I can still remember my first semester of sixth grade. Fall 2015, typical hoodie season cold breeze which would eventually turn into jacket wearing brick season. The first day of school was a vibe of anticipation in the air to find out who’s got the same classes as you and who the new teachers would be like. I still remember 6th period lunch, 7th period social studies and final period was science. 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, sunset would happened later, jackets turned to simple longsleeves, 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. His Cornell note taking are still a format I use to this day. Although after I finished middle school and headed to high school, I went back to my old tendencies and would fool around. 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. That was all to my 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. Who knew a SCIENCE teacher would help my note taking skills. At the time when I learned about the format, it was cool, simple and neat. I would have never thought back then it would impact me the way it has.
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