Students will often time meet the expectations placed upon them. Therefore, if a teacher believes their students will be successful it is much more likely to happen than if they didn’t believe in them. In Stand and Deliver Mr. Escalante was just about the only teacher at the school who believed in the students. We saw this when Mr. Escalante suggested the school offer Calculus as a course (Stand and Deliver). All of the other teachers did not believe the students were capable of taking Calculus, but Mr. Escalante did and sure enough, they were. Another example of Mr. Escalante believing in his students was when the students were accused of cheating on the AP test (Stand and Deliver). Again, Mr. Escalante was the only one who believed in them and did not think they cheated. Mr. Williamson also believed in his students. He always pushed his students with harder and harder material, but he believed in his students and new they were capable of learning it.

            While both Mr. Escalante and Mr. Williamson were exceptional teachers because of their dedication, enthusiasm, brilliance, and belief in their students, there were differences in their time periods, students, and location. Mr. Escalante was a teacher in the 1980s who taught in a low budget school in Los Angeles, to Hispanic students that were drop out prone. Mr. Williamson, on the other hand, is a teacher in this decade who teaches at a well-funded school to students that are not likely to drop out.

Works Cited

Stand and Deliver. Dir. Ramóm Menéndez. Perf. Edward Olmos and Estelle Harris. Warner Bros., 1988. DVD.

Comparison Essay Rough Draft

We have all grown up learning new things from many different people. Most of us went through the K-12 education system learning from various teachers. There were exceptional teachers, such as Mr. Escalante from Stand and Deliver and Mr. Williamson, who were dedicated, enthusiastic, and brilliant.

            An exceptional teacher must be dedicated to their work and both Mr. Escalante and Mr. Williamson were very dedicated. Throughout Stand and Deliver we see Mr. Escalante’s dedication and in particular we see it when Mr. Escalante went back to teaching just a couple days after his heart attack (Stand and Deliver). The timing of his heart attack was poor since the students had to take the AP Calculus test in just a few weeks (Stand and Deliver). The doctors told Mr. Escalante he needed to rest for at least four weeks, but he was so dedicated and knew he needed to help his students prepare that he went back to work anyways (Stand and Deliver). Mr. Escalante continued to show his dedication when he reviewed the entire calculus course in just one day. This is probably not something he would normally have done, but his students were accused of cheating and were required to retake the AP test (Stand and Deliver). It had been awhile since the students had taken the first AP test, so they were worried they would not do well on the retake. However, because Mr. Escalante was dedicated to teaching and making sure his students succeeded he took the time to review the entire course in order to prepare them.

            Mr. Williamson was my general chemistry teacher, whose dedication was similar to Mr. Escalante, and made him an exceptional teacher. He was so dedicated that he would spend an endless amount of time outside of the classroom helping his students learn and understand. Mr. Williamson always made himself available at just about any time a student needed help, no matter the day. When finals came around he even gave up his Saturdays and held review sessions just so that his students would be prepared and successful. He was also so dedicated that he would take the time to find the extra little resources, such as videos and websites that helped his students understand a topic and not just memorize it.

            An exceptional teacher must also be enthusiastic about their subject. This was true of Mr. Escalante who always seemed to be enthusiastic. One of the first scenes we saw in Stand and Deliver was Mr. Escalante standing in front of the class, dressed up as a chef and chopping apples into slices (Stand and Deliver). You could see the excitement in his face and how much he loved math and wanted to make it fun for his students. Every time we saw Mr. Escalante he was always enthusiastic, he would walk into the classroom and immediately want to start teaching because he was excite to teach his students and have them learn. We even see his enthusiasm at Christmas when his own son asks him for help with a homework problem (Stand and Deliver). He is so enthusiastic about teaching that he was happy to teach his son at any time, even Christmas.

            Mr. Williamson was also very enthusiastic about chemistry. His enthusiasm was perfectly shown when we started on the topic of lasers in his class. It is a day I will never forget. Mr. Williamson came into the classroom with a smile from ear to ear and was so giddy it was funny. All of his students noticed it and before long his enthusiasm and passion spread to all of us, because after that moment we were eager and excited to learn about lasers. Mr. Williamson was very enthusiastic about laser, but that was not the only thing. He was also enthusiastic about almost anything else having to do with chemistry. This enthusiasm was what helped make him an exceptional teacher because it made class more enjoyable and made the students more enthusiastic as well. 

