Dead Poets Society (notes)

The movie begins with opening ceremonies at a very elite academy for boys, the Welton Academy. The professors and staff are older and stuffy. Most of the students have a look of dread.

Neil and Todd are roommates. Neil is very energetic outgoing person but is under his fathers thumb, has no range to make his own decisions. Todd is very quiet and reserved.

Neil clearly has many friends at Welton, and introduces a few of them(Knox, Charlie and Pitts) to Todd. They consistentl invite Todd to join them for study groups and other activities, but Todd always declines.

First day of school, very full load, professors are already giving out a great amount of homework and are very strict except for a new English professor, Mr. Keating, a graduate of Walton Academy. Mr. Keating is very different from the rest of the professors. He has very non traditional teaching techniques.

Knox is invited to dinner at a friend of the families house and meets a beautiful girl(Chris) who is dating someone else,( an all start football player)  Knox is crazy about Chris and can not stop thinking about her.

Keating has the students(Charlie, Todd, Neil) rip out the introduction out of the poetry textbook, wanting them to think for themselves, not to be told what to think. His students learn that Keating was a member of a literary club, the "Dead Poets Society". The boys decide to bring the Dead Poets Society club back to life. They sneak out at night, in long dark coats with hoods. Foggy and spooky, through the woods to a cave. Where they meet regularly.

Keating uses humor to get his students attention and to keep it. In one example he has them stand on top of a desk to see things from a different view. Reads poetry in Assignment write a poem and read it front of the whole class. decides he wants to act, dream, knows his dad will disapprove. Neil got the part in Shakespeare's Midsummer dream.
Todd struggles to write his poem, class times comes and he has not written his poem. Keating guides him through the process of using his imagination. Teaches them to walk to their own tune.

Tom gets the nerve to call Chris, and she invites him to a party. Tom gets a desk set for his birthday, the same thing he got last year. His parents put no thought into his gift.

Was Mr Escalante similiar to Mr MacFarland?

The similarities between Mr. Escalante and Mr. MacFarland were:

They both had expectations of their students, they were creative in their techniques and took an interest in their students outside of the classroom.

Both, Mr. Escalante and Mr. MacFarland, went beyond school and helped the students to think about the future and taught them how to prepare for what options were available for them.

Some other lessons gained were; when someone tells you no, do not just lay down and give up. Fight and fight hard for what is yours. For example in Stand and Deliver when the Educational Testing Service questioned why the students missed the same question and how could they score so exceptionally high. They could have said, poor me, why does this always happen to me. They could have walked away defeated, but instead they stood up to the challenge ahead, with the help of Mr. Escalante. That is life, shit happens, move on. In the Rose story he had many reasons why he could not go to college. He did not let any of those reasons get in his way, with the encouragement of MacFarland, he did it. He made it happen

Is Mr. Esclante a good teacher?

Is Mr. Escalante a good teacher?

Good, no, I think Mr. Escalante was an excellent teacher. Very creative, extremely compassionate about teaching.  He went above and beyond. Teaching night classes, weekend classes and summers for no compensation. He took the time to get to know the students and did not just teach academics but also taught life lessons. We all make mistakes, and he made a few, but in the bigger picture he was exceptional.

Stand and Deliver (Notes)

Stand and Deliver is a movie based on a true story, of a teacher, Mr. Escalante, at an inner-city school, James Garfield High School, in East L.A. The story takes place in the late 70’s. Garfield is a tough school, with gangs, violence, vandalism, and poverty.

Mr. Escalante is a Spanish speaking teacher and that is the most commonly used language in this school. I also get the feeling that Escalante may also come from the same back ground. He gave up a very good job making a good living to teach, so he is there because he wants to be, not because he has to. This is not a job; it is a lot more, he knows he can make a difference.

On Mr. Escalante’s first day he shows up to teach a computer science class, but due to the absence of computers he ends up teaching math instead. His students are very bored and high energy. Escalante becomes very creative in his teaching techniques. One day he came to school dressed as a chef with apples and a meat clever, not something that would happen in today’s world. He cuts the apples into sections, ½. ¼. It worked it got their attention and they soon enjoyed coming to his class because they were learning and he was someone who believed in them. Escalante used real life scenarios to solve math equations. For example, Lupe has 3 girlfriends, Javier has 2 more girlfriends than Angelo, how many girlfriends does Jesus have?

Mr. Escalante went to the extreme of visiting a student’s parent when she quit school. I think her name was Ana. He went there to encourage the parents to please let her come back to school. He believed she had a lot of potential. The parent wanted her to work in the restaurant that the family owned. The parent was offended at first but did come around.  

Escalante also got emotionally involved with his students, he was a hands on kind of guy, which today could get you in a lot of trouble, but it was a risk he took. He also mingled with the kids in between class. He really cared about the kids.

