The good ones stick with you
By: Frances Steckbauer
Issue date: 3/1/10 Section: Opinion
In a time where teachers' abilities to teach students is being determined by the number of correct bubbles students can fill out on a scantron, it is easy to conjure up an argument that one has, "not learned anything," simply based on one's test performance.
Recently on the HLN news network, a debate about whether teachers should be fired for students failing standardized assessments was featured on the broadcast.
Teachers are social workers, instructors, counselors, security officers, they fill every shoe that can be filled on a school campus, whether in elementary school or college.
Students face many different challenges, which may interrupt the ability to perform perfectly on a standardized test, just as a student can fail a test in a class, but still have loved every minute of learning about the subject in class.
As a seventh grade Earth science student in Albuquerque, Mike Parsons was my teacher. When I found out I had his class, I cried. He was the big, bad, mean teacher that yelled at everyone; or so I thought.
His class consisted of visual illustrations of geology - a water table to show water erosion, field trips to the back of the school to see the results of erosion on our own campus, field trips "to the moon" to determine the phase of the moon on a given day - Parsons ensured his students knew what he was trying to teach them.
The class ended with a field trip to the foothills of Albuquerque so that all of the students could identify the different rocks and weathering that we noticed on the way up the mountain.
After that class, I decided to be a geologist - I was in love with it. As a high school junior, I elected to take geology in place of physics, and my career dream was gone.
This class, quite the contrary to the one I'd taken before, was all on paper. Worksheets, tests, notes… it was not at all what I'd remember the geology experience to be like, even though the material was identical.
Now as a college student, I have enrolled in geology again. The information is as interesting as ever, and the teacher is fabulous; however I know that the fire under the pot in the class is the memory of what I learned in seventh grade.
So, give your teachers some credit. Open your eyes to the different opportunities and learning styles they provide you.
Studying matters, good grades are important, but it is indeed possible to learn a great deal, and never forget what you learned, and still not ace the test. Give it a year, and see how much about that class you still remember; let your memory of the subject and the teacher be your lasting impression of the course. Sometimes the hardest, scariest teachers are the best ones you'll ever find.
Recently on the HLN news network, a debate about whether teachers should be fired for students failing standardized assessments was featured on the broadcast.
Teachers are social workers, instructors, counselors, security officers, they fill every shoe that can be filled on a school campus, whether in elementary school or college.
Students face many different challenges, which may interrupt the ability to perform perfectly on a standardized test, just as a student can fail a test in a class, but still have loved every minute of learning about the subject in class.
As a seventh grade Earth science student in Albuquerque, Mike Parsons was my teacher. When I found out I had his class, I cried. He was the big, bad, mean teacher that yelled at everyone; or so I thought.
His class consisted of visual illustrations of geology - a water table to show water erosion, field trips to the back of the school to see the results of erosion on our own campus, field trips "to the moon" to determine the phase of the moon on a given day - Parsons ensured his students knew what he was trying to teach them.
The class ended with a field trip to the foothills of Albuquerque so that all of the students could identify the different rocks and weathering that we noticed on the way up the mountain.
After that class, I decided to be a geologist - I was in love with it. As a high school junior, I elected to take geology in place of physics, and my career dream was gone.
This class, quite the contrary to the one I'd taken before, was all on paper. Worksheets, tests, notes… it was not at all what I'd remember the geology experience to be like, even though the material was identical.
Now as a college student, I have enrolled in geology again. The information is as interesting as ever, and the teacher is fabulous; however I know that the fire under the pot in the class is the memory of what I learned in seventh grade.
So, give your teachers some credit. Open your eyes to the different opportunities and learning styles they provide you.
Studying matters, good grades are important, but it is indeed possible to learn a great deal, and never forget what you learned, and still not ace the test. Give it a year, and see how much about that class you still remember; let your memory of the subject and the teacher be your lasting impression of the course. Sometimes the hardest, scariest teachers are the best ones you'll ever find.