“Education is the passport to a successful future, a path which contains plentiful hardships and challenges” (Malcolm X 1). Practicing and working enthusiastically are important to succeeding, one must use those skills to ensure a prosperous and plentiful future. There may be days when it is a challenge to even remember one element which was taught, but it is important to not let it steal one’s motivation. My educational experience has not been an easy one by any means, but it has been a journey with many benefits.
To have a successful future, it is crucial to maintain practice in education. One cannot simply put no effort whatsoever into their learning and still have an equitably successful future, it requires time and labor. It has taken me countless long and arduous years, but I have learned the importance of it. Learning paves the way to an efficacious career, not taking education perilously limits a person.
In my experiences of schooling, I have had a few educational champions, in other words: “a teacher or staff who goes above and beyond in order to ensure their students success” (Pierson 3). The one which stands out the highest for me was my high school math three teacher. I had recently done comparatively poorly in math two due to not having a teacher who was compatible with me, but Mr. Knight was much more preferable. Even on the first day of school, he made sure the students knew exactly what was going on and that they were comfortable with everything. He even explained this to us: the learners were allowed the last ten minutes of every class to go on their phones.
Those explanations genuinely helped me, knowing I was going to be allowed a break after working on intricate math equations for almost an hour and a half. One other commodity he did was have neat power points for every lesson so note taking was simple and easy, which allowed me to understand the concepts of what we were doing. I can grow easily frustrated when I do not have an actual guide to read while something is being explained, but that never happened in this class. Another valuable reason why I was successful in math three, was due to having an admiral relationship with him.
According to James Comer, “no consequential learning can occur without a consequential relationship” (Pierson 1). I agree with this strongly; It is important to have a quality relationship with one’s teacher in order to succeed. I had Mr. Knight for Drivers ED, so I knew him previously. He was also one of those educators I could just talk to and spill my feelings to. Due to all those factors, I was quite successful in the math three class: I received an A grade for both semesters in math.
I have had beneficial experiences in Language Arts throughout my years of schooling, primarily in the honors classes I have taken. The majority of my teachers have been understanding and helpful in my learning process, all factors of which benefited towards my success in these classes. My favorite part of English has honestly been writing essays, even though the majority do not like that fragment of the class. I have always been fond of writing creative stories and even the research essays, so it is nice when they are assigned, and I actually can enjoy the project. I firmly believe “it is crucial to enjoy a topic in order to be successful in which said topic” (Moertel).
My least favorite part is definitely annotating. I do understand the importance of annotating, but I often find it difficult to have motivation and even write a few sentences worth. I believe the main reason for not liking annotating is not having enough grit. Grit is a having a “high passion and/or perseverance for certain goals” (Ducktworth 1). It has always been tough for me to understand what exactly the long-term goal of annotating is, which is why I have found it difficult to gain grit for it. While I am not incredibly confident in annotating, I do feel fairly confident in Language Arts in general, especially if I have enough time to complete the assignments.
Sometimes when rushed, I am not able to actually enjoy writing and instead feel stressed about completing it, which then causes me to create silly mistakes in the writing. Even though I am rather poised in Language Arts, I still wish I was fitter at writing transitions and using more advanced vocabulary words. I have tried to work on it in the past, but still struggle greatly with making my words flow smoothly.
I suspect in order to improve these important skills; I need to put more of my focus on transitions and vocabulary whilst I am writing the essay. The only way to improve on this is to practice. It is not only important to practice in order to improve but is imperative in order to not regress in one’s abilities. This is rephrased as “not practicing, transforms what started out as a mere aversion into a genuine lack of competence” (Oakley 1). Practice is crucial in improving and keeping up with the skills one has already learned.
Besides English, I also am confident in math but still have areas with room for improvement. Like Language Arts, I do feel fairly confident in math, due to receiving mostly adequate grades. The only time I struggled with my confidence in my math skills was when I was taking honors math two. I had a strenuous time in the class and often let it affect my self- confidence and esteem. This is primarily due to outside factors such as my worsening anxiety, but also due to the non-existent relationship with my teacher. It is crucial I can connect with my teacher and they understand how I learn in order to improve.
My teacher did not believe in teaching students, she believed the children should teach themselves with homework assignments. That teaching style absolutely did not work for me, as I typically need organized notes and power points in order to learn the material. Whilst I did not have a pleasant experience in math two, I do enjoy the subject for the most part when I understand how to do it. For example, I enjoy algebra for the reason which I understand it, but I do not like Logs because they are confusing for me. In spite of the fact I do not achieve 100%’s, I do not feel a great desire to master math. Of course it would be nice to pass with flying colors, but I will accept my 93%’s in class.
I am not planning on math being a large, or any, part of my career, so I do not recognize an immense importance to mastering the topic. If I were to master it though, I would be compelled to work twice as diligently and even assign myself extra work. When I understand or learn a new topic, I do feel a sense of pride and purpose. I believe this is from gaining the reward after working so persistently, I finally am able to distinguish how the practice led to the success.
One notion in the readings which undeniably spoke to me, was due to “being so successful in language arts, a person may feel discouraged in math even though they do not lack the skills” (Oakley 1). I normally do better in my English classes than I do in math and that sometimes compels me to feel a bit guilty and upset. I must remember I am not substandard at it, it is just not my strongest suit. In order to help that feeling, I am guaranteed to do all of the extra math problems my teacher assigns.
My educational experience has not been easy, but again, it has been so worth it. Due to working assiduously in these arduous classes, I have a cumulative GPA of 3.8 and am now in the National Honor Society. Both of those factors will allow me to pursue a higher education and be considered for higher paying jobs in the career I wish to pursue. Even though my favorite subjects in school are Musical Theater and Advanced Acting, I still put a valuable amount of effort into the common core classes. Numerous people do not enjoy school, which is a fact. Not liking something does not mean one should not still practice earnestly at it. In order to have a rewarding and prosperous future, it is imperative to put in extravagant amounts of effort while learning in school.