After being at the school for a year, Escalante decides to raise the bar; he wants to add a Calculus. Everyone at the school thinks he is crazy, but he makes it happens. He teaches on the weekends, before and after school, and summers.

He helps the kids to see past tomorrow and helped them to see in the future. One of the kids got a great job with his uncle. He would be working weekends and making good money, so the student was going to drop out of the calculus class.  Mr. Escalante takes the student for a ride in his car, asked him, which way should I turn? Left or right, hurry, which way. Right, right the young kid answered, the street came to a dead end. I think he got his point. He transformed kids who were left behind, thought of as losers and stupid, even the staff at the school did not have faith in these kids.

In 1982, Mr. Escalante was working a lot.  He suffered a heart attack and was in the hospital for a few weeks. He was suppose to take it easy and not return to work, but he could not let the students down. They had worked so hard and no one else at the school was qualified to teach Calculus, and they have the AP Calculus test just weeks away. So Mr. Escalante went back to school to get them through the test.

The Educational Testing Service found that the students from Garfield had made similar mistakes on the test and they scored exceptional high, so they decided to investigate the students for cheating. This was a very stressful time for the school staff, and students. Mr. Escalante went as far as to confront the investigators and accuse them of racism. To prove their innocence the students all agreed to take the test again. They had only two days to prepare, they studied through the night at Mr. Escalante's home. They all passed the test.

The class showed their gratitude by honoring their teacher with a plaque and some of the guys stole his car and fixed it up for him.

I thought this was an inspirational story of how one person can make a difference in so many lives. Mr. Escalante was an exceptional teacher, even though sometimes he could have practiced a little more patience, overall he went above and beyond where most are willing to go.

Audre Lorde's Essay

In Lorde's essay Zami , chapter 3, Lorde illustrated a teacher who was very impatient, lacked compassion and used shame to embarrass her students into preforming up to her expectations. This is one of a few illustrations she included:

(She broke the silence with a wicked edge to her voice. "I see."

she said. "I see we have a young lady who does not want to do

as she is told. We will have to tell her mother about that." And

the rest of the class snickered, as the teacher tore the page out

of my notebook.

"Now I am going to give you one more chance," she said, as

she printed another fierce A at the head of the new page. "Now

you copy that letter exactly the way it is, and the rest of the

class will have to wait for you." She placed the crayon squarely

back into my fingers.) 

What makes a good teacher?

After reading what makes a good teacher, I had a chance to do some reflecting. I only remember one teacher from my school years that I have fond memories of, the rest are not good memories. I did have a couple of experiences recently at Olympic College. My first quarter of school, first week of school, feeling overwhelmed and reflecting on my, not so positive thoughts of past experiences of school, I sit in my first Math class. Within 15 minutes my Math teacher took most of that stress away. He wrote his personal phone number on the board, said we could call anytime. He would meet with us and tutor us if needed. I suddenly thought, I can do this. I got this. It felt good to know I had someone there if I needed it.  I know that most teachers are not going to do that, but most make themselves available to a degree.

My next class was English 98. I was so lost. I had never wrote a paper and lacked in computer skills. The first day of class, my first day back in school, our teacher went over some basic computer skills with us. What a relief. Then she said that when we get our first paper assignment, bring it to her. I did, and it paid off. I got a 11 out of 10 on my first paper. What a relief.

I think that patience, and the ability to listen, makes a great teacher. All students learn differently and it you can not reach that one student who isn't getting it, then find another way to reach him. My favorite teacher story is "Good Morning Miss Toliver" I think she possess all the qualities of a great teacher. The number one thing about her that I like the most, you are never wrong in her class, and she calls the parents to tell them how well her students are doing and never the opposite. This video pretty much covers all the qualities that I think make a good teacher.

http://www2.nau.edu/~d-ctel/mat/mat601/ms_toliver/ms_toliver.swf

Ken Robinson-Ted2006

I loved the way Robinson used humor to keep our attention. He made some very interesting points. Really got me thinking. I agree with everything he talked about and could relate a lot. Like the fact that everyone has an interest in education, and how smart little one's are at the beginning years of life.

I really could relate to the fear of being wrong. I had very low self esteem as a child and was bullied a lot at school, so I had a big fear of being called on, but my grandson is a great student and the only thing he gets in trouble for at school is blurting out the answers all the time. He always ask a lot of questions and has no fear at all of being wrong. He just wants to know everything.

What created new thoughts for me the most was when Robinson stated "we do not grow into creativity we grow out of it", that really got me to thinking about the creativity vs. academic.

Some of the things that Robinson talked about, like;

intelligence is extinct

humanology

rethink the fundamentals which by we are teaching our children

the gift of the human imagination

intrigued me and I really want to investigate this more

Home sick today, wish I was there

I am hope sick today. I hope to see everyone on Thursday. Looking forward to your feedback on my last post.

