Author: joseph (jhay) (Page 5 of 7)

• “Children, full of questions about things that interest them, are learning not to ask them at school. Against a background of tests and targets, unscripted queries go mainly unanswered and learning opportunities are lost. Yet the latest American research suggests we should be encouraging questions, because curious children do better.” The fact children, who tend to be curious and ask a lot of questions at a young age, are being taught not to ask questions which should be a red flag since a child can’t help but ask questions on stuff she or he is curious about.
• “Children are born curious. The number of questions a toddler can ask can seem infinite – it is one of the critical methods humans adopt to learn. In 2007, researchers logging questions asked by children aged 14 months to five years found they asked an average of 107 questions an hour. One child was asking three questions a minute at his peak.” Even researchers found that children at a very young age tend to ask various amounts of questions because we are all born with curiosity.
• “When her team logged classroom questions, she found the youngest children in an American suburban elementary school asked between two and five questions in a two-hour period. Even worse, as they got older the children gave up asking altogether. There were two-hour stretches in fifth grade (year 6) where 10 and 11-year-olds failed to ask their teacher a single question.” Young children ask between two and five questions in a 2 hour period while older students don’t ask their teacher a single one. This probably goes to show that students lose intrest in asking questions as they get older because those questions they ask aren’t going to be answered or because they know the teacher doesn’t care so they don’t bother asking in the first place.
• “In one lesson she observed, a ninth grader raised her hand to ask if there were any places in the world where no one made art. The teacher stopped her mid-sentence with, ‘Zoe, no questions now, please; it’s time for learning.’ ” A teacher doesn’t want to answer to open a discussion upon the students question because the teacher is more focused on teaching what’s supposed to be teached and do the criteria given.
• “ ‘When you visit schools in many parts of the world it can be difficult to remember they are full of active, intellectual children, because no one is talking about their inner mental lives. How well they behave, and how they perform seem much more important to many people in the educational communities. Often educational bureaucracies have shunted curiosity to the side.’ ” As long as I can remember parent teacher conferences always were about grades and how well a student behaves.
• “When teachers teach young children not to ask questions, it is not surprising that high-performing students studied by American researchers in 2013 were found to be less curious, because they saw curiosity as a risk to their results.” Those who do well in school are those who tend to be quiet and do all their work without any questioning because they can feel over asking questions may affect their grade
• “ ‘Children should be prompted and encouraged to ask questions even though that can be challenging for the teacher,’ he says. ‘We do need to find some time for questions during the day. There is not enough time in schools for creativity and following up on curiosity.’ ” Children shouldn’t be forced to be in school where they can’t ask their questions freely. Their questioning can always be off tracks of the teaching material, but it is apart of life, especially apart of a child’s life to over ask anything at anytime.

As a little kid I was very into fighting such as boxing and MMA and saw myself in a ring or octagon. I wasn’t a violent kid, but watching my pops old tapes of old boxing fights really intrigued me. I eventually started boxing at 10 and was self taught. I taught myself how to wrap my gloves, how to hit a speed bag, how to do certain combinations on a heavy bag. I would even light spar with my cousin in the backyard of my old home. It wasn’t till my 14th birthday that I would use the money I was gifted to sign up at my local MMA gym which was a very small UFC gym, where I would learn kickboxing. After a few months for reguarly going, the gym would close for renovations and would open up again 2 years later when I had recently turned 16. This time around there were new matrial arts introduced such as muay thai and jiu jitsu. There was new equipment and more space. There were classes only for teens which motivated me to go. I would start doing jiu jistu under my late coach Sergio Da Silva. I was able to pick up boxing, kickboxing and muay thai quickly but jiu jitsu took me time to get used to. I would ask coach a lot of questions regarding techniques. Coach Da Silva would always give us lessons on life such as lessons on marital arts. Coach Da Silva always said consistency is key in anything in life. If you want to better yourself at anything is consistency. I remember my goal was to compete in competitions, but there was a long way to get there. My teammates were supportive and I tried supporting anyone who needed help with their striking. I would help them during our boxing sparring sessions and that person would help my ground game during jiu jitsu class. We had a competiton scheduled late March, but covid had other ideas. Due to the pandemic my gym closed for good and I lost a father figure in my life. My motivation to do any fighting was lost, but I still like hitting and kicking my heavy bag, although I haven’t returned to doing jiu jitsu, I’m hoping I can find a new place. But it will be hard to replace my old gym.

