Dead Poets Society Notes Day 1

• Students don't have much freewill 
• Students are expected to be the best
• Made class interesting and got students involved
• First day already wants students to realize their own potential 
• Wants students to think for themselves
• Has class moving around
• Tells group of boys about Dead Poets Society
• Made things typically not interesting more enjoyable
• Teaches something seemingly unimportant to the class to explain something important
• Shows class that people conform and wants them to learn not to

Group Notes for Dead Poets Society Day 1

Mr. Keating very clearly wants his students to be free thinkers. He has a teaching method that is not conventional, especially in that time period. It's shown that the Latin teacher at the school simple said a word and had the class repeat it to teach them. Mr. Keating has the class moving and learning lessons by showing them rather then just telling them. Like when he took the boys outside to walk around and showed that Gerard, Richard, and Knox eventually started walking the same. Even the class conformed to clapping along. He then told them to not conform and walk however they wanted to. He teaches lessons that aren't just going to be needed for school then never thought about again. He makes each day interesting. He gets Todd to stop thinking, which may be the biggest problem for his poetry, and he was able to come up with a great poem in seconds. The students don't get much of a say in what they do. Neil for example was told by his dad he couldn't join an activity because he had too much to do. Later he decides to audition for a play without his father's permission, I think this is a choice influenced by Mr. Keating's lessons in free-thinking.

Similarities between Mr. MacFarland and Mr. Escalante

Mr. Escalante and Mr. MacFarland are quite similar. One of the things I find most important that the two teachers share is there love of teaching. They both want to teach. They both took initiative in there classes to bring there students beyond what was expected. Mr. Escante chose to teach his students calculus, when other teachers, and even the students themselves, didn't believe they were able to learn. Mr. MacFarland fashioned his on English class and taught it to only three students. Both teachers also taught students after hours. The two teachers could also keep their students in check. They made sure that their students got what they deserved. Mr. MacFarland got Mike Rose into a college even though he wasn't a perfect candidate on paper. Mr. Escalante confronted a students father to make sure she would continue schooling. He also fought for the students when they were accused of cheating. Mr. Escalante and Mr. MacFarland, also, seemed to keep there students interested in the subject they taught. Mr. MacFarland reignited Mike Rose's passion for writing. Although the two teachers methods of teaching were not entirely the same, the motifs behind their teaching was much the same. They wanted their students to learn and become the best they could be.

Stand and Deliver Notes Day 2

• Wants to push students to take calculus 
• Wants students to be able to get college credit
• Sees whats wrong with student after she leaves his class
• Gets easily frustrated
• Teaches English classes to adults with no pay
• Wants to continue teaching right after he has a heart attack 
• Is excited to see students when he returns
• Wants to proof his students didn't cheat. Believes they didn't
• Gets students to retake test and helps them study for it

Notes from Stand and Deliver part 1

• Mr. Escalante gave up a better paid job to teach- he wants to teach
• He made lessons hands-on and fun, frequently making jokes
• He makes sure the class is behaving but isn't too forceful
• He gets all students to participate, sometimes through humiliation, but the method works well for the particular group of students
• Told other teachers he is not doing the best he can (believes there is room for improvement)
• "students will rise to their expectations." -Mr. Escalante
• Goes to a student's father's restaurant to convince him that his daughter showed stay in school. 
• Makes class fun to be in
• Wants administration to believe in students
• Wants to show administration the students can succeed
• "they aren't stupid, they just don't know anything."- Mr. Escalante 

Scenes from Stand and Deliver (1/4)

Chair Scene:
The class is taking a quiz in Mr. Escalante's class. Three students refuse to take the test. One Loka, Gets caught by Mr. Escalante. The class starts chanting "CHAIR! CHAIR!" and Mr. Escalante puts a chair in the center of room in the front facing the other students. He was Loka sit in it and tells her "Now you got a ticket to watch the show." The two students that were not going to take the quiz before flipped their papers over to take it. Mr. Escalante told Raquel to go back to her seat and take the quiz.

I thought this was a good method of teaching for the class. It showed them he made the rules. It's obvious this wasn't a one time thing. They class knew what to expect when a student was disruptive. Mr. Esculante knows how to get everybody to cooperate with him, which is definitely a quality of a good teacher.

Lorde's Illustrations

Lorde illustrated Sister Mary as a strict person by describing that she asked Audre's Mother "not to dress me in so many layers of clothing because then I couldn't feel the strap on my behind when I was punished."