How I learned to manage my health

Selina Ayres

Eng 101

Dr. Sonia Apgar Bergert

15 Oct 2013

My Significant Educational Experience

Very young in life I had no concern for my health. I was very reckless and did a lot of stupid things.
When I had my first physical and my test came back, that I had high cholesterol, I did not care.
 I really did not understand the true meaning. I thought I knew but I did not. I did not do any research; I did not ask any questions. I made a few changes, l switched from whole milk to 2%, ate more vegetables. I started walking about 20 miles a week, bike riding and hiking. That was about it and that felt like a lot.

On my next physical, my cholesterol is higher, my Triglycerides were 300, my HDL was 35 “HDL cholesterol is the well-behaved "good cholesterol." This friendly scavenger cruises the bloodstream. As it does, it removes harmful bad cholesterol from where it doesn't belong. High HDL levels reduce the risk for heart disease -- but low levels increase the risk.” My LDL cholesterol was 190. “LDL collects in the walls of blood vessels, causing the blockages of atherosclerosis” I still really had no understanding of any of this back then. The information I share with you above, I had no knowledge of at that time.

In 2005 I was waiting for a prescription at Walgreens. While waiting I decided to check my blood pressure to kill some time. My blood pressure was very high, but instead of being concerned, I decided the machine must not be working properly. At my next Doctor visit my blood pressure was very high and then I remembered the incident at the Walgreens. This is the moment where I felt some concern for the first time. I went on medications, made more changes in my eating habits, and joined a gym. I also sought out a naturopath. I lost 30 pounds and felt great.

 A few years later I was back in the same spot, gained the 30 pounds back, my cholesterol and blood pressure were still high. I moved to Poulsbo from Seattle in 2005. Found a new doctor, had a physical and found out in addition to high cholesterol and high blood pressure, I also have type 2 diabetes. I cried all the way home. I had many prescriptions to fill. I was so disappointed in myself. How could I have let it get this far?

When I went to visit that Doctor in Poulsbo I had to order my past lab records. I had them sent to my house. I sat down and looked over them very thoroughly. I learned that I had been type-two for a few years and pre diabetic before that. I made copies of my lab records and also requested a copy every lab visit from that day on. I learned how to read my lab results. I sat at the computer and did a lot of research. I talked to friends who were in the medical field and asked a lot of questions. I started accumulating books, and reading them a lot.

My Doctor signed me up for a class at Harrison Hospital. It was at this class that I announced I was there to learn how to reverse my diagnoses. I learned how to measure my food and count carbs. I was taught to never look at the sugar content of the package, only the carbs, sugar free is a deceiving word. I lost 30 pounds right away. Six months later my type- two diabetes has reversed, but this became and up and down battle for me.

In 2009 I lost my insurance. So no more meds, not that they really made a difference, so, more research. I started taking vitamins and supplements that would assist me in my goal. I started taking co-q10, omega 3; I eat 5 almonds a day. I made a lot of changes in my diet. I rarely eat beef or pork. I have not had milk in over 10 years. I eat a lot of stir-fry, tofu, greek yogurt with fresh fruit, humus and I love all fresh vegetables. My newest discovery is spaghetti squash. I also joined our local Y. I find when I have a lot of stress in my life, usually due to lack of time management skills, this all goes out the window. I was determined to get this under control. Having no insurance is a scary place to be in at my age. Learning to find balance is my new challenge to help me achieve my goal.

This has been a very long learning experience. I have read a lot of books on high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes, books that I found at the library and goodwill. I have also done a lot of research on the internet. My biggest learning experience was just around the corner and I had no clue.

In January 2010 my mother had pneumonia, so I went to help take care of her. This is where I got to see my future if I do not get this under control. My mom and step-dad are both on so many meds. My mother has become sedentary. She is on enough pain pills to kill a horse. They are both type two diabetic. They suffer from all the same diseases due to their life style, lack of healthy diet, exercise, smoking and drinking (quit 15 years ago).

I visit a couple times a year. It just seems to get worse. My step dad, Bob has a 100% blockage in his left carotid artery and 40% in the right. My mom also has blockage in both sides. Bob also has Peripheral artery disease. The list is long. All of these diseases are connected. They both had the same symptoms that I now have. They ignored all the red flags, like I did. So I have a choice. I can get on track and get this under control, and save myself a lot of misery and pain. I can live a life,that consist of pharmacies and doctor offices, or I can have a life of many fun activities. It is all a choice.

So my advice to you, know your numbers. Always ask for a copy of your lab work. Keep a file and keep a copy on your computer. The best prevention is aerobic exercise. If you have parents still living, share your knowledge, help them stay healthy. Someday they will be your responsibility, so start now with prevention.

