My MEL Experiences

Student/teacher relationship: An example of a positive student/teacher relationship in my experience is that of my English teacher, freshman year of high school. This teacher was always willing and enthusiastic to have conversations outside of class that were not necessarily related to the content being learned, but intellectual nonetheless. I remained in contact with this teacher throughout high school, and this teacher set me up for success on my later English classes. Actually, this class probably prepared me much more than I realized for the more challenging AP courses of my junior and senior years.

Interest: My AP Language & Composition class is an example of sparking interest. In this class, we often examined historical, cultural, and political themes in the text we read and analyzed. I am nearly always engaged by this sort of learning, especially when combined with discussion--as was done in this class. The fact that my teacher had a polar-opposite political ideology made it all the more interesting.

Autonomy: A non-example of autonomy would be my Chemistry class in high school. Arguably one of the most boring classes of my student career, there was no degree of autonomy allowed in the class. No creativity, no discussion, nothing. To say the least, I didn't learn all that much, and was not engaged by the content at all.

Connections: My AP Literature & Composition class is an extremely positive instance of a teacher weaving connections. This teacher always allowed rich discussion that would veer off the beaten path, but always connect back to the main theme. He would say, "see how it relates?" Conversations about world culture and politics would stem from "unpacking" a Shakespearean play, or a book about colonial India, or a piece of Victorian-era artwork--a favorite tactic of his.

Context: An example of context would be my SOC101 class here at UMF, spring semester of my freshman year. In this class, I learned so many sociological concepts and theories which I was able to test and put to use in the other three social science classes I was taking at the time (History, Geography of Health and Disease, and Economics). This class is a must for any history teacher. I learned a lot, and since it was meaningful, I will retain this knowledge.