Paper 2 paragraph 4

It took me quite a long time after I moved to Bremerton from Seattle to get a bike. I would have to say that it was the longest amount of time I went without a bike since I learned how to ride one twenty five years ago. The thing is that in order for me to get this bike I had to go to Goodwill when they first opened up because the bike would have been sold before I got home from school. The bike went on sale for fifty percent off that morning. So, I went and bought the bike which made me late for school. Since I was already late I couldn’t take the bike home and then wait for the next bus. So I rode the bike to school without a lock of course, hoping it would be ok outside the portable for a few hours. Unfortunately, somebody made off with it in less than an hour. I noticed it was gone when I was heading in to Shiboan’s class, well when I got into the classroom she could tell something was wrong and I told her what happened and she told me to call security and report it. I was reluctant because I did not pay a whole lot for the bike, but she insisted. To make a long story short Olympic College Security never retrieved my bike. However, they gave me a bike that was never claimed in return because I had reported my bike and told them my story. I don’t feel this would have ever happened if it wasn’t for Shiboan and the caring person that she is.

Comment on Katherine's Post Dead Poets Society Part 2

From reading your post it is obvious that you feel quite strongly about what wrote. I could not agree with you more. The paddling that the boy received was terrible. I really feel that schools and parents like that are robbing the children of their youth and life. I feel that everyone should grow up learning to make decisions for themselves and not be forced into anything they do not want to do. A person may never find their true calling in life if they are not allowed to think for themselves.

Comment on Jeremey's Post Dead Poets Society Part 2

I really enjoyed reading your post. You used a lot of great wording to describe the different situations. I also like how you were able to put a picture from the movie in your post. I did not know that I could do that.

Comment on Rose's Dead Poets Society Part 2

I can not agree with you more. Life is very precious and nobody really knows when they will pass so we should live life to the fullest. A person should never hold back when it comes to their true desires or passions in life. However, once a person has a family we must make sacrifices from time to time for the best interest of their family or spouse. In a good relationship I would hope that if something is important enough to one person they would support their spouse.

Dead Poets Society Part 2

What type of teacher Mr. Keating is?

·         Neil asks Todd haven’t you listened to anything Mr. Keating has been teaching us.

·         Mr. Keatings takes the boys to the field and has them read poetry and kick a soccer ball.

He tells Charlie to let it feel in your soul. All of the boys are having a great time and really getting into the poetry.

·         Student feels his poem was stupid and Mr. Keating encourages him that he did just fine.

·         Todd gets called on and he tells Mr. Keating he didn’t write a poem. Mr Keating pushes Todd to climb out of his tight shell and freely recite an original poem in the moment.

·         After Todd is done the whole class applauds and Mr. Keating tells him that he never wants him to forget this.

·         He has the boys out in the courtyard marching in single file. He tells the boys that your beliefs are your own. He wants them to find their own way to walk. Mr. Dalton is standing there and he asks him why he is just standing there. He says he is exercising his right not to walk. Mr. Keating says that’s alright just stand there, swim against the stream. To me, the message he was trying to send to him was make it harder for him by saying swim against the stream.

·         Mr. Keating is having a debate about his teaching methods with the dean of the school.

·         Even when he is not happy with the boys’ actions he talks to them in a calm voice and tells them that if they get thrown out of school they will miss a lot of great opportunities.

·         Neil asks Mr. Keating why he stays at the school and he tells him that he loves teaching.

·         He tells Neil to confront his father with his passion for acting. He tells him he has to try to get him to understand and if he cannot he will be out of school soon enough and then he can do anything he wants. Later Mr. Keating asks him if he had and Neil tells him he did and his dad was going to let him stay in the play but he was not happy.

·         Neil is performing in the play and his dad walks in.

·         Neil’s father tells Mr. Keating to stay away from his son and takes Neil away directly after the play.

·         Neil committed suicide because his father would not listen to him.

·         Mr. Keating and the other boys are torn over his death.

·         Neil’s father is requested that there be an investigation to the matter of his death at the school.

·         The school is blaming Mr. Keating for Neil’s death.

·         All of the students are standing on their desks to support Mr. Keating. They are defying Mr. Nolan. They stand on their desks proudly and Mr. Keating thanks them.

