Pick a teacher at your school (each a different teacher, please, you can't all choose me or Mr. Sellers), and then define the rhetorical choices they make to present their school "persona." These choices are not limited to verbal and non-verbal communication, but include clothes, appearance of room, actions, reactions of others, etc.For example: He always stands outside his room to greet each of his students as they enter, but he is never smiling. What he is saying is: I have to be here and so do you.
Go back to 2007, blog #4 to see what others have said about the same teacher!
9 comments:
So when I first got this assignment, the first teacher to pop into my head was Mrs. Harrell. I was lucky enough to have her for two years and got the best experience out of my spanish class.
Mrs. Harrell is one of perkiest and happiest you people you will ever meet, and shows it every day. She is always outside the door to greet us and remind us about upcoming events. She dresses professionaly every day, and will sometimes even dress up for the lesson that day. Mrs. Harrell is also very proud of her family. She talks about her husband and son all the time and would sometimes incorporate family stories into the lession plan.
But Mrs. Harrell didn't just care about the spanish, she cared about each student individually. She would take the time at the end of class to talk to students personally about something interesting.
Mrs. Harrell was one of the best teachers I've had, and she showed that to me by always having informative lessons, a happy personality, and caring for every student.
Cecilia Bulzomi
"Teacher Description"
Everyday as students pass his room he smiles and waves, genuinely happy to see everyone. He cares about his students. Even when they slack some he will try and make it so your grade doesn’t suffer. He makes an effort to know all of his students, he’s not one of those teachers who really seem like they hate all children. He likes to draw and draws self portraits of himself by his signature. He loves his family and mentions them often, he takes days off for his wife’s birthday, and loves to brag about how smart his daughters are. Between each class there will usually be a pack of kids from previous years begging to be back in his class just one more time. He represents the care and love in spotsy, he shows it to his students and his students show it to him. Mr. Rose is a truly great teacher.
Inbetween classes she will stand outside her classroom and greet her students as they come in, chat with the athletes she coaches and occasionally yell at young couples to stop kissing in the hallway. Her activeness and involvement with students outside of class represents that she enjoys being around teenagers and in school. Her passion of teaching is really shown in the classroom. Cracking jokes that later become mnemonic devices for her earth science students; she has a fun teaching style. Always one for laughter, everyone usually enjoys being in her classroom. However if the class is being too loud or a student is being rude she never hesitates to put an end to it. She’s the kind of teacher you respect because you know she won’t put up with any disruptive behavior, but at the same time she’ll get you laughing at her corny jokes. It’s clear that she has an enthusiasm for teaching and loves helping kids learn.
Her wardrobe would probably be that of a typical high school science teacher: not too flashy, not too plain. She never looks like she just rolled out of bed so it’s clear she cares about how she looks, which reflects that she cares about her job as a teacher also. Catchy science phrase and motivational mantra posters cover her walls. The bulletin board of “Spotsy News” showcases her school spirit and enthusiasm for her students to succeed. Out on the track where she coaches, she puts those motivational mantra posters to work cheering on athletes, workout after workout. Always the optimist, she encourages her athletes to do their best and never give up...as most coaches would. And though the reassuring words and optimistic outlook on things may make you want to pull your hair out by the end of a long, hard, grueling practice, when you’re feeling so tired you could just collapse, you know that she just wants you to do your best and you’re able to appreciate this fact.
This teacher, and coach, happens to be Mrs. Floyd (to me, Mom). She represents her cheery outlook during school in hopes of motivating her students to do well…and maybe get a few laughs along the way.
The teacher I chose to describe for this assignment is Mrs. Hares, my ACIS teacher. I have had Mrs. Hares for two years now and never once has she ever seemed in a bad mood. She stands outside her classroom door before every class and greets each student by name with a great big smile on her face. When class starts she asks the class how our days are going, which shows she genuinally cares about her students. Mrs. Hares dresses in a fashionable but professional way which shows she takes her job seriously, but she has fun with it too. She shows herself as a family person because she is always telling stories about her husband, son, and daughter and has many pictures of them around her desk and computer. Mrs. Hares never fails at making each one of her classes enjoyable, no matter how difficult the application we are doing, and I'm sure it's pretty safe to say none of the students in that class can have a completely horrible day after spending 90 minutes with her.
Before I even stepped into Mrs. Rothlisberger's Advanced Biology class, the rumors of how hard of a teacher she was had sent me into a panic. However, the first day that I went to her class, I felt that I had a terrific opportunity to excel. Mrs. Rothlisberger, or Mrs. R, would always stand outside the entrance of her classroom and greet each student with a smile and a "hello." She dressed in a professional manner and even came wearing a lab coat and goggles occasionally. Every day she would say to the class, "Good afternoon boys and girls." And we would always respond with, "Good afternoon Mrs. R." She really showed that she cared about her students by greeting them as a whole as well as greeting them individually.
