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The best teacher I ever had was a high school English teacher who had us write a term paper (mine was on The Grapes of Wrath). We had to turn in each step of the paper...from the book title. Then topic for the term paper followed by the bibliography; outline; note cards (in proper format, indicating whether the idea was a quote or paraphrase etc, with the source, again in proper format, on the opposite side); rough draft (typed, triple spaced, with footnotes - dating myself). That woman graded each and every step. With comments. I taught my own kids the things she required of us. Bless her.
Interestingly, she was the very same teacher who assigned vocab throughout high school. And, every now an then, if the occasion arose, skipped the lesson plan to just...talk to us about life. She had high expectations but treated us like humans. And we noticed and appreciated her. Like I said, one of the best teachers ever.
Last edited by maciesmom; 04-13-2014 at 08:45 PM..
The best teacher I ever had was a high school English teacher who had us write a term paper (mine was on The Grapes of Wrath). We had to turn in each step of the paper...from the book title. Then topic for the term paper followed by the bibliography; outline; note cards (in proper format, indicating whether the idea was a quote or paraphrase etc, with the source, again in proper format, on the opposite side); rough draft (typed, triple spaced, with footnotes - dating myself). That woman graded each and every step. With comments. I taught my own kids the things she required of us. Bless her.
Interestingly, she was the very same teacher who assigned vocab throughout high school. And, every now an then, if the occasion arose, skipped the lesson plan to just...talk to us about life. She had high expectations but treated us like humans. And we noticed and appreciated her. Like I said, one of the best teachers ever.
Oh, I hated when teachers required that because I never do those steps before writing a paper. When we had to do that, I would just write the paper and then do the other things. However, I understood why it was required.
I hated history in school, because it required so much memorization of data, like dates and names of battles, etc. I had no problem with essays, where I could discuss why a battle occurred, etc., but expect me to memorize a cold list of the names of battles and the correct dates for them all, and it's hopeless.
But, when I could just watch a history program and absorb the stories (which is what history is, after all), I loved it. I just couldn't spew meaningless (to me) data from memory.
Besides English (hated it in year 7-8, loved it in year 10-11), nearly all the subjects I disliked in high school were as unlikable on the day I left school (maths and PE especially). There are subjects though, that I liked at first, but hated later:
History - I actually still love history, it was very fun in year 7, but gee, it got extremely hard and intrusive in year 12 Food - Very fun and basic in year 7, but got very serious and pressuring in year 11. Drama - Again, enjoyable and interesting, but the teacher made us take it so seriously, shoving in so much homework for us!
Oh, music was a subject I incredibly loathed in year 7 (that was 10 years ago). I was awful and embarrassing in it. I tried to avoid it like the plague. I dropped it in year 9 and I was so relieved (this was 2006). Surprisingly, I grew to like music theory in 2010 (a year after high school) and now I play the piano quite good. I wish I could back in time and do music in my last years of high school.
I used to dislike math in elementary and middle school and I started to somewhat like it in high school. Then I came to college and I hated it again.
For me it was more of the reverse, unfortunately, where I used to really like certain subjects and then I ended up not liking them. In the case of the subjects I really like now, I had no knowledge of them at all back in the day.
All students were required to take typing and I always looked at my fingers. This was back before computers were around so we had electric typewriters. My typing teacher was a bit coo-coo and would throw erasers across the room when she caught us looking down. I hated typing for a long time and miraculously I learned how to type close to 100 wpm after I was in college.
I also didn't care for English in HS or college because I felt the grading was unfair. I did well with it in higher level courses though and never experienced those kind of issues again. I had a stronger aptitude for Math and Sciences and liked that I could be graded based on proving the right answer versus some English teacher's mood swings. I still lean toward Sciences, but I don't cower in fear about typing or English classes any longer. ;-)
Most high school kids hate history. And I did too, but then I saw the PBS miniseries on the Civil War. Never again did I hate history.
