A Collection of Random Thoughts

My project's focus was helping students who are being bullied. I think the best way to help them (or the thing that helped me the most) is writing or drawing. I had my participants doing that today. Some of them didn't want to keep their pictures so...I took them because I love them too much! It was great! I guess the motivation for the project was that I've seen so many teachers get it wrong when it comes to dealing with bullies, that I wanted to know how I would act under such a situation. How could I improve? My audience for this project was future teachers and current teachers as well. This concerns all of us, and we all have an influence on all our students. If we see bullying and don't do anything about it, that sends the message that we don't care. The form of my project was more activity based. I had my participants draw or write something which I thought was really fun and kind of relaxing. If I had known that we got so little time, then I would have ch...

I think the greatest way teachers can help students is by letting them tell their story and paying attention to it. This can be by a short story assignment or just encouraging kids to write. Especially for kids who are bullied--we have a lot on our minds that often goes unsaid because we felt like no one would care. It's important to encourage students to write about their experiences so that they could try to learn from them. A great resource I found, though it seems a little rushed, is National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. This website encourages people, student or not, to write a "novel" in the month of November and submit it at the end of the month. What you do is you make a profile so that you can start your novel on November 1st. And every time you write, you copy and paste your progress into their website so they can keep track of your progress. You earn badges along the way and even get some feedback from other users. This is a great way to encourage kid...

So, recently I started looking into Jack the Ripper. (Don't ask me why, it's a weird story.) I found out potential suspects and the one I think did it is named Joseph Barnet. Barnet was "active" during the late 1800's, and targeted prostitutes in London because he disagreed with "their choice of life". So you know--he killed them. (Allegedly!) He was roommates with the last Jack the Ripper victim; Mary Kelly. Rumor has it that Barnet was in love with Kelly, and wanted her off the streets. He earned money so that should wouldn't have to do the dirty , but he lost the job after a while so she was forced to go back to being a prostitute. They had fights over money, and ten days before Kelly was killed, Barnet left her. Coincidence? I think not! Now, as I questioned my life while researching this, I thought maybe I could write a historical fiction short story about Jack the Ripper! I could have someone kill him! So I made up a story in which Kelly'...

In this semester I got to go to Preston Middle School and teach/observe students. I got some of my questions answered like what should I do if a student in class keeps goofing off, or how do I get my kids to pay attention and do their work while having fun? There are just a couple questions I still have unanswered. How will I help students who are struggling? How do I teach a student in my class whose first language isn't English? How do I get my kids interested in what I'm talking about? How do I get my kids to engage in lectures and discussions? How will I conduct my class? Will it be traditional or untraditional? Will my teaching techniques work? How can I try new things with my students without failing? Like I said. A few questions. Truth is, I'm filled with even more questions as time goes on, because I don't feel like I'm ready to enter a class on my own. I'm not ready to teach on my own! But that's ok, because I'm not even close to earning my ...

I went on " Stories Teachers Share " which is a podcast website that focuses on the stories teachers have to share. The story I looked at was of Alexa Schlechter . She shared how she often feels stressed by her job because her students expect a lot of her, and she's scared to let them down. This story takes place in her Creative Writing class; this class has a mixed crowd meaning some students are there because they want to learn creative writing and others are there because they want to get the English credit over with so they can graduate. At the end of the semester, Alexa asks her students to write a memoir so they can be remembered as someone glorious! It is then she tells us about the student who always gets her work done, and never causes any trouble. This student comes forward with a story of how she has been cutting herself for six years hoping someone will notice, but no one did. After this, she felt invisible and attempted suicide two times. Alexa asked the stud...