Mrs. R's personality could be very formal. She always exhibited professional vocabulary but not in a way which intimidated her students. This showed her students that she was very knowledgeable about the subject-matter. However, she could be very silly about the way she taught. Sometimes she would teach the class songs and dances to remember certain biology terms. Her songs and dances showed that she could really make biology a fun subject to learn.
Like I said earlier, her class curriculum was very difficult; she even told us on the first day of class. I learned throughout the year, however, that her class was based off how hard an individual worked. In other words, her class was conducted in a way that one's grades were based on work ethic, not natural wit.
Her biology lab reflected her love for research and studying living creatures. Her collection ranged from snakeskin to a stuffed swan named Chester. It really showed how excited she was to teach biology.
Even though her class was just a high school course, she made sure that everyone was challenged but at the same time, she helped all of her students learn the material with a respectable grade attached. Since certain days she would professionally lecture the class and others she would be teaching her students the "Flagella" and the "Meiosis Square Dance", it was really hard to depict a concrete persona. This showed me that she taught the subject so many times that she was able to know what needed to be taught seriously and what needed to be taught more frivolously.
So Mrs. R has many personae in the classroom, but through them all, she has proven that she's very helpful and knowledgeable about everything that she knows.
Greg Baugher
Teacher 'persona'
I'm going to describe Mr. Pomerleau, or as we all call him, Mr. P.
He does a lot of things to show he's a "down to earth" and friendly kind of guy.
When you see him, he says "hey guy" or "yo" intstead of calling you by your last name or something like that. I think this shows he puts himself on the same level as us and doesn't treat us like elementary schoolers. He seldom wears a tie, or even a button-down shirt, and I think that means he sometimes looks a little unprofessional, but that's ok. He is professional, he just doesn't show it through his atire. He really knows what he's teaching, and he shows that through helping us with our music and his lessons.
He also puts a lot of the responsibility on us, like going home and practicing the music. He also jokes around quite a bit, and I think that adds to his imagine of a friendly guy.
I decided almost immediately after hearing about this assignment to do it on Mr. Law. He's probably the greatest, funniest teacher ever! He usually stands outside the classroom, but it's more to enforce school rules than to greet students. I can't count how many times he's had to break up kids smooching in the hall. He always dresses professionally, but you can tell that he likes his tough guy image when you look around his room and see numerous police force t-shirts. He always has a joke or a story. My favorite part of his class was always hearing him make fun of other people (more times than not, it was actually me) and himself. I'll never forget that he once told us that he was watching a subtitled movie, and he couldn't see the subtitles, so he turned the volume up. I think the point was to show that we're all stupid, or emphasize his point that someone wasn't acting intelligently in his class, but every class was funny. And while he was (definitely) mean, he was all about business when it came to work. He made us collect every piece of work we got throughout the entire year, so we'd have plenty to study for the SOL. It seemed gratuitous at the time, but it really paid off when I got a perfect 600 on the SOL. He was just the best overall teacher I've ever had. He knew when it was time to joke and he knew when it was time to work, and he always knew the perfect balance.
The teacher I chose to describe is Mrs. Laserna, one of the art teachers at Spotsylvania High School. She has a very friendly and bubbly personality. She’s always excited about art and encourages every student, no matter how well their artist ability is, to take her class. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in a bad mood, or heard her raise her voice. Mrs. Laserna stands outside her class every morning to greet her students and ask them how their day is going. She’s really conversational and she talks to her students on their level.
She really takes her job as a teacher seriously, and she dresses accordingly. Mrs. Laserna always wears dressy clothing. Her outfits always match, and I think the fact that she looks “put together” everyday enforces that she knows a lot about art and color. Sometimes she even wears popular brand names such as Hollister and American Eagle, which I think helps her fit in with the students. Sometimes, I walk into her classroom and am unable to find her, because she’s sitting at a table helping a student and fits right in with them. Mrs. Laserna always complements students on their clothing or their hair, and she’s the first to notice when someone changes their hairstyle.
Also, you can tell she cares about her students and their lives outside of art class. I had her as an art teacher the past two years, for Art I and II, and although I did not get her as an art teacher this year, she still makes it a point to talk to me in the hallways and ask how I’m doing.
Mrs. Laserna’s classroom is full of artwork from students, and even some of her own. Nothing is extremely cluttered, but some things are out of place. She takes art very seriously, and if you don’t, there’s a problem. But, if you do your work, she’s a really laid back person. She lets students listen to their iPod, or music player, which, I think says she knows her students are responsible enough to stay focused on their art.
Mrs. Laserna always tells stories about her husband, and she’s going to be a mother soon; which I think shows she really likes her job as a teacher, and working with students.
With her great personality and helpful attitude, I’m not sure how anyone can dislike Mrs. Laserna, and actually, I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t thoroughly enjoy her class.
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