Think about your experience and history as a learner? What story can you tell? Write about your disconnections with learning. Then write about the tensions and excitements associate with learning. Use specific examples when possible to illustrate your meaning

In my history as a learner I would have to say that the more I liked my teachers the harder I would work for them. I am still the same way. If a teacher is respectful to me, I will return that respect. If a teacher shows enthusiasm for a subject, I will return their enthusiasm. If a teacher is knowledgeable in a subject area, I too want to be knowledgeable in that subject. If a teacher is standing there spitting out information, unconcerned with if I get it or not, I usually won’t get it. One teacher in particular drives me up the wall but we won’t discuss that, as I would like to continue my education. I have had several great teachers in my school career. In high school there was a married couple Mr. & Mrs. Thompson. He taught biology and anatomy. She taught English. I learned more from those two individuals than the entire teaching staff combined at my high school. They loved teaching and I loved learning from them. They were soooooo hard. Everyone dreaded their classes, but in the end I think the majority of us were pleased with our outcome after it was over. I think Mr. Thompson is the reason that I am so intrigued by the anatomy of speech (he sparked something inside me).
I often times get frustrated with assignments that seem to be meaningless tasks. I try to see what the purpose behind an assignment is and if I can’t find one I get irritated. Sometimes though I can’t see it until later so I have been trying to be more patient. The biggest discouragement to me is if I have a teacher who is not interested if I learn anything. I find it so frustrating to be lectured and lectured and lectured and have to depend solely on the text to teach me something. Another a big issue I have had in the past and presently is teachers who cannot tell you what your grade status might be. (They have there own grading process that only they are smarter enough to figure up.) I find it hard to put in an effort on assignments when I feel that it doesn’t matter because at the end of the semester I will be given a grade that the teacher wants to give me. Granted I couldn’t get a failing grade but if I get a B when I feel I deserved an A and see someone else receive and A when I know they deserved less…that gets my goat.
On the positive side though, I love to “get it”. Now that is something that really boosts my excitement for learning. I have never been great at math. I have had a couple of teachers who were really smart but just could not teach me what they knew (all men). At ACC though I had two great Math teachers. I done really well in their class and it was because I “got it”. They were both women and I wonder if maybe it was just because women think more alike or something and they just knew how to explain things better to me. Also, my dad always told me, ”You can’t learn anything if you don’t ask questions!” I always ask questions. (Probably to the chagrin of my classmates.) If I am not getting it I will always ask questions to try and grasp the topic better. Asking questions is very important, I think…and so does my dad. Hee hee!