Final Draft of 3rd Paper

Cynthia Johnson

English 99

            The education system should take into account that every student learns differently, the parents, teachers, and other faculty need to have it in their minds when they are trying to teach the students. If they stopped and thought about it they could find ways that the teachers can incorporate the different learning styles in to each lesson, so that all the students can have an equal chance at learning the material that is being taught. The education system needs to incorporate the different kinds of learning styles (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic) into teaching because the students will have a better understanding of how they learn the best, the students will be able to better understand what the educators are teaching, and the students will receive a better education.

            By incorporating a variety of different learning styles the students will have a better understanding of how they learn the best. There are three mains different kinds of learning styles; the visual learner, the auditory learner, and the kinesthetic learner. To be a visual learner means that the student learns best by seeing and looking at what is being taught. To be an auditory learner means that the student learns better by hearing and listening to what is being taught, and to be a kinesthetic learner means the student learns best by touching and doing what is being taught. Being a visual learner can be hard if the teacher is only talking and not incorporating handouts or some other type of visual aid with the lecture. Being and Auditory learner is hard if all the teacher does is give hand outs and text book readings. Kinesthetic learners have it the hardest because most classes do not have the hands-on learning unless you are in a ceramics class or a cooking class. If all the different learning styles are used throughout the educational projects then the students have a better chance when they finish school to succeed.

            The students will be able to better understand what the educators are teaching if their needs are being met by the educators themselves. Learning becomes easier, when the student best understands what the educator is trying to say in the lesson being taught. Knowing and understanding how a student learns is important because when the student is better prepared they will succeed more. It would be helpful if student took a learning styles test when they are in about the fourth grade, then again when they hit the sixth grade and then again in the eighth grade as well as when they enter into high school. It should be something that is mandatory and the school system should place the students with the similar learning styles in the same classes and with teachers that are equipped to teacher that particular learning style. All the students would have a better chance of a great education if they were tested a placed properly. The standardized testing should also include a learning styles test to make sure all the students are learning in the same kinds of ways and that they are all placed into the right classes. Being prepared means to understand what is being taught or finding a way to figure out how to understand what is being taught. The student has a better chance at success if they have teachers in their lives that are willing to use the individual learning styles.

            The students will receive a better education if their learning needs are met by their teachers. If the teachers were able to spend more time planning the lessons and using visual and audio aids the students will receive the education they deserve. The students that learn by doing seem to learn better in a fun environment. Mr. Keating from the movie Dead Poets Society was a good example of a teacher that made learning fun.  He taught the students that the stuffy learning environment could also be fun. Learning did not have to be so black and white. He had the students stand on their desks so that they could have a different perspective on what they were seeing in the classroom. He also had them rip the introduction out of their books because he thought that it was not important. Teachers now have to take days off of class so they can plan the lessons and they are under paid and over worked.  They just don’t seem to care like they used to. Teachers these days remind me of the teachers in Sand and Deliver at Garfield High School; all except Mr. Escalante. If they had a little more help from teacher aids they would have a better chance of using the different types of learning styles. Teacher aids can assist in the planning of the lessons. They can also give the teacher ideas of how to add visual and audio aids to the lessons. The teachers need help from others to make this kind of learning environment start to take off.

            Incorporating the different types of learning styles into the education system is important because it will make for better students and those students will have an easier time learning what they are being taught.  The education system needs to incorporate the different kinds of learning styles (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic) into teaching because the students will have a better understanding of how they learn the best, the students will be able to better understand what the educators are teaching, and the students will receive a better education.

Rough Draft of Third Paper

Cynthia Johnson

English 99

            The education system should take into account that every student learns differently, the parents, teachers, and other faculty need to have it in their minds when they are trying to teach the students. If they stopped and thought about it they could find ways that the teachers can incorporate the different learning styles in to each lesson, so that all the students can have an equal chance at learning the material that is being taught. The education system needs to incorporate the different kinds of learning styles into teaching because the students will have a better understanding of how they learn the best, the students will be able to better understand what the educators are teaching, and the students will receive a better education.