Dear Mrs. Joshi, My name is Mudita Yajnik, you had me as your student in fourth grade. I am writing to you today to say thank you for being such a great teacher, and for helping deal with bullies. You were the first teacher  ever  who made me feel welcome in their class, and I could tell that you really did care about me. While I was in your class, I was dealing with a lot of bullies and the teachers ignored my cries for help. You, however, did not ignore me and let me vent when I wanted and provided a creative outlet for me to express myself. Even though it was an English language class, you had us drawing and playing games and spending time outside in the sun, and that made your class really fun and memorable. I remember we used to sing a song you made up for us. We used to sing it together as a class, and I used to sing that song at home as well! You even offered to tutor me so I can earn better grades in my classes. While I was in your class, I felt comf...

The dreaded finals week is upon us! You know what this means: staying up late to catch up on work and trying not to fall asleep in your early classes. Keeping up with all the deadlines coming up, while trying to keep a positive attitude so that you can fool yourself into believing that you can get through this. It sucks. But here's what I found. The more you stress yourself out by not relaxing or not sleeping, the worse your results will be. If you don't relax, you won't be putting your best foot forward. And I look for pretty much any excuse to relax, so here's what I do when I get stressed: 1. Eat! Eating distracts me somehow because all of a sudden this food is the most important thing in the world. I start to realize how hungry I've been this whole time and give myself a break as I find something to eat around the house. 2. Sleep. The most important thing to remember is that your brain will not function if it doesn't get rest. You won't be wasting ti...

A few posts ago, I described my dream school in which students are not judged harshly on their grades but their effort. A letter won't define their grade, the amount of work they put into it will. The school would be project based and would rely on outside resources so that students can understand from a young age how to look for good resources on their own. Essentially, I want my students thinking critically so that they don't believe everything they see. I want them to search for facts before believing something. I also want my school to be a self-improving school so the teachers would try to get their students to ask themselves why they believe what they believe. The perfect example of this is looking through advertisements, and looking at your own bias. Do you prefer one product to the other even though those products are the same? How is the viewer supposed to be influenced by the advertisement? Another way to self-improve is to read "controversial" texts in whic...

For my Advocacy Badge, I am advocating for teachers not  having guns in the classroom because I believe this will make students afraid of the teachers and this will lead to students having little to no trust in their teachers. This can't be good for the teaching environment because a student can not learn when they are scared. I say this from experience. My example is not as intense as a gun in the classroom, but I know what it's like to be afraid of a teacher. Before my family and I moved to America, I used to go to public school in India. Indian schools are a lot more different than American schools; mostly because teachers are allowed to bully students if they don't show results the teacher wants to see. For example; if a student (me) didn't complete their homework, the teacher is allowed to humiliate the student (me) in front of the class. If you complain about this to the principle, you will be seen as the troublemaker, not the victim. I think my teachers thought...

I know a lot of cheesy inspirational quotes say "hold the door open for opportunities" as a metaphor for having new experiences and opportunities to work with, but what about metaphoric flies? No one ever thinks about that. What about a really bad opportunity? I'm in a good mood today, as you can tell, so I wanna talk about the bad results I have seen by trying things I knew I wouldn't be good at but was pushed to do them by my parents, peers, or friends. #1: Riding a rollercoaster after eating. Can you guess how that story ended? (You probably can.) So, my friends and I drove up to Denver to go to Elidge Gardens. I was a bit hungry so I had some food, and immediately my friends wanted to go on the rollercoaster. I tried to say no, that I'll just watch and wait for them to get back, but they pushed me to ride with them and I threw up as soon as I got off the ride. #2: AP. American Literature. I wasn't always interested in Literature, and my A.P. American...

I've had a couple classes that were super boring. And having that thought in the back of my mind, I was not expecting a fun class when I walked into Accounting 1 in high school. The teacher had a reputation for choosing favorite and being extremely boring, but my dad wanted me to try out the class, so I didn't have a choice. I walked in and chose a seat in the back of the class. But when the teacher walked in, we noticed that it wasn't Mr. VanDalen! It was Mr. Gould! His substitute for the semester! The first day of class he handed out the syllabus and told us he will most likely not follow the due dates and let us take our time with whatever we need because he knew everyone worked at their own pace. He also made us laugh, which was a welcome surprise in Accounting 1. After that, I always looked forward to that class, even though I had absolutely no interest in it. Why? Because my teacher made it fun. He would assign us work for the class but no one complained because...

