"And when I was back on Albany Road with a smile in my heart, I knew I was charged with purpose and I knew I was at last worthy of the expectations that were planted in me when I sat where you sit."
During the second quarter in English, I need to smile more. I need to smile more because I love what I do--I love teaching high school English, and while it is an honor I dream not of--it is nonetheless more than just a vocation for me, it is a passion, a calling, the thing I am charged with doing. As a result, I get caught up in trying to make everything a matter of life of death, and I forget that school must be fun, that laughter is essential--and most importantly, I must realize that we remember what we enjoy. Thus, I need to work on making English 9 a more enjoyable place. I must realize that success will come not just through hard work, dedication, and a desire to be worthy, but that it is also born out of being human, and allowing students to be human--simply, I need to smile, they need to smile, we need to make our pursuit of knowledge enjoyable in order for it to be unforgettable.
However, I also need to be worthy of the expectations that come with be a teacher--I must work harder, I must have more purpose and structure in regards to the assignments that I ask students to do and make sure they know the reason why we are doing them.
I look forward to this opportunity, I look forward to sharing this second quarter with the mighty and memorable English 9F class of 2009-2010, the only English 9F class that Berwick academy, that the world will ever know--there is no doubt that there legacy has the possibility to be a great one.
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“You have explored the unknown, determined what is difficult for you, and discovered strengths and talents you never knew you had.” – James Kapteyn
Toby sees his own face when he finally recognizes his qualities that haven’t been put to use. Even though we haven’t read anything beyond that discovery, there is no doubt that those aspects will be shown and shown with determination, strength, and purpose. Describing and verbalizing both my flaws and attributes will continue to lead to success. As I realize and consistently fulfill my goals and fears, they only gain more strength which leads to greatness. When I am diligent about conquering my flaws and keeping the positive qualities afloat, I am only becoming a more meaningful reader, writer, and discusser around our table. Now that I have recognized a small portion of the success that comes along with challenging myself to “explore the unknown, determine what is difficult for you, and discover strengths and talents you never knew you had,” I am only going to continue to search for what needs improving and what needs to stay the same in order to be able to be a strong participant of English 9F, and to be able to stand next to those smart kids.
What I consider to be the greatest lesson of Deerfield Academy; That the first step to strength is humility.
I really agree with this quote. You cannot become strong without being humiliated. There is no way. You have to learn from your mistakes and pick yourself up and become stronger and fix your mistakes. Which is another strong point, one of the best ways to learn is by making mistakes and then correcting them. That is what I want to do this second quarter, become a stronger writer and thinker, and to learn and grow from my mistakes. I think that a point Mr. Kapteyn is trying to get across is that it is okay to make mistakes, it is okay to make mistakes as long as you correct your mistakes, learn from the experience, and move on. There is no way to correct all of your mistakes but if you fix all of the mistakes that you can, you will be that much wiser.
James Kapteyn Address
“ And, if you think about it, nowhere at Deerfield is our devotion to the idea that an individual’s best strengthens the whole more vibrantly apparent than in our elemental role as students. For our commitment to learning, our commitment to the best education we can possibly get, is a remarkably powerful acknowledgement that we are not yet, perhaps never will be, perfect, and that we always have more to learn.”
During the second quarter of English nine I hope to speak up and share my ideas more frequently to the class. By performing this, I hope that my contributions will allow for a more thorough discussions in future classes. I wish that this contribution will spark some other quiet folks to speak up as well. For second quarter I will keep up my commitment to work, and to keep progressing through the stages to becoming a more sophisticated writer and thinker. There is always something else to learn. Some way of expanding my knowledge my knowledge to create a better understanding. I realize that just turning in work on time and just doing what is recquired is not enough to gain full undersanding. Strive to become a better student, strive to become a better learner.
"And, if you think about it, nowhere at Deerfield (Berwick)is our devotion to the idea that an individual's best strengthens the whole more vibrantly apparent than in our elemental role as students."