            Brilliance is also typically found in exceptional teachers. They have to be knowledgeable about their subject if they are going to teach it. We do not want to have students learn false information, so this is an important aspect. Mr. Escalante was certainly brilliant. In Stand and Deliver it talks about his previous job working at a computer program company, where he had to use calculus every day (Stand and Deliver). So clearly he knew a lot about calculus and was capable of teaching it to others. His brilliance is also displayed many times in the classroom when he would solve a complex problem just in his head or when he would write a complex equation just from his knowledge. It was also displayed through his creative ways of teacher his students, such as the chef scene. He cut up apples into slices in order to teach his students about fractions and how to calculate them.

            Mr. Williamson’s brilliance was apparent in several ways. He had his PhD in chemistry and had done a lot of research over his career so his knowledge of the subject was definitely high. However his brilliance in the way he taught the class was a great part of what made him an exceptional teacher. His teaching method was creative and well thought out. He used excellent demonstrations that engaged the students and made us want to understand and not just memorize what he was teaching. With our desire to understand, we had a lot of questions and Mr. Williamson’s brilliance had him answering questions without actually giving away the exact answer. This sounds rather strange at first, but it turned out to be brilliant. In answering a question asked by a student, he would guide us towards the answer, but make us have to determine it for ourselves. The brilliance in this was it made us really think about and help us further understand the subject.

            While both Mr. Escalante and Mr. Williamson were exceptional teachers because of their dedication, enthusiasm, and brilliance, there were differences in their time periods, students, and location. Mr. Escalante was a teacher in the 1980s who taught in a low budget school in Los Angeles, to Hispanic students that were drop out prone. Mr. Williamson, on the other hand, is a teacher in this decade who teaches at a well-funded school to students that are not likely to drop out.

My high school experience vs. Gatto's

                My high school experience was different from Gatto’s claims about high school. I would say that more often than not I was not bored and was learning quite a lot. In fact, I can remember times where I was learning so much that I felt a little overwhelmed and definitely not bored. Although, there were certain times in my high school experience were I was bored, learning things that I already had learned, as Gatto described. The difference is that in Gatto’s writing he makes it seem as though the students were constantly bored and not learning anything new. This was not the case in my experience.

"The Banking Concept of Education"

The addition of the information read from the website both further confused and enriched our understanding of Freire’s writings. The continuation of the theme of there not being much middle ground is present. He tends to take an either/or approach to oppression in education. Either the students and teachers are being oppressed, or they endorse the oppression. Freire writes about liberating people through peaceful discussion and the corruption of the education system. He considers it detrimental to the educational experience. Friere goes deeper than analyzing, he criticizes.
“A careful analysis of the teacher-student relationship at any level, inside or outside the school..”
“Second, Paulo Freire tends to argue in an either/or way. We are either with the oppressed or against them. This may be an interesting starting point for teaching, but taken too literally it can make for rather simplistic (political) analysis.”

Notes from Gatto reading

How public education cripples our kids, and why

"I taught for thirty years in some of the worst schools in Manhattan, and in some of the best, and during that time I became an expert in boredom. Boredom was everywhere in my world, and if you asked the kids, as I often did, why they felt so bored, they always gave the same answers: They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn't seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren't interested in learning more. And the kids were right: their teachers were every bit as bored as they were."

 We believe that in John Grotto’s work “Against School”, he is explaining how the current school system we have now is not teaching anything to students. “They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it.” Here he explains that the students feel that they learn nothing, he explains how the students feel about their work which obviously is not good.  “They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn't seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren't interested in learning more.” And here he explains how the students wanted to learn new things but were not able to due to the teachers not knowing their own subject or wanting to learn more about it themselves. “Teachers were every bit as bored as they were.” Lastly here he explains the problem. If the teachers are as bored as the students then the students will not learn anything because there is no instinctive to learn.  

We agree that Gatto is right but wrong, with his opinion. In the writing there are many examples of bias due to his experience in Manhattan.  “I taught for thirty years in some of the worst schools in Manhattan, and in some of the best, and during that time I became an expert in boredom.” Here he generalizes all schools with what he learned or experienced in Manhattan. “Boredom is the common condition of school teachers” Again this is bias from what he learns, and this is his personal belief. Yes in school there are good teachers and bad teachers, but to claim all of them to be “Bored” is a pretty big generalization that we felt was not accurate. “Of course, teachers are themselves products of the same twelve-year compulsory school programs that so thoroughly bore their students,” Yes it is true that the teachers come from the same school system as us, but all teachers come from a different era and area of school from us, which makes their school experience different from ours. “Who wouldn't get bored teaching students who are rude and interested only in grades? If even that.” While this is true for the most part in teachers who have the misfortune of having a bad class, some teachers do not find this as an excuse and actually make the students thrive. This idea of teachers taking a “Bad” class as a challenge and then turn around and make the students thrive can be seen in the Escalante case where he turned a class of students who would have dropped out and helped them thrive in school. 

