Awesome Education Moments?

[Samwise]

Sup guys, I haven't posted here in forever and if you don't know who I am, join the club. I lost my ID somewhere and now CANNOT PROVE WHO I AM :o the world thinks I'm dead BUT I HAVE TO PROVE THEM OTHERWISE BEFORE THE TERRORISTS!!!! Do something TERRIFYING.



Enough of that shit.


So, what happened was, I moved out, spent several months in Canada, was deported, and now I'm an Education major at lovely U of Hartford in Hartford, CT.

In order for me to become GREAT TEACHER SAMWISE I want to hear about KICKIN' RAD or otherwise WICKED SWEET moments you guys have had at school, because it's best to learn from TEH MASTAHS and not by TEH TRIAL AND ERRORS, which is how I've been doing it for the past ~18 years. It doesn't work.


My story? My Rhetoric/Language (english by any other name) teacher whose grading policy is "A, and not yet A".

[NERD]

Oy, some great educator you will become. Vexed, I am, and fearful, for the children.

Won't somebody please think of the children? :D

[Idlethought]

tell your kids that if any one of them fails you will bomb their houses one by one

[Samwise]

Good job reading the threads you 'tards, looks like we need to go over yesterday's lesson AGAIN.


FOCUS: WHAT ARE THE MOST AWESOME THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED TO YOU IN SCHOOL OR SOMEHOW RELATED TO TEACHING AND SCHOOL BECAUSE I WANT TO KNOW.


Now, let's start over again.

[Idlethought]

My greatest math teacher ever, Mr. Dave Geddes, kicked a kid out of the class on the first day. I dont even remember why, I just know we were playing some kind of numbers game and the kid couldnt get it so he was like "get out". We all had a good laugh.

Um...yea....be friends to your students :D

[ellie]

What grades are you interested in teaching? There is a huuuuge difference in teaching style depending on the age of the kid. Younger children are taught by focusing on their development (social development, hygeine development, using words, etc) why older children are taught by focusing on their education. A major problem for kids between the ages of 3 and 8 is the transition from pre-school and kindergarten to the older grades. Young children enjoy a curriculum involving extensive interactive material (field trips, arts and crafts, recess, show and tell) while older children are forced to be part of a strict, rigid school day (sitting at desks all day, following the teachers orders, not being allowed to have a mind of their own). (These are topics we discussed in my Education class last night)

Me personally, I loved having pets in the classroom when I was little. I guess that got phased out after elementary school, but in 3rd grade we had a bunny, a guinea pig, a rat, and a snake in my classroom. If you're teaching younger grades and you have the same kids in your class all day (as opposed to switching classes like middle school and high school) then you should give the kids as much free reading time as possible. I was in an "open classroom" from K-2nd grade, and I think part of the reason I'm such an avid reader today is because of all the reading I did at such a young age.

[ZaichikArky]

FOCUS: WHAT ARE THE MOST AWESOME THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED TO YOU IN SCHOOL OR SOMEHOW RELATED TO TEACHING AND SCHOOL BECAUSE I WANT TO KNOW.

Interesting question.... My teachers have always been influencial to me. Especially them HS ones. I was a pretty smartish kid in a very ghetto high school(the second worse in a medium sized city of around 200,000 people). There were few AP and honors courses I took only because they just weren't offered!

Everyone around my age hated me because I had ADHD(never took meds either XD) and I was too hyper and probably annoying. Hense I was made fun of a lot. I was usually excited in the classroom, because I really liked learning, and teachers usually liked my spunk. So they believed in me and said I was a smart kid and stuff ^_^. This made me happy and I graduated with a 3.7. Not the best, especially for a ghetto school, but it was because they knew of my potential. SOOO I was one of probably like 50 people out of my class of 300 to actually go on to a university... most students ended up going to the local community college. I even ended up in a UC(university of california, NOT state university....).

I can't think of anything in specific... teachers overall just liked me because I was spunky and did my work. Students HATED me because I did well in class and I probably annoyed them, not knowing it.

One of my most influencial teachers was my band director. He was the only teacher I had for all 4 years and I got to know him very well. He was an extremely stoic man. He cared so much about the band, but never showed it :p. He liked me, mainly, but I was no pet. He had only one pet and that pet graduated at some point. Eventually he told my dad one day that I was a very good player and he would miss me when I would graduate. I was touched ^_^. I haven't seen him in over 3 years. I wonder how the band is like now.

