The first essay I have selected is from the subject: “Introduction to Psychology” from last semester. I have chosen it because it is the first essay I have ever written. It took a long time to finish because I was not sure how to start it. The title of this essay is: “How do I imagine a good teacher”. I was looking for information on how to write an essay and I had ideas about what it means to be a good teacher, but I could not explain it well. In the end, the essay was good because of I received good feedback from the teacher. Also, I decided to pick this essay because it was my first creative work in a long time.
It is a very good title to write an essay and to reflect on the teaching profession.
In my opinion, a good teacher should be a good communicator and be very good at listening to students; he should also be a motivator when teaching.
I imagine that to practice the profession of educator you have to have a lot of patience and understanding with the students. You also have to create an atmosphere of trust in the class, where everyone feels supported and motivated when learning. You have to use the necessary tools (like a projector, music systems and computers) to achieve that all students participate. It is also necessary to allow the students enough time to express themselves, their opinions, arguments, interests and concerns. A good teacher also should be in a good mood and a positive attitude because the students mirror the teacher’s attitude and a positive atmosphere creates a better learning environment. All students who are in the class of a good teacher feel respected and supported by him.
A good teacher, in my view, has to be honest about the fact, that he does not know it all. So if there is something that he does not know, it is important to say it without embarrassment. He also encourages work in pairs and groups, so that learning is more effective. He motivates students to be curious because curiosity is the first step to be motivated to learn. It is important to have a good relationship with students because the process of education depends on that. This relationship between the teacher and the students is the heart of education. Also, a good teacher has to be a mentor and guide for the students, to show them the best techniques to be able to learn effectively.
I believe that a good teacher has the ability to find different ways to transmit and explain the contents of the subject he teaches and facilitate the means with which students can learn in the correct and effective way.
It is very important that when teaching the classes the teacher is interested and motivated so that the students are also interested in learning. It’s important, that the teacher not only reads the contents of the books but also gives relevant real-life examples, so the students understand better, as it is something useful, something they can use in their lives.
A good teacher can recognize the individual talents of his students and motivate them to be self confident and to excel. He is aware that all students have different abilities and that they learn differently, some are faster than others. When teaching a class he takes into account the individual abilities of the students.
In modern education, it is not taken into account if students learn effectively (they understand it, remember it and are able to use it), but the education system is interested in teaching a lot of content fast, which puts teachers under a pressure. The teachers have to follow their curriculum dictated by the system and do not have enough time to teach effectively.
At this time with all the problems that the coronavirus pandemic brings, we can see the importance of distance education, and how important the relationship between students and teachers is to continue learning. All technological means are very useful but they can never replace that relationship between students and teachers in real classrooms.
In my personal opinion, many of the teachers have improved in the handling of new technological tools and that in the future will positively affect teaching in real classes, all this is a great benefit for the students.
Parents now communicate more with schools, which is positive improvement. I hope it continues this way because in my opinion education is everyone’s responsibility altogether not only the teachers’.
In conclusion: a good teacher must have the ability to understand, help, motivate, guide and accompany students on the path of education, with the support of families and educational institutions. He is the one, who provides the tools for students to have a better future with education, to be people who help create a more understanding and caring society.
I have decided to share this essay because it was about building an argument. The name of the essay is: “Students should have less homework” and I had never written an argumentative essay before. It was quite hard to write clear sentences and follow the specific format required for an argumentative essay. At first, I felt unsure about this style of writing because I had to look up many different examples and it took a long time to write.
In the end, I had good feedback from the teacher so it was worth all the hard work I put into the essay.
Why do schools give a lot of homework to students? Studies have shown that an overload of homework can affect your health. Too much homework can cause a lot of stress for students. Some of these health problems are, for example, sleep deprivation, exhaustion, headache, weight loss and stomach issues. There are some points I want to raise in this essay: firstly students should have less homework, secondly, is homework a good way of learning? And finally, I am going to argue with the general belief that homework is good for learning. I am convinced that too much homework is not a way to make students learn.
Students should have less homework.
The research has found that homework is not an effective tool for learning because it interferes with the social development of children. Children need to interact with others to create a connection in their brains to fix the knowledge. Playtime is the most important time. When the children have homework after all day at the school, they cannot play. Homework decreases development of new talent or skills, takes away time for physical activities, playing instruments or creativity. Also, it makes students have a negative attitude to study because they spend long hours doing homework. After those long hours, they go to bed late; they get up very early and do not get enough rest overnight. That affects their attitude and emotions, so they have a bad temper at the school. Also, too much homework discourages learning and promotes cheating because the students copy from the internet or from other students to avoid bad marks.