Stand and Deliver (Part 1)

Good Teaching: Mr. Escalante is very playful and does not get intimidated easily. This is displayed when he first starts teaching, in the scene where the gang members come into the classroom. In this scene they enter the classroom and attempt to intimidate Mr. Escalante. However, Mr. Escalante was not intimidated and diffused the situation by making them take their seats.

                Mr. Escalante is also very good at engaging his students, and we saw this in the “chef” scene. He used a creative and visual way to engage his students and teach them about fractions. He dressed up as a chef and brought a knife into class, which definitely caught the attention of his students. He cut apples into various fractions and had the students identify what fraction of an apple they had.

Bad Teaching: Mendoza (the lady in charge at the staff meetings) displayed bad teaching in the staff meeting scene. In this scene we saw how she had no confidence in her students. She says that she “believes they will fail and have their self-esteem shattered”.

                Mr. Escalante also displays a little bit of bad teaching in the scene where the “hair net kid” arrives late to class, because he took his grandmother to the doctors. In the this scene the kid walks in and Mr. Escalante tells him the counselor is looking for him and to have fun in pottery(?). It’s good teaching to be hard on students about tardies and absences, but in this scene it was too hard. When it comes to family emergencies or illnesses there should be a little bit of leeway.

Paper 1 - Educational Narrative Final Draft

How I learned to snowboard

            I started snowboarding when I was in ninth grade, so when I was about fourteen years old. Many of my friends participated in ski school, which was offered through our junior high and high school. I had seen how much fun they had, so I decided to give it a try. Ski school was on Saturdays and they started very early in the morning. We had to be to the bus by 5:00 am so we could make it up to the mountain and have plenty of time for snowboarding.

            The first Saturday of ski school is the one I remember the most. Being a teenager I loved to sleep in, so getting up at 4 am was not the most ideal situation. However I wanted to learn to snowboard, so I got up and made it to the bus on time. The bus ride to Stevens Pass was about 3 hours and in order to save time we had to change into our ski clothes on the bus. Being almost six feet tall at the time this was rather difficult, because I hardly had enough room to get everything on. Although, it did prove to save time and before I knew it I was off the bus and ready to get on the mountain.

Thankfully, as a part of ski school I had lessons and that was the first thing we did. The lessons were about two hours long and because I was in the beginner’s class and it was everyone’s first time snowboarding, we started by learning how to get up. When you stand up on a snowboard you almost immediately start moving, so even though this sounds pretty simple, it proved to be rather difficult. The first fifteen to twenty attempts, I would stand up and within ten seconds fall right back down to the ground where I had started. Eventually I got the hang of standing up. The next thing we learned was how to go down the mountain. This was way more difficult than standing up, because it required us to maintain balance while moving and to control where we were going. Unfortunately for this first lesson we were only able to learn a little bit of this, because after about forty five minutes of it our lesson was over.

            After my lesson I met up with some of my friends who had already done ski school for a couple of years and we went to lunch. This was exactly what I needed, after just a couple hours of snowboarding I was already tired, and this let me recharge my batteries. However, little did I know that how I would really learn to snowboard was still to come. You see after lunch I went out with my friends, but they did not want to go on the boring beginner runs that I had been doing and was more comfortable with. They wanted me to go with them and told me I’d do fine on some of the intermediate runs. Now don’t forget this was my first day ever on a snowboard and intermediate runs were steeper, longer, and had narrower trails than beginner ones. The thought of going on an intermediate run was intimidating and felt like I was attempting an expert run. I was definitely uncertain about it, but after talking with my friends, they somehow convinced me to go.

            The first challenge I had to deal with on the intermediate run was the chair lift. The hard part about chair lifts for snowboarders is getting off, because we only have one foot strapped in. It is very easy for your other foot to slip off and make you fall right in front of the other people getting off at the same time. The difficulty was the speed of the chair lift, because on the beginner run the chair lift was much slower and gave me more time to get off. Now I was on a much faster lift and one that felt like it hardly slowed down so I could get off. So I was very worried and of course fell as I got off.

