notes on Chalk

The "Super Size Me" guy!
family tells war stories about students, admin, faculty....
but they never quit because they loved being teachers.
The teachrs r so important!


Chalk:
YIKES! half of the Ts quit within the 1st 3 years of T-ing
making jokes to make students comfortable.
the history T is so uncomfortable. well now i know why! He has NEVER taught before!!

Teachers in the lounge talking about their school experience...Ridiculous! they all had problems.

These Ts and the AP are all new in so inexperienced and untrained.

The Ts are more like monkeys, performers for the evaluators, they can't focus on teaching...not really.

The AP has to heavy of a work load, she doesn't get home until after 10pm.
The students are out of control and don't listen to the T, the Ts have not been educated in ways to diffuse tough situations between students.

Other Ts like the coach are taking over the way the other Ts run their classroom.
Not only do Ts have to worry and  deal with students and their poor behaviours, but they also have to deal with workplace issues like working well with other Ts there.

Coach has an idea that if you make students believe that you think they have a lot of potential then they will live up to that and try harder.

the T is looking for books on classroom management...did he not take any course on that in college?!

The AP is overworked and stressed out, she has no time to unwind.

a T, tells the student to "use words that he can understand" he tells his students to tone down their knowledge. Obviously the Ts have not been well educated at all!

Students are uncomfortable and miserable.
The T thats the newest is experimenting with ways to teach.

The whole theme of this movie seems to be the lack of qualifications that the teachers have!

The administration treats the teachers and faculty worse than they treat the students, they treat them like the Ts are children!

I wonder how much of this mockumentary is accurate.
Most of the Ts are too preoccupied with whats goig on in their lives that they do not really focus on teaching.

The new T says that teaching takes up all of his life and he has no time for a personal life. thats sad.

I feel bad for the history T. He wants to make a diff. He wants to be a good teachers and do what he feels is right, but the students don't care, the administration doesn't care....he has a vision of what teaching should be like and it is not turning out the way he thought it would.

The teachers are discussing bad experiences they've had, like horror stories about being teachers, they are afraid of their students and afraid of the administration that observes them and rules over them.

The Social studies teacher just wants to win some award from the school. he goes "over the top" only to be seen and looked at by his superiors.

the coach says "i had a feeling that she would bridge the gap between teaching and administration"...

The social studies teacher is so focused on winning the teacher award that he is not even teaching his class. He used his students to try to win and when he didn't win he reacted crazy in the classroom.

The ap goes in to cover for substitute teachers when they can't make it. she was happiest in the classroom. she misses the students that care and put forth effort.

The history teacher is becoming comfortable in the classroom, it only too him all year, congrats sir.
in college he should've had classroom time so that he wouldn't have gone through all of the awkward and poor teaching.

I think this film is meant to show that it is not only the high school level of education that is suffering but also the college level. how poor is the education of the educators?! and what about the professors that educate the teachers?....and so on...?

I guess we go to high school and learn from people who don't know what they're doing, but they went to college to learn from people who don't know what they're doing, and those people went to university and were taught by people who have been through the same system! its a vicious cycle.
the history professor says "being a teacher is a gift, maybe it's something you can learn, but no one's taught me.".....well thats what he should've been in school for, to learn how to be a teacher....guess not huh?

drafting exercise

This exercise was helpful in getting my thoughts out onto paper and then i could organize the answers and sentences into a paragraph for my essay. Writing out the examples and then descriptions we would use for our essay before writing the essay was a very helpful tool, Now I have the essay already written on the exercise paper and io just need to develop it further into a formal paper.

rough draft of paper 2

I need to develop an introduction and a conclusion. i always find these two paragraphs the hardest to write.