            By incorporating a variety of different learning styles the students will have a better understanding of how they learn the best. There are three mains different kinds of learning styles; the visual learner, the auditory learner, and the kinesthetic learner. To be a visual learner means that the student learns best by seeing and looking at what is being taught. To be an auditory learner means that the student learns better by hearing and listening to what is being taught, and to be a kinesthetic learner means the student learns best by touching and doing what is being taught. Being a visual learner can be hard if the teacher is only talking and not incorporating handouts or some other type of visual aid with the lecture. Being and Auditory learner is hard if all the teacher does is give hand outs and text book readings. Kinesthetic learners have it the hardest because most classes do not have the hands-on learning unless you are in a ceramics class or a cooking class. If all the different learning styles are used throughout the educational projects then the students have a better chance when they finish school to succeed.

            The students will be able to better understand what the educators are teaching if their needs are being met by the educators themselves. Learning becomes easier, when the student best understands what the educator is trying to say in the lesson being taught. Knowing and understanding how a student learns is important because when the student is better prepared they will succeed more. It would be helpful if student took a learning styles test when they are in about the fourth grade, then again when they hit the sixth grade and then again in the eighth grade as well as when they enter into high school. It should be something that is mandatory and the school system should place the students with the similar learning styles in the same classes and with teachers that are equipped to teacher that particular learning style. All the students would have a better chance of a great education if they were tested a placed properly. The standardized testing should also include a learning styles test to make sure all the students are learning in the same kinds of ways and that they are all placed into the right classes. Being prepared means to understand what is being taught or finding a way to figure out how to understand what is being taught. The student has a better chance at success if they have teachers in their lives that are willing to use the individual learning styles.

            The students will receive a better education if their learning needs are met by their teachers. If the teachers were able to spend more time planning the lessons and using visual and audio aids the students will receive the education they deserve. Teachers now have to take days off of class so they can plan the lessons and they are under paid and over worked.  They just don’t seem to care like they used to. Teachers these days remind me of the teachers in Sand and Deliver at Garfield High School; all except Mr. Escalante. If they had a little more help from teacher aids they would have a better chance of using the different types of learning styles. Teacher aids can assist in the planning of the lessons. They can also give the teacher ideas of how to add visual and audio aids to the lessons. The teachers need help from others to make this kind of learning environment start to take off.

Second Paper Revised

My Favorite Teacher

            I have not come across many teachers in all the years that I have been in school that have been caring and thoughtful of their students. There have only been maybe five. I would have to say that my favorite teacher has been Kaveh. I was lucky enough to have him as my computer teacher when I was in the Olympic College C-SALT program. Kaveh was an excellent teacher, because he took the time to help each student when they needed it no matter how long it took; he also gave us work that challenged our minds but was not impossible to complete, he also cared about his students and liked to have real life conversations with us, and he made the class fun with assignments that helped us in the real world.

Kaveh took the time to help each student when they needed it no matter how long it took. He would give an assignment and he took the time to explain it, in terms that the students would understand. He also made sure no one had any questions before the students left class. He wanted all the students to succeed. Some of the students were having a hard time understanding the written instructions for a research project that we were doing on the Japan earthquakes. So, I asked for help and he took the time to explain it to us until we got it. Then, I had trouble finding the right web sites with the most current information about the quakes and he was able to give me some sites to try out that I had not found before. I have not encountered a teacher like that throughout all the time I have been in school. 

He also gave us work that challenged our minds but was not impossible to complete. One of the first assignments that he gave us was to pick three web articles from a list that he provided for us and then write summaries about them. The list had things on it like how to get a home loan, financial security, budgeting, credit and debt. I chose to read the one on financial issues and how to see if you have unclaimed money in your name. The ways that you could have unclaimed money are if you have stocks, bonds, inheritances, and if you never picked up your last pay check from a job. So, I was able to go to the web site and check and I did have an unclaimed check from a job of mine from ten years ago. My mother also had some too from stocks that she never cashed in. That is only one example of how the assignments he assigned helped us in real life.

