The most effective in-class learning experience of my life. That's a toughie.
It may sound a tad weird, but the most effective learning experience that I had in a classroom was actually watching one of my two favorite teachers in the world, Mr. Paul Johnson, slamming into a wall demonstrating Brownian Motion. It didn't teach me too much about physical science, but it taught me a bit about being yourself.
If you ever knew Mr. Johnson you'd think he would fit in great with the professors here. He's smart, zany, and really cares about his students. He wasn't afraid of slamming into that wall as long as at least one of us in that room took away an example of what Brownian Motion is. One of his most effective learning tools has also been his plethora of tales of his past. He told us all kinds of stories that (loosely) related to what ever he was teaching us at the time. He wasn't afraid of being himself - so be it that he realized that he as a high school teacher had a few limits - and leading his students by example.
Being yourself may not seem like something that would be effective in college studies, but I find that being myself helps me. I don't have to put on airs in class, thus I can pay attention to Dr. Theilmann's inspiring rhetoric instead of trying to keep up a pretense of whatever.
The only thing that I have to do is try not to start blurting out random things in his class like I have some weird form of Turret's. More about that story later.
Outside of class is a bit easier. To date my best out of class learning experience was my first few days here. I learn best by experience - AKA the hard way - so even though I theoretically knew that not everyone in the world was like my comrades at SHS it still hadn't sunk into my subconscious.
Here I found out that most people think it's okay to be a complete Transfan/Fanbot and quite a few people think it's cool that I am. No one laughed at my Transformers sheets, instead they said things like "I want Optimus Prime sheets." I met several people that are fellow anime/manga fans and one who shares a love of Ronin Warriors. My complete randomness is something that makes me endearingly unique - not utterly weird. Also, I don't feel like I'm the only person in the class with a brain. In fact I'm loving the fact that I sometimes feel like I have no brain! I have a challenge for once in my life!
These help here because I'm not afraid to say that I need help. I know that my classmates won't look down on me - or try to anyway - because they understand that not everyone in the world is into John Deer and FFA. They understand that I refuse to shop at stores where the jeans cost more than a good mouthpiece (which can be around $60). It feels damn good.
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As for the above mentioned story, that would be the fact that in Dr. Theilmann's Global Warming class today I was hopped up on sugar and around a certain time of the moon's cycle I find myself increasingly prone to mood swings. If my mood happens to swing toward hyper I develope a sort of random Turret's where I blurt out completely out of left field things.
For example, Dr. Theilmann thought I was about to say something profound in his class today.
My profound thought happened to be that I realized that "Cameroon" rhymed with "macaroon".
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1 comment:
I found your blog to be very interesting, and I loved how you mentioned your teacher's specially teaching tactic. I also can relate to your experience in so many ways. I even had a few teachers in high school that inspired me to be way I am today. I actually remember my eight grade teacher being the frist person who taught me to be myself. She never did anything crazy like hitting the way, but she talk a lot about life and staying true to yourself.
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