I really enjoyed this movie. I feel any student of any age that came across a teacher like Mr. Keating would be amongst a great opportunity. Mr. Keating was devoted to the best interest of the students. I understand children need to be pushed to excel. However, I also understand that if you push in the wrong way there can be serious consequences. What we saw in the movie is probably the most extreme consequence. The thing that really got me is that Neil’s father still did not see what he had done and put the blame on a good teacher.

Paper #2

Fall quarter of 2010, I came to Olympic College as a student in the work first program, enrolled in the C.S.A.L.T. “College Skills and Life Training” class. In this class we had a different teacher Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Thursday we had an English teacher for the first half of the day and the second half we spent with the teacher I am writing this paper about. The second half of Thursday, I had Shiboan Fitz-Patrick as an instructor for our job skills class. Shiboan was an excellent teacher because she was very educated in her field, she cared about her students, and she always had a positive attitude.

I came into the class two weeks after the quarter had started and Shiboan immediately started helping me and the other students that came into the class at the same time. She quickly had us caught up with the rest of the class for the most part. Any question that anyone in the class asked she always had a very educated answer for and could elaborate if needed, to make sure we all understood. Here I was thirty four years old and had never made a resume before and was quite overwhelmed by the whole idea. Shiboan took it step by step explaining each step of creating a cover page and resume very thoroughly. She explained what employers are looking for in a resume and what will get it thrown out at first glance. She explained in specific details how to prepare for and present ourselves during an interview. Shiboan not only had a lot of information to give about Olympic College's hiring procedures and job market resources. She also knew a lot about job market resources and job opportunities in the community. I have learned quite a bit about job seeking in the past but I cannot say that I have ever came across anyone that was as educated as Shiboan was in her field of career services.

Comment on Katherine's Post Dead Poet's Society Part One

I have to agree with you that the two teachers are similar in a lot of ways. They both tell jokes, they both have compassion for teaching and their students. the difference I see is that they each have a different goal they want to achieve from their teaching. The students in "Stand and Deliver" were themselves too much with no direction. The students in Dead Poets Society had too much direction to the point they could not be themselves or even think for themselves. I feel it can be just as harmful to a person growing up in either setting.

Comment on Chelan's Post Dead Poet's Society Part One

I have to agree with you on the difference in settings between the two movies. I also agree totally a different class of people.I think you missed the message that Mr. Keating was trying to send to the students when he had them tear out the introduction of their text. I think he did that because he was a prior student at that school and knew its strict curriculum that can keep children from being themselves or even have their own thoughts. I feel he came to teach at that school to teach the kids how to be their own person and have their own thoughts.

Comment on Jessica's post Dead Poet's Society Part 1

You have a lot of good points. I don't think the kids in Dead Poets are reluctant in following direction. I think they are scared to follow Mr. Keaton's direction because it is totally different than any teaching that they had received before.

The Dead Poet's Society Part One

This movie is definitely in a very different setting then “Stand and Deliver”. In “Stand and Deliver” the school had no order and the students were unruly. The students in “Stand and Deliver” were a bit older than the students in “Dead Poets Society”. In this movie the school is very prim and proper and the students are forced to be obedient. Even though the movies are very different I saw a lot of similarities in Mr. Keatings and Mr.Escalantes teaching styles. They were both pushing the students in positive ways. They both started their first days at the new school trying to connect with their class. They both made jokes to make learning fun. The difference between them was Mr. Escalante wanted to get his unruly students interested in learning. Mr. Keatings, “being a former student of Helton” wants to teach the students how to be their own person and be able to express their own thought.

Movie Notes:

·         The kids are all dressed in uniforms.

·         The movie is based on a very proper and religious school. The school is known as the best boys school in the U.S.

·         The students are disciplined.

·         Kids are crying because they have to leave their parents.

·         All of the kids are moving into their dorms.

·         There is a group of five boys.

·         Neal Perry’s dad is making him drop the annual this term because he feels he has too many extracurricular activities.

·         First day of school in Science class they are assigned the first chapter and answer the twenty questions in the text. The homework is due the next day.

·         The trigonometry teacher is very stern.

