--Original published at HuntersCollegeBlog

Throughout my many years of schooling, I’ve definitely had times where I’ve questioned my intelligence. Some classes were very easy for me, and others I really struggled with. But, with the help of my teachers, I was able to overcome those obstacles.

A lot of my teachers took notice when I was struggling in class. They would come up to me afterwards, and would ask me if I understood things, or if I needed help with something. Those teachers were the ones that got me where I am today. There were other times though where some of my teachers were solely there to teach the lesson for the day and then leave. That made it hard for me, because when I would try and ask for help, I either wouldn’t get any help, or they explained it in some complex way that I couldn’t understand. Some of my teachers also made it a point to make the class fun. When they actively tried to engage the students, whether that’d be using games or giving us extra credit for participating, it would help me to learn and remember the material better. I’m the type of person who needs to be actively engaged in something in order to fully understand it, so this engagement was extremely helpful. It was also helpful when teachers themselves were also engaged in the class. There were some teachers that I could tell weren’t passionate about the subject, thus causing me to become less engaged. When teachers were engaged, they were able to keep my interest.

A way that the school system could help with students’ performance in the classroom would be by implicating policies that would include active engagement in every classroom. Whether this would be by review games, or group review projects, it would help to actively engage students, which would help them to retrieve the information, therefore improving performance in the classroom.

--Original published at HarrysCollegeBlog

Education is such a great tool for helping one through life, and yet it always seems so boring, especially with the math, history, and science one has to learn on top of reading boring stories we don’t care about. School has grown from a place of boredom, and many young kids jokingly refer to it as jail, and look forward only to recess, or the end of school, and not their own grades. This behavior seems to negatively effect learning, downgrading its value in the mind of younger kids, myself among them.

During my early school days, school was a prison to me, not only figuratively, but literally, as I was often bullied being the only Asian in the entire school. not only this, but teachers, despite being really nice and interactive, struggled to make learning fun, with the exception of one: Mr Pete Godber, by third and fourth grade teacher. He was able to  present education in a fun, engaging way, which appealed to my younger self. He often used games, videos, and fun activities to encourage us to learn, and it worked well, since he combined learning, with having fun. He taught us tricks to easy ways to learn times tables, and even had us take responsibilities, by having everyone assigned a cleaning role in class after lunch was eaten.

This is the most in my entire life I was ever so motivated to learn, as he made is so much fun, I couldn’t resist wanting to learn. This is what education should be like, especially towards the young. Getting them into liking education by incorporating fun activities, and promote learning, not boring children to death.

--Original published at Gracie's Blog

Throughout my years of education I have had several different types of teachers. Some very smart who used large vocab words when speaking, and some who acted as if they had no idea what they were doing. My senior year of high school I had a young teacher who was very smart and seemed to always introduce new vocabulary when giving a lecture. This helped me learn new words and widen my own vocabulary. He was also very willing to help if I ever had a problem. My one math teacher was the opposite, he would stand on desks, and slap a ruler down on a desk to get our attention. If we needed help, we frequently asked another teacher for help because this specific teacher usually did not answer our questions and told us to ask a student in the class. When I had this same teacher for trig, I realized he was being tough on us, and wanted us to try and solve problems by ourselves first, instead of going to him for help right away. Some teachers I had were so friendly, and made learning fun, which resulted in me learning faster and understanding the material. A big key factor in whether or not I was going to do well in a class was depending on the certain topic. Sometimes it did not matter who the teacher was, if I disliked the class subject, then I did not enjoy the class.
I think in order to help students out nowadays, the school system has to have more evaluations, and offer a variety of different subjects. My high school was slowly adding more classes, but for the most part there were not many classes available to choose from. If there were more teacher evaluations, then the teacher will be less likely to prepare and do their best work when only being evaluated.

