My MEL Experiences

Environment:
My senior year in high school I had a physics teacher who would use humor as a method of engaging the class. He didn't always use content from the class as a source of humor but he would sometimes tell us stories about his newborn daughter or something in his past life experience that would spark interest throughout the entire class. He kept a welcoming atmosphere throughout the entire year allowing myself as well as others to feel more comfortable. He allowed us to lighten up but he also maintained a well balance between having fun and learning.

Experience:
My calculus teacher my senior year in high school provided a profound experience in mathematics. Throughout the entire year we were encouraged to work in groups to figure out problems. He would also assign projects that related to real life allowing his students to see the meaning in the content we were learning. His method of teaching gave us an opportunity to experience an uplifting outlook on material that could sometimes be mundane and harder to learn.

Motivation:
As I mentioned previously under experience my calculus teacher would make up assignments in relevance to real life material. For example, learning about APR, loans and banking using calculus motivated me because I was able to relate to something that I needed to know in real life so I actually wanted to do the work. To my surprise I didn't think you could use calculus to compute daily things such as the things mentioned above. Another experience that gave me more motivation was the option of having choices. For instance, my English teacher once gave my class an option to choose between two different assignments each focusing on different learning styles.

Meaning:
Although there were many great classes I took throughout my education, there were of course a few I found to be meaningless. For example, a geology class here at UMF I found to be the most meaningless class I have ever taken in my life. The teacher shoved data and information into our heads that I only remembered long enough to take the test. This class proved to me to be both a waste of time and money.

All in all, the four components listed above are all essential when trying to be successful in the teaching profession. It is important to hit on each and every component because they all give a more engaging way of learning which will only give students the opportunity to learn better.