·         Mr. Keating is a new teacher at Helton. He is teaching poetry class. He has a totally different attitude and teaching style than the other teachers. He does not treat the students like puppets; he treats them like real people.

·         Mr. Keating has the boys tear out the whole introduction of their text book. The trig teacher walks in enraged at the boys’ actions until he realizes that Mr. Keating is having the boys do it. The trig teacher is totally baffled at Mr. Keating’s form of teaching.

·         After the boys tear out the pages of their text he tells them there will be no more measuring poetry. He wants them to be free thinkers.

·         The boys looked up the Helton School annual that Mr. Keating was in when he was a student there.

·         They read that he was a part of the dead poet’s society.

·         The boys are planning to go to the cave where Mr. Keating’s dead poet’s society went to read poetry. They want to reform the dead poet’s society. There are seven boys in the group. Their names are:

·         Neil Perry, Todd Anderson, Knox Overstreet, Charlie Dalton, Richard Cameron, Steven Meeks, and Gerard Pitts.

·         The boys sneak out to go to the cave after lights out. They have the book “Five Centuries of Verse.”

·         The next day they are in poetry class and Mr. Keating is making the whole class laugh by telling jokes and talking in different voices.

·         He stands on his desk and tells the class they have to look at things in a different way sometimes.

·         Neil wants to try out for a Shakespeare play. Todd his dorm mate is against it because of what Neil’s dad will say. Todd seems to be afraid to be himself, probably because of his strict upbringing.

·         Neil is trying to get him to lighten up.

Mr. Escalante Thesis Statement

Mr. Escalante was a dedicated teacher, because he no matter what he never gave up on himself or the students, he pushed his students to their potential, and he stood up for his students.

Mr. Escalante went to the education testing service to get answers of why the board thought that his students cheated. He walks through the door wearing his average everyday clothing and the two board members are wearing suits and ties. The two men in suits carry themselves as they are federal agents. Mr. Escalante once again does not let the board members intimidate him. When the board was not cooperative, Mr. Escalante kept pushing the board members to show him the answers from his student’s tests. All the board would tell Mr. Escalante is that all of his students got the same answers wrong and that the students could take the test again to prove they did not cheat. The men are still giving very short answers and virtually no explanation. Mr. Escalante then started arguing with the men that if this were to have taken place in Belair and his students were white they wouldn’t even be having this conversation right now. All the men had to say to this is if we don’t single them out people call it discrimination and if we do it is called discrimination as well. By the end of the conversation he told one of the board members that if “I see you on the street I am going to kick your ass.”

Comment on Dee's "Stand and Deliver" Day Two Post

I can not agree with you more on the lower class getting the shorter end of the stick. It is sad to say but this world has come to a point where the rich stay rich and the working class struggles. Unfortunately, the gap between the rich and the working class is getting further and further away. This movie does show that one person can make a difference even when it seems that everyone and everything is again them.

Comment on Jeremy's "Stand and Deliver" Day Two Post

Great observation. I especially liked the wording you chose to explain about the students getting blamed for cheating. I cannot agree with you more on everything that we have seen Mr. Escalante go through definately has put a toll on him.

Comparison Between Part One and Part Two "Stand and Deliver"

Even though I have seen this movie and know the out come so I probably went into it with a different view than someone that has not seen it. The comparison between today's part and yesterdays part is pretty clear to me. Yesterday we saw Kimo come into a class of unruly student with little to no direction in their lives and befriend each and everyone of them. At the same time he also got all of them interested in learning. Today we see how the students have blossomed and achieved goals that no one really believed they were capable of doing. We also see the relationship that Kimo has created with each of his students. We see that no matter what he is not going to give up on those students no matter what. When it shows him teaching the immigrants how to speak english on top of teaching  high school, to me that really shows his passion for teaching.

Comment on Cynthias Post Comparison From Yesterdays Observations

I can't agree with you more on this being a good movie. As you know I don't really like to watch a movie twice. However, I don't mind seeing this one again, it is a great story. It also shows what can be accomplished with dedication and hard work. Very inspiring story.

Stand and Deliver notes part 2

·         Mr. Escalante calls on a kid that is sleeping and the kid wakes up and answers the question. He says good, very good, then jokingly tells the student to go back to sleep and gently pushes his head back down on his desk.

