My history class is racist!

Today in my class called The West and the world we were discussing what countries should be considered part of the western world. We discussed a few of the more obvious one like the US, Canada, Australia, France, Germany and some others; then we got into the topic of Mexico which the class said was not a first world country because of the lack of a prominant middle class, I was alright with this. Then some other controversial countries came up like South Africa, which in my opinion is western, and others like Japan. This was my first huge disagreements; the class believed that due to cultural difference that Japan was NOT western! I strongly disagree due to the fact that they modern their government off of the west, I brought this up and the class disregarded me.

Then we got to Greece which because of the model of democracy originating from Greece the class said that it was western, but I said "wait a second, you people disregarded Mexico because of their failing economy but just because Greece was the start of democracy it is a western country! That doesn't make any sense!" but the class again disregarded what I said. Then the teacher asked "well how about Turkey?" The class said that due to the lack of wealth they were also not Western! I then stated "Why is ireland a western country as their economy is worse then Turkey's?" someone accused me of being Racist. so I responded "WHAT DO YOU MEAN RACIST I'M IRISH!!!!!" the student bit his tongue and said nothing more.

The class argued "because Ireland Has a rich history" in which I replied "You people should retake grade 11 History as you would have learned Turkey was a world power up until WWI!!" the class did not have any retort, but continued to say that countries like Turkey were not the West. I have decided that the people of the west aren't richer then other people they are only ignorant enough to label a country as better not on a basis of wealth but rather on a basis of Ideology and race! The reason Ideology is a factor is that they only said that countries with a mostly Christian heritage were west whereas countries that are Muslim like Turkey and other "lesser" religions are not priviledged enough to be concidered Western.

I have decided that rather then teaching racism and bigomy to students I will try to convince students about equality. There is no West and East in a class that I teach just seperate Nations all which are equal. These students are going to grow up to be racist bigomists but no student under my watch will be as such!

Iceberg Teaching

Teacher's work doesn't stop at the end of the day!

When you look at a teacher you see a person standing in front of a class speaking about whatever subject it is that they teach. But you don't see all the other things that go into creating that lesson writing down all the information that is being taught. We only see the tip of the iceberg, we don't see what is going on underneath it all. Think of it as an Iceberg we see about 30% of what actually has been done; the other 70% is done in private to make the other portion presentable.



The other part of the Iceberg includes many the parts listed above including;

• evaluation of a previous lesson
• Established routines and procedures that ensure the lesson goes as planned
• preperation for the lesson
• planning lessons in which the students learning progresses
• Personality- including the teachers ability to maintane control of the class and establish their authority
• Professional judgement developed over time
• Subject knowledge
• Professional knowledge about effective teaching and learning

You will often witness teachers performing lessons but you will develop the ability to see through the actual lesson and see what actually goes on beyond the lesson.

What makes a good teacher?

You may be asking yourself what will make you a truly good teacher. The success of a teacher should not be based on the students marks because some students even with the best help cannot pass, while others are exceptional at learning on their own. The only way to tell how well a teachers performance is by evaluating a few points;

1. Is enthusiastic and optimistic, while forgetting past failures!

2. Becoming aware of each students separate strengths and weaknesses to the best of their abilities.

3. Makes sure to as well as criticize students work, compliment them on what they did right.

4. Creates lessons that will cover every students needs as well as relates to their interests

5. Makes sure to address students in private when needed, to avoid humiliation.

6. Adjusts their lessons to incorporate the students questions.

7. Demonstrates respect and trust for students that they, in turn, spread to all the other students.

Mob Speech and how to avoid it.

     I have always been fascinated by the ideas of Northrop Frye, who is a world renowned scholar from Canada. He expresses many of his best ideas in the book "the Educated Imagination: Northrop Frye". One of his ideas is "Mob Speech" which he explained were the use of cliché terms in which people use to express themselves without the full apprehension of what is being said. an example of a cliché is; a thing to keep in mind is that mob speech is very quick to spread-- a type of cliché that could have been used here is "it spreads like wildfire" but it can easily be avoided by using a different selection of words

      People with a higher education try to avoid saying things like this because it becomes a habit and when you develop habits it is hard to stray from them. It is very useful to not use cliches while trying to teach a class especially the academics course as it makes you seem like you aren't the more intelligent person in the situation. If you refrain from using clichés you will be seen as a more intelligent person who has a more developed vocabulary. Clichés lower your use of language as they are very addictive, without clichés you will be easily able to express yourself in different ways

     Instead of my previous statement "it spreads like wildfire" you could say "It spread very quickly" or "it caught on with an enormous amount of speed". Would you not agree that both of these are more effective? Both of these statements seem to have more effect as the cliché term because they reflect your intellect better. The English language is very easy to manipulate into making yourself appear more intelligent. In this practise you are more likely to get a job as a teacher, as well as contain the respect of the classroom as a scholarly individual. I have had a great deal of teachers who were not able to control a class on the fact that they were unable to dominate the students on an intellectual basis.

Who am I

I am a student at high school who is aspiring to be a teacher majoring in History and Mathematics. I have wanted to be a teacher since I was young. I live in a small town in Ontario, Canada and currently am in my last year of high school.
I want to make this blog for other people who want to be teachers so that I can teach you how to control a class room. I will be annalysing a bunch of articles about the students that I someday want to teach. Hopefully through this I can teach you a thing or two about students!