My junior high school history teacher was an example of a difficult teacher; he was precisely the type of teacher that Mr. Dalton at Walton Prep School would approve of. When I was 15 years old and still an ornery teenager, I walked into Mr. Robinson's eighth period History class on the third floor of Heritage Jr. High. Having been a monastery before it became a school, Heritage was the newest and nicest of the three Jr. Highs in town. Mr. Robinson sat at his huge grey metal desk always wearing a black coloured shirt and khaki trousers. His oversized bright yellow pencil never went unnoticed, sitting at the front of his desk it boasted his name engraved in big bold black letters "Mr. Robinson". His class was held toward the end of the day, there were nine periods in total for a full day of school and Mr. Robinson's lengthy history class was in period eight. As each student drug their feet slugging into the classroom, already weary and worn down from the long day of classes, our first sight was of Mr. Robinson sitting proudly at his desk straight in front of the door. After the students sat down in their chosen seats, each one next to their best friend or favourite classmate, Mr. Robinson made everyone stand up and line shoulder to shoulder against the far wall of the classroom. He then called out each student very official-like, by last name first and first name second. Pointing to a specific faded brown desk in the room directing that each student called must sit there in the exact assigned seat. Once all seats were assigned Mr. Robinson handed out a contract which stated that each individual in the classroom would be responsible for coming to class daily, paying attention, remaining in their assigned seats, taking notes, and keeping quiet; "quiet" having been printed in bold, larger font and underlined. This contract was to be signed, in black ink only, by every student sitting in the classroom. This all was only the first day of class; Mr. Robinson’s lectures were drawn out, lengthy monotone hours of excruciating torture. The moment which stands out to me the most from Mr. Robinson’s class was on a very dark and rainy day, the lights were shut down low and the overhead projector was showing an image of something very historical I’m sure; many students had dozed off for a nice afternoon nap and Mr. Robinson announced in a loud boisterous voice, “if you want to sleep in my class I don’t care, but you better learn to sleep with your eyes open and at least pretend like you’re paying attention.” Mr. Robinson was so disconnected and disengaged that I still to this day view him as a cold, empty robot.

Mr. Keating was quite the opposite of my lackluster history teacher; he was a positive example of a great teacher. Mr. Keating was a great teacher because he was personable, connected with the students and pulled in their attention. When Mr. Keating first entered the classroom he was whistling and walking with a strut, he was happy and proud to be there. He walked straight through the classroom, back out through the other door and poked his head back in and said “well come on”. The students didn’t know what to do; they had never in their academic careers experienced such a strange professor before. Mr. Keating lead the students to the hallway where pictures of past alumni hung behind glass cabinets, he made the students realize that these men could be their possible future. Mr. Keating opened the students eyes to what really lies ahead of them and the choices they have in front of them to decide on who and what they will become “these boys are now fertilizing daffodils…But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Carpe Diem. Seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.” Seize the day was his advice to the students; in only the first class Mr. Keating took the students outside of the classroom and pulled in their attention leaving them mesmerized and excited to learn. In his vision of what a teacher should be Mr. Keating felt passionately that “the idea of educating was to learn to think for yourself.” I love this point of view because it resonates with me and makes me want to do better for myself. Mr. Keating takes the students outside to the soccer field and tells one of the boys “let it fill your soul”, this shows how he wanted his students to open up and become more than what society demands of them and what it wants to place them in.

Mr. Keating and Mr. Robinson have two very different styles of teaching. While they both managed to get their knowledge, information and desired messages across to their students, one was much more dynamic and effective on the lives of each student. Mr. Robinson’s monotone and lackluster lectures were able to help students pass tests and learn what the curriculum required of them, but it was not conducive to creative thinking or self-enrichment. Mr. Keating however, was very personable and connected with his students; he saw potential in each one that perhaps they had not yet seen in themselves. Mr. Keating’s methods of teaching captivated all the students’ attention and inspired to be more than they originally thought they could be. Mr. Keating was a great teacher because he cared; his passion for teaching allowed him to make learning fun and interesting for all of his students, despite their reservations and inhibitions.