            He also taught us to use Microsoft Office 2007 which I have found very useful since I have been in college. He taught us step by step how to navigate through Microsoft Word, Excel, and Power Point. He also taught us how to use the short cuts to make the navigation easier. We had him for a teacher for six hours one day a week. In the morning we would spend that time going over the Microsoft Office Program, then in the afternoon we spend that time writing papers and researching information for the papers that we had to write which would be due at the next time we met with him for class.

            Some of the research assignments that he gave us were very challenging and I struggle with that kind of thing all the time and he took the time to sit down and explain it to me. He is willing to still help even after you are not in his class any more. I have gone to him and asked for help many time since I have finished his class.

He also cared about his students and liked to have real life conversations with us, and he made the class fun with assignments that helped us in the real world. There were many time that we would out go out for our break and smoke cigarettes and he would come out with us and smoke a cigar. We would talk about our children and how life was going. He would tell us about his new daughter that he had; he was a first time father and he was so excited and happy. He loved to talk about her mile stones and what new things she could do. He was also interested in how our kids were doing what was going on in our lives. I have not met many other teachers like that in my life they all seem that they only care about the lessons that they are teaching and that school is their life. They don’t want to know about who we are as people only who we are as students.

            On our last day of his class we all thought that we would get out of having to do anymore projects for his class, but he surprised us with doughnuts and then he told us that we had to do one more project on Microsoft Power Point. It was on the year we were born. We had to have at least six slides that talked about the year you were born, the price of gas, the price of a gallon of milk, what was the number one song, who won the World Series, and other things like that from the year that I was born. I thought that it would be boring and no fun but in the end he gave us suggestions of the things we might put in to our presentations and that helped a lot. In the end I had a lot of fun in his class and my presentation turned out great. I was so proud of myself because going in to that class I had never used Microsoft Power Point before and now I am pretty good at it.

            I am very glad that I got to have Kaveh as a teacher in the C-SALT program here at Olympic College. I know that any one that also get to have him as a teacher is very lucky. Kaveh is a great teacher who cares about his students as long as they care about themselves, he is also willing to help you if you are willing to help yourself succeed, and he understands that sometimes life just happens. I will take with me the things that I have learned from him for a lifetime. He did just teach us book information but he gave us some of the tools to be able to succeed in future classes. Kaveh was an excellent teacher, because he took the time to help each student when they needed it no matter how long it took; he also gave us work that challenged our minds but was not impossible to complete, he also cared about his students and liked to have real life conversations with us, and he made the class fun with assignments that helped us in the real world.

           

Questions about Mr. Keating and Mr. Escalante

1. What did Mr. Escalante think education should do?                                                                             I believe he thought that education should be something that helped students to become better people, when they were done with his class. He also wanted them to know that they could do it if they just put their minds to it.
2. What did Mr. Escalante's colleagues think education should do?                                                           I think they thought of it as a job and not something that could help people especially the ones that were "troubled" I don't think they wanted to be there or that they wanted to help them to become something more in life.
3. What did Mr. Keating think education should do?                                                                               I think he thought a lot like Mr. Escalante when it came to the education that he was trying to give to the students he was teaching.
4. What did Mr. Keating's colleagues think education should do?                                                             I think they were all about teaching the students but in a very strict and down to the point kind of way they did not want education to be different from student to student they wanted them all to do and be the same as they were when they were young.
5. What do you think your favorite teacher thought education should do?                                                 I think he thought that he should be there for the students and that education does not have to be do cut and dry. He made it fun and related it to what was really going on in life not just what happened in the past but in the present.
6. What do you think your worst teacher thought education should do?                                                    I think they are there for the pay check and not because they want to be a teacher. I also think that they don't think that students are important.