So there's this Hindi movie called 3 Idiots, in which the main character says that when life gets too hard your heart starts beating really fast which makes you scared of the task ahead. But your heart is really stupid and will react to everything around you. His advice was to put your hand over your heart and say "all is well" until you start to feel calmer. This will give you strength to take on the task ahead. I followed the advice the other day. I was working on my badge and an essay for another class, and then I remembered I needed to read an article for another class and read a book for another class and I couldn't help but panic. I started thinking there was no way I could do all this in such little time, there was no way I could finish any  of the tasks in time! But then I remembered the advice. So I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, put my hand over my heart and said: "all is well." I did this for about a minute and each time I told myself ...

The semester is coming to a close, and the tensions are high! I have several essays due in finals week so I am starting on those, I am doing well with my badge, but still feel like it could use more work, and my weekends are spent at work so my window for doing school work got a lot smaller. But other than that it's going great. I mean it. You know why? Because ever since my family and I moved to Fort Collins (in 2012) I have wanted to attend CSU. And now that I'm finally here I really love it! And yes, it's hard but I expected that. So whenever things get too overwhelming, I try to remember why I'm here in the first place. This helps me calm down and focus on the task at hand. My intentions for this semester is to walk away having learned something that will help me in my career. That's what I'm here to do, and that's what I hope to accomplish by the end of this semester. I have learned a lot from my EDUC 340 class because I get the opportunity to observe...

I was looking through websites and blogs that advocate for educational reform and change, and providing better resources and improving school systems that favor students rather than school charters. The National Education Association  looks into the school systems around the country and examines how many states offer education choice options. In these education options, they look into "Education Savings Account", "Voucher", "Tax-Credit Scholarship", and "Individual Tax Credit/Deduction". Each type of school ranges in eligibility and average funding as well as participation rate. The website talks about how to take action to have better-funded schools and how students can benefit from education rather than be stressed from it. I really love this idea because at the moment it looks like schools are not benefiting students as well as they should be. Most schools are very under-funded while schools across town are highly funded. The perfect example...

I took the Leadership Compass Self Assessment test, and it turns out I'm a visionary! (East side) This means that I am a creative thinker, can step outside the box, focus on future thought, look for overreaching themes and ideas, looks at the big picture, and appreciate a lot of information. Which all sounds great until I scrolled down to the bottom and saw that I most likely also am too easily frustrated when the outcome of a project is not what I imagined, tend to be highly enthusiastic early on but burn out over the long haul, am not time-bound, lose track of time, don't pay attention to details and have poor follow up on projects. I wish I could fight back and say this is completely wrong but then I'd be lying. I tend to get really excited about projects when I start them, especially if I thought of the project myself like my last UGP where I interviewed people, but I get frustrated by the end because it's not turning out the way I thought it would. I was really ...

I'm really bad at writing poems, especially if they are supposed to convey a deeper meaning. What I want to bring across is how I want to be a positive role model in kid's lives and get them excited to come to class. I want to make my class fun, and have really fun discussions about texts as well as learn how to write your own texts! (Essays, poems, short stories, etc.) I remember sitting in class, dreading every minute of it. Why am I supposed to be interested in a subject that bores me to tears? "You'll use this in real life" my math teachers always said. I think they forgot that calculators exist. But with literature class, I always looked forward to it. I liked discussing opinions and having fun, Our teacher knew how to make the class enjoyable. Our class environment was really friendly and supportive, Which is something I hope to bring in my future classroom. Like I said, my poetry skills are not the best. This is the best I could come up with in ...

