Colleague is not usually a word that is used to describe the
students that are trying to learn in the classroom. Teachers are usually seen
as the boss of the students and not as equals. In this class, all of that
changed. Suddenly the students had as much say in the lesson plan as the
teacher did and it was a very new experience for me and a lot of other students
in my opinion. A certain amount of trust was given to us students to do our
work and get things done on our blogs, but the teacher also should be trusted a
certain amount. I think that sometimes I did not fulfill my duty of being a
trustworthy student to my fullest potential. Part of me wishes that I could
have been better but I kind of felt that the student teacher relationship was
sometimes one sided.
In A Brave New World, I relate the most to
the character Bernard. In the book he questions his role in society and the way
that things are done in his civilization. I can relate to this very well
because I find myself constantly questioning the system and if it might be
better to differ from the path that everybody says is the correct path. I know
that going to college is probably the path that is most safe to take to make
sure that I have a good future but I constantly read stories about people who
did not go to college or dropped out and how they became so successful. I
constantly think about that but I don’t think that I will ever be the person to
be ambitious enough to drop out of college to pursue something. I think it’s
just the thought of failing that scares me more than anything else. I want to be
successful enough to at least be able to support a family of my own. I think
that I also relate a lot to Pip from the book Great Expectations. In the book Pip has a very low self-esteem and
does not value himself very highly. I think that I often feel the same way that
Pip does and I don’t think that it is necessarily a good quality about me. I
sometimes feel like I blend into the background and that I don’t matter but
unlike Pip I always try to stay positive and not focus on the negative. I can
also relate to Thomas from the Maze
Runner. In the book Thomas is thrown into a world that is completely new to
him and he has to learn new things but he eventually adjusts to the change that
was forced upon him. I often times felt exactly like Thomas when I first
arrived in Dr. Preston’s class. I was often times confused on what was expected
and I didn’t know what was happening sometimes. As the year progressed though,
I learned how the class ran and I began to thrive just like Thomas. Learning to
thrive in a new place was hard but I’m glad that I did it and that it didn’t
take me very long.
During my
final year of school I feel like I have definitely reconnected with a passion
of mine. I feel like this year I have finally learned and realized how
important guitar is to me. While trying to work on my masterpiece by trying to
write music and practicing new songs I began to realize the impact that guitar
has actually had on my life. Since I have now realized this I am definitely
going to continue pursuing this passion. I am going to continue it by always
trying to progress my songwriting and playing abilities. It will probably be a
lot of work to get where I want to be but it will probably be worth it in the
end.
The one
thing that always made me laugh out loud in this course is when Dr. Preston
went off on somebody for being late. I don’t think that I ever actually laughed
out loud but I remember sometimes trying to hide my laughter. I think that I thought
it was so funny because I felt that Dr. P’s true self came out in those moments
and he wasn’t afraid to say what he really thought. I also just like seeing the
petrified faces on the students when they were being yelled at. You could tell
he was mad because his face would start to turn red like an apple. I think that
will always be something that I will remember about this course.
The
unifying theme throughout all of the presentations is that we all found our own
projects very interesting. I think that it is cool that we all have very
different interests. It amazes me how one person can find one thing completely
boring while another person can find the same topic very interesting. We saw
that Bianca and I were extremely passionate and interested in music, while Lily
was super passionate about history. I can’t stand history one bit so it is
really interesting to me how someone can absolutely love it. I felt like people
were not only interested but passionate. I could definitely tell by the way
that people presented their topics. When Kurt was presenting his masterpiece
about his business I could see how passionate it was by how excited he was
about his new website launch and I couldn’t help but smile. I could see that
Hikaru was passionate about technology because he took time out of his busy
schedule to go to a computer museum and he said that he loved it. It really
excites me seeing that people are excited about different things. If we all
liked the same thing the world would probably be a lot different so I think
that the theme of passion and interest was a very important one to have
throughout theses masterpiece presentations.
I believe
that I am a hero. It all started when Preston first mentioned the big question
and began asking me questions about what I was interested in. I knew that I was
interested in guitar but this project opened up my eyes wider than I thought
they ever could be opened. I began trying to write songs and learn harder
pieces but I quickly realized how difficult it was to do these things
sometimes. That’s when I realized how amazing guitar has been for me. It has
taught me how to perseverant and how to never give up on something if it is too
difficult. I think that I also learned how important guitar is to me. I
realized this after I hadn’t played for a few days and when I picked up the
guitar something just clicked and I felt really good. I didn’t end up finishing
any of the songs I was trying to write so I guess you could say that I did not conquer
any challenge but I definitely came back enlightened and I think that is so
much more important than anything else. Learning by doing is the most important
thing that we can do.
I had an
amazing final year in high school and I learned a lot and I will definitely
remember this year. In Dr. Preston’s class I was always learning and learning
how to learn, which is the most useful thing that I learned throughout my high
school career. I can honestly say that this class has changed my life and I will
always use the things that Dr. P told me throughout my life. He was an amazing
teacher and I can’t wait to see what I’m going to learn next.