Is homework really a good way of learning?
The studies have shown that too much homework does not work. Most of the homework is repetitive and does not contribute to new learning. Most of the time is homework too difficult for students to complete. The education system recommends a ten minutes rule. That means that in the first grade of primary school is good no to give more than ten minutes of homework daily. In the second grade, twenty minutes and so on, it increases with grading. Too much homework is overwhelming, and it is one of the stress factors in the students’ life. 56% of students say that the primary source of stress is the overload of homework, causing them health problems like sleep deprivation, overweight, headaches, anxiety and depression. To complete homework from all subjects should take no more than a half-hour per day, and teachers should allow finishing the homework at school, with no punishment.
General believe that homework is good for learning.
It is a strong belief that homework fixes the knowledge after learning at the school. But also it is common practise that teachers give homework when they do not have time to go through the entire subject at lessons. In my opinion, that is the weak moment of giving homework, because the explanation might not still be clear to students and it provokes anxiety. Teachers need to give extra time at the school to finish the homework together with the students and check for understanding. In my opinion, homework should be clear and have relevance to the interests of the students. Less homework is better than a lot because it is easier to create connections in the working memory and fix the knowledge. Teachers should give less homework. I believe that would make a positive change for everyone.
Finally, I want to highlight the points I made in this essay: students should have less homework, no doubt about that. Is homework a good way of learning? No, it is not the way to learn, but it can support learning if homework is clear, it is given in smaller amount and if it is relevant to student’s interest related to the subject. The general belief that homework is good for learning is wrong.It is important to know that less homework is better and that it is required for teachers to check for understanding all the time.
I am sharing the essay “The Sick Rose” by William Blake because it is one of the first critical analyses I have done in my studies last semester. About William Blake (Born in London, on 28 November 1757; died in London, on 12 August 1827). English printmaker, painter, poet, and mystical philosopher, one of the most remarkable figures of the Romantic period and one of the supreme individualists in the history of art. He was equally gifted in poetry and the visual arts, and in both fields, he worked in a highly original, deeply personal idiom that expressed his idiosyncratic views and fiercely independent personality. I hope you will find it interesting.
by William Blake
O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
The Sick Rose by William Blake
The image of the rose is the metaphor that is used by the author which represents women.
In this poem, the rose has the meaning of virginity in connection with the medieval conception of women and purity, representing the innocence of the young women who are about to blossom into a sexual being.
Why is the rose of the poem sick? The rose is suffering, a worm is to blame, infiltrated the rose and corrupted it. The poem is focusing on this issue. The worm is representing death and decay, at that time in a religious context, the worm was connected to the serpent which seduced Eve in the bible, Genesis, these lead to the fall of mankind after Adam and Eve were seduced by the serpent and they were taken away from Eden. The worm is so small almost invisible, this metaphor represents the devil lurks unseen and is a master of disguise, that is the explanation from a religious point of view, all the bad thing happens because of the devil’s forces. William Blake’s Christian faith is reflected in this poem, he felt that after Adam and Eve were taken away from Eden, sex become about genital and not about other spiritual feelings, the sense of shame in this poem.
The structure of the poem is composed of two four lines called stanzas in two quatrains and each has a rhyme scheme of B C B, the mood of the poem is ominous and has that sense of impending doom. The poetic voice is direct, the poet is talking to the rose, a metaphor for a woman. The adjective invisible emphasizes the evil and sin of the worm acting like the devil, the night represents the time when evil creatures act, a bad thing happens during the dark hours, the howling storm describes the feelings of frightening fears and tumultuous events they are about to happen. Byline five the sin has found out has been exposed, meaning that God knows what has happened, in the lover’s bed. Due to the fact, the rose is sick the love must be sick too, this metaphor means the woman in love is not aware of this sickly love,
crimson joy is the colour of sin in the bible, associated with blood and sexual pleasure, referring at the lost of the virginity, his dark secret love that the worm gives to the rose is dangerous and sinister, to finish life destroy shows violent ending the poem is dark, represents the oppression and repressed sexuality by the author.
In conclusion, William Blake reflexed his sexual frustration and his repression in this poem, his feelings of shame and how society pollutes love, the sense of secrecy and darkness contaminated the beauty of the rose which is inflected by the evil forces.
