The vital roles teachers obtain in a students education, serve
to prove that teaching education can be very challenging due to the amount of
students who have different learning styles. One feels this way because there
are so many teaching styles out there for students to adapt to. In other words,
a negative role played by a teacher results in an unsuccessful experience and
failed success rate for the students, while a positive role played by a teacher
helps the students become more interested in the subject they are learning,
meanwhile acquiring higher passing rates for positive teaching. The two
teachers being discussed are, Mr. Baggins, a high school Chemistry
teacher, and Mr. Vader, a high school AP Anatomy and Physiology teacher. Both
teachers played a vital role in my education, each one with a vastly different
teaching style. Baggins, a great example of good teaching was very inspiring
and dedicated to his work, while Vader was a dedicated and egotistical example
of some good/bad teaching. Over all it seems to be that a positive
learning experience plays a vital role in successful student/teacher
relationships for our education, to better prepare us for our futures.
In order to be a good teacher, the feeling of inconvenience and
burden should not be felt among students. A good teacher is there to help the
students gain a better understanding for what they're trying to learn. Walking
into Mr. Baggins 6th period Chemistry class in high school, not only was he open
minded and willing to help out with homework and reading, but he always had a
smile on his face and was really motivated to get work done with the class as a
whole. He was there to answer any questions that students had to ask, and
didn't make them feel like a complete moron if they asked something ridiculous.
While on another note, Mr. Vader was very egotistical and never had a smile on
his face, he would ask the students if they have questions, and then proceed to
make them feel unintelligent for not fully understanding the information being
learned. When you ask a question he wouldn’t give you a straight answer, he
would ask you another question in return, for example; "is this the
tibia?" his response, "do you think it's the
tibia?" or, "why do you think it's the tibia?"
Most students ask questions not to be questioned back, they ask questions to
know the answer so that they can learn and memorize the right piece of
information as opposed to thinking the wrong answer is the right one until the
test. The two teachers teaching styles are similar in that they both require a
lot of work and study to be successful in their classes, both are strict, they
just have different ways of showing their dedication via facial expressions,
motivation, and positivity during class times.
Most of the students in my AP Anatomy and Physiology class could
agree that Vader acted as if the students were burdening him when they would be
inquisitive about the topics that are being taught, which is quite unfortunate
for us students and results in less of us passing the course, let alone the
final. Vader, a very smart man with a Doctorate Degree, contrasts Mr. Baggins
with most of the teaching styles that he teaches with the exception of few
traits, their strictness, and their need to have the students do a great job.
Vader’s attitude portrayed to the students was very blunt, if you haven't had a
previous course on the knowledge of the human body and anatomy, it feels like
there is no way you could pass this class with how quickly he moves from one
topic to another without looking back. The tests given out by Vader would be on
completely different topics other than what was actually on the study guide
which made us students feel that all the busy work we had to do in order answer
the study guide questions, was a waste of time. Even if we read every chapter
in the book very carefully, and took plenty of notes, there would still be
something/ most things on the test that was hidden in the tiny text of our
book. Yet for the chemistry class you at least knew what was going to be on the
test due to the way we worked on our notes and our study guides. I suppose you
can't really blame a professor for doing his job, if you really look at it and
try being in their shoes, having to teach 40 adults one topic when they all
have different styles of learning, it would be pretty hard to please everyone.
It's merely just a study pattern and how the students choose to study, or just
their learning skills in general.
Baggins always put the students first. He was very outgoing, and
loved to get the class involved in learning. Immediately when class started he
would stand up in front of the room on the podium and say, “ALRIGHT FOLKS, time
to make a list of things to be discussed during the class.” We would make a
list of things that are going to be discussed during the class period, as an outline.
And go down that outline piece by piece until we finished the list for the day.
He found ways to explain topics so that the students could understand things
better. Baggins reminds me a lot like the actor Jaime Escalante from the movie
Stand and Deliver in that both have the same sense of humor and are motivated
in the success of their students. Baggins may have been a great teacher but he
was also a very hard grader, he only wanted the best work out of each and every
student, he gave plenty of chances to gain extra credit on exams, as well as
getting the class in activities to motivate them. He worked the study guide to
flow with the tests so you’re not surprised with all the random questions being
thrown at you. I also really enjoyed that Baggins gave homework, it really
helps us students learn more by doing the work hands on. We did labs every week
to work on the actual chemistry portion of the tests, mixing chemicals and
such, he also recorded all of his lectures and would write them down on a pen cast
so that if you were to miss a class you have the notes and his recordings from
the class to listen and write them down.
Vader wants the best out of each student but doesn’t necessarily
help them gain a better understanding, basically going off the book word for
word, the study guides were just a “guide… and not everything you study on the
guide is going to be on the test.” Yet never gave any homework, so we
were left with never knowing what to study for our tests. Vader shows examples
of good teaching by letting the students redeem some of their knowledge on the
end of tests. Giving us students 15 points worth of extra credit, so that if we
completely bombed the test we would have an available 15 extra points if we
answered the critical questions correctly. Which was very hard for most people
due to his hard grading. Another great example of his teaching would be
how after every chapter we read, he would actually give out a critical thinking
question from the end of each chapter which was worth 1 extra
credit point if we turned it in on Monday, before class starts. Once class
starts there are no more opportunities to turn in the extra credit question.
Which also motivated students to come to class because you either receive a
free extra credit point or you don’t get any points for answering it wrong, but
with it being extra credit it didn’t hurt your grade for getting it wrong. On
the test he would also give us students a shot to “inform him on something you
learned from these chapters that we didn’t cover on the test and it needs to be
correct in order to gain any points.”
All
in all, both of these teachers made a positive impact on my education. If the
teacher is positive and motivated to teaching the students and willing to get
them into class activities, than they will have a higher passing rate for their
classes. Being a positive educator also helps build an easy relationship with
the students because we feel more comfortable asking questions. In the end, Mr.
Baggins was very motivated and had a high passing rate for his Chemistry class
while Mr. Vader had a low passing rate for his AP class, and most students
ended up having to retake it to get the college credit.
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