In the book Sometimes a Shining Moment:
Eliot Wiginton had a student that talked about a teacher who takes time to
recognize students as an individual and not just part of a group. The student
went on to say "I had one particular teacher that I would never forget.
Once when the teacher gave back an essay I found that she had complimented my
essay, the topic, and even me."
I had a teacher
that that was just like the teacher that one of the juniors or seniors
had. The teacher that I remember the
best was my twelfth grade English teacher, Mrs. Oehler was a type of teacher
that always involved every one in the class discussion. She took the time to realize me as a
individual and not just a student that showed up for her class every day. Every day when I went to class I was excited
to be their. We never knew what Mrs. Oehler had up her sleeve, but we knew that
we would have a good time.
When I showed up at room 124 on the first
day of class I did not know what to expect.
You see I never had Mrs. Oehler in my previous three years of high
school. I thought she would be a nice person to have as teacher, but I never
knew that she would be the best teacher that I ever had. I first noticed that Mrs. Oehler was a special
kind of person when she came over to my desk and out of the clear blue she
asked me about my story I was writing for her class. I was surprised to here
her say "so Matt how do you like you story so far". She did not ask
any body else in the class, just
me. It was those little things that she
did that impressed me. She always made
time in class for each and every one of us to state our opinion about the days topic.
Some days when we were reading a story she
would turn it into a theatrical performance.
She always keep us interested in what we were reading, and turned an
ordinary assignment that would of been boring
with any other teacher into a fun and rewarding experience.
We read
the Adromenal Strain a story that dealt with a deadly virus from outer
space and the use of the atomic bomb to rid the earth of this deadly
infection. Our class was mixed with different emotions about using
the atomic bomb. We discussed the
effects and devastation that the bomb could bring and compared them to the good
possibilities that could occur from bombing the city that had been hit with
this infections virus. In order to make
this debate more interesting than before Mrs. Oehler declared every one in the
class congressmen. We were then required
to write a letter of recommendation to the President of the United States of
America. The topic of the letter was to persuade the president to drop or not
to drop the bomb. I took this
assignment to heart, I tried to make the letter look so official and realistic
as possible. That night when I went home I turned on the computer and created a
letter head to match the letter head of this letter that I got from Congressman
John Kaisch. I did such a good job that Mrs. Oehler showed it off to the whole
entire class. When one of her students in her class did some thing that was
extremely outstanding she would take notice and share it with the class. It was things like that she did that made
her class a fun learning experience.
Another
student from Wiginton's book said: "I
had a teacher who was always willing to stay after class and talk to
you. He would always help straighten things out. If I did something wrong he'll
tell me. I really appreciated the fact that he cared the that much." My art teacher Mrs. Lenher was like
that. She was a very nice person and
every one in the school knew it, even the other teachers. When ever I had a
problem she would take time out of her
very busy day to help. I remember last
fall one of my friend was in trouble with the law. This really brought me down
because my friend was in a high speed chase
and he got away. He then came
over to my house to hide from the police.
Some how the police received a tip from another friend that he was at my
house. The police came to my house and, I was forced to turn him in. After that
I was extremely confused and afraid that I would lose a friend because I turned
him in. The next day I told Mrs. Lenher about what happened. We talked
for about and hour and discus the good and the bad that could happen to my
friend and our friend ship. She helped
me come to a conclusion that I did the right
thing and that my friend should
be thankful for what I did. My
friend is now out of trouble and we are
still friends so I feel that I did do the right thing by not letting him keep running from the
law. With out Mrs. Lenher's help I would still feel guilty. She was also their for me when I was trying
to win a scholarship to an art school in Pittsburgh. I remember she stayed up very late one night
to write a letter of recommendation for
me. She called me on the phone around
10:00 o'clock that night to tell me that she was almost done with the
letter. She cleared up some things that
she was not sure about then we talked about my portfolio. I thought it was funny that my teacher called
me a my house, I never had a teacher
that did that before. I think that
every one should have a teacher like Mrs. Leaner to talk to when you need to talk.
The thing that really gets to me is when a
teacher favors certain people over the rest of the group. One of the students from Some Times a Shining
Moment also said the same thing. The
student said "what gripes me the most is teachers picking out one or two
students to have as "pets". It is not only unfair to the other
students, and really childish for adults
to do; it really doesn't help the child you are being nice to. Did you ever
stop to think that what it does to a kid to get too much attention? Well, I'll
tell you. They at first will be envied
by her friends. But pretty soon the awe wears thin and the resentment sets in.
The poor kid that was at first popular and friendly soon loses
friends."
I definitely can relate to this story.
I've have had two teachers that had "pets" I hated the teachers that did that and I
ended up not liking the "pets".
My math teacher was also the football
and the basketball coach. He favored the kids that were on his teams. In
class he would try to be their best friend while the rest of the class got
neglected. I felt unnoticed and did not
want to be in his class because I felt very uncomfortable in a class with a
teacher that did not care about me.
My biology teacher was a pervert and his
class "pets" were any girls that wore a skirt. If you were a girl you would get an "A" for the year with out trying
very hard. Since I am a male I had to work hard for a good grade. My teacher would never look at the tests and
the home work, he would grade our papers by what he thought we deserved. I got an "B" for the year only
because I worked very hard and protested my grades after he handed back the
papers. Now that I look back and think
about him, I believe that he a very special grading system of his own. Girls get an "A", boys get a
"B or C" and smokers get "F's". It was very unfair and I
did not like some of the girls in that class that year because of the grade
that they got that they did not earn.
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