difference between the schools

The two high schools in the movies that we watched, "Stand and Deliver" and "Dead Poets Society" are very different and yet also similar. Each school intends to create a certain type of student, they set them in classrooms and feed information to them in order to get the students to pass an exam and move on to the next class and pass the next exam.....on and on and on an endless procedure until graduation and then they can move on to college and do the same thing. Receive information and then regurgitate it back onto an exam or test and prove you were paying attention in your class. Mr. Escalante and Mr. Keating intended to break this vicious cycle. They wanted their students to break out of the places in which society put them and become more than what they thought they could. Mr. Escalante's school was very poor and had little funding, the education there was lacking and students received minimal encouragement or assistance. Mr. Escalante wanted his students to become more than they had been told they could, he wanted them to pass the AP exam and have a better opportunity for college than they had previously been given. Mr. Keating wanted his students to become more than they had been told they could become in a different way than Mr. Escalante. Mr. Keating wanted his students to break away from the exams and constant studying just for college preparation, he want his students to be able to think for themselves and become what ever it is they desired, not what they had been told they had to be, by their parents and educators. the students of Welton had so many opportunities already, the school was prestigious and wealthy, these kids could be anything they wanted, they didn't all have to be stuck in an endless cycle of doctors and lawyers and such. They should learn to think for themselves and decide their own future, this was Mr. Keating's belief and he was determined to help his students break free and become their own person.

Mr. Escalante and Mr. MacFarland

Mike Rose's essay describes his own school, but I wonder if he realized as he was writing it that there are many schools just like in the United States. His description of Mr. MacFarland is very similar to Mr. Escalante in the movie "Stand and Deliver". Both MR. Escalant and Mr. MacFarland were very similar in that they wanted their students to succeed. They both had studying sessions held at their houses and took personal interest in their students. They are both examples of good teachers, but these type of teachers are rare. Most teachers do not take time outside of school hours to help or hang out or be a part of students lives. It is a comfort to know that Mr. Escalante and Mr. MacFarland are examples of at least a few teachers that may be out there making better students and providing encouragements and enrichment in the lives of their students.

Mike Rose essay 2

Mike Rose's essay is so far my favourite reading in this class, it hits home for me. His description of his school and his experience in it reminds me so much of my own school. The separation of "slow learners" and the "elite students" is too common an attribute of schools in the United States, as this also took place in my high school in New York. I was in the "Advanced Placement" and "Honours" classes throughout my jr. high and high-school experience, of course I was always only after that extrinsic reward of receiving an "A", and I wonder now, after reading Rose's essay, if I truly learned enough.
My high school, like many American schools I imagine, was driven to achieve academic excellence. Standardized tests and "advanced placement" were pushed on students like a lemon juicer and we were the lemons. In order to get more funding for the school, it had to be ranked high in academic excellence. Similar to Mike Rose's experience in high school, many student fell through the cracks and the education was impersonal.
In my experience teachers do not take personal interest in their students, they may have after school homework help hours but they do not invite students to their house or hang out with them outside of school. I did have only one teacher who took a personal interest in me. He was my older sister's teacher the year before and then also had my younger sister in his class two years after me. He became pretty close with my family only because he had all three of us as his students. He is a great example of a good teacher, his after school hours were extended beyond other teachers' hours and he was very personable with students.

Formal Paper #2 Compare&Contrast

There are many different kinds of teachers, some are good, and some are great and others not so much. I have had my share of experiences with both good teachers and bad teachers. The movies we watched show examples of very good teachers. Mr. Keating from Dead Poets Society is an example of a great teacher; he connects with the students on a personal level and gets them to believe in themselves in a way they never thought to before. In contrast my high school history teacher, Mr. Robinson, was not such a great teacher. He was disconnected from the students of his class and this lead to a big conflict between the students and Mr. Robinson. His teaching style was quite the opposite of Mr. Keating’s in that Mr. Robinson only wanted to teach the curriculum and as the headmaster of Welton says “Prepare them for college, and the rest will take care of itself.”