 

 

 

 

 Works Sited

         http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/arteriosclerosis-of-the-extremities/

         http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/ldl-cholesterol-the-bad-cholesterol

         http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/hdl-cholesterol-the-good-cholesterol

How Malcolm X's, Rose's and the three bloggers "essays" differ?

It would be so much easier for me to state the similarities than the differences. Not sure why, so here it goes. Some of the narratives have short paragraphs like the "Learning to Read" by Malcolm X. In this story I was drawn into the story, it made me want more. Some of the content was new to me so it inspired me to want to learn more about some of the people and occurrences he discusses in his narrative.

How I learned to program computers by, Feross Aboukhadijeh, also had fairly short paragraphs, but in his blog he added a lot of pictures, examples and links. I felt it was very organized. This was very helpful for me.

How I learned to travel solo was very organized with bold heading for each different situation. I had a hard time focusing though. As a traveler I kept looking at the differences, there were a few things I agreed with but each person is different and found myself arguing some points. It would have been nice if she would have added links to some of her suggestions and not just links to her other blogs. Pictures would have made it better also. Made me want to do a blog on traveling.
The other two I had a hard time reading, not as organized, really had to force myself through them, but that was me.

I wish I was more detail orientated, I could give you more and maybe be able to be clear about what I am saying. That is the direction I am going in.

Prewriting for my Education Narrative

A. My story is about my health and the learning experience.

B. The features I must have? I worry that because most of the people in my class are young, this may not be very interesting for them, so I will need to find a way to get their interest and keep it.

C. I will include mistakes that I have made and the damage that has done. My experience with Doctors. How I had to educate myself and not depend on my doctors to fix me. How I learned to make this change in my life. Books that were helpful. How I had to talk to many people who also share my challenge and how they overcame their obstacles.

 I hope to prevent someone else from making the same mistakes I made.

My thoughts: How I learned to love solo travel

I look at the text after reading and realize I just do not have enough experience in writing, and also lack the vocabulary to articulate what I want to say. One of the reasons I am so excited about this class. I know that through our discussions I will gain the knowledge and experience I need. However, I do read a lot, and I am learning new words everyday and I love to write so I know I am off to a good start.

I thought the blog was easy to read and follow. I loved that the suggestions were put in sections and the beginning of each was in bold print.

How I learned to Love Traveling Solo, fits perfectly in the first unit, narrating education and discussing learning. Huston shares her educational experiences with traveling, that were developed through her personal experience. I felt it was very organized and simple.

Malcolm X and Mike Rose-Essays-Different-Similar

I felt the two were very different, but did have some similarities. Malcolm X and Mike Rose had a major life changing event, that came from their life path. They both embraced the opportunity to make a change when  it was presented. They both shared a story of education and the different ways there are to learn.

The most important thing I ever learned was to never give up. I came from a not very nourishing family. I was never taught any values from this family, quite the opposite. I faced many obstacles and challenges. I have overcome many things. What I have learned from my experience is to never give up no matter what. If I do not achieve my goal today, this month or this year, it does not matter, never give up.

I volunteer at the Kitsap Juvenile Center, Mission Creek Correctional Facility, and the Kitsap County Jail and I pass that message on to many. I want them to know they have value, there are people who care. This is what I have been taught by total strangers in my life.

This has been a very valuable lesson for me. If I gave up I would not be here today, on this earth. I have achieved many goals. The goal I am working on now is an education. It has been on my to-do list for 20 years. Another goal I am working on is my health. It is very challenging and sometimes I want to just throw my hands up and give up.

English 101 S Ayres

I felt the first model “How I Learned to Program Computers”, written by Feross Aboukhadijeh, was easy to read and very interesting. http://feross.org/how-i-learned-to-program-computers/

The second model “How I Learned to Live Google-Free”, written by Joshua J. Romero, was hard for me to follow. I had to look up some of the computer language that I did not understand. I did learn a lot from it, but had to reread a lot, I was easily distracted.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/internet/how-i-learned-to-live-google-free

I loved that Aboukhadijeh repeated himself a lot, I need that. After reading through both models, honestly, if I had to choose between the two, which model I would use, I would pick “How I learned to Program Computers”. They both really got me thinking about my paper. Things like: What learning experience will I choose? What format should I use? But the first, “How I learned to Program Computers” I really enjoyed it a lot. I will keep my story simple and basic, easy to read. My goal will be to keep my readers interest.

As I am reading these two models, I am getting excited about writing my paper. Ideals are flying left and right. I have many experiences in health, cooking, reading and relationships that I have wanted to blog about, but have never found the time. So this paper, on an important educational experience in my life, will help me complete one of my goals that has been on my list too long.

So in conclusion these models gave me a lot of insight, inspiration and motivation. I will definitely be using them as my models for my paper