"We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up." ~Phyllis Diller
Please click on the link above to see a comic strip I created. I think short comics are a great way to get students intrigued in a topic. Something short, easy to read, and amusing. I hope that my comic strip intrigued you to read on. :)
I had a teacher that I will refer to as Mrs. Johnson. She was my Freshman year English teacher. At this point in my life I had spent the last 4 years in 3 different programs and 2 different schools. In hind sight, I realize I was kind of a mess. I had not had any consistency in my education for the last 4 years, the programs and approaches were constantly changing. I would say I was a little unprepared for high school. I was a smart kid, but didn't necessary have the proper work ethic, I definitely didn't have the best attitude. I pretty much went out of my way to avoid doing work, especially work I felt was below me, not interesting , or busy work. I would ask Mrs. Johnson for extensions on everything and anything.
Eventually my parents talked to Mrs. Johnson at parent/teacher conferences. At this point I was planning on going to the academy (an accelerated program at a different school) for my sophomore year of high school. Mrs. Johnson told them that I would not succeed in that program. That I didn't have the motivation or work ethic to make it in the academy. When my parents told me this I was really offended. I considered this woman a terrible teacher, a nice woman, but she was a pushover and I took advantage of that. How dare she say that I would not succeed?! She never tried to push me to be better, she never punished me for being late, she never gave me challenging assignments, and she never required me to try; she just assumed that I was only doing what I was able to do.
Looking back now I see how her words pushed me to do better at school. I would not give her the satisfaction of seeing me fail and I really thrived when I transferred to the academy program. However, from a teaching perspective she taught me to never assume a student is doing their best. As teachers we should always demand the best of our students and not settle for work that we know can be better. I wish Mrs. Johnson had been more supportive of me, I wish that she would have pushed me more and I wish she would have tried to talk to me about my work ethic and tried to find solutions to make it better instead of assuming that was all I could do. Because of this experience I will always strive to get to know my students and to see their strengths and weaknesses and try to make them better. I want to ask them questions and discover what their educational histories are and what I can do help them get where they need to be to succeed.
I had a teacher that I will refer to as Mrs. Johnson. She was my Freshman year English teacher. At this point in my life I had spent the last 4 years in 3 different programs and 2 different schools. In hind sight, I realize I was kind of a mess. I had not had any consistency in my education for the last 4 years, the programs and approaches were constantly changing. I would say I was a little unprepared for high school. I was a smart kid, but didn't necessary have the proper work ethic, I definitely didn't have the best attitude. I pretty much went out of my way to avoid doing work, especially work I felt was below me, not interesting , or busy work. I would ask Mrs. Johnson for extensions on everything and anything.
Eventually my parents talked to Mrs. Johnson at parent/teacher conferences. At this point I was planning on going to the academy (an accelerated program at a different school) for my sophomore year of high school. Mrs. Johnson told them that I would not succeed in that program. That I didn't have the motivation or work ethic to make it in the academy. When my parents told me this I was really offended. I considered this woman a terrible teacher, a nice woman, but she was a pushover and I took advantage of that. How dare she say that I would not succeed?! She never tried to push me to be better, she never punished me for being late, she never gave me challenging assignments, and she never required me to try; she just assumed that I was only doing what I was able to do.
Looking back now I see how her words pushed me to do better at school. I would not give her the satisfaction of seeing me fail and I really thrived when I transferred to the academy program. However, from a teaching perspective she taught me to never assume a student is doing their best. As teachers we should always demand the best of our students and not settle for work that we know can be better. I wish Mrs. Johnson had been more supportive of me, I wish that she would have pushed me more and I wish she would have tried to talk to me about my work ethic and tried to find solutions to make it better instead of assuming that was all I could do. Because of this experience I will always strive to get to know my students and to see their strengths and weaknesses and try to make them better. I want to ask them questions and discover what their educational histories are and what I can do help them get where they need to be to succeed.