I Believe Statement

I believe that education can be funny. By saying this I do not mean that education is humorous or a joke, but instead that educating students can be fun for the teacher and the student. I first learned that education can be fun in my tenth grade year in my Algebra II class. I had always taken honors classes, but I had slacked off in my freshman year and had taken college prep classes. So, in my tenth grade year I decided to double up on my math courses so that I could begin to take honors classes again in my junior year. This led me to take Geometry and Algebra II at the same time in tenth grade. Now it is important to mention that I did not like math, in fact, I hated it. I had always enjoyed history and science. So, I was not looking forward to taking these classes. I was also a little worried about the grades I would receive.

After a few days in my Geometry class I was relieved of my stress and fear. My teacher was a very nice young lady who was very soft-spoken and patient. I felt confident that I would do well in this class. However, my Algebra II class was a little different. My teacher was a very small, older, grumpy man. He reminded me of a little troll, who ran around screaming and terrorizing everyone. This class was already supposed to be a difficult subject, all I needed was a terrible scary teacher. On the first day of class I was given several hundred problems to complete and I was told I had the rest of the class to complete them. If I did not complete them oh well that was my problem. I was scared and very angry at this little man.

Things began to change for the better though. After awhile I began to see that this man was all talk. I guess he wanted to scare us into submission on the first day of class to secure classroom management because that was the last time he ever did that. I began to see that this was his personality, but it was hilarious to me. Whether or not it was his true self, or used to gain attention, his outbursts, mannerisms, and jokes were so funny I still laugh thinking about them. I actually began to look forward to his class, not only was it funny, but I also learned so much in his class. I became an expert in Algebra II and received an A in the class. This class stuck with me because I will soon be a teacher and I want to be like him. I want to still be myself, but also still make education fun. Hopefully one day some of my former students will blog or use some other form of technology that does not even exist to say that his or her teacher was a little off beat, but they learned a lot and enjoyed the class. At least I know that I will never forget the image of him holding a small piece of chalk in his little hand moving nervously around the classroom yelling and banging his forehead on the chalkboard.