Crazy Teacher At Crazy High

Earlier in the week we talked about teacher who influenced us in our choice to become teachers, whether they knew it or not. today we talked about how teachers are role models in my small group while talking about Death at an Early Age. We discussed how the Art Teacher would be creating a bad stereotype especially on that time in history about races. But when I think of my teachers I remember all the wacky and crazy things they did in the classroom. I went to an all boys high school in Puerto Rico called Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola, a Jesuit high school which was full of very interesting people. These are some of them and the things they did.

Mr. Luis Duany: Duany was the "most feared" teacher to be in my high school's math department, he taught AP stats and calc, along with 9th grade. He would relate everything with music, we would start class with one of 5 different Salsa songs and then go on to challenge us with some math problems to "warm up our brains".   

Mr. Jose Beltran: Mr. Beltran was my senior physics teacher. every Friday we would go off on a tangent from the week's material and he would just talk about any question we had in physics. These questions ranged from black holes to how can we time travel. The interesting thing about him is that he would always pick up on Monday with the question from last Friday, and extend the discussion if it was necessary.

Mr. Ivan Flores: He was a young teacher that was a character all on his own. by far the wackiest of the teachers. During test he would walk around the class, and during the most silent moment of it he would hit the metal boockshelf at the back of the class as loud as he could. He was into getting students to take tests more lightly, while I might not agree with his practices I must admit that it was quite successful. By the end of the year my whole class was comfortable with taking any kind of test. He would also give homework assignments the weirdest way, he would start by saying the page, but instead of saying 247 he would say 200 a pause 40 a pause and then 7. And while assigning the problems he would say something like "problems 1 through 29, the evens... Yeah! don't do them, do the odds" or other times he would say "do 1 through 33 odds" and after a long pause he would say "and from 2 to 32 do the evens". He made us not to stress out as much for notes, and made class more interesting.

What I know that was different from these teacher was that they thought outside the box, tried to teach students things in different ways and also encourage to go further than the classroom without the students noticing it. They avoided being monotonous in class, always thinking about different ways to teach the same material, striving never to make us feel like they are an absolute know-er. I know that teacher everywhere are very different, all my teachers ranged indifferent levels of wackiness, but what I would like to know is: Who was your wackiest teacher? Was he/she effective? 

Ready.

Set.

GO!

Meno... Me? no... well maybe

I was at work yesterday. I was observing a geometry summer session class and it was apparent the students did not enjoy the subject, but also the teacher was implementing the "wonderful" technique of absolute knowledge. The teacher started dictating definitions and after she did the problems on the board while the students wrote down all the answers. after the reading from Bushnell I'm thinking about different ways to present math to students that would be more interesting for them. I've never been a fan of accepting thing the way they are just because someone told me so, and by the look of it neither where those students.

I remember reading Plato's Meno in my philosophy class. If you haven't read it, Meno is where the Socratic method is explained and defended. So I asked myself if this method would work? would asking questions to the students, whether they are "loaded" or unloaded the best way to have them engage in the class room? I believe it works to a certain extent, but at the same time students always ask "why do I need to know this?" so should I focus more to try to appeal to their daily life and usefulness of a subject like geometry? I believe they should learn through a balance of both.

I remember my geometry teacher would take his time with the definitions, he would see if anyone already know what they meant and try to help us figure it out instead of just blabbing on for an hour. One of the major things about geometry is that you develop a more rational approach to certain problems, either written or diagrams you must analyze and use what you know to and only what you know to reach the answer, especially in proofs. And I believe it is possible for anyone to develop them as long as it is taught correctly and with enough motivation it should be a success.

I'll let you know when I speak with the teacher next time, I'll also let you know if I get fired.
But please in the mean time, how would you like to teach a small classroom? what kind of games/activities would you bring to class for the students. It doesn't have to be math related, but it better be fun!

Introduction

Hi, my name is Francisco Sueiro from Guaynabo Puerto Rico. You can either call me Francisco or Francis, but please no other names. I am currently enrolled at John Carroll University (JCU) for the Initial Licensure and M. Ed. program to get a license in high school Physics with plans on also getting a license in Mathematics. I graduated JCU on May 2011 with a BS in Physics and a minor in Mathematics where I worked as a Teaching Assistant and a Tour Guide for the university.

As a student I feel comfortable in most courses, I never shy away from expressing my opinion or talking with my peers and teacher. I hold an open mind about education, not sure where i stand in the spectrum of different teaching styles. The only thing I hold is that anyone can learn anything as long as it is taught the right way for that person.

As a student I am an active student and responsible as long as I had time to sleep. I love discussions with my peers as long as everyone stays respectful.  I am not a competitive person when it comes to grades or individual projects. When it comes to group projects I hold a high standard for my work and expect everyone wishing full credit to work as hard as everyone else. Whenever I don't understand the material I will contact the teacher or some of my peers that have a better understanding of the material than myself.

I don't really hold any stances of the issues in the field of education, being this my first education class I have taken I'm not aware of all of the issues that do exist, but I hope to learn about them.

Over and Out
-Francisco