This show how much she thought the young girl needed to be punished and it was probably a lot more then needed. Audre later says that Sister Mary "hated either teaching or little children." Which is something no teacher should feel and no student should need to think a teacher feels. In fact, I think the opposite should be true to be considered a good teacher.

Her teacher before this one, Miss Teacher, didn't embrace that she had a more advanced student. She tries to dumb her down so she's at the same level as everyone else. I think students that are more advanced should be cherished. I'm glad that now they are.  Miss Teacher also doesn’t try to help Audre understand what she’s done wrong just tells her she isn’t doing it right. She also turns the class against Audre which is never right for a teacher to do. I would not consider this teacher a good teacher at all.

What makes for good teaching?

I feel good teaching needs to be enjoyable to the students. If someone doesn't like what they are trying to learn it's going to take longer to learn. I know not everything can be fun, so sometimes students will have to suck it up. But day after day of the same style of lecture is boring. And in most cases not effective. We should be taught more of what we like, because often that's what we are good at. Since a young age we are mainstreamed into the same classes, there is no variety in anybody. And the people who don't have the luxury of liking those things, or don't have the mind for it, get left in the dust and flagged as inadequate.

I agree with Marie F. Hasset, writer of "What Makes A Good Teacher?", in that teachers need to be connected to their classroom. If a teacher only cares about getting the information across and that most students get it and not that every one of the students in their class understand what, and often why, information is important, they aren't doing a good enough job. Teachers should be able to convince at least a few people that whatever they are teaching is the most interesting thing in the world. They should love to teach.

Brain Storm for Second Paper

My favorite teacher so far in my educational career was my fourth grade teacher. One reason may be that she was the main reason I met my best friend. This was also the year most of the students at my school started band and I didn't so I spent extra time with her. In fourth grade we learned times tables and everyone who finished through 12's got a certificate and a king sized candy bar. She gave rewards which was nice.

I went to a small school from kindergarten to eighth grade and my three older brothers went to it before me. So, the teachers knew my family pretty well, let me just say I was quite the surprise for a lot of them.

My least favorite teacher at that school was probably my first grade teacher. I was a little scared of her. She was pretty strict. It might be difficult to use this teacher though, because I don't remember much from first grade. I mean I remember having to count to one-hundred. And reading way more then I thought any six year-old should have to read.

I also didn't like my seventh grade geography teacher. She was also the band teacher and lower level math teacher, but I only made her for geography and I didn't like her. She was a nice person but we had a lot of work we just had to do on our own with little instructions.

Final Draft: Learning to Play a Six Stringed Instrument

I am a very stubborn person. So when I believed I could teach myself to play the guitar, I wasn't about to give up. I first asked for an acoustic guitar for Christmas. When I received the Fender guitar I quickly found a website to help me on my way. Two of my three brothers play, but refused to teach me. One of them said he would "jam" with me after I learned, but he wouldn't help me.

After a week or two of going through lessons that were teaching me a few chords and scales. I got bored and frustrated. I felt I wasn't moving at a fast enough pace. Not to mention my fingers were so sore.  Eventually I gave up on the lessons.

So, my guitar sat in the corner of my room tormenting me. Whispering softly as I slept about how incapable I was in playing anything but a few chords. Collecting dust and the strings growing slack.

After about three months, I tuned my guitar and agreed to go to lessons with an actually instructor. I really wanted to learn this instrument and be able to sit around a campfire and strum a merry tune about someone else's adventures. I was incredibly nervous for my first lesson. A rather ridiculous reason being that I was worried my mother and I would get lost. It wasn't like the lessons were far away or anything, I just hate being late.

The first lesson went well. I must admit, however, I did not touch my guitar. Instead my instructor, an older gentleman with a baseball hat covering his balding head and glasses sitting on his nose, showed me all kinds of different ways to play the guitar while the cat stared at me from atop the piano. It was all so intriguing, all the different ways to play one instrument. I wanted to learn them all! I was especially interested in finger-picking. Before I left for the week he asked what artists I liked and the genres I like to listen to. I was looking forward to seeing what I had in store to learn the next week.

One week later I returned to lessons with my guitar in hand. On the music stand in front of where we sat were a few sheets of paper with horizontal and vertical lines made to resemble a neck of a guitar. There were numbers in certain places and letters labeling each different "neck." Four of the five necks were labeled, one with "G", one with "C", one with "Em", and lastly a "D." These were the cords required to play the song he had written the tabs for on the back of a different sheet. The song was by one of my favorite artists and was a song I knew well. After I got my guitar out my instructor started teaching me where to put my fingers on the neck and how many times to strum each chord. I already knew a few of the chords from my little time trying to teach myself and soon enough I was able to go through the song, but not at full speed. After a few weeks, I could play it easily.