So yes. Teachers are highly influencial on any high schooler. I'm very greatful for all the support teachers have given me in the past. It seems like they do little to actually motivate you, but to me it's a whole lot!

[Livre]

In law class, this year, I had to do a project about intoxication as a defence. Near the end of my presentation, the teacher asks me if a man can use intoxication as a defence for rape. (Right answer: You could use this as a defence and get off clean pre 1970s, but a law changed that) Right away I answered: I don't think a guy can get it up if he's that drunk.

Then I realised what I said and told her the right answer. And fortunately she took it in stride and didn't fail me.

[Decade]

[quote]I feel for you man, the Hartford area sucks (I would know, I live there)


One of the best class moments ever? Freshman year of college I had an 8 am Spanish class. It sucked getting up that early. It was funny though cause we had that one punk, obviously pot-smoker in the back who was always half-asleep for class. I remember one morning though before class we were sitting and talking to each other when I caught out of the corner of my eye the punk walking by the glass door.

Since the classroom was at the end of the hallway, we could clearly see him and hear a huge CRACK when he walked straight into the wall, full speed. You could see his head ricochet back a good 3 feet.

Then he grabbed his head and looked in front of him in confusion, pondering for a good minute ":confused: Where the fuck did that wall come from?"

That was priceless

[Masa the Masta]

In law class, this year, I had to do a project about intoxication as a defence. Near the end of my presentation, the teacher asks me if a man can use intoxication as a defence for rape. (Right answer: You could use this as a defence and get off clean pre 1970s, but a law changed that) Right away I answered: I don't think a guy can get it up if he's that drunk.

Then I realised what I said and told her the right answer. And fortunately she took it in stride and didn't fail me.

And I thought you were supposedly naive to these kinds of things. :clap:

[Livre]

And I thought you were supposedly naive to these kinds of things. :clap:

True, but someone *cough* Engineering students *cough* had let that slip the night before when I was working on the project

[Snake eyeS]

There is this little trick i heared from a dutch teacher some time ago, that breaks the ice with your students, and gets you a fairly big amount of respect with your students. but beware this little trick only works for people who know how to teach and control their class.. so in your case, dont bother, because i believe they will run you over. This is for the few teachers out there who really have an interest in getting on their kids good side, so teaching them can be a fun thing and not a bad thing.. here's what you do..

Gather your kids around you, fill a bowl of water and let them see it, make sure they are very close to it(the enthousiastic kids will most likely be hanging above the bowl, allow this) act if you are going to summon a great magical trick(kids love seeing tricks, kids in puberty specially look for an explination) make a good show of it, let them watch the water and allow them to stand close to it, the weirder you do, the closer the kids will focus on the bowl of water, wondering what might happen. ask a few hairs from your students, trow those into the bowl of water. keep playing your role as loco magician and dance around the bowl, now ask them to look at the bowl closely, very closely..... when you see them getting mesmerised by it( i chanted a song with them, worked great) and when they dont expect it... smash your hand in the bowl with water, making everyone around the bowl wet.. this will trow your class in a fit, they will show all sorts of behaviour, the rowdy kids will most likely be the most wet and will have had the most fun with the trick. the idea behind this is, kids will somehow connect this unexpected act of yours to your behaviour, so they will be on their toes.. if you want a real grasp on your kids.. do tricks like this every 3 months orso.. this works great for highschool kids, gains you the title of fun teacher and as a side effect they will always wonder when your upto something again... now BEWARE, this trick and this behaviour(fun, playful) can only work if it suits you.. if your an idiot like you, it most likely wont work. i did this on my kids(23 kids at the age of 11/13) and the entire day they were filled with energy, and kept referring to the joke, this was fine by me as they know when enough is enough with me. this will most likely works best at a highschool because you only have to deal with your kids for a hour, in my case i was stuck with them for the rest of the day(3 hours).


If you want your thinkers to have something to do, give them riddles, always works like a charm.. i often use this as a way to compliment the kids if they have done their work.

but im not quite sure what your asking for, are you asking for tricks to keep your class in check, or games you can play with them... or piss them off? for an almost teacher you dont make that much sense.

[Angelyne]

My 11th grade English teacher rocked because he liked to hold honest, in-class discussions/debates about really controversial stuff. The more memorable ones were about sex, birth control regulation, and how the N word is used in our society (this was from a white teacher in a class that was half-black, half-white). I got far more out of those debates than I did reading any of the required books.

I've always enjoyed in-class discussions, anyways.

