Mr. Escalante and Mr. Keating

From first glance Mr.Escalante and Mr.Keating seemed to have nothing in common besides the fact that they are both teachers. They teach in completely different settings to completely different kids. Mr. Escalante is teaching kids that don't have drive to be in school and no faith put in them by there parents. Mr. Keating is teaching kids who have all the expectations in the world of them by their parents, and are strictly about school and getting good grades. These are completely different settings to teach kids in and you would think that they would not bring out similarities in the teachers, but they do. Each teacher shows an enormous amount of compassion for the kids and a desire to help them accomplish something important. Mr. Escalante is focused on pushing the kids to achieve there full potential and gain college credit by passing an AP Calculus class. Mr. Keating is striving for almost the exact opposite. The kids in his private school that he is teaching are all academics, no fun. He strives to put excitement, passion, and creative ambition back in there life through poetry. He wants to be able to teach the kids to be creative along with there academic achievements. He uses many uses of outgoing teaching to extract the creativity from his students. In one scene he picks on his shy student and tells him to recite a poem that he didn't do. He then proceeds to make him stand in front of the class and prompts the creativity out of him into a deep poem. Mr. Escalante uses similar techniques that are shown when he calls on one student in his class that feels like he is the least intelligent and helps him solve the problem in front of the class using sarcasm and unique teaching methods. Both teachers are unique and similar in there own ways, and both are incredible teachers.

Reactions to part two

Although the end of the movie was very predictable it was also an all around good ending. After all the hard work he put in it paid off for everyone. The idea that all the kids cheated is very interesting because if the scores really were all the same I imagine they would be checked regardless of the school. But at the same time its interesting to think about if there is racism or prejudice involved, which i'm sure there is. Its heartbreaking to think that kids would get questioned and doubted for all passing when they worked so hard to get where they were. in the end they all re tested which I didn't think should have been that big of a deal. aside from the fact that it was stupid to make them, if they did it once they can do it again. It was a good ending when they all got amazing scores again, because I having taken the AP Chemistry test among others realize how hard it is to get a 4 and above. Overall I really liked the movie.

is Mr. Escalante a good teacher?

Yes. He's a wonderful teacher that's why there is a movie about him! There are a number of good aspects to his teaching. He starts out at an underprivileged school doing his first year of teaching. He quits his old money making job to be a teacher. He gets a class of students that aren't encouraged to be disciplined in school. He gives them mentoring and hope and pushes them to believe they can accomplish something academically in their lives. Through his pushy and sarcastic attitude he gets an entire class of students to agree to take a summer course to complete an AP Calculus class and take the AP test. throughout all the trials the students go through he takes a special liking to many of them. He volunteers his entire summer, before and after classes, and weekends to teach these kids math. He is a very inspirational teacher. He uses a smart ass sense of humor to connect with the kids and at the same time to assert dominance. He works very hard for his students and gets them to put forth the same effort he is. He believes in them and shows them support when no other teachers in the school do.

brainstorm paper #2

For the second paper I want to choose two of my own teachers. I think the teachers in both films are obviously amazing, but they've already been recognized with an entire movie made about them! I want to write about teachers that I have been encouraged by first hand so I can really understand and express their good teachings. I've considered writing about a few terrible teachers because I have definitely had a lot of those, but I feel there is nothing good and particularly productive about that. it would be hard because they haven't impacted my life in a memorable way, only in a semester of hell and I moved on. I want to pick two teachers that really have good teaching skills and be able to explain how they help further all students education including mine. if it weren't for a few of my amazing teachers, I wouldn't be going to school for pharmacy like I am now. it will make writing my essay easier if i'm writing about a teacher I know.

Group notes!

their level.There were two scenes from the movie "Stand and Deliver" that we focused on that we felt showed that Mr. Escalante was a good teacher:

The first was one was when Jaime Escalante was taunting Tito(?) about his use of his fingers.  He called him 'Finger Man"
          Jamie approaches Tito and holds up his hands and proceeds to show him how he uses his fingers to multiply. 
  "Are you the Finger Man? I'm the finger man too. You know what I can do? I know how to multiply by nine.  9 X 3 - 1,2,3.  What do what you got?  27.  6 x 9 - 1,2,3,4,5,6.  What do you got? 54
Yeah.  You want a hard one? 8 X 9.  1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. What do you got?  72" 
Although in most places we would not consider this to be an instance of good teaching, in the environment of East Los  Angeles it was a way for Mr. Escalante to make more of an impact with Tito.  Mr.. Escalante knew he had to approach each kid differently. He also took the opportunity to show Tito that he was not easily intimidated.  