Another sticky thing is Shakespeare. Most kids hate Shakespeare and I did until I had a really good teacher in the 11th grade. My ninth grade teacher was kind of stupid and she taught us about Julius Caesar. We all hated it. But I read it again at another school and I no longer hated it. Ironically, I took English 1A as a freshman and again I had a stupid teacher and I hated Shakespeare again.
I guess any subject can be interesting or boring depending on the teacher. It helps if you like the teacher. If you hate the teacher of chemistry you might hate chemistry the rest of your life.
I hated most subjects in high school and below, mainly because they didn't resemble them at all in real life. Social studies was the worst - k-12 manages to turn a fascinating narrative into a dull repetition of disconnected facts and bits of trivia. Only in college did I learn what history and sociology and anthropology actually look like as fields of study, and they have zero to do with what k-12 teachers are doing. I don't even think most k-12 teachers understand the significance of those subjects or how to approach them, and certainly the emphasis on standardized testing doesn't help at all. Even if one does understand them, there is no opportunity to teach them the way they should be taught, as k-12 doesn't really allow teachers enough academic freedom to do that.
I really hated history in high school too, but now I'm fascinated with it. I think it depends somewhat on the teacher. My U.S. history teacher in high school just flirted with the girls the first 30 minutes of the class and then gave a brief talk about the current assignment. I've heard of some history teachers who really know how to bring history "alive" and exciting.
I don't mean to put the fault on the teacher though...although that can make a difference. I just made up my mind in high school that history was a "boy's" subject, so I didn't study that much. I've since learned that the more you study a subject, the more interesting it is.
I also hated science of any kind in high school, but ended up taking 21 credits of chemistry in college...and I've lost count of how many anatomy, physiology, histology, embryology, cell biology, microbiology and other biology classes I took in college. I absolutely love science now. I became a nurse practitioner, but if I had it to do over, I think I would get my Ph.D. in some area of science and do research...maybe nutrition.
I did not care for anatomy & physiology because at the time, it was a prerequisite for nursing, so an 80% was passing - all that pressure - not to mention the way it was taught - was awful. Now, with the new technology on computers, it's so much fun. I'm tempted to take a class someday just for fun and relearn how the body systems work.
World religions are another one. I took the class in 8th grade because as a world studies class. Again, at the time, it was a big deal to even offer this course because of the controversy (9/11) but I wanted to know more. However, one semester - or one year is not even enough time to scratch the surface. Now, I would love to learn this from someone who has travelled around the world and knows a lot about the subject. I am not a religious person but would like someone whose non-biased to teach me some of the origins and customs of the world's religions.
One class I really wanted to like was the Psychology of Drug Use. Now, when I took this class for my human services block (I was an Exercise Physiology major) I was thinking this would explain more about the psychology behind why people use drugs, and what happens with the brain chemistry and all that. The class was more a pharmacology class describing the psychological affect that certain drugs have - if that makes any sense. I was bored out of my mind. Coming from a family and community that has had it's share of drug and alcohol casualties, I was ready for a more open discussion on why certain people are more prone to addiction and how this affects generations.
I really, really, really wish I would have put in more time when it came to foreign languages. While I took French for two years, it got me nowhere. I forgot all of it. Now, I see they are cross-teaching french and spanish because there are so many similarities as far as learning the languages. As well, I wish I would have learned sign language. Today, some schools are beginning these kinds of programs around 3-5th grades. We couldn't take any foreign languages until 8th grade. Things have changed a lot since 2000.
The last one, which I had a lot of trouble with, was Statistics! I took Statistical Methods during my last semester at the University of Minnesota Duluth. I would have NEVER passed it had it not been for my terrific instructor. But, I had to sit right in the front, and pay all attention to him the entire time. I did quite well in that class, and I was told that it's required again if I ever decide to go to graduate school. I see now they offer it online! There is no way I could have passed Stats if I had to take it online. The other one I regret not taking was Chemistry, because it's required for any health science program now. If you want to get into an LPN or RN program, you have to have Chemistry. And from what I hear, it's the class that eliminates about a third of interested students from applying, because so many just can't pass chemistry. Has anyone else had problems with that class?
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Subjects Hated in H.S.