·         He is trying to encourage the student that is at the blackboard having a hard time solving a difficult problem. He keeps telling him this is easy you can do this. It’s like Tic Tac Toe. You know this stuff. Then he comes to the blackboard and shows the student how to solve the problem using a Tic Tac Toe board.

·         He is teaching older adult Immigrants to speak English in the evening after he gets done teaching his high school calculus class. Mr. Escalante has a Heart attack and the students are devastated. They have two weeks to finish preparing for the AP Calculus Test. The school brought in a music teacher as a substitute for Mr. Escalante.

·         Mr. Escalante comes back to class and all of his students are very excited to see him. Yet they are all concerned if he is well enough to come back yet. He assures them that he is. He goes around the room and shakes all of his student’s hands then jumps right back into teaching.

·         One of the students gets their test results in the mail and gets very excited.

·         The school is at a ceremony for the students. The principle is at the podium congratulating Mr. Escalante’s class. He tells the audience that eighteen students took the AP calculus test and eighteen students passed the test. Mr. Escalante’s class then presents him with a plaque to show their appreciation in him.

·         One of his female students gets a disturbing phone call. The testing center thinks the students cheated. The students are being interrogated about cheating by two agents from the Educational Testing Service. None of the students will admit to cheating because they didn’t. Angel gets up and confesses to cheating with a hilarious story and makes a fool out of the agents. The agents then say there is no reason to continue this and leave with their tales between their legs. Mr. Escalante appears to be the only person that believes the students did not cheat.

·         Kimo (Mr. Escalante) comes out of the school and his car is missing from the parking lot. One of the other teachers offers him a ride home and he refuses and walks home.

·          Mr.Escalante is telling his wife that he feels the students have lost their confidence in a system that they are now qualified to be a part of.

·         Angel and his crew bring back Kimo’s car to his house. They have painted it. Put new rims and tires on it. One of the crew members yells to him we even put a new radio in it for you. They replaced the one they stole out of his car in the beginning.

·         Kimo goes to the Educational Testing Service to ask them why they feel the students cheat. Basically they tell him the class did to well on the test to have not cheated. Kimo basically gets the agents from E.T.S. to admit that they were singling his class out because they are minorities from rough neighborhoods and poor schooling. As he is leaving he tells one of the agents that if he sees him on the street he is going to kick his ass.

·         The students have decided to retest to prove they did not cheat even though they shouldn’t have to because they didn’t cheat in the first place. They are told they have one day to prepare for the test. Kimo is giving them a pep talk about how to dress and act during the test so they have no chance of accusing them of cheating again. He tells them all that they can do it and they get to studying. He even takes them to his house so they can continue studying.

·         The students are taking the test for the second time. The students appear to be a little nervous but for the most part confident.

Comment on Michelle's Stand and Deliver Part 1 Notes

You had a lot of excellent observations. I really like how you compared this movie to Mike Rose's story we read. I did not even think about the similarities between the two stories. We just read Audre's story and almost everyone in the class felt sorry for the small girl receiving similar kinds of punishment. Even though the treatment is similar I can not see any wrong in what Mr. Escalante was doing because he was doing it out of caring for bettering the students. Even though I do not have all the facts from Audre's story but from what I read I do not believe her teacher cared about her students like Mr. escalante did.

Comment on Cynthia's Stand and Deliver Part 1 Notes

Wow, you really have a lot of detail in your notes. You explained each situation just as if I was watching the movie. Excellent job.

Comment on Jessica's Stand and Deliver Part 1 Notes

You really did have great observations. I especially like that you noticed how Mr. Escalante focused on the troubled and struggling students first. You had a lot of good detail in your notes.

Stand and Deliver

Mr. Escalante starts his first day teaching at a high school that is falling apart. The students are undereducated and unruly. The faculty has no belief in the student. The faculty also does not want to try to make a difference.

When Mr. Escalante gets to the school he is expecting to be teaching computer science and is informed that there was no funding for computers again this year. Therefore, he is informed that he will be teaching math 1A.