The second scene we selected was the restaurant scene where Mr. Escalante has just finished dinner with his wife and the owner of the restaurant asks him if he enjoyed his taquitos.
  Mr. Escalante says "Muy benento.  except for one thing." He shows the receipt to the owner who is Anna's(Anita) dad.  Someone doesn't know how to add"
Dad looks at the receipt and calls Anna over and talks to her in Spanish.  
Mr.. Escalante says " She should be going back to school." 
Anna introduces her father to Mr. Escalante as her math teacher and Mr. Escalante invites the dad to have a seat.  He does and asks Anna to bring a couple of beers.  When she leaves Mr. Escalante tells the dad he should get another  waitress.  Dad laughs.  
Mr.. Escalante says " Anna can be the first in your  family to graduate high school, go to college. "
Dad "Thank you for your concern, her mother works here, her sisters, her brothers.  Its a family business.  She is needed."  Mr. Escalante responds that's she can help the family more  by getting an  education.  
The conversation continues and the dad is starting to get defensive.  Mr. Escalante tells him that his daughter has talked about going to  medical school and that she will waste her life if she doesn't go back to school.  "She is top kid!" says Mr. Escalante.  "She could go to college and come back and teach you how to  run the place." 
From there it is down hill and as Mr. Escalante gets up to leave he puts his money on the table but the dad gives it back to him saying that he does not need his money or his business.  
This was a good example of the passion that Mr. Escalante has for his students.  He sees the potential and drive in Anna and wants her to succeed.
As far as any instances of bad teaching, we really did not have any examples.   The only thing that might be questionable was the references to  sex and gigolos but then one needs to remember where the school is and the rough environment that the students live every day.  Again Mr. Escalante is interacting with the students on their level.

Notes on Film

Good teaching & Bad teaching

scenes, characters, what there saying/doing
tell actions or sayings to one another
the scene in which..

the movie starts out with a man teaching at a high school level with a group of kids that don't want to learn. The first lesson he teaches is when he cuts up an apple and gives a few students an apple and askes them how much they each have.

in the scene which He teaches "finger man" how to multiply nines when he gives him the finger and is disrespecting him. Hes taking a negative and making it a positive while showing dominance so his students will respect him.

In the scene in which he makes all of the students repeat the math he wants them to remember such as the negatives to engage the whole class and make sure everyone remembers it.

"they will rise to the expectations set for them" says the teacher when all of the teachers on the board are truing to give up on their students,so hes not only teaching kids but the teachers as well.

in the scene in which he gives the Mexican boy extra books so no one knows he is working to show he supports the kid and wants to help him work.

in the scene in which he makes students that don't do their work sit in a chair in front of the whole class so they have a reason to do there work because they don't understand the value in doing it in the first place.

in the scene in which he went to a students family restaurant to get her parents to let her stay in school because they wanted her to stay home and work, this shows his dedication to all students.

Miss Poulsbo 2013

I have always thought that pageants were for snobs that wear expensive dresses and think they deserve a crown, but last year I, for no reason aside for the fact that I had no better way to spend my time, decided I wanted to be in the running to become Miss Poulsbo 2013. When I began this program I thought it would be easy and quick, I never would have anticipated how much this experience would come to teach me. The Miss Poulsbo, Miss Kitsap, Miss Silverdale scholarship organization awarded three girls the title and took them on a years’ worth of appearances and community service. I started out on a need to know basis only which really only included phases of competition. The pageant is made up of six categories. Interview which accounts for 30% of your score, talent 25%, evening wear 20%, active wear 15%, on stage question 5%, and academic review 5%. I knew when I started that I was going to be far outside my comfort zone, but I was up for the challenge.

Our first meeting went smoothly. 20 girls and our program director/coordinator met for the first time at the sons of Norway in downtown Poulsbo. Of course going into this I had a slightly defensive mentality, after all this was a competition right? It did not take me long to realize these girls I would be spending so much time with were not someone I was competing against, but with. They were each as kind and nervous as I was. I quickly became acquainted with all of the contestants. Besides our weekly Sunday rehearsals we were all required to go to a number of “appearances” in our local community. These each varied in content but all had a common goal of becoming involved in the community.

Each of the contestants are required to put together a portfolio of themselves for the five judges to examine before the pageant. This consisted of a community service record, answered essay questions, and an essay of your platform and plan of action. We were explained that a platform is what you believe the community should reinforce, and your plan of action is how you’re going to persuade people to do this. This was the first lifelong lesson I learned from the pageant, how to love and care about my community. I have never given much thought whatsoever to trying to make a difference in the community. I never thought, or wanted for that matter, a chance to. This made me pull a one-eighty and made me fall in love with the idea of being able to impact our community positively. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to achieve if I were to win. I settled on involving kids in extracurricular activities. This had a number of positive effect on kids such as social, health, school, confidence, and so much more. I absolutely adored what I was enforcing and realized I enjoyed being so involved.

Aside from my platform, I was given many opportunities to involve myself with other community service events on our appearances. Many of them were dressing up as princesses for kids and painting their faces, but a lot of them were real work in the community. My favorite and most rewarding appearance was the “Habitat for Humanity” builds. This is where people who have a low income and cannot afford a house work to build houses with a large number of volunteer workers creating low income housing that they can afford. I am a hands on type of girl, so I loved this! I put on my gloves and tool belt and went to work. I was privileged to work side by side with a father building a home to house his two young daughters. This to me was life changing. I realized this is how so many people purely volunteer spend their time helping people build their homes. For no other reason than the satisfaction of helping someone else. This opened my eyes to so much compassion and kindness in people, and made me want to experience it over and over. I still spend weekends helping build houses, because this showed me there are ways for me, even without a title, to help my community.

