Just this year I changed from an accelerated history class to a more challenging AP history class,
This year has been a ride to say the least… We came in thinking that we would be taught by Dr.Rice, a woman known by the to be eccentric at times but incredibly intelligent and wise. The reality of the situation was that halfway through the year we were removed from her teaching and put in a different class altogether. This change was sudden and honestly a major inconvenience to the class as a whole. We did learn yes but it felt rushed and and spastic like the whole time we were cramming info into our brains rather than taking our time to learn and digest the material.
She gave me a stack of envelopes and papers with names I did not recognize. She taught me the different names and where they went in the group of cubbies. This experience made my day and also helped teach me some names of teachers I would later
It wasn’t the hard class or the teacher or my studying style, but it was my mentality that was holding me back. I thought that what I had was confidence, when it was really just arrogance. That arrogance blinded me from the fact that AP calculus BC isn’t a typical high school course, it’s an actual college level course. It dawned to me that
By the end of the semester I had become far more confident with the material, and I had not received another thirty percent on a quiz. One day after class, Ms. Barnett asked if I wanted to stay after school once a week to help her organize the lab. I was excited that she had noticed how I had disciplined myself as a student in her class, and happily agreed to do so. As the year progressed, I developed an academic and personal bond with her; similar to the bond I had to my grandfather.
I couldn’t wait to meet her in person at my orientation. When orientation came and I finally got to meet her, I was in for a pleasant start to my college career. She assigned me and all of her other advisees a project in
The Benefits of Taking AP Classes in High School Why spend hours doing homework in college, when you could have done it in high school? “The Advanced Placement program has revolutionized high school classrooms around the United States. The program offers rigorous, college-level education to motivated students, and offers the benefit of college credit.” (Mattimore A33).
Although my experience in AP World History continued to challenge and frustrate me from June of 2015 to the present, it changed me to make me a more responsible student, and changed the way I view the world. I was continually challenged and frustrated by many assignments that I completed from June of 2015 to the present. The work that I had to finish was much more than had ever been placed on me before, and at the beginning of the year I was incredibly overwhelmed by it. The homework continued to challenge me, but it became less and less overwhelming throughout the first part of the year as I grew used to it. By the time the high school swimming season started, which took up much of my time, I figured out to be the most efficient possible.
Westchester High School has always offered a limited number of honors and advanced placement courses. Last year, to my dismay, only Mr. P. was teaching the AP Physics class I had my heart set on. From my peers, I had heard that he was an unskilled teacher because of his poor classroom management and lack of instructional time. Taking this class was very important to me because I enjoyed science, wanted a challenge, and hoped to get AP credit. So beforehand, I already knew that I would have to learn AP Physics on my own, but since I have had experience with terrible teachers before, I felt that I could handle the class and was ready for the challenge.
I was upset for some time, considering dropping the course altogether, but after some scrutiny, I acknowledged that giving up would not solve my problems, only allow them to follow me into my college career. My goal is to be a chemical engineer, and if I thought I could do that without understanding calculus, I would never get to live my dream. I took the failing grade as a motivation to do better next time; I put more effort into studying and practicing, even when work was not assigned, and I was miraculously able to earn an A for my semester grade, and a passing score on my AP exam. As cliche as it may sound, the failure helped me by motivating me.
She asked me if I was going to pursue graduate school, I replied quickly and said “this has been hard enough, I haven’t even considered it.” Her response was “well that might be a mistake, for a young person like you who wants to take on systems, you have to further understand them and have the education to take them on.” I was shocked by her boldness, and at the same time absolutely in awe of her. She was unapologetically smart, bold, and brave, all characteristics that I strive to be. She went on to tell me a story about a friend of hers who was an urban planner, and had done work overseas supporting children who had experienced trauma.
I conveyed my own ideas to her to get her approval of my opinions. I also asked for her to pick me to start off the discussion, which will provide me with a chance to speak in the class. This helped me raise my confidence in future class discussions when I was able to build upon my chance to speak up. Little by little, I managed to increase my participation in class throughout the rest of the year. My proudest moment occurred when I rushed to input my own ideas about the symbol of the river in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, disregarding my past reluctance of speaking
This semester has been an ongoing challenge for me but has been an enjoyable one and I have not been presented with any impossible tasks. I have never been much of a writer, and during the course of this semester, I 've struggled to meet length requirements on the assigned essays. However, I do understand that not everyone is an excellent writer or even has to enjoy writing to get a good grade in this 1A class. From the start, with the first essay, I pushed myself to do my best and looked to multiple outlets to polish my writing, such as the online tutor, the writing center, the internet and the writer 's handbook.
Writing essays and other types of posts has always been difficult for me. But, throughout this composition class, I have learned many interesting and new things about the different types of writing styles. When starting this class, I considered myself to be an average writer with run-of-the-mill vocabulary, ordinary sentence structure and typical finished products. This class has helped me greatly improve my writing skills in a variety of ways. I have learned multiple things by taking this class, such as new ways to approach writing and that there is much that I still need to learn about composition.
Being a teacher is a journey that has much to do with learning about yourself and being aware that what happens in your classroom reflects only on how are you with yourself. Teachers are not conscious that they project into students, and that affects how things go in the classroom. I believe the first characteristic of a good teacher is that he/ she is always willing to analyze his/her teaching performance. Second the teacher is humble enough to receive input about the development and application of techniques, learning from it and improving.