This is a paper in which I had to analyze the Happy Prince’s central themes. Love and beauty. I want to show this essay because it was challenging to put together, and in the end, I managed to do it on time and I had good feedback from my teacher and my colleagues.
Love and beauty were the major themes in Oscar Wilde’s “The Happy Prince”? The story tells about a happy prince and a little swallow. Was written by Oscar Wilde and published in May 1888. The story was set in the palace of Sans Souci in North Europe, Sans Souci in English means “without worries” When the Prince was alive he used to rule in this palace. Society at that time was full of injustice and inequality and the Prince was not allowed to see all that behind the walls of his palace. He lived and died happily, however, after his death, he stood like a statue on a pedestal and could see the whole town standing there. Oscar Wilde used this story as a critique of British society. This essay begins by discussing beauty and love in society in nineteen-century Europe. It then describes the arguments related to love and beauty in the story and its conclusion.
People at that time gave importance to superficial beauty and a life full of luxury, the society lacked compassion for each other. It also reflects the ridiculous behaviour of the Mayor and councillors. People have no worth for the sacrifice made by others. The Mayor said: He was very much admired indeed. “He is as beautiful as a weathercock,” remarked one of the Town Councillors who wished to gain a reputation for having artistic tastes; “only not quite so useful,” he added, fearing lest people should think him unpractical, which he was not. The statue of the Prince became a source of admiration for every passerby, was covered in gold leaf with sapphires eyes and ruby on his sword. A group of children from the church came out and said: “He looks just like an angel” in this line Oscar Wilde criticised the church with all the beautiful pictures from the bible, beauty was related to being a good Christian, beauty was a synonym of success and goodness in nineteen-century, in other hand ugliness was the evil in the bible and the misery of that society.
The love in this story was represented by the swallow. Firstly he fell in love with a beautiful reed, whom he met during that Summer, he said to the reed:” Shall I love you?” And she made him a low bow. After all the other swallows left he was feeling lonely and he said: “She has no conversation,” he continued, “and I am afraid that she is a coquette, for she is always flirting with the wind.”After he went off to follow the other swallows to Egypt, on his way he met the Happy Prince and slowly he fell in love with him, the swallow was looking for love and he found that love in the Prince. The Happy Prince represented a different kind of love, love for the people in need, which he showed to the swallow the importance to be empathetic and helpful to others and realise that true love is in it. “Then the Swallow flew back to the Happy Prince and told him what he had done. “It is curious,” he remarked, “but I feel quite warm now, although it is so cold.” “That is because you have done a good action,” said the Prince.”Because of this, the swallow fell in love with the Happy Prince and when the swallow died the Happy Prince had a broken heart as he was in love with the swallow too.
In conclusion, beauty and love are the main themes in the story of the Happy Prince, beauty is superficial and represents the good thing and the success in society, love in the story has two different kinds, the love between the swallow and the Prince and the empathetic love from the Prince to his people. The story is a good description of the nineteen-century society that we can relate to our society nowadays.
This essay is an analysis of the reading of “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. In this paper, I had to write and give my opinion on the passages from the essay. It was difficult to describe and try to be critical due to his writing style. In the end, my teacher was happy with my work and gave me great feedback.
At the open paragraph of his essay Emerson wrote about the importance of believes in you as individual. “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men,—that is genius. Speak your latent conviction and it shall be the universal sense; for always the inmost becomes the outmost,—and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton, is that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought”. In these words he is defining his idea of self-reliance and how valuable this concept is for our life. He named these philosophers and how they spoke their thought and they did not depend on other people, books or traditions in their time but what they thought. That makes us think about how many times we do not say our thought out loud and then other people say and we feel that we have missed the opportunity and we cannot help to feel the shame of missing the chance. We need to be confident in ourselves, in our ideas and opinions and Emerson quotes “A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his”. We need to learn how to recognize when we have a good thought and say it because is ours. “In every work of genius we recognise our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty “. In this Emerson claimed how our thought come back to us and make us feel bad.
When the men get educated Emerson said that he realized that envy is ignorance and imitation is suicide; that you need to be happy with yourself for better or for worst and work always within you, the power is in your nature and you need to find it. Keep trying and you will find it. Another idea that Emerson pointed out was the importance to do your work with all your heart no half way; he claimed “We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. It needs a divine man to exhibit any thing divine. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope”. These words for me have a deep meaning. I am convinced that is the way we should act in our life. Put yourself entirely on the task in front of you and be happy that you have done your best; otherwise, you would feel as Emerson said “but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace”.
