Final Draft Education Paper #2

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 6^th 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.

Rough Draft.

The vital roles teachers obtain 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 in an educator’s life, a positive learning experience plays a vital role in successful student/teacher relationships for our education, to better prepare us for our futures. In contrast to a negative role played by a teacher resulting in an unsuccessful experience and failed success rate for the students, a positive role played by a teacher helps the students become more interested in the subject with a higher passing rate. Mr. Baggins a chemistry teacher, and Mr. Vader an anatomy and physiology teacher, both 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.

The feeling of inconvenience and burden shouldn't be felt among the students to be a good teacher, a good teacher is there to help the students gain a better understanding for what they're trying to learn. Walking into Mr. Baggins 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. 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 doesn’t give you a straight answer he will ask you another question back, example; "is this the tibia?" his response, "do you think it's the tibia?" or, "why do you think it's the tibia?"  In a way that could be good teaching, most students ask questions not to be questioned back they would like to know the answer so that they can learn and memorize. Their teaching styles are similar in that they both require a lot of work and study to be successful in their classes and they both are strict, they just have different ways of showing it via facial expressions and motivation during class times.

Most of the students in my Anatomy and Physiology class would 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 unfortunate and results in less students passing the course. Vader whom is very smart man with a Doctorate Degree, contrasts Mr. Baggins with most of the teaching styles that he teaches except few traits that are their strictness and their need to have the students do a great job. Vaders attitude portrayed to the students is very blunt, if you haven't had a previous course on the knowledge of the human body and anatomy, 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 things than all the busy work the students had to do on the study guides, even if they 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 the 20 pound text book. 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. One would feel that the whole point of school is to learn to adapt to many different kinds of teaching because when you grow up and get into the big world, you put your grown up pants on and learn new things every day in order to succeed. It's merely just a study pattern and how the students choose to study.

Baggins examples as a good teacher is that he always put the students first, he was very outgoing, loved to get the class involved in learning, immediately when class started he would 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 finds ways to explain topics so that the students can understand things better. Baggins reminds me a lot like the actor Jaime Escalante from the movie Stand and Deliver in that both the sense of humor and motivated in the success of his students. Yet, a very hard grader wanting only the best work out of each and every student, gives plenty of chances to gain extra credit on exams. Gets the class in activities to motivate them, does the study guide that flows with the tests so you’re not surprised with all the questions, gives homework. Does labs every week to work on the actual chemistry portion of the tests. Records all of his lectures and writes 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 we went through and were 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 would have something to do with the extra credit questions on the tests. and 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.”

Thesis Statement + Two Teachers + One Paragraph

Thesis statement: Because there are so many teaching styles, a positive learning experience plays a vital role in successful student/teacher relationships for our education, to better prepare us for our futures. In contrast to a negative role played by a teacher resulting in an unsuccessful experience and failed success rate for the students.

 Paragraph for paper

The feeling of inconvenience and burden shouldn't be felt among the students to be a good teacher, a great teacher is there to help the students gain a better understanding for what they're trying to learn. Walking into Mr. Baggins chemistry class in school, not only was he open minded and willing to help out with homework and reading, 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. If the students are asking questions to try to understand the topic in which they are learning then that is a result of a great teacher doing his job and getting the students involved in their need to learn. Other teachers act as if the students are burdening them by being inquisitive and asking questions about the topics that are being taught, which is unfortunate and results in less students passing the course. Mr. Vader whom is very smart man with a Doctorate Degree, contrasts Mr. Baggins with most of the teaching styles that he teaches. His attitude portrayed to the students is very blunt, if you haven't had a previous course on the knowledge of the human body and anatomy, there is no way you could pass this class with how fast he moves from one topic to another without looking back. The tests given out by Vader would be on completely different things than all the busy work the students had to do on the study guides, even if they 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 the 20 pound text book. You can't really blame a professor for doing his job, try being in their shoes and having to teach 40 adults one topic when they all have different styles of learning. The whole point of school is to learn to adapt to many different kinds of teaching because when you grow up and get into the big world, you put your grown up pants on and learn new things every day in order to succeed. It's merely just a study pattern and how the students choose to study. If you look at it from all different ways you can see it in many different perspectives. It seems that the feeling as if the student body is unimportant to most teachers and that they are just trying to get us through the course and don't care if we pass or fail, is getting more common as we proceed through our schooling.

Here I will discuss each teacher whose names I haven't given because of the small town we live in, I am going to talk about each teachers teaching styles first in different paragraphs and then talk more about how it helped prepare me for my future and helped me learn.

Mr. Anatomy & Physiology

Very blunt, expects you to read and know all the material before the class period, talks down to students, not necessarily makes fun of students for being wrong but embarrasses them in front of the class while letting the class know how stupid that answer was, has a low pass rate for students that take the class, dry sense of humor, doesn’t like people asking questions even though he asks if we have questions, very intelligent but narcissistic about his knowledge for the subject, when you ask a question he doesn’t give you a straight answer he will ask you another question back, example; "is this the tibia?" his response, "do you think it's the tibia?" or, "why do you think it's the tibia?". For the test study guides he would have us answer and learn all this information ON the guide, but most of these things we would work so hard to study for... wouldn’t even be on the test, it would be the little things that were hidden in the chapters that didn’t have anything to do with the study guide. So really you never knew exactly WHAT to study. He told us that the study guide, is a GUIDE, and we should know that not all that information would be on the test, we should know all the information in the chapters like the back of our hands just like he does, yet he has about 30 more years of experience. It was really hard to adjust to this type of teaching style because I feel like if I hadn’t taken these classes before I wouldn’t have passed. There would be no way on earth that I could have learned that much information about the human body and immune system as well as all the bones in the body and the muscles and everything down to the microscopic level, in that amount of time. The thing is, after having him as a teacher for A&P 1 and A&P 2 I understood his ways of teaching more. If you read the chapters beforehand and took really in depth notes on it and understood it, you will have a better understanding for what the teacher is talking about in class the next day and can go over it twice to acquire a better knowledge of the topic, this way at least you know what he will be talking about and if you are unsure about it you can ask him in class without sounding like a complete moron. As for the testing you really have to critically think about what could possibly be on the test while reading and writing notes because all of his tests were printed out the same day no one knew what was on them, the GREAT part of the tests were that by doing the critical thinking sections after each chapter for one extra credit point, he put critical thinking questions at the end of each test to gain extra credit points, you didn’t have to do them but if you tried and got some stuff correct it gained you some extra credit on your test, as well as he gave you a chance to write down something you learned that you studied very hard for that wasn’t on the test, if you can explain it you get extra credit points. There were 15 available extra credit points on each test. In a way I would say it’s bad teaching but if you understand that you are here to learn and paying money to learn in a certain amount of time you better be doing hard work to learn and study the material and dedicate all your time to learning the subject.

Mr. Chemistry

Very outgoing, loves to get the class involved in learning, immediately when class starts makes a list of things that are going to be discussed during the class period, and follows that to do list to the T. Finds ways to explain topics so that the students can understand things better. This teacher reminds me a lot like Jaime Escalante from the movie Stand and Deliver in that both the sense of humor and the need to have his students succeed are very important to him. Hard grader but only because he wants the best work out of each and every student, gives plenty of chances to gain extra credit on exams. Gets the class in activities to motivate them, does the study guide that flows with the tests so you’re not surprised with all the questions, gives homework. Does labs every week to work on the actual chemistry portion of the tests. Records all of his lectures and writes 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. As opposed to the other teacher where if you miss a class you're screwed.