Comparing schools from the movies

The school that Ms. Watson teaches at is very high class and prestigious, very unlike the low budget school in "Freedom Riders." Ms. Gruwell taught a group of students who seemed to lack ambition, study habits, and mostly a home environment that complimented good grades. Ms. Watson's students seemed to be the exact opposite, all coming from wealthy families with a history of academic success.

Ms Gruwell

Ms Erin Gruwell is a great teacher. Throughout the movie, "Freedom Riders" Ms. Gruwell showed her dedication to her students and her teaching. Ms Gruwell fought for her students in many ways, such as demanding they get the books they needed as opposed to the old, outdated, and damaged books her class had been receiving prior. Erin also spent much of her time off the clock to get the resources to get her students what she believed they needed to learn and be the most successful. Another quality Ms Gruwell had to personify her want to help the students was how hard she tried to get to know her students, such as learning each individuals names and how to pronounce them, such as her student, Ava.

Audrey Lorde's Essay

Audrey Lorde had multiple teachers that played roles in her life.
The first of her teachers to make an impact was Mrs. Baker the librarian. This instrumental teacher in her life taught her to read and in Lorde's words "Saved her life, if not sooner, then later (22)."  The ability to read, Lorde describes as sometimes being "The only thing I could hold onto (22)."

The second teacher to enter Lorde's life was Mrs. Teacher. Mrs. Teacher seems to be very strict, and seemingly the worst kind of person to teach kindergartners. Lorde immediately notices that she is not given the standard items for learning to write, as she was handed a black crayon and a lookalike of her sisters music notebook.

As Audrey Lorde transfered to the Catholic school across the street, she was greeted by her new young teacher, Sister Mary of Perpetual Help, where her mother immediately gives the nuns direction to spank the unruly Audrey whenever need be. Lorde describes the new teacher as "Hating either teaching or young children (27)." And quickly divided the class into two sections, Fairies and Brownies.

What makes a good teacher

I believe that the attributes of a good teacher are ones that really consider the learning of their students as a large priority. I think that this can come in many different forms, but always behind that central idea.
I think its also very important for the teacher to be able to understand the students which in turn will help the students understand the teachers perspective, making learning on both ends much easier.

Paper #1

1. I'm relatively happy with my first paper. There are a few grammatical errors that I found after re-reading it a couple times that I will need to fix.
2. I was able to pull a little information on how my essay should be written from looking at some of the other papers in the class.
3. At this point, to help make my writing better, I think it would be helpful to have others read my paper and point out areas where I was either to vague or the information just didn't make sense.
4.The educational experience I chose to write about was coming to an understanding that I, in general, just have control over myself.
5.I wanted the reader to come away with an understanding of what issues protruded in my life before the learning of the lesson and how my life was altered afterwards.

Educational Experience

An educational experience that had significance in my life, is the lesson of learning how to ride a bike. This was an important moment of my life because it not only did I learn an important skill used daily by many people throughout the world, but I was able to familiarize myself with the idea that many obstacles in life may not come easy at first. I learned this little by little each time I fell until I was finally able to stay upright on my own. I initially had thought the only thing I had just done was become efficient at being mobile on two wheels. As time has went on I've understood that the very simple skills I'd be utilizing while learning to ride a bike are skills that have been used and needed in almost every difficult situation life has faced me with.

Malcolm X / Mike Rose

The two narrative essays by both Malcolm X and Mike Rose have many similarities and differences. Both Malcolm X and Mike Rose explain a situation where they seemed to have been failed by the education system, but both found a way around their undesirable learning environment to learn, not only basic knowledge needed to play a part in society, but go onto being exceptional thinkers.
The two stories differ greatly in how they were able to come upon such knowledge. Malcolm X was able to apply his "articulate hustle" to his writing when he was locked away as a convicted robber. Mike Rose seemed to have been able to get more out of school when he became very interested in a topic in his sophomore year of high school.

The first writing assignment seems like an interesting enough topic. I think focusing on an educational experience from my life, will not only allow me to look back on something that enlightened me, one way or another, but why the experience did so. The idea of looking back on a positive experience and dissecting it seems very positive and useful.