In the quotation “Trust thyself” Emerson was saying: “every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine Providence has found for you; the society of your contemporaries, and the connexion of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the Eternal was stirring at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being”. With these, he claimed that we need to trust ourselves because it is in our nature, to not rely on the judgment of society or tradition. They want to make you conform to their ideas but look the great people always have done. They have not conformed to their societies and their behaviour is childlike. Because pure, unspoiled from selfish needs, they are too young to be hypocritical or cynical. Emerson continued” Infancy conforms to nobody: all conform to it so that one babe commonly makes four or five out of the adults who prattle and play to it” He prompts us to recall the boldness of youth, be like a child, innocent and curious.
Emerson mentioned how when we grow up society conspired against the individual, due to societies valorises conformity. When we are young we are independent and irresponsible, and we express our genuine thought. But as we grow older our society shows us how to behave accordingly and seek the approval of other people. Emerson called this “Conformity”. He said that “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company in which the members agree for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most requests is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs”. In this quote Emerson criticised society as a whole, people do not encourage creativity, and they are conformed with people that respect the order of society that is why he proposed to us to be non-conformity.
Emerson in this essay had shown us how to learn about ourselves. He emphasised self-reliance as a concept of how to achieve knowledge and a new way of life. I am particularly happy after I read the essay. Make me realise that Emerson brought to the United States to concepts of Socrates and the Stoics philosophers for the first time. At that time these concepts were not well known in America. Thank you very much I am grateful to you for introducing me to this fantastic author.
This is an essay I had to analyze for Critical reading. It was challenging because I needed to find the similarities between the life of the author and the main character of the book. I described her life and how she struggled in her life. I think you might like this essay. I had very good feedback from my teacher.
Was Mary Shelley writing about her feeling of loneliness and alienation when she wrote, her novel Frankenstein? In her personal life, Mary Shelley had a difficult childhood, her mother died soon after her birth and her father was not an ideal father figure. The lack of connection to her father and family is reflected in the novel. Also, she ran away with only sixteen years with a married man and got pregnant, unfortunately, the baby died. After all, these strugglers throughout her life inspired her to write such a great novel.
Victor Frankenstein was surrounded by his family and friends but he decided to push them away, first in pursuit of his personal development as a scientist and after when he decided to create a perfect human being. Victor grew up in a very caring family, he had a happy childhood. He said “No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself. My parents were possessed by very kind spirits and indulgence” He knew how important it was to have a loving and caring family for a child to grow up with love and joy. (With these lines, we can see how the author try to describe her feeling about her childhood because she had a different upbringing). For Victor Frankenstein, his home represents an ideal place, where he lived in peace and kindness. But being aware of this fact he did not do the same with his creature, he neglected his creation and abandoned the monster at the moment when he needed it the most. If he nurtured the creature just as much as he was, the monster would not have killed as much as he did. Victor was fascinated by science and with the discoveries at that time, his life started to revolve around science and his mind was so driven, he moved away from his family in pursuit of his dream of creating a superhuman being. Victor decided to become alienated for his creation of a monster and kept it all secret. He worked long hours in his secret laboratory, he was obsessed with his goal of creating a human, he did not rest, he alienates himself from everyone for many months.
After all the work Victor put into his project of creation after the creature was born. He realized that he hated and was disgusted with the monster. He began to question himself. “ Now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror filled my heart” he was so disappointed with the result that he ran away from his laboratory leaving the creature alone. (With these lines, Mary Shelley described her life, when she got pregnant for the first time and in the end, her baby was born dead and she felt alienated from all her family and friends, she was lonely and young in love with a married man, who did not care for her after her lost baby). Having abandoned the monster, Victor Frankenstein did not have any connection with anyone, friends or family. He was alone feeling miserable, he said ”How I, who had ever been surrounded by amiable companions, continually engaged in endeavouring to bestow mutual please was now alone” This alienation would lead to his downfall and misery. Not being able to care and nurture the monster, he knew that he was wrong, this leads the monster to take revenge on Victor’s future life. In desperation, Frankenstein decided to go back home and seek a companion, since he was a child he was in love with her cousin Elizabeth, and she was his mother’s choice to marry him. But Victor had a big problem, he was concerned about what the monster would do to him or his family in the future.
