Wednesday, November 28, 2007

How to Make Learning Fun

To make learning fun a teacher must first know how to have fun. They have to be passionate for the subject and have a good personality. The teacher does not have to be hyper but enthusiastic. If a teacher does not seem like they care then what makes them think that the students are going to enjoy what they are learning.

With chemistry I think it is usually easy to keep students interested because the teacher is able to do experiments in front of the class to show them what they are learning. Also with chemistry the teacher has to enjoy what they are doing and talking about. To engage the students it is important to use different media sources other than just an over head with notes. The teacher can show movies and even get the students up to do labs and have hands on experiences. But as states before the key to making learning fun is for the teacher to be passionate for the subject and be enthusiastic when in the classroom.

Who Influenced Me

The most influential person for me during my time in high school was not actually a teacher but a coach. He was my basketball coach junior and senior year while I was on the varsity team. He really inspired me to go into everything I did with my whole heart. His passion for basketball and his knowledge for the game was so intense. He would stay up endless nights watching game film in order for him to prepare us as best as he could. Basketball was his life and he was very good at it.

Most of what I learned from him was how to work hard and if someone wasn't willing to work hard he wasn't afraid to let them know he was upset with them. He didn't treat us like we were girls when we were on the court he treated us like athletes but as soon as we left the gym he treated us with nothing less than the utmost respect. That is why I really enjoyed playing for him because he made me work hard, want to learn more about the game, and he created the team bonding atmospheres.

He really cared about winning but he also wasn't afraid to give us time off from being on the court, he took us to movies, let us play kickball, and even took us bowling. He did these things to see if we were competitive and to help strengthen the team bonds. Not only did the team like him but the community also liked him and respected him. Before he came my junior year my high school was lucky to go 500 for a season. When he came his first season we went 18 and 4 and that was a huge improvement. So as I grow up now I often think of what a great coach he was and how much everything he did meant to him. If I can have half as much passion for something as he did I believe I will succeed in life.

Monday, November 26, 2007

The Worst Day Ever (@ School)

The worst day of school I ever had would probably have to have been during my junior year of high school. It was in the spring semester and all the seniors were leaving the next week. The reason the day was so bad was because that morning at school all of the National Honor Society officers were in charge of holding a farewell breakfast for all of the senior members of the National Honor Society. Being treasurer I had to help prepare this breakfast with the other newly elected officers who just so happend to be my really good friends. But, the breakfast was at 6:30 AM meaning that i had to be at the school by 5:45AM with all of the food that was in my car. The worst part about being at school so early was how late the officers and I had to stay up preparing all of the food. This is where the real problem started, the night before...

To be an officer for the National Honor Society you had to be really involved at the high school which all of the officers in my class were the president ran track and preformed in all of our high school musicals, the vice president ran track and was the head cheerleader, the secretary was a great dancer and really cared about her grades, so with us all being so busy we were not able to go get all of the food we needed until the night before this breakfast and even worse we all had some sort of practice that night so we did not hit the store until about 6:00PM. After going to the store most of what we bought was fruit meaning we had to stay up and cut all of the fruit. My friends and I had to stay up until 11:00PM cutting and preparing all of the fruit then we had plenty of homework to complete before the next morning. Most of us being in the same classes had a huge poetry project due that next day. So we all spent the night together and worked on our projects until four in the morning. Then we had to take showers and dress nice for this morning breakfast that we worked so hard to prepare.

Needless to say my friends and I were very tired but the breakfast ran flawlessly. But the rest of the day at school didn't go so well because of the lack of sleep. I fell asleep in all of my classes, my teachers were calling me to their desks because of my sleeping, which was very embarassing because I did not like being in trouble. I had to take two quizzes that day that went terribly, then I had to go to track practice and we had a hard day at practice were we had to run three miles as fast as we could, and to top it off I had to go home do homework and then attend a banquet for the winter sport I had participated in. So my worst day of school all had to do with preparing a farewell breakfast for the seniors that were about to graduate. But, I did get to spend a lot of time with some of my best friends while preparing for the event.