Every job shares one simple requirement for you to fill if you want to be successful in your chosen career. You have to really love what you do. May that be because you're passionate about your chosen line of work, or you are trying to help as many people as possible. When you love what you do, work doesn't feel like work. And when you're having fun at work, you are in a more positive mood to improve your skills in your area. The same rule follows in the teaching career. It's easy to tell who wants to be a teacher and who doesn't by how they act. Passionate teachers are always promoting their content area to be used outside the classroom instead of on a test, they are always ready to learn something new, and care about their students. The only teachers I've had that promoted their content area outside of class are Mr. Knierim and Ms. Otteman from Rocky Mountain High School. Mr. Knierim teaches government and history and encourages his students to be informed v...

I have never been good at poetry. Never. I can appreciate poetry because it's something deep and layered and has hidden meanings in it, but I can never write it. I guess I gave up trying after a few times. But then I went to Get Lit and I have to say, it was really great! To see so many poets sharing their poetry and in a way sharing a part of themselves was so inspiring to see! I got to see my friends share their poetry, I got to see the people listening to the poetry respond to it in a way that was inclusive and accepting. The whole environment of Get Lit was so great, I want to experience that again. That being said, I think poetry exists to let readers see a tiny part of a story. May that story be a person or an event. Poems have layers in them in which you get to make up your own rules. I love Emily Dickenson's poetry because of that--she doesn't conform to any rules, she makes her own rules! This shows the rebellious side of Dickenson that I have fallen in love with...

Jon Kabat-Zinn claims in his book that not knowing is OK. He said we never want to admit we don't know because we don't want to look foolish and that we have been conditioned to think this way. This reminded me of Sir Ken Robinson's argument on how children are taught that being wrong or making mistakes is wrong even though it's part of human nature. He also claimed that even scientists have claimed that they don't know, which is what pushes them to move forward and find answers. As a teacher, I know I can't know everything. Which right now terrifies me, because I don't want to be wrong or make a mistake. If I were making the mistake with myself that would be fine, but if I make a mistake in class then I would be failing my students! I really hope that doesn't happen in class, but deep down I know eventually will. No one can avoide mistakes forever, and I guess I have to make my peace with that. Hopefully, I will have established an enviornment in cl...

Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone  discusses writing in an unfamiliar genre to get kids to step outside of their comfort zones. Cathy Fleischer talks about seeing this project brought to life in class, and a lot of the things she noticed are things that I struggled with. The worst fear that all students share is humiliation, which is exactly what I thought I would feel when I presented my project. I felt really good about it when I was working on my final draft and making it look all nice and shiny, but then came the time to present and my mind started playing tricks on me. Like it said in the book, I started looking at my mistakes and worried about sharing my project with others because I thought it was weird, and I thought it would look like easy work compared to what my classmates did. I was really uncomfortable writing in this genre because I didn't really know what I was doing. Making up the rules as I go along is how I live life, but it just felt wrong doing that for t...

I woke up today, turned on the T.V., flipped the channel to MSNBC, and didn't turn it off until 2:30 which is when I went down to Olde Town Square to participate in Fort Collin's march. The speeches I saw were so amazing and moving; my mother sister and I watched and cried together as the march went on. I loved the fact that only the kids spoke today--no adults! What an amazing sight! This truly is the future generation's revolution. This also meant that people couldn't say that because a Democrat spoke at the march, it was a political thing. This is a life vs. death thing. I am mainly writing today because I wanted to talk about what my mom said while we were watching the march. She said that when she was younger, she used to have the fire that these kids have. She used to fight for people who couldn't fight for themselves, she used to shout when she saw injustice, and that's the reason she became a teacher. She wanted to bring that fire to the future gener...