            After falling, I moved to the side, strapped my other foot in, and was ready to go. My trip down the mountain took about a half an hour due to my constant falling. I honestly couldn't tell you how many times I fell on that run, but it was definitely a lot. I fell so many times that I found myself getting frustrated and thought that when I finally get down the mountain I was never going up again. However, I did notice as I got farther down the mountain I was learning from each of my falls. I found myself able to stay up just a little bit longer than when I started the run. My progress at the time felt painstakingly slow, but it was progress.

When I finally reached the bottom and met my friends, who had made it down the mountain in about five minutes, they told me to go again. I was very hesitant, because of how much I fell on the first run. However, I realized that falling was a part of learning, so I agreed and went back up. I fell even fewer times the second time down the run, which was very encouraging, so I continued to go down it all day. Each time falling less and improving my snowboarding skills.

            The reason this experience was significant to me was because I didn't just learn to snowboard that day. I learned that not giving up is important and can make you successful. I also learned that sometimes taking a risk, which was going down the intermediate run in my case, can be frustrating, yet rewarding. If I hadn't gone down that run I would not have learned to snowboard as fast as I did. I would probably have stayed on the beginner run and learned at a much slower rate. The saying “you learn by doing” was absolutely true in my case. 

Paper 1 Rough Draft

How I learned to snowboard

            I started snowboarding when I was in ninth grade, so when I was about fourteen years old. Many of my friends participated in ski school, which was offered through my school, and I had seen how much fun they had, so I decided to give it a try. Ski school was on Saturdays and they started very early in the morning. We had to be to the bus by 5:00 am so we could make it up to the mountain and have plenty of time for snowboarding.

            The First Saturday of ski school is the one I remember the most. Being a teenager I loved to sleep, so getting up at 4 am was not the most ideal situation. However I wanted to learn to snowboard, so I got up and made it to the bus on time. The bus ride to Stevens Pass was about 3 hours and in order to save time we had to change into our ski clothes on the bus. Being almost six feet at the time this was rather difficult because I hardly had enough room to get everything on. Although it did prove to save time and before I knew it I was off the bus and ready to get on the mountain.

Thankfully as a part of ski school I had lessons and that was the first thing we did. The lessons were about two hours long and because it was my, and everyone else in the groups, first time snowboarding we first learned how to get up. When you stand up on a snowboard you almost immediately start moving, so even though this sounds pretty simple, it proved to be rather difficult. For probably the first fifteen to twenty attempts I would stand up and within ten seconds have fallen right back to the ground where I had started. Eventually I got the hang of standing up, so we moved onto the next thing, which was to learn how to go down the mountain. This was way more difficult than standing up and took numerous lessons, because it required us to maintain balance while moving and to control where we were going. Unfortunately for this first lesson we were only able to learn a little bit of this because after about forty five minutes of it our lesson was over.

            After my lesson I met up with some of my friends who had already done ski school for a couple of years and we went to get lunch. This was exactly what I needed because after just a couple hours of snowboarding I was already tired and this let me recharge my batteries. However, little did I know that how I would really learn to snowboard was still to come. You see after lunch I went out with my friends but they did not want to go on the beginner runs that I had been doing and was more comfortable with. They wanted me to go with them and told me I’d do fine on some of the intermediates. Now don’t forget this was my first day ever so the thought of going on an intermediate run felt like doing an expert run. I was definitely uncertain about it, but after doing some talking my friends somehow convinced me to go.

            The first challenge I had to deal with on the intermediate run was the chair lift. The hard part about chair lifts for snowboarders is getting off because we only have one foot strapped in. It is very easy for your other foot to slip off and make you fall right in front of other people that are getting off at the same time. The difficulty was the speed of the chair lift, because on the beginner run the chair lift was much slower and gave me more time to get off. Now I was on a much faster lift and one that felt like it hardly slowed down so I could get off. So getting off I was very worried and of course fell.

            I got back up, strapped my other foot in and was ready to go. My trip down the mountain took about a half an hour due to my constant falling. I honestly couldn't tell you how many times I fell on that run, but it was definitely a lot. I fell so many times that I got frustrated and thought to myself that when I finally get down the mountain I was never going up again. Although I did notice as I got farther down the mountain I was learning from each of my falls and was able to stay up just a little bit longer than at the beginning. My progress at the time felt painstakingly slow, but it was progress. When I finally reached the bottom and met my friends, who had made it down the mountain in about five minutes, they told me to go again. I was very unsure because of all my falling but I realized that falling was a part of learning, so I agreed and went back up three more times that day.