One thing I need to work on in this second quarter of English is focusing more on my and our positive achievements rather than exclusively the negative areas in which I need to work on. What I tend to do is be so focused on the areas I need to work on such as writing and specificity that I miss how I am improving on these things as the year goes on. Stepping back to look at everything as a whole would encourage me to actively get involved in the areas I struggle in. "We grow because we struggle, we learn and overcome." R. C. Allen. What is the point of growing, learning, and overcoming if one never looks at what they have learned. We can all contribute to this world with our best attributes. Having success in one area is alright. But if we all have success in many areas because we were motivated to go forth and work in those areas because we saw what we were accomplishing. If we succeed in many areas our contribution to the whole would be even greater.
“For our commitment to learning, our commitment to the best education we can possibly get, it is a remarkably powerful acknowledgement that we are not yet, perhaps never will be, perfect, and that we always have more to learn.”
As a student in English Nine I know I cannot always be perfect, no one can be. It is not possible for me to know everything. I think when we accept that we are not perfect we will want to try to come as close as we can. It takes more than just the teacher to give you a good education. If you are not willing to try and actually decipher what the teacher is saying, you won’t remember anything. If you are not willing to commit to your education then school is a waste. This will be my mantra of the second quarter because this can help me as a student in English Nine; it will remind me that when I get my analytical writing back it’s not going to say nothing on it. It will have comments and questions so I can make it better. Even if I might not do not do well on a quiz or I’m asked a question in class that I don’t know the answer to, I will study what my mistakes were and never make them again. Next time I am asked that question I will get it right.
“the first step to strength is humility”
In other words, you must be humbled before you can make progress. Progress is the main goal of every person on this planet. Therefore, everyone must be humiliated at some time. I think that the second quarter leans more towards the progress part of our journey. In the first quarter, we were humbled and humiliated but all of this was for the better. Before you can fix a problem, you must diagnose it. Our paragraphs were torn apart by other students and, in some instances, by the whole class. Having your wrongs projected to and by other people is the ultimate humbling experience. That is what the first quarter consisted of; humbling experiences that highlighted what was wrong. The second quarter is where we must advance towards success. Now that we know what is wrong, we can think how to fix it. Once everything is tweaked and polished, we will have reached our upmost potential.
“You have explored the unknown, determined what is difficult for you, and discovered strengths and talents that you never knew you had.” I hope to have explored vast swaths of the unknown by the end of this year. It’s still the beginning of English 9F’s journey and there remains much to learn; many difficulties, strengths, and talents that we have yet to discover. I don’t want to forget about the breakthroughs I’ve made so far, though, and I’ll keep them in mind for the rest of the year and beyond. Sometimes we discover difficulties and immediately discard them because we just don’t feel like making the changes necessary to fix them; this is complacency at its worst. I personally really want to work on this. I’m satisfied with being quiet and listening to others, then formulating my own opinions and keeping them to myself. This doesn’t help anyone though, least of all me. By articulating my thoughts, which are inextricably linked with emotions, I will force them to become cleaner and more ordered and by doing that comprehend them better. Fortunately, I already know many of my strengths in English; however, I’m positive there are others that I don’t know and I hope to learn some of them this year as well.
“For our commitment to learning, our commitment to the best education we can possibly get, is a remarkably powerful acknowledgment, that we are not yet, perhaps never will be, perfect, and that we always have more to learn.”
We have had a good start for our 9th grade English story, but as this passage states we have a long way to go before we reach perfection. This passage represents that if you commit to your work and yourself you can do well. This quote is a great mantra for us to pay attention to because it basically tells us everything that we must do to succeed. I believe in this quote because it is strong and written by somebody who was in our place and had a choice: he could slack off or he could work hard and succeed. Mr. Kapteyn chose to work hard and make something out of his life. Then after many years he returned to the place that changed him, Deerfield. It was his job to help students make the choice that he had to make, but it will not be he who makes the choice for them, it will be them making the decision like he did years ago. Then I realized when I was reading Mr. K’s writing piece that I am in High School known. I do not have a teacher keeping track of my every move reminding me to do my homework when I forget and noticing when I hide in the back corner so I would not be called on. This year it is up to me to succeed, it is up to me to become a part of our discussions like Mr. Kapteyn did at one point, and it is up to us to make every English class memorable. So I challenge myself and my class to do better, because we have not reached perfection yet.