I think I have improved my project a lot, but it still feels like I should be doing more. I always feel this way when I'm turning in an assignment. Probably because I should  be doing something more. I just can't figure out what that is though, so I guess that means I'm finished. The final product looks a lot better than the rough draft so I guess that's also a good sign. I got great feedback, which helped a lot. The feedback was honest and truthful, but it wasn't rude which is something I'm not used to. I remember getting my essays edited in high school, and they would come back covered in red pen with stuff I should be improving. I remember one time, my paper was so bad that the girl had to get a blank piece of paper to make suggestions. This time though, the suggested edits were awesome suggestions, and they really helped improve my UGP.

I've been feeling so... Under Pressure . Heh! But seriously, this is harder than I thought it would be.  Talking to strangers has it's moments, but now I am working on the aftermath. There are lots of "uhh"s and "Aaand"s I'm getting rid of. I want the transcripts to look smooth, less choppy. But at the same time, I can't aulter what they said. The main resource I'm basing my work off of is " Humans of New York ". I was inspired by them in the first place, so it only seems appropriate to use their examples. I've also looked into other resources to look for inspiration. A great book I used for this was " The Public Library: A Photographic Essay ". Robert Dawson explains how pictures give one more insight on how things are going. For example; he talkes about the pictures he took in college, while the Vietnam War was going on. Students were protesting, and people were shouting at them to keep their mouth shut. Dawson took...

I'm getting better at interviewing people. I went to the library and the park to interview people yesterday and to Olde Town today. Each location gave me a different experience. When I was at the library people were brief, and didn't really want to talk to me because they were reading or working. I was only able to interview three people there before running out. The park was fun. I interviewed some kids, which was a really fun experience. The kids were very honest about what they were seeing around them and were more opinionated than I expected them to be. Olde town was probably the worst place I could have chosen to interview people. I only talked to two people there, because everyone else was either scared of me or didn't want to talk to me. I think I will spend some time writing down their transcripts and work on my people skills.  I found an article that might help with my situation. " How to Conduct an Effective Job Interview " is a guide for employers to...

You might have noticed a theme here. I highly support students and their right to safety. It is my belief that having regulations on automatic assault rifles will make students and citizens safer when they step outside their house. I know there are plenty of arguments against that, and I'm sure you've heard them all. But I think we should at least try to do something about this issue before we decide to just give up and offer "thoughts and prayers". Today student walked out of class at 10:00am and protested weak gun laws in America. I don't usually watch the news but I was glued to the TV today as news anchors talked about the student protests across America. I was so happy to see students getting together and fighting against this unjust law. In my opinion, today disproved an age-old argument; kids are too young to understand, so better not even try to explain anything to them. Saying "you're too young to understand" is just an excuse adults use t...

The other day in my Literacy of the Learner class, the teachers asked us if discussing tragedies in class would be appropriate. Should we talk about personal tragedies like loved ones passing away, or national tragedies like school shootings, or both? My opinion is that we should talk about tragedies in schools because as soon as kids get out of school they will be exposed to this topic anyway. There is no point shielding kids from troubling news because they do have a life outside of school, and opinions you don't get to hear in classrooms. School is supposed to make students ready for "real life", and in "real life" we are free to discuss controversial topics and give our own opinion. Personally, I'm still not used to the freedom in I have in CSU. I can share my opinion without a teacher pulling me aside and asking me not to do that? I can discuss a controversial topic in a polite manner? What?! If I had been exposed to this type of behavior earlier, I...

Turns out, just walking up to someone and recording the conversation you have with them might be difficult. Some people are very talkative and sharing--happy to have the opportunity to share a bit of their story with someone. Other people are less willing to share their story and don't give too much detail.  The first mistake I saw myself doing was not explaining to people that I have questions picked out for them to answer. I mean, I don't mind if they answer their own questions but some people ended up sharing less than they could have if I had asked them my questions. I need to come up with a new, more confident approach on how I introduce myself and my project to complete strangers. The first person I talked to shared with me about her water conservation project, and a meeting she is having a month from now. I loved hearing about the details of her project, it was clearly something she couldn't stop thinking about so I was glad she got to talk about it to someone. I ...

