Lay Off by Erica

Lay Off by Erica - January 2015 Scholarship Essay

Many teachers are so focused, so organized, so prepared that they know exactly what they will say at every minute of each class period. At 7:40 they take attendance. At 7:45 they begin their lecture, using their very detailed, printed notes that are complete with diagrams and a single way of explaining the topic. At 8:20 they finish the lecture and before 8:25, when the bell rings, they have already assigned homework. It's a phenomenal system that after ten years of trial-and-error they have perfected.

Unfortunately a lot of students find the topics harder to grasp than teachers do. We don't always understand that Oxygen molecules have a strong electronegative force that attracts it equally towards both Hydrogen atoms that it is attached to, forming water. But they do understand how Katniss was equally torn between Peeta and Gale in the Hunger Games books. Pop culture has taken over the minds of the younger generations. They no longer care as much about biology, history, Dickens and calculus as they used to. Everything is fast paced, dramatic and constantly changing.

So here is what I propose. Teachers, don't get so set in your ways that you have no room to experiment just a little bit more. Branch out in how you teach, switching up the medium you teach in (sometimes by lecture, sometimes by video, by project work, by making analogies, by letting the students try to figure it out themselves). Try allowing students to ask ridiculous questions, or even better, think of them yourself so that you can better explain them in class when the students are too scared to ask. Make the subject interesting. Just because you find the French Revolution's politics fascinating does not mean that the Chemistry obsessed student that sits in the back of the class does. Try to relate to them by making anecdotes and analogies to better exemplify the subject from a student's point of view. We're trying to see it the teacher's way so much that half of the time we can regurgitate your words, pass the test, and still not understand the actual subject.

Try to lay off a little. The students work hard to absorb six hours worth of new material on a daily basis. Sometimes all that it takes is a comparison to something that we know and understand. Sometimes it takes eight thousand questions that seem crazy, but are imperative to that student's understanding. Group work, so that students can work together to put things into their own language, really comprehending it, helps monumentally. Anything that helps a student relate is the most effective technique to help the students learn. So just give us a chance. If you help us, we'll learn it.