My junior high school history teacher was an example of a difficult teacher; he was precisely the type of teacher that Mr. Dalton at Walton Prep School would approve of. When I was 15 years old and still an ornery teenager, I walked into Mr. Robinson's eighth period History class on the third floor of Heritage Jr. High. Having been a monastery before it became a school, Heritage was the newest and nicest of the three Jr. Highs in town. Mr. Robinson sat at his huge grey metal desk always wearing a black coloured shirt and khaki trousers. His oversized bright yellow pencil never went unnoticed, sitting at the front of his desk it boasted his name engraved in big bold black letters "Mr. Robinson". His class was held toward the end of the day, there were nine periods in total for a full day of school and Mr. Robinson's lengthy history class was in period eight. As each student drug their feet slugging into the classroom, already weary and worn down from the long day of classes, our first sight was of Mr. Robinson sitting proudly at his desk straight in front of the door. After the students sat down in their chosen seats, each one next to their best friend or favourite classmate, Mr. Robinson made everyone stand up and line shoulder to shoulder against the far wall of the classroom. He then called out each student very official-like, by last name first and first name second. Pointing to a specific faded brown desk in the room directing that each student called must sit there in the exact assigned seat. Once all seats were assigned Mr. Robinson handed out a contract which stated that each individual in the classroom would be responsible for coming to class daily, paying attention, remaining in their assigned seats, taking notes, and keeping quiet; "quiet" having been printed in bold, larger font and underlined. This contract was to be signed, in black ink only, by every student sitting in the classroom. This all was only the first day of class; Mr. Robinson’s lectures were drawn out, lengthy monotone hours of excruciating torture. The moment which stands out to me the most from Mr. Robinson’s class was on a very dark and rainy day, the lights were shut down low and the overhead projector was showing an image of something very historical I’m sure; many students had dozed off for a nice afternoon nap and Mr. Robinson announced in a loud boisterous voice, “if you want to sleep in my class I don’t care, but you better learn to sleep with your eyes open and at least pretend like you’re paying attention.” Mr. Robinson was so disconnected and disengaged that I still to this day view him as a cold, empty robot.

Mr. Keating was quite the opposite of my lackluster history teacher; he was a positive example of a great teacher. Mr. Keating was a great teacher because he was personable, connected with the students and pulled in their attention. When Mr. Keating first entered the classroom he was whistling and walking with a strut, he was happy and proud to be there. He walked straight through the classroom, back out through the other door and poked his head back in and said “well come on”. The students didn’t know what to do; they had never in their academic careers experienced such a strange professor before. Mr. Keating lead the students to the hallway where pictures of past alumni hung behind glass cabinets, he made the students realize that these men could be their possible future. Mr. Keating opened the students eyes to what really lies ahead of them and the choices they have in front of them to decide on who and what they will become “these boys are now fertilizing daffodils…But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Carpe Diem. Seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.” Seize the day was his advice to the students; in only the first class Mr. Keating took the students outside of the classroom and pulled in their attention leaving them mesmerized and excited to learn. In his vision of what a teacher should be Mr. Keating felt passionately that “the idea of educating was to learn to think for yourself.” I love this point of view because it resonates with me and makes me want to do better for myself. Mr. Keating takes the students outside to the soccer field and tells one of the boys “let it fill your soul”, this shows how he wanted his students to open up and become more than what society demands of them and what it wants to place them in.

Mr. Keating and Mr. Robinson have two very different styles of teaching. While they both managed to get their knowledge, information and desired messages across to their students, one was much more dynamic and effective on the lives of each student. Mr. Robinson’s monotone and lackluster lectures were able to help students pass tests and learn what the curriculum required of them, but it was not conducive to creative thinking or self-enrichment. Mr. Keating however, was very personable and connected with his students; he saw potential in each one that perhaps they had not yet seen in themselves. Mr. Keating’s methods of teaching captivated all the students’ attention and inspired to be more than they originally thought they could be. Mr. Keating was a great teacher because he cared; his passion for teaching allowed him to make learning fun and interesting for all of his students, despite their reservations and inhibitions.

Although there are many types and styles of teaching, some may be more effective than others. The comparison and contrast of both Mr. Robinson and Mr. Keating show that while some styles of teaching allow for a sensible acquisition of scholastic and programed material, others allow for students to break into their own and think for themselves. Students who have teachers like Mr. Keating can make the most of the time that has been given to them; these students can become more than the societal belief of what is successful. My favourite moment from the movie is when Mr. Keating explains the stanza, “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old time is still a flying, and this same flower that smiles today, tomorrow will be dying." from Robert Herrick’s poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”. Mr. Keating makes it very simple and easy to understand, while inspiring his students at the same time; his translation of Herrick’s poem is simply “Carpe Diem, seize the day.”