I can still remember my first semester of sixth grade. That fall feeling of light orange leaves on the ground and the crunch noise made when you stepped on them, typical hoodie season , cool breeze which would eventually turn into jacket wearing brick season later down the line of the fall semester. First day was a day of anticipation in the air to find out who’s got the same classes as you  and who the new teachers would be like. Then the first week is full of introductions to teachers, the material and of course your classmates, the people you’d spend your semester with. Earlier classes were easy to get through although I would not care and fool around with my boys every now  and then. I still can remember the scent of jolly ranchers that would hit you once you entered the science room. Mr. P always had a bowl of jolly ranchers for students to grab ONE. Mr. P,  off the bat was different from most teachers as he didn’t teach the way other teachers would teach. Every Monday he would give us 10 mins to setup our Cornell notes for the week. Cornell notes were so cool to me because it made note taking cool. I wasn’t just writing whatever the teacher wrote on the board but little bullet points of what I understood from the slide. Mr. P would play ball with us during our lunch break, he would later on be our basketball coach along side the P.E teacher and he ran the Lego robotics after school I would eventually enroll in. As the seasons changed, the Sun wouldn’t set till like eight, jackets turned to simple longsleeves, after school ball at the park was frequent, my spring semester of sixth grade started, I guess I got too comfortable around Mr, P since I would just fool around in science class and not care thinking him and I were cool. He wouldn’t call me out on my behaviour, right? Instead of saying “I’ll have a chat with your parents on the phone later today” like most teachers would say, he would threaten to kick me off the basketball team or robotics program if I kept fooling around. This kept me in check in his class only. The following year during the spring semester, my teachers would tell me to do work or else they’d let Mr. P know about my misbehavior. This would actually lead me to do work and take notes in every class with the Cornell note taking format. My grades would only rise from that point on.

Throughout my whole school life,  Mr. P was the one only teacher that was able to control my behavior and actual had me invested into his class. Today I can look back and be real with myself, I was a mess of a student in my early years. I wouldn’t like me if I were my teachers.  His Cornell note taking format is a writing skill I use to this day. Although nowdays it is harder since I have some classes online others in person. High school was rough since I did hang around the wrong crowd for the most. One thing that did stay consistant throughout my time of high school pre covid, was my note taking ability. Although I still was a distraction in some classes throughout my two years, and a half, of high school, my teachers always praised my notes I would take. Specifically my Global History teacher, who was intrigued with my notes and how I neatly categorized title of the sldies shown on the smart board with a simple bullet point I thought of the readings. Teachers from IC3 digital literacy to my forensics teacher liked my note taking. All thanks to a middle school science teacher, Mr. P.  My final year and a half of high school was all online, so I had to type my notes which wasn’t the same. Now that I’m in college and taking this English course, I’m hoping to use that format of note taking when possible.

During my 2 years at high school I lost an imporant figure in Mr. P, he did push me to be great academically and made sure I did work. Entering high school I lost that. During the early lockdown phase I would mediate a lot since I had nothing to do. During this time I had time to reflect on my high school experince. My act went back to a distraction in high school since Mr. P was out of the picture in my life. But high school was a fun experince in my eyes since I was hanging around with any crowd. I entered high school without knowing anyone since all my middle school peers all chose diffferent schools. Since Mr. P wasn’t here I went back to fooling around in classes and this somehow made me find friends. It was fun just jumping around the mixing pot of personalities and characters I would meet my 2 years of high school. I had my main circle of friends but for the most part I knew anyone in all of my classes I had. When my teacher in any class was absent and a sub was in charge, I’d sign in and walk down to the cafeteria, doesn’t matter what period lunch it was, I would always dap (handshake)  up anyone I knew. What I’d notice is a lot of people with a hall pass down in the cafeteria chilling all period long till the bell rings. They’d basically cut class the whole period while their teacher probably had the idea that their student went to the bathroom the whole period. Summer before junior year was a time I thought to myself, this is it, this year will reflect on what college you’ll enter, what your future will be. So my fall semseter of junior year I did amazing grades wise. No skipping, no lates, and all work done. I felt great heading into my spring semester but before the first week covid hit and I lost my chance at great in person work.

The educational system in my particular school was messy to say the least. Fights were an event daily, you’d be chilling in Spanish class when all of a sudden you get a text telling you to come down to the cafeteria, there’s a fight. You’d raise your hand, go to the ‘bathroom’ and head to the cafeteria to see what’s going on. High school compared to middle school for me was wild. My middle school was filled with mostly white folk who were on the wealthier side of things. My mom enrolled me there thinking it’d be good for me, even though at times I felt left out since they always had cool stuff and new sneakers while I only had a pair for the whole school year. But in high school it was mostly black and hispanic. Sure you had asian, white, arab ethnicites, but majority was black and hispanic. In high school I felt like I fit in. These were students like me in a sense. But I quickly caught on that in a high school with the majority being minority, there was a lack of technology, and my high schoool was supposed to be technical. My middle school had iPads, Macbooks and iMacs in every class. Whereas high school only had desktops in the computer lab. The difference in tools for students to use was noticable. My time reflecting during lockdown made me realize many in high school just didn’t care or were aware that they are lucky to have education while other kids around the world don’t have what we have. Instead we only care about fights in the staircase, cafeteria or after school. I was able to reflecting on my misbehavior and I took online classes serious although not many showed up to zooms. I stayed consistant although it was hard sometimes with WiFi connections and you just miss being in a class room.