get by in her class, but when the time came to “go out into the real world,” we all fell flat on our faces. There are not many people who passed the AP exam that were in her class. I plan to become a teacher, and I feel that my experience in this class has shown me the way not to do things. Because of this, I look at teachers in a different way than some people might. I think that teaching is not an issue of who is in charge. It is something that we have to work together on. A teacher can have a mile long list of credentials, but if they have no desire to share their knowledge, it is useless. The problem with Jeff was that he showed the students “. . . good writing, but the passion and concern for [their] writing seemed lacking” (130). A teacher can tell a student what they need to write and how to do it, but if they are not shown how, they will be unsuccessful. “. . . students and teachers have to get personal: students have to get into the personal to write about it, and teachers have to talk about the personal to help us talk about it” (131). If a teacher does not open up to us and tell us their personal experiences, how are we supposed to feel comfortable expressing ourselves?The problem with a lot of classes is that the teacher makes their plan, set in stone, without even meeting the students. They should not use the same lesson plan for every class. It is impossible to know what method to use if you don’t even know what kind of people you are dealing with. “When we recognize the necessity of mutual involvement, students and teachers can work together to achieve a pedagogy that is truly student-centered” (131).Zawodniak’s opinion on his class is basically the same as mine. We agree on the fact that teacher involvement is highly necessary. “. . . teachers should from the start help students find their own voices” (131). Without their power, in mo...