I have a better idea! Since most people are doing short stories for their UGP, I thought I should be a bit more original. So I went to a place of inspiration...Facebook. I follow a page on Facebook called " Humans of New York " where these random stories are collected of people from New York. (Right now they are traveling in Asia.) And I thought I could do something like that! My idea is that I will talk to at least 25 people over the week, and ask them to share a bit of their story with me. (This will take about 5 minutes of their time.) I will write down their story, and put them in my "classroom". Then, I will write a proposal or essay on how I would teach these people if they were in my English, Literature class. I want to come up with a specific example of what I would teach them, but I'm still working on that. Mostly I'm just making up the rules as I go along. I want to get a diverse crowd so I can get an idea of what it would be like to be in a typi...

So when I grew up in India, I experienced a very different schooling system. The teachers I had thought that if they could shame me enough, I would learn. But the more they shamed me, the more I hated them, and the more I hated them the more I did not do the work they assigned me. This gave me a never-ending cycle of embarrassment. Every day I would come into class--without having my homework done, and without an excuse as to why--and the teachers would ask me to stand in front of the class so that they could show the other students what a lazy person looks like. Me! Hello! But that didn't mean I did their work, in fact after every incident like that I would hate them more. My parents got notes home saying "Your child is not paying attention in class" or "Why does Mudita never do her homework?" But my parents didn't care. My mom would come down to talk with my teachers, and when they would tell her how horrible I am as a student--she would point out how horr...

I think to truly see someone, you have to accept that they are a human being with flaws, beauty, and stories that make them who they are. But I think it takes time to see someone fully. It takes time for a friendship to grow. That's what it comes down to when you want to see someone--friendship. How else will you get to know their flaws and beauty and stories? This requires patience because after all, no one will show you exactly who they are the first time you meet. It takes patience to sit and talk about life and opinions and who they are. There is one teacher I know who did this really well. Mr. Knierim from Rocky Mountain High School. I don't think he knows how much he impacted my education. I recently saw him again for a project, and I realized that he tries to see every student in his class. He tries to get to know them, be a fun creative teacher for them and is very patient. He is a history/government teacher, and the day I observed him in class he was teaching freshme...

America is all too familiar with school shootings. So many shootings aren't even covered by the media because Trump's tweets are way more important. It's always the same routine; after a shooting, the White House will offer their "thoughts and prayers", and say it's too early to talk about gun laws. Then, after a few weeks our representatives will try to start a conversation about gun laws, but since there are too many disagreements the conversation is brought to an end until the next shooting. Then the cycle starts over again. But this time, there is something different. The Parkland school shooting survivors are not satisfied with the White House's "thoughts and prayers", and are demanding change!  I am deeply saddened by the school shooting in Florida and disappointed in our representatives for saying there was nothing they can do to prevent this. Ok--let's break down that argument, shall we? The claim that nothing could have been done ...

The most common genre, I've noticed, in books these days is romance. And honestly, I am so tired of romance. I want to read mysteries, horrors, or adventures that don't involve a love interest! (Well, I know most people won't be into that, so maybe a bit of romance but not the main focus.) So that got me thinking that maybe I could write a short story in the horror genre. It's really hard to get people to be scared, it takes work. The buildup and the suspense is something I will need to work on, but I think I can do it. My sister is a really great writer, maybe I could get a few tips from her. But she doesn't write horror so this will be my thing. If I move away from the idea of horror, I could also do an adventure short story--something like Percy Jackson or Harry Potter. (But without all the copywriting.) It could be fun to write about heroes who aren't so whiny. I am also considering a comedy short story--but I'm pretty sure only I find myself funny...