The next song I learned was a Beatles song. The song was from a sheet music book, so it was written different from the previous song I had learned. The song used a lot of similar chords so most of the lesson was spent with me trying to figure out how many times to pay each chord. We played it with the song playing a few times, even though I could not keep up and made many mistakes. Before the lesson was over I was close to being able to play the song with no errors.

Eventually, the lessons got more difficult of course. But he wouldn't just teach me one thing anymore. Often he'd teach me scales and chords and then a song that may require different chords. Some times I'd even learn two songs at once. I was expanding my knowledge at a lot quicker pace then I expected. My fingers also became stronger and the skin tougher.

I wasn't just taught chords and songs. He eventually taught me some song writing techniques. I also got to explore more of the finger-picking technique had interested me so much. I learned different styles of finger-picking and a few songs with more complex patterns. Most importantly I learned that I was capable of learning to play an instrument.

I always figure that I couldn't be good at something that required so much rhythm and musical know how. My instructor told me often that I was a good student and a quick learner, but usually I would just tell him thanks and brush it off. Never truly believing it. I knew I was progressing. Every time I made a mistake, however, I figured I was doing awful and needed to practice more. But, instead of just the voice in my head telling me I could do better, there was someone with experience telling me I was learning quick and becoming a good guitar player. That was probably the best thing for me.

The thing I liked most about my instructor was that he was teaching me in a way that I could understand. He was teaching me in a mathematical way, which I could easily understand. He even told me that because I understood math easily, it could help me learn to play the guitar. Which was something I never thought would make a difference and if it did more a hindrance then an advantage. I guess that shows how much I know about music.

Learning the guitar taught me that getting help is okay. In fact it is usually beneficial. I'm not one to go out of my way for help, but sometimes it's necessary. Don't get me wrong, you can learn to play guitar on your own. There are plenty of people who have. But I could not. So instead of just giving up I got help. Which was a great decision for me. I also learned sometimes the things you think are going to create obstacles are actually beneficial.

I am still in lessons today and have yet to have that jam session with my brother. So, I guess I still have to practice until he finds me worthy, or more importantly I'm happy with my skills.

Rough Draft Educational Narrative

I am a very stubborn person. So when I believed I could teach myself to play the guitar, I wasn't about to give up. I first asked for an acoustic guitar for Christmas. When I received it I quickly found a website to help me on my way. Two of my three brothers play, but refused to teach me. One of them said he would "jam" with me after I learned, but he wouldn't help me.

After a week or two of going through lessons that were teaching me a few chords and scales. I got bored and frustrated. I felt I wasn't moving at a fast enough pace. Eventually I gave up on the lessons.

So, my guitar sat in the corner of my room tormenting me. Whispering softly as I slept about how incapable I was in playing anything but a few chords. Collecting dust and the strings growing slack.

I eventually agreed to go to guitar lessons because I really wanted to learn this instrument and be able to sit around a campfire and strum a merry tune about someone else's adventures. I was incredibly nervous for my first lesson. A rather ridiculous reason being that I was worried my mother and I would get lost. It wasn't like the lessons were far away or anything, I just hate being late.

The first lesson went well. I must admit, however, I did not touch my guitar. Instead my instructor, an older gentlemen, showed me all kinds of different ways to play the guitar while the cat stared at me from atop the piano. It was all so intriguing, all the different ways to play one instrument. I wanted to learn them all! I was especially interested in finger-picking. Before I left for the week he asked what artists I liked and the genres I like to listen to. I was looking forward to seeing what I had in store to learn the next week.

The next week I came to lessons with my guitar again. On the music stand in front of where we sat were a few sheets of paper with horizontal and vertical lines made to resemble a neck of a guitar. There were numbers in certain places and letters labeling each different "neck." Four of the Five necks were labeled, one with "G", one with "C", one with "Em", and lastly a "D." These were the cords required to play the song he had written the tabs for on the back of a different sheet. The song was by one of my favorite artists and was a song I knew well. After I got my guitar out my instructor started teaching me where to put my fingers on the neck and how many times to strum each note. I already knew a few of the notes from my little time trying to teach myself and soon enough I was able to go through the song, but not at full speed. After a few weeks, though, I could play it easily.