 

Another segment of the pageant was obtaining 400$ worth of sponsors. I absolutely hated this portion. This required each girl to go around asking small businesses to sponsor them in the pageant for ad space in our program book. I am not good at asking for money, in fact, I hate it. Many of the girls had their parents or grandparents who owned businesses sponsor them. I however had no such luck. I had to endure the torture of being turned down repeatedly by owners of businesses I didn’t even know. I don’t blame them, either. I wouldn’t give money to a girl that walked into my business and asked for it. In the end, as last minute as possible, my aunt helped me get Adriana’s Salon in Poulsbo sponsor me on account of they were good friends. This, I believe, taught me how to handle rejection. I’m the type of person that can barely handle constructive criticism, let alone being told flat out no multiple times. Each time I had to remind myself I would do the same to someone I didn’t know.

Once the grueling task of acquiring sponsors was finally over I got to get to the fun, or rather scary, portions of the pageant. We all began putting together outfits for our opening number, active wear, on stage question, and everything else. Evening wear was a big deal. I wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of buying a big expensive dress, so I settled on buying a dress that I could wear for the pageant and also to my prom that was coming up. My grandmother took me to find a dress. The first place I went, second dress I tried on, I fell in love. As childish as it is I have always wanted a princess dress, and I found it. I felt beautiful in it, and that’s what mattered to me.

We all began practicing for our interviews by meeting with various previous Miss’s in an interview setting. They critiqued us and helped us improve. This came naturally to me because I love people and I’m a strong believer in communication. Although sometimes I would get stuck when asked a strange question I hadn’t anticipated. I had to find a solution. I began practicing way too much and trying much too hard. I finally realized pre planned answers were my downfall! If I believed in what I was saying the answers would flow naturally like they would in a conversation with a friend, and they did! I preformed my interview nearly flawlessly taking no more than a second to begin my reply. This was a big deal, because many girls had to take time to think about it. This allowed me to come across sure of myself and confident. I wasn’t only coming across this way, I was feeling this way. I learned to be confident and sure of myself. This helped me later on get a job, because I had experienced the interview processes quite in depth.

The last and most frightening thing I had to practice was my talent. This was the only time that I would be on stage alone for more than ten seconds. I am not a talented person, in fact you could almost say I have no talent, but they made me look like I did. This portion is judged on entertainment and personality. Lucky for me I could do both! I had a short dance choreographed for me to Chicago’s “Hot Honey Rag” that I had to rehearse over and over. I think I could do that dumb little dance in my sleep. Of course I’m not a dancer, so this involved a lot of the Charleston and winking. This was perhaps the most nerve racking and comfort breaking portion of the night. I had to learn how to overcome my fears. I have never been more afraid to do something in my whole life, but I finished it and ended up winning a 200$ scholarship for “Best Talent Performance”. Don’t ask me how.

Finally it was pageant night! I had performed everything I had been rehearsing for the last three months to a T. I more quickly than I imagined became used to being on stage and my nerves became less and less as the night went on. After I completed my talent it was smooth sailing from then on. My favorite part was evening wear. It was really gratifying hearing the audience gasp at me when the spotlight hit me and I began walking across the stage. I was judged on my poise, stage presence, gracefulness, and fluency. I don’t know how you can possibly judge these things, all I know is I was holding my breath, smiling, and thinking “Don’t trip” in my eight inch heels. This was just purely enjoyable for me, so much fun!

At last the time came to announce scholarships and winners. I won a 1,000$ scholarship from Olympic college for an essay I wrote and submitted. I won a 200$ scholarship called the “Gold Crown” award that was chosen by the previous Miss Poulsbo. And lastly my 200$ “Best Talent Performance” award. Eventually we got to the time where we announce the winners! There were only three! All twenty of us girls lined up on stage holding hands waiting to hear the winners. Miss Poulsbo was announced last because it was most important. It was finally time for Miss Poulsbo's results. She unfolded the envelope and pulled out a piece of paper. She read.."First runner up is.. Mackenzie Moody! The new Miss Poulsbo is Cam-" and then she paused, and immediately started apologizing taking it back! I was first runner up and Mackenzie had won. This was by far the hardest lesson I had to learn, losing gracefully. I looked over and she was crying, because she had thought she lost. I continued to smile and gave her a hug and said congratulations. I continued to smile as she was crowned. I can’t lie and say I wasn’t disappointed, but disappointment is a part of life. I was awarded another 1,000$ for being first runner up. After walking off stage I was greeted by packs of people I didn’t know telling me congratulations, I didn’t understand why, I lost. I realized though, there was something achieved that night. The pageant was a long process that took me through a metamorphosis as a person. I grew so much and learned countless life lessons. I wouldn't take back the experience for anything. In fact, I’m beginning my process in running again this year!