To me humility is not embarrassing myself, but taking myself out of my comfort zone. The way that I am going to do this is by starting out in small steps. One of the first steps that I plan on doing is volunteering my work to be revised by the class. I believe that this will not only strengthen my writing, but it will also strengthen us as a class because we will learn to trust each other more. A second step that I plan on taking is to feel more/ get myself use to editing my peers work. Having this be the first time I have done peer editing I am hesitant to make comments on works of other students I don't know as well. With me sharing my work I feel that my confidence for editing their work and theirs for mine will improve immensely.We (as a class)will also get to know each other on a more personal basis. When people hear the word humility they automatically think of embarrassing themselves. I on the other hand believe that we grow as a person when we are humiliated, because we learn that everyone forgives and everyone forgets.
“… and the first step to strength is humility.”
After re-reading the speech a couple times I have changed my line to this; “By adhering to the dress code we tell each other that we care about what we do here. The dress code, as old fashioned or even as pretentious as it might sometimes feel, is nonetheless an unambiguous proclamation that what we do here deserves our respect.”
For this second quarter in English 9f I believe that we all need to respect each other more, within and outside of the classroom. Respect and character are a huge aspect of my life, for my memoir, my epigraph, was about character. "Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing” ~ Abe Lincoln. I am guessing my classmates are like me in a way that they like to have somebody in their life that thinks very highly of them. I believe we should all think highly of each other and know when to have fun and make jokes, and when to stop and think and start gaining forward progression in what we are learning, inside and out of the classroom. If we can respect each other, then we can respect our faults, and weaknesses. When talking about others weaknesses it is your choice to decide whether you believe it is time to make joke of it, or stop and help them gain strength through your help. If somebody were to help me perfect my weaknesses, they would instantly gain my respect for them and I would think very highly of them as a friend, a colleague, and a believer in others.
"The world needs your best; the world needs your intelligence, your integrity, your generosity, your humor, and your passion." - James C. Kapteyn.
I chose this quote because I think that in the second quarter of English Nine we should each bring something to the table, and participate and have more open discussions. I also chose it because I think that a class needs to have each of these things to be 100% (or close) and for everyone to give it their all. We should bring any of these things or all of them to English class so that we can have better English classes. I know that I have not brought all of these things to class yet, and I think that we can ALL do much better, and we will hopefully in the second quarter.
"And if you think about it, nowhere at Deerfield is our devotion to the idea that an individual's best strengthens the whole more vibrantly apparent than in our elemental role as students."- James Kapteyn
As we begin the second quarter in English 9, I have been asked what I would like to do differently, and how I would like to evolve as a student. This passage does a good job of explaining what I am thinking. During the first quarter I was trying to figure out life in the upper school. I had both high and low points, but I believe they have helped to prepare me for what lies ahead. I have no doubt that it is going to be any easier. In fact I believe it is going to get a lot harder! So if I am going to do well and have a good experience in class than I believe that I should also have a good time and be in a fun environment. If I wake up in the morning and am excited for class then that will have an effect on my work ethic. After observing the class last quarter, I noticed that when everyone is participating and offering ideas we all seem to do better. At least I do! That is what I think the quote from James Kapteyn is saying. That if you come in with a good attitude, it will have a contagious affect. It will spread and as it does our class, and even school, will become better learns and a whole. So my initial goal for this next quarter in english 9 is to try my best, share my thoughts and ideas, and always have a good attitude.
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