The next song I learned was a Beatles song. The song was from a sheet music book, so it was written different from the previous song I had learned. The song used a lot of similar chords so most of the lesson was spent with me trying to figure out how many times to pay each chord. We played it with the song playing a few times, even though I could not keep up and made many mistakes. Before the lesson was over I was close to being able to play the song with no errors.

Eventually, the lessons got more difficult of course. But he wouldn't just teach me one thing anymore. Often he'd teach me scales and chords and then a song that may require different chords. Some times I'd even learn two songs at once. I was expanding my knowledge at a lot quicker pace then I expected.

I wasn't just taught chords and songs. He eventually taught me some song writing techniques. I also got to explore more of the finger-picking strategy of strumming that had interested me so much. I learned different styles of finger-picking and a few songs with more complex patterns. Most importantly I learned that I was capable of learning to play an instrument.

I always figure that I couldn't be good at something that required so much rhythm and musical know how. My instructor told me often that I was a good student and a quick learner, but usually I would just tell him thanks and brush it off. Never truly believing it. I knew I was progressing. Every time I made a mistake, though, I figured I was doing awful and needed to practice more. Instead of just the voice in my head telling me I could do better, however, there was someone with experience telling me I was learning quick and becoming a good guitar player. That was probably the best thing for me.

The thing I liked most about my instructor was that he was teaching me in a way that I could understand. He was teaching me in a mathematical way, which I could easily understand. He even told me that because I understood math easily, it made could help me to learn the guitar. Which was something I never thought would make a difference and if it did more a hindrance then an advantage. I guess that shows how much I know about music.

Learning the guitar taught me that getting help is okay. In fact it is usually beneficial. I'm not one to go out of my way for help, but sometimes it's necessary. Don't get me wrong, you can learn to play guitar on your own. There are plenty of people who have. But I could not. So instead of just giving up I got help. Which was a great decision for me. I also learned  sometimes the things you think are going to create obstacles are actually beneficial.

My Favorite Narrative

I enjoyed Mike Roses' "I Just Want to Be Average" the best, from the narratives we read. The piece was interesting to read. A little humorous at times, which I found to be quite charming. I also liked how he wrote details about characters: "There was Ted Richard, a much-touted Little League pitcher. He was chunky and had a baby face and came to Our Lady of Mercy as a seasoned street fighter." It shows how much he remembers about the experience and, in turn, how important the whole thing was to him. He wrote it to try to explain a moral, not make his audience want to be average, as one may assume from the title. Another thing I liked from his piece was his use of dialogue. It made it seem even less formal, in a way. Which, in my opinion, is in no way a bad thing. I would much rather read an informal piece of writing then something resembling an essay. He is a compelling author. I found the narrative rather easy to read. Not because it was a simple story, but because it was pleasant to read. I hope I can write my narrative to be just as pleasurable his.

Differences in Narratives

All the narratives talked about learning something. The were all slightly different though. Obviously in what the authors had learned, but also in how they told their experiences. Malcolm X's and Rose's narratives are told like a novel or story with a moral, while the bloggers seemed to be teaching us how to do something straight forward. The titles of Malcolm X's and Rose's also were different then the bloggers, which all began "How I Learned to..." The blogs are, also, all split into sections, unlike the narratives written by Malcolm X and Rose, which were one constant piece of writing.   

The blogs were also different form each other. Cate Huston's was a lot of information with a little bit of story sprinkled throughout, while Joshua Romero explained his journey in removing Google from his life and ways you can as well. Feross told his as a story with a lot of information mixed in. None of the blogs are very open to interpretation. The other two narratives, however, are deeper, in a sense. 

I found that I preferred Malcolm X's and Rose's style of writing over the blogs. They were more enjoyable. However, there were parts in the blogs that I enjoyed as well. The blogs were shorter and more to the poin, which can be refreshing to read sometimes. 