--Original published at Zachs College Blog

In  1998, The Governor of Georgia, Zell Miller proposed spending $105,000 of the states budget to distribute a CD of classical music to new born babies. Every time a baby leaves the hospital, they are always given a goodie bag that includes many baby supplies. Governor Miller wanted to add in another surprise to the gift bag that included classical music cause herself a huge of fan of country and bluegrass music believes that Mozart and Bach can stimulate brain development at early ages. Miller stated “No one questions that listening to music at a very early age affects the spatial, temporal reasoning that underlies math and engineering and even chess”. Although, many scientist’s do question this and argue that it is not scientifically established yet. Miller stated that he began becoming very interested in the connections between music and child development after attending multiple seminars hosted by the Education Commission of the States. To sell his idea to the law makers at his state budget meeting he decided to play Beethoven and asked them after if they felt smarter. If the General Assembly decides to follow through with Miller’s plan, he asked Yoel Levi, the music director at Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, to put together a potential track list to propose. With their not being much research on this proposition benefiting early aged development in newborn babies, it might result in people taking Millers word on his findings. In conclusion, I feel that back then there was not enough information, studies, and research to support Miller’s idea but in today’s day and age with advanced technologies and mechanisms to perform certain studies, researchers would be able to further Miller’s research on whether or not classical music benefits brain development in early age children.

Citation:

Sack, K. (1998, January 15). Georgia’s Governor Seeks Musical Start For Babies. Retrieved   October 29, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/15/us/georgia-s-governor-seeks-musical-start-for-babies.html

--Original published at Makayla Hockenbrock

Throughout high school I tried to have good relationships with the teachers I encountered. Some teachers I never had for a class, but I was on good terms with them, as well as, had a trusting, joking, relationship when passing in the hallways or when I needed someone to talk to. I tried to receive good relationships with the teachers that taught me by asking questions, paying attention in class, and participating when I was able to. For me, that worked rather well, and I did not get complaints from any teachers on how my performance was coming off to them or others. However, there were some teachers that I didn’t even want to see in the hallways, or every day when I had to go to their class I dreaded it. They were either teachers that caused unnecessary problems or teachers that were not good at their job, or there was one teacher that caused problems for me outside of the classroom, where she also ruined the joy of a sport.

When focusing on the fact that some teachers are also sports coaches, I think that school systems should not allow that. If a child wants to play a sport but that coach is also their teacher, if they are on bad terms in the classroom, they may be on bad terms on the playing field, which in my opinion is unfair. With regards to strictly the classroom, I feel as if teachers who see a shy kid, can talk to them more during class. In general, I think schools can make sure that they are hiring teachers that are there for the kids to learn and not just a paycheck. I understand, though, that is easier said than done.

--Original published at Taylor'sEtownCollegeBlog

Option 1:  Through out high school, I experienced the lot of good teachers along with the awful ones.  One on the things that has made a huge impact on my education was one teacher who said everything was so easy.  Everything that we learned, no matter the difficulty, he always said this is so easy.  I found this extremely discouraging especially when I was struggling with the topic.  Teachers often down play the level of difficulty in a subject and this is often very discouraging to students who are struggling with the material.

One of the best teachers that I have ever had was open to all questions and was constructive in his comments.  When you would ask a question, he would not make a face complaining about the fact that you asked a question.  He would answer the question to the best of his ability and would make sure that you genuinely understood what was happening.  This is what teachers need to change to.  They need to not seem like they are being bothered by the fact that students have questions about the material.  Their job is to teach these students to the best of their ability and in order for students to understand material, they must ask questions.

One benefit that I have gained from my high school experience that lots of other students might not have experienced is the pressure to succeed and to be the best student that you can be before the best athlete or club member.  My school put a large emphasis on the importance of education and good grades.  In my school we were considered student athletes with an emphasis on student being first.  School and academics always came first.  More schools I believe should focus on this idea more because many times it seems like the school is more interested in being the best in football or soccer or basketball and not what is truly important, academics.

This is my view point on how the academic system should change based off of my own personal experiences.

~Taylor