Breaking the Rut and Engaging by Maddie

Breaking the Rut and Engaging by Maddie - January 2015 Scholarship Essay

During high school, as students, we are taught to sit and listen. To copy words onto paper. To complete algebraic expressions. Yet, in college and life after college, as a society we expect for one to venture out, wonder about, and explore the world around them. We try to climb to new heights, and make breakthroughs in everyday life, and learn who we are in society and to ourselves. Yet, during high school, we are taught to sit and absorb instead of engaging.
As a student, I learn by engaging with the material rather than being expected to sop up with a mop the information presented in front of me. Simple exercises of going outside and working with my hands makes millions of connections. For example, during my junior year, I was sent outside and told to use a measuring tape to measure displacement around my school. Originally, I thought my physics teacher was insane; walking around the school was no challenge. Yet as I continued, I realized what a learning experience my instructor had placed in my path. It is no simple task. The school I go to is rather large and calculating angles (for someone who barely knows how to work a compass) was a challenge. From this experience I was able to always watch my calculations, break angles into simpler directions, and keep going.

While I completely understand that math is a difficult concept to make “hands on”, it can be accomplished. Have students get up and do something physical. It can be as simple as reciting that the area of a circle is πr2. Or a competitive game of which group can get the most answers correct in a time period. When this is done in my math class, I am able to draw the answer forth in an instant. In a social studies course have students act out a concept and other students to guess what it is. For psychology students, do an exercise where they have to non-verbally show stereotype threat or what the iris does. For U.S. History students, make them visually display the Golden Cross Speech without drawing a gold cross.

It seems to me that it is just as easy for teachers to get stuck in a rut as anyone else. A simple break from the ordinary does wonders to my levels of remembering a topic. During the test, a tear in the usual triggers a memory and helps me to do well. Even after the test, I recall these concepts that I have interacted with so much better than the ordinary ones. A breach in the rut gives me new insights into connections about concepts and how I can apply them to other situations.