Educational Experience

At first I tried to teach myself to play the guitar. I was discouraged after a few months of feeling of as of I was accomplishing absolutely nothing. Although I believed I could accomplish the task of learning to play an instrument on my own, I agreed to take lessons because I really wanted to be able to sit around the campfire and strum a merry tune of someone else's adventures. During my first lesson my instructor asked me how I learned, or rather what subjects in school came easy to me.  I responded with science and math. He would then tailor the lessons to teach me in a way I could understand. He asked for songs I wanted to learn to play or artists I enjoyed listening to. I told him of my favorite artist. Before I left for the week he showed me all sorts of different strumming techniques and played a few difficult songs. I was fascinated. After a week I came back, guitar in hand. He had letters and lines written down on a paper with the title of one of my favorite songs at the top. On the other side of the paper was the neck of a guitar with hand written numbers in different places. I recognized these as chords, some of which I could already play. He was only teaching me four chords. The important lesson, however was the pattern in which the were played, and deeper then that the way each chord was strummed. After only two weeks I could play a song. Not only that but along with teaching me a song he taught me other chords and scales. He wasn't only trying to teach me how to play songs but also write them. Now I can play many songs many of which are a bit complex.

"How I Learned to Travel Solo" Narrative

I found this narrative pretty interesting. Possibly because I really want to travel. I liked the stories she told in the explanations. They weren't long, but they were an insight to her own experiences. They were compelling and kept me interested.

This narrative was definitely set up to teach. It wasn't meant to be a story of just one experience she had traveling. She wants to share how she gets the best out of a trip when traveling alone. It was personal, though. She mentioned what she prefers to do, not what you should do. She actually kind of inspired me. Now I want to try to travel alone in the future.

Scrolling down to the comments there are multiple discussions going on about the article. Some about costs. Others about some choices she made. But the article was open for discussion. I think this is an important thing for a blog to have.

Cate wasn't trying to say she is the best solo traveler in the world. I think she just wants other people to travel on their own and see what it's like. She seems to like it a lot and wants people to know it isn't as scary as it may seem.

Pre-writing

I must admit I am not one to typically pre-write. I have before and usually can write slightly better. When pre-writing I prefer to use free writing.  Usually stream of consciousness. Something simple to get ideas flowing. Pre-writing isn't something that's easy for me to do. I don't like having to figure out multiple ideas, and often that's what's expected from a pre-write. That's why I enjoy free writing. You just write anything about the topic at hand. The beginning of my writing experience included a lot of cluster pre-writes, so often when in doubt I fall back to that. However the more visual pre-writes are not something I typically use. I feel restricted when using them to write. I usually don't have enough space and by the end I can't read what I have written. After reading the pre-writing examples I found some pre-writing tactics may try in the future. An example would be looping. It seems like a great way for me to narrow down exactly what it is I'm trying to get across. Pre-writing is helpful to quickly eliminate ideas that don't have enough information or are not interesting.  Although not a favorite pass time of mine, I can understand the importance of a pre-write.

Malcolm X

Malcolm X's narrative "Learning to Read," was very different then the first two narratives. Of course there is the difference in experiences, Malcolm's had nothing to do with computers, while both Feross and Joshua's did. However, I felt the style of writing was very different between the two sets. Malcolm told his experience as a story, which I found much more interesting to read then the other narratives, which were more explanatory. I will probably take my narrative in a direction similar to "Learning to Read," rather then "How I Learned to Program Computers" or "How I Learned to Live Google Free," because I found it much more interesting to read. I felt it connected better with the audience. One reason being that everybody reading it has learned to read, but the important thing for me, as a future education narrative writer, to get from it is the style used. I still plan to use aspects from the first two narratives. I hope to come up with a more creative title then all three of the narratives. Hopefully one not including the word "learned," but if it comes down to it I will. Even so, I refuse to have "How I" in front of it.

Procrastination

I sit here hours before class writing this post. Erasing idea after idea of what to write about. Mentally kicking myself for waiting until the due date to start writing. Starting something only to get preoccupied with other things on the trap that is the internet. I knew yesterday that I needed to start, but here I am. Trying to string together sentences that may sound halfway intelligent. Reading and rereading the small amount of words on the screen. 

This is a dilemma I frequently find myself in. I feel I have above-average intelligence, but I can't seem to grasp the concept completing things in a timely matter. There are the odd assignments I finish days before I need to, however. I am a stubborn person and I'm not one to except much less than perfection. So, I'm not the most pleasant person to be around when I have projects that must be finished. 

I obviously am well aware of my problem, yet I do little to correct it. "Is there really a need?" I'll ask myself. Of course I have a good point. I don't remember the last time I've had a late paper and I've had great grades my whole academic career.  I get so stressed, though. So I believe in the long run it is worth it. From this day forward I will work on my problem with procrastination. So I'll start my pre-calculus homework due tomorrow evening. Or maybe I'll search for ways to temporarily dye my hair.