The monster managed to escape to the wood soon after he was born. He was created by Victor Frankenstein and abandoned to his luck immediately after being born. The monster had no choice to wander alone in this wild world. The creature’s appearance was hideous no one wanted to do anything with him, not even his father, Victor. In the first contact with other humans, he was attacked with rocks and chased by the whole village. He described “ Had hardly placed my foot within the door before children shrieked, and one woman fainted. The whole village was roused; some fled, some attacked me” Having this as his first experience with humans, he was terrified of people and the way they treated him. The monster realized that he would never be accepted by humans. From the moment he was brought into this world he questioned” But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with the smile and caresses” ( The author narrated her experience as an unwanted child, she felt like a monster, her father did not love her and she was rejected by her stepmother and her family, she did not go to school she was home school, the feeling she described through the beast are her feelings to her father and the society at that time) The monster had to learn everything, he had no information guidance or support at all, he was afraid and confused. The beast found a place to hide next to a cottage where a family lived a peaceful and loving life, having seen how the family bonded and showed affection for each other he learnt that the only way he could survive in this world was finding a companion. After a failed attempt to get close to the cottagers and being unable to be accepted into society, the monster got furious, at this moment he felt so lonely and isolated, he decided to find Victor Frankenstein and ask him to create a companion for him, he believed that with another creature he would become a better person, the only thing he needs is love and understanding.
Mary Shelley’s novel described her life from two points of view, from Victor Frankenstein who was born into a perfect family but in pursuit of his personal development decided to alienate himself from his family and friends( The author did the same when she ran away with her lover, however, she did not have the perfect family) The second point of view is from the creature, who was rejected by every single soul he came across with, he did not want to be lonely and isolated from society but his hideous appearance scare off everybody( Mary Shelley experienced this feeling of rejection after she lost her first baby, she was in the same situation as the monster from the novel) Throughout her whole life the author was a loner and she alienated herself from her family and friends to develop her career as a writer, also she suffered three miscarriages before having her first baby. With all these problems she managed to become a great and one of the first female writers at that time.
This paper is an analysis of the book written by Frederik Douglass. The name of the book is ” NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AN AMERICAN SLAVE. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF”
In this essay, I needed to take some paragraphs from the book and analyze them and I have to say that it was hard because the description there is sad. I would recommend you read this book. It is a must-read book for everyone. It was a good essay and my Literature teacher gave me good comments for my work.
In this paper, I am going to analyse Frederick Douglass’s early years and his relationship with his mother. Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818 in Maryland and he did not know the exact day when he was born. He barely knew his mother and he knew that his father was a white man who he did not know. Also, I would like to mention the role of slave women under slavery, how they were treated and how hard their life was.
“My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant–before I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labour.” In this passage the author described that common custom among the new born slave child. He was separated from his mother and he did not have any attachment to her, he was separated before reaching the twelfth month. Douglass claimed his entering life that slave mothers had children but they did not have a family. The role of the slave women was only to conceive and work in the fields. He was placed under the care of an old woman that he would call her grandmother. “For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child. This is the inevitable result.” Here the author explained the reason why he did not have any affection for his mother. This cruel practice was unnatural but it was normal and permitted by law. As result many slaves did not know their mothers and when they were born. Douglass knew his mother as he mentioned her name was Harriet Bailey. Also, he knew that his father was a white man. She died when he was seven; in the following passage he described his real feeling to her mother. “She was gone long before I knew anything about it. Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger.” The author claimed in these lines his sadness because he missed all those precious moments with his mother. But in the end, he took distance from her and claimed that she dead was like any other stranger. I think he was protecting himself putting an emotional shield between himself and the feeling of sadness for the death of his mother. „That slaveholders have ordained, and by law established, that the children of slave women shall in all cases follow the condition of their mothers; and this is done too obviously to administer to their own lusts, and make a gratification of their wicked desires profitable as well as pleasurable; for by this cunning arrangement, the slaveholder, in cases not a few, sustains to his slaves the double relation of master and father.“ In this passage, Douglass criticised how by the law the white masters were allowed to do anything with women and their children. And, this is the justification for any abuses and suffering at that time.
In conclusion, after reading these descriptions and analysing the passages. I can say that the slavery trade was terrible and that the slaveholder abused those women and their children unhuman. And the last thing to mention is that they were protected by law and the church.