When he gets to the classroom the students are all over the classroom and have no respect for teachers. The students could care less about learning. Mr. Escalante finally gets the students to settle down and the bell rings.

In his efforts to calm the class down he notices a group of Mexican students standing at the back of the class and figures out that they cannot speak English. He speaks to them in Spanish and asks them to sit in the front row of the classroom. I believe he did this to make the got a chance to learn.

The second day he comes to class wearing a chef outfit with an apple and a butcher knife. He cuts a slice out of an apple to show a representation of a percentage of the apple that is missing. He is trying to make the class fun so he can get the students interested in learning.

Mr. Escalante is trying to connect with individual students. It seems that he is starting with the most troubled students. A group of Mexican gangsters walk into the classroom trying to intimidate him and he does not let them. In fact he sent back the same message that they were trying to send them.

Mr. Escalante keeps pushing the students to participate and learn, by making learning fun and interesting.

The faculty of the school is having a meeting discussing the fact that if they cannot bring the students grade average up by the end of the year the school will be shut down. The school staff does not believe in the students and they don’t even want to try to help the students or save the school. Mr. Escalante does and he will not give up.

One of the gangsters comes to Mr. Escalante and expresses that he wants to learn but cannot been seen by his gang carrying books. He asks the teacher if he can give him an extra book so he can keep one at school and one at home. Mr. Escalante tells him that he can do better than that and gives him three books, one for class, one for home, and one for his locker.

Mr. Escalante is still pushing to get the students interested in learning. He is doing everything he can to make it fun and exciting, yet still educational. He is starting to connect with his students.

            He goes to the restaurant that the father of one of the students owns to talk to him because the girl had told him that she was not going to school anymore. Her father was making her drop out of school because he wanted her to work in his restaurant.

           He has got the whole class participating and wanting to learn. 

Paper #2 A Thesis-Driven Essay About Teaching You've Observed

Paper #2 Handout

Thinking back to your first paper, what would you say was your main point about your story, in other words, what was the "moral of your story"?

You can do anything you put your mind to.

Now reword it to sound more like an academic thesis statement:

My success in making this computer work, proves that anyone can accomplish anything that they put their mind to.

Did your first paper focus on a particular teacher?

No

If not is there a teacher from your past or present who sticks in your memory? Who?

Yes, Shibaun Fitz-Patrick

What kind of teacher was he/she? (Good, bad, or ???)

Excellent

List 3 – 5 reasons / ways he/she was good, bad, or ???

She was very supportive.

She had passion for what she was teaching.

She was very educated in what she was teaching.

She took time to help each student.

She always had a positive attitude.

For each of the 3 – 5 reasons / ways you listed, give one or two particular examples of times he/she did things that exemplify these reasons / ways.

I had never written a cover page and she took the time to teach me how to write an effective cover letter.

She was very thorough in explaining the steps in preparing an efficient resume.

She was very informative in what an employer is looking for in an employee.

She was very informative in what an employer is looking for in an employee.

She taught us the skills required to have a successful interview.

She was always very cheerful.

She started class with having us check in. I felt she did this because she liked to hear what was going on in our lives.

Sister Mary of Perpetual Hate

Sister Mary beat her students with a strap.

She did not help the students that needed help she singled them out and punished them.

She singled out Audre for breaking her glasses and put her in a very embarrassing situation by having the rest of the class pray for her while she sat in the back of the class with a dunce cap on.

Sister Mary called Audre a liar when she brought in her homework. She did not believe  that she did the work herself.

You Can Do Anything You Put Your Mind Too

You Can Do Anything You Put Your Mind To

All my life I had it instilled in me that I could do anything I put my mind to. To this day I have yet to prove this statement untrue and what you are about to read made my belief even stronger. The following is a story of a time in my life that I took on a very difficult task and accomplished it all on my own with a lot of hard work and dedication. After reading my story I hope for you to believe that you can do anything you put your mind to.

            In 1997, when I was 21 years old, a friend gave me a Gateway 486 DX33 computer tower with all of the hardware in it except for the hard drive. It did not take me long and I acquired a hard drive for it and was ready to start loading it with software so I could get it up and running. So I loaded the software driver for the mother board that I downloaded to floppy disk from the internet using my quite a bit older 386. Then I loaded the software driver that came with the hard drive. Next I had to load the operating systems so I could get the computer somewhat operational.