A place where I struggle with writing is putting my research into words. Sometimes, I get stuck on how I should phrase things so that they flow with the rest of the essay and it's not so choppy. But it takes some time for me to get there. After a few people have edited my work, I can figure out where those mistakes are, but I would like to know how to fix those mistakes myself. I also have a hard time with introductions and conclusions in essays. How do I introduce a topic, and how do I conclude it without making it sound all awkward? In terms of creative writing; I don't know how to engage a reader in a story I'm writing. I've always been really bad a writing short stories because I don't really know how to keep my readers interested. You'd think I would know by now--I read books all the time! I can see how the author is keeping me interested, but I can't do that in my own stories. But maybe I got this opinion a long time ago, and haven't tried to wri...

If I could start a school of my own--that runs the way I want it to--it would be a lot more easy going, less stressful. I would want to follow in Finland's example; have less homework and tests, not focus on grades but the growth of the student, have a highly qualified teacher in the school to make sure that the kids get the best they deserve. I would also want to make the school more hands-on activity based, rather than test based. Taking tests is a good way to check if a student is understanding the concept taught to them, but they are also really really stressful to some kids. I feel like we took a system that was supposed to help kids learn, and turned it against them! Tests should not be something kids should freak out about, it should be something to use to check up on the student's progress. But there are other ways to do that. Maybe interactive activities that go along with the subject taught in class, that would help students learn and experience more. One great exam...

I'm about twelve years old, and it's our third year living in America. We've moved for the third time since we came here, this time to a small town in Maryland. We didn't have a place to stay, so we had to sleep in our family friend's basement. My parents were discussing money, and my sister and I were watching. In hushed voices, they talked about how worried they were: "We only have $500 left!" "I know, but we can figure this out." It was in that moment that I realized that when I grow up, I don't want to be in situations like this. One door that leads to a better life for me and my family was education. In that moment, I remember thinking that I will study hard and do my best in school so that I can get into a good college and start a great career. I started improving my writing skills so that I could keep up with the rest of the students in my class. But I wanted to do this for my parents--I still do. They have sacrificed so much for me, i...

If grade levels and grades didn't exist, I think our school system would be better, and the confidence in students would be better. How do you determine if you're better than someone? The easiest answer is by looking at their grades. I cannot tell you how many times people have said to me; "You got a C in history? Well, I  got an A !" What, does that mean you're somehow better? No, of course, it doesn't! But some kids use this tool to determine if they are smart or dumb. The thing is though, getting good grades is not really that hard. All you have to do is memorize a bunch of stuff for a test, and then forget it all to make room for the next test. But I never liked learning like that because...I never learned  anything. The only reason we have that system is because we are told to get good grades (which makes you look more educated). If we didn't have grades, however, I think kids would actually start learning instead of memorizing. The pressure of ge...

These are my notes from a TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity. I thought the ideas were great, and very well delivered. I agreed with most of the things he said; how schools force students to stay still and not make mistakes. He brought up a very good argument; children are not afraid of being wrong. It's not that big of a deal. But as children grow up, they start learning that being wrong is somehow stupid, and makes you seem uninterested or uneducated. When in fact, the child just makes a mistake, just did something wrong. I really liked that he brought that up because that's how most teachers operate their class. If you're wrong, don't speak! So children learn not to speak. He also said the future is unpredictable, we don't know how our current technology will shape our future. And yet we are still using the outdated ways of teaching we used to in around the 19th century. Subjects like math and science are considered valued if you are goo...

As someone hoping to be a teacher of English, Literature someday, I hope to improve our existing education system. Yes, there are problems with it, but there is also room for improvement. I believe to get our education system to "perfection", we need to let our students individually decide what they are interested in, and teach for the sake of teaching, not for the sake of passing a test. I have always hated it when teachers enter a classroom, telling their students that a test is coming up and if they are not prepared they will definitely fail. What is the point of that? All that does is add stress. And say that a few kids managed to memorize everything the teacher threw at them, and pass the test with flying colors. Doesn't mean they learned anything, it just means they know what the teacher wants to see. Why can't teachers come to class excited about what they will be teaching that day? Why can't teachers make their class something to look forward to? Are you...