Essay/Term paper: Sometimes a shining moment: good teachers/ bad teachers

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Narrative Essays

Sometimes a Shining Moment: Good Teachers/ Bad Teachers


In the book Sometimes a Shining Moment: Eliot Wiginton had a student
that talked about a teacher who takes time to recognize students as an
individual and not just part of a group. The student went on to say "I had one
particular teacher that I would never forget. Once when the teacher gave back an
essay I found that she had complimented my essay, the topic, and even me."
I had a teacher that that was just like the teacher that one of the juniors
or seniors had. The teacher that I remember the best was my twelfth grade
English teacher, Mrs. Oehler was a type of teacher that always involved every
one in the class discussion. She took the time to realize me as a individual
and not just a student that showed up for her class every day. Every day when I
went to class I was excited to be their. We never knew what Mrs. Oehler had up
her sleeve, but we knew that we would have a good time.
When I showed up at room 124 on the first day of class I did not know
what to expect. You see I never had Mrs. Oehler in my previous three years of
high school. I thought she would be a nice person to have as teacher, but I
never knew that she would be the best teacher that I ever had. I first noticed
that Mrs. Oehler was a special kind of person when she came over to my desk and
out of the clear blue she asked me about my story I was writing for her class. I
was surprised to here her say "so Matt how do you like you story so far". She
did not ask any body else in the class, just me. It was those little things
that she did that impressed me. She always made time in class for each and
every one of us to state our opinion about the days topic.
Some days when we were reading a story she would turn it into a
theatrical performance. She always keep us interested in what we were reading,
and turned an ordinary assignment that would of been boring with any other
teacher into a fun and rewarding experience.
We read the Adromenal Strain a story that dealt with a deadly virus
from outer space and the use of the atomic bomb to rid the earth of this deadly
infection. Our class was mixed with different emotions about using the atomic
bomb. We discussed the effects and devastation that the bomb could bring and
compared them to the good possibilities that could occur from bombing the city
that had been hit with this infections virus. In order to make this debate more
interesting than before Mrs. Oehler declared every one in the class congressmen.
We were then required to write a letter of recommendation to the President of
the United States of America. The topic of the letter was to persuade the
president to drop or not to drop the bomb. I took this assignment to heart,
I tried to make the letter look so official and realistic as possible. That
night when I went home I turned on the computer and created a letter head to
match the letter head of this letter that I got from Congressman John Kaisch. I
did such a good job that Mrs. Oehler showed it off to the whole entire class.
When one of her students in her class did some thing that was extremely
outstanding she would take notice and share it with the class. It was things
like that she did that made her class a fun learning experience.
Another student from Wiginton's book said: "I had a teacher who was
always willing to stay after class and talk to you. He would always help
straighten things out. If I did something wrong he'll tell me. I really
appreciated the fact that he cared the that much." My art teacher Mrs. Lenher
was like that. She was a very nice person and every one in the school knew it,
even the other teachers. When ever I had a problem she would take time out of
her very busy day to help. I remember last fall one of my friend was in trouble
with the law. This really brought me down because my friend was in a high speed
chase and he got away. He then came over to my house to hide from the police.
Some how the police received a tip from another friend that he was at my house.
The police came to my house and, I was forced to turn him in. After that I was
extremely confused and afraid that I would lose a friend because I turned him in.
The next day I told Mrs. Lenher about what happened. We talked for about and
hour and discus the good and the bad that could happen to my friend and our
friend ship. She helped me come to a conclusion that I did the right thing
and that my friend should be thankful for what I did. My friend is now out of
trouble and we are still friends so I feel that I did do the right thing by
not letting him keep running from the law. With out Mrs. Lenher's help I would
still feel guilty. She was also their for me when I was trying to win a
scholarship to an art school in Pittsburgh. I remember she stayed up very late
one night to write a letter of recommendation for me. She called me on the
phone around 10:00 o'clock that night to tell me that she was almost done with
the letter. She cleared up some things that she was not sure about then we
talked about my portfolio. I thought it was funny that my teacher called me a
my house, I never had a teacher that did that before. I think that every one
should have a teacher like Mrs. Leaner to talk to when you need to talk.
The thing that really gets to me is when a teacher favors certain people
over the rest of the group. One of the students from Some Times a Shining
Moment also said the same thing. The student said "what gripes me the most is
teachers picking out one or two students to have as "pets". It is not only
unfair to the other students, and really childish for adults to do; it really
doesn't help the child you are being nice to. Did you ever stop to think that
what it does to a kid to get too much attention? Well, I'll tell you. They at
first will be envied by her friends. But pretty soon the awe wears thin and the
resentment sets in. The poor kid that was at first popular and friendly soon
loses friends."
I definitely can relate to this story. I've have had two teachers that had
"pets" I hated the teachers that did that and I ended up not liking the "pets".
My math teacher was also the football and the basketball coach. He favored the
kids that were on his teams. In class he would try to be their best friend while
the rest of the class got neglected. I felt unnoticed and did not want to be in
his class because I felt very uncomfortable in a class with a teacher that did
not care about me.
My biology teacher was a pervert and his class "pets" were any girls that
wore a skirt. If you were a girl you would get an "A" for the year with out
trying very hard. Since I am a male I had to work hard for a good grade. My
teacher would never look at the tests and the home work, he would grade our
papers by what he thought we deserved. I got an "B" for the year only because I
worked very hard and protested my grades after he handed back the papers. Now
that I look back and think about him, I believe that he a very special grading
system of his own. Girls get an "A", boys get a "B or C" and smokers get "F's".
It was very unfair and I did not like some of the girls in that class that year
because of the grade that they got that they did not earn.