Once I got the hard drive configured I was able to load MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 operating systems using the two floppy drives that the computer was able to automatically detect on boot up. This means the computer already had the appropriate software drivers attached to the Motherboard to recognize these drives. These days the computer is capable of automatically recognizing the hard drive, the CD-Rom drive, and USB ports. This was the first time I had ever loaded an operating system on a computer and I had to load two separate operating systems. Since I had really no idea of what I was doing I sat down and read both operating systems books pretty much all of the way through. As many people know these are not small books.  So after I read and read I installed the two operating systems and the computer was somewhat operational. Now it was time to get the other components working.

Like I said this computer had all of the hardware and no software. This meant I had to locate the appropriate software driver for each piece of hardware. This included the CD-ROM drive, soundcard, hard drive, motherboard, mouse, and the touch screen that hooked on to the monitor. Touch screens were not that common in that day and age. Let me tell you this, technology has come a far ways compared to what the touch screen was capable of doing at that time.

I used the Internet to locate most of the drivers for the hardware. The Internet then was nothing compared to what it is now. However, I was able to find everything that I needed online and they all worked properly, except for the CD-ROM Driver and the soundcard driver. That was the biggest problem I ran into. The real tricky part was, even though they each required their own software driver, they worked together as one unit. This was called a multimedia package, which meant in order for one to work the other had to work as well. The real interesting thing was that they were manufactured by different manufacturers. The soundcard was produced by Creative Laboratories and the CD-ROM drive was made by Sony.  The drivers that I downloaded were the only drivers that I was able to find online that was even a close match. Yet they still did not work. This meant I had to contact the manufacturers and they told me the drivers I downloaded would work. However, in order for them to work I would have to change commands in the config.sys and autoexec.bat file. Sounds pretty easy, yet it is very intricate. The smallest error could make the computer not work at all. So I sat down and read the MS-DOS book and Windows book for the second time. I was then able to get the CD-ROM and sound card up and running.

Once I had the CD-ROM drive working, I was then able to load Windows 95. This was the most popular operating system on the market at this time. Now, I started adding peripheral devices such as the touch screen, printer, and scanner. Printers and scanners were separate units at this time. In fact scanners had only been on the market for about six months to a year when I installed one onto this computer. Along with adding these devices, I started installing software programs such as applications, utilities, and games. I had done it! The computer was up and running.

I spent somewhere between four and five hundred hours in about three to four months but I had finally done it. The computer was running and running good. I almost couldn’t believe that I had accomplished such a great achievement. Let me tell you, this was one sweet computer for this time. I was very proud of myself and 14 years later I still have great pride in what I was able to do.

This was a learning experience that gave me a lot more confidence within myself. It also led me to love computers that much more. This was only the first of around a hundred computers that I have had to troubleshoot both software and hardware problems, replace hardware, and reinstall the required software to make the computer work. I have worked on both laptops and personal computers. I have also learned a bit about setting up small networks and troubleshooting network problems. I have researched and broadened my knowledge as technology grew on my own over the last 14 years. Until now I have never had schooling for this trade. I started taking my computer classes in the fall. However, I am finding that there is a lot more to computers than what I have learned over the last 14 years. The knowledge I did have already has helped quite a bit though. I am very interested in what I am going to learn over the next couple of years here at Olympic College.

 

Benjamin Franklin

The three stories that we have read for this class are very inspiring stories. They all have one common ground. Each of the writers have overcome challenges in their life and dedicated themselves to learning. The biggest difference I saw in the writings was the difference in the slang they each used. I could also see that they all came from different times in history from their writings. I will have to say the story by Malcom X was the easiest to read for me. His story flowed together nicely and the words he used were easy to understand. The story by Benjamin Franklin was just about as hard to read for me as Roses story was. However, it was not hard because of difficult words to understand and jumping all over the place like Roses story was. I had a hard time understanding the slang he used. I also could see that Benjamin Franklin was from quite a distant time through his writing. I will have to say that it was easier to follow his story than Roses. Benjamin's story did not jump all over the place like Roses.