            The reason this experience was significant to me was because I didn't just learn to snowboard that day. I also learned that not giving is important and can be successful. I also learned that sometimes taking a risk, going down the intermediate run in my case, can be rewarding. If I hadn't gone down that run I would not have learned to snowboard as fast as I did. I would probably have probably stayed on the beginner run and learned at a much slower rate. The saying you learn by doing was absolutely true in my case. 

Notes from Ken Robinson video

• He was interested in education
• all kids have tremendous talent
• kids aren't frightened of being wrong
• If you're not prepared to be wrong you will not come up with something original
• we are educating people out of their creativeness
• All education around the world has a hierarchy of education:

             mathematics
             humanities
            Art

• In the next 30 years more people will graduate from a university than in past history
• A degree is no longer worth anything. It used to be that if you had a degree you could get a job, but that is no longer true.
• we need to rethink the fundamentals in which we educate our children

"How I Learned to Love Solo-Travel" by Cate Huston

            “How I Learned to Love Solo-Travel” is a blog about the author’s past experiences travelling solo. Not only is this an educational narrative but it’s also a travel guide. There are bullet points throughout the blog providing tips to the reader on how to make travelling alone easier. Tips such as, “stay somewhere comfortable”, “morning/afternoon/evening – pick two”, and “it’s not the trip, it’s a trip”, I know are all good tips based on my own personal experience. I have been on trips before where just about every minute of our trip was planned out, starting early in the morning and ending late at night. Now while this does allow you to do much more of the touristy things it is exhausting and not very relaxing. So I definitely could relate to the advice she gave and strongly agree with it. 

            The fact that this blog gave advice is similar to some of the previous ones we have read because they also gave advice. In “How I Learned to Program Computers” Feross tells the reader if you want to learn computer programming then just start building stuff and take some computer programming classes. In “How I learned to Live Google Free” Romero tells the reader which websites he thought were good replacements, or even the ones he thought were better than Google. 

Malcolm X’s Narrative vs. Mike Rose’s

I enjoyed reading both of these stories. Malcolm’s narrative was about how he learned to read and become a better writer. He talks about the struggles he had expressing himself the way he wanted to and what he did to change that. The first thing he did was copy the entire dictionary! That is crazy! But he was determined and in the end, along with the constant reading he did, it made a huge impact on his life by making him a better reader and writer.

            Mike Rose’s narrative was about the time he spent in the vocational track while attending school. The vocational track was “the bottom level”; it was for the students that the school defined as “slow”. It was designed to teach the students skills they would need to be successful in the workplace, but he discusses how in his case it did very little, and was designed more to occupy the students.

            In both narratives they each started from low points but through determination, personal motivation, and education they broke societal expectations. Malcolm became a very famous and successful human rights activist and Mike Rose went on to become a highly successful professor and writer. They both proved that you truly can do anything you’re determined to do.

Pre-writing

Writing has never been something I truly enjoy so in the past I haven’t really done much pre-writing. Usually writing just consists of me sitting down in front of my computer, creating sentences.  I would write whatever I could think of and then try to continue to build off of what I had just written. My success with this was decent because eventually I could get to the point where I had a complete paper. Although the downside was it always proved to be very time consuming.

                For this class and for future writing I may have, my plan is to do some pre-writing that is visual, such as an outline.  I think this approach will help make the writing less time consuming. What I am going to try is to come up with a topic and then brainstorm ideas that are related. I believe this will be more efficient, because when I sit down to do the actual writing, I will have a framework of what I wanted to cover and in what order.

“How I learned to Program Computers” and “How I learned to Live Google Free”

After reading “How I learned to Program Computers” and “How I learned to Live Google Free” I had a better sense of how my narrative paper should be modeled. I noticed and really appreciated that both were composed of many short paragraphs, rather than just a few long ones. I thought this was a good format because it was easier to remember the content of each paragraph, therefore making it easier to remember the whole narrative. Since I realize that the content of a paper with long paragraphs can get lost, I will format my paper with shorter paragraphs.

            Also, interesting to me was that in both narratives the use of quotes was limited. There were a few used within each one, but for some reason I just expected there to be more since they were narratives. However, noticing this made me understand you don’t need too many quotes to write a good narrative, so I will keep that in mind when writing my first paper.

One of the most important things I've ever learned

One of the most important things I ever learned was customer service. This may seem weird at first but the reason for this is because learning customer service helped me be successful at my first job. It also helped me in general as well. I apply what I learned to everyday interactions. Things like how not to make people mad or how to deal with people that are mad at you without losing your cool and how to be helpful to other people is useful in any situation.  

First Post

Test post.