[CrazyAce86]

Throw out trivia.

My history teacher in high school-- whom I was lucky to have for 7th, 8th, 11th, and 12th grades-- was like that. He knew kids didn't give a shit about government or stuff way back in history, so he livened up.

He would talk to us about J. Edgar Hoover, for example, and most of the kids would be mostly asleep. (I liked history, so I never fell asleep in his class. *shrugs* I'm a geek, I know.) Then he would throw out stuff like, "J. Edgar Hoover, who was a paranoid cross-dresser, did..." and the class's attention would 100% after that.

Or like, he would say, "Did you know that the United States Postal Service has been for sale for the past thirty years?" (Which is true still, as far as I know.)

He was awesome! Plus, he discussed current events all the time. We would come into class after lunch (this is senior year), and he'd be at his desk listening to P. Diddy or some other "modern" music that you wouldn't expect a fifty-odd-year-old man listening to.

Then we would discuss current events, everything from the War in Iraq to "Have you seen JibJab yet? Let me play it for you" to "So what do you think of -this team- or -that playoff-?" and so on. If it was in the news, we talked about it. And you could throw out your own news item, from the very informative to the craziest of them all.

Then we'd have class and move on to whatever we were studying. He was a really, really cool guy and part of the reason why I love history so much now. Thank you, Mr. Hoffner!!

[KelliShaver]

I think all of my best teachers had similar teaching styles.

They wre tough. They expected a lot out of their students and didn't take BS from anyone. If you got out of line, you were going to pay for it. If you didn't do your work, you were going to fail. However, on the other hand, if you came in, did you work, put effort into it and behaved yourself, they would go above and beyond the call of duty to do absolutly anything and everything they could to help you. They were very nice people and respected you, if you respected them. It was a totally give and take relationship. You had to earn everything, but then when you did, you got it, 110%.

[akitaka]

Snake eyes: That sounds both hilarious and risky. Mostly hilarious. I'm sure that the PTA doesn't know about it, though ;)

KelliShaver: This is basically my hot foods teacher that I have now in cooking school; he's a British man who will joke with you, and offer to help with skills (knife, cooking, etc) early in the day, and stay long enough for you to grasp something. They go from being merely instructors to teacher.

==
For the most part my teachers have been good people, but I'd have to say that my most enthusiastic one was from last year's health class, a 50 year old diabetic football coach who we called "coach giovanndo".

At one class he casually stood by his shopping cart (yes, like the ones from the supermarket, filled with class material) and asked us, "do any of you know how diabetics take insulin?"

(shrugs and nods here and there)

"Whatever. I'll show you." Then he reaches into a zipper pouch, and takes out a long, wrapped object. "This. Is. A syringe." He reaches in again, and takes out a small container. "This. Is insulin."
After siphoning some of the medication in the syringe, he says "Now, it's past 12 and I haven't had my medication. You know what that means?"

At this point we all get an idea of what's going to happen. A girl to my left shuts her eyes tight and is all, "ohmygodohmygodohmygod....."



...he lifts up his shirt, and IN THE NEEDLE GOES. He casually lets go of it, it's hanging there, and he's singing, "I liiike it, I liiike it~" like it's the best thing since sliced bread.
Up until that time, I have never seen a person, let alone a teacher, just stick themselves. It was pretty....gross. But in a good way.

[Samwise]

People, especially students, rise to the level of their expectations. There are many experiments and many papers written on this that all agree, if you expect big things from your students, and they belive in themselves, then they'll produce big things.


You know how that one guy said half of life is showing up? Bull shit. Half of life is having the sheer stamina to sit through another mind-numbing lecture on native american history from some bull dyke feminist with a chip on her shoulder and an agenda and not cold-cocking her at the podium.

Where was I? Right, umm, so, pets in the classroom. Thoughts?


I think all of my best teachers had similar teaching styles.

They wre tough. They expected a lot out of their students and didn't take BS from anyone. If you got out of line, you were going to pay for it. If you didn't do your work, you were going to fail. However, on the other hand, if you came in, did you work, put effort into it and behaved yourself, they would go above and beyond the call of duty to do absolutly anything and everything they could to help you. They were very nice people and respected you, if you respected them. It was a totally give and take relationship. You had to earn everything, but then when you did, you got it, 110%.

[Vic_Rattlehead]

I think for me, was when all the troublemakers were booted out of school. So the rest of the pupils (who actually wanted to work), could settle down, study and no longer be disracted by intense stupidity!