Undergraduate / Imporant Influence - Physics Teacher [5]

Prompt: Tell about someone who has made an impact on your life + explai n how + why this person is important 2 u.

It was the first day of a new semester, an easy day of school. Not much went on, teachers handed out papers, explained what their courses would be about, and told the students what to expect in these new classes. As I walked over to my third period class I glanced at my schedule: Pre-AP Physics. "Great," I thought, another tedious science class defined by huge amounts work which I will probably never have to use at all in real life. I would again have to struggle through another Pre-AP course in hopes to better my GPA. Mr. Stevens stood at the entrance of the Pre-AP Physics classroom, deck of playing cards in hand, handing each student who walked in a random card from the deck. He instructed us all to find our seat based on the card he had just given us and the seating chart on the board. Everyone managed to find their seats and the bell rang. "Good morning everyone," he started. "I would like to welcome you all to the first day of a new semester. My name is Mr. Stevens and I will be your guide through the world of Physics. On average, students are assigned no more than five problems of homework each night and the answers to half of them are usually given. Still, many students find this class to be extremely difficult, and many do not receive the grades they think they deserve. My advice to you all is this: work hard, understand the concepts, know what you are doing and why you are doing it, and you will achieve the results you want." It did not happen on the first day, nor on the second or third day, but I would eventually find a new outlook on school and knowledge as a whole from my physics teacher's words and unique teaching style.

I struggled greatly in the class at first. His style of teaching was so unlike any I had ever experienced before. He would demonstrate the main concepts of the subject at hand, show us a few examples and then let the class work togethor to figure out the answers on our own. When asked for help he would always give hints, but would always try to make the students think through the problem. "A teacher will not always be there to hand you the answers," he would always say. "Keep trying; think about the "physics" of it and you will find the answer." Eventually someone in the class would figure out how to solve the problem and share with the rest of us, but it irritated me greatly that he would not tell us himself.

"He doesn't teach," I always complained. "Why do we as students have to figure everything out for ourselves? Shouldn't the teacher actually tell us what to do?" I though. Nevertheless, I stood by his words and kept trying. I kept trying to understand the concepts; how they worked, why they worked, why I was doing what I was doing in order to get the answers. It was a completely different approach to school for me. In school I had done things predominantly because I had to do them. I had no desire to learn how or why they worked. In math for example, learning about trigonometry, radians, the unit circle, it all seemed so random to me. The only thing that mattered was that I had to memorize the steps to solve them in order to pass the math test. But now, it was different. I would see problems on tests that I had never seen before. To pass this test I would have to apply the concepts I learned in class to problems that were completely new to me. It was no longer like math class where it would be the same problems as the homework with different numbers involved. I had to actually understand what was happening. This led me to finally understand why all that I had learned in my math classes had become useful. All that work I had previously done just to get that "A" in math was now becoming so much more valuable to me than just a letter grade.

In his class Mr. Stevens made me realize the value of knowledge. I didn't just do things for the sake of doing them anymore; I tried to understand their use. It was fun seeing how Physics related to everything I did in life. He showed the class examples of how what we were learning related to other things in life. From how we move, how the air moves, why we see, what light is, he showed me that what I was learning actually mattered. No longer was I just doing math problems for the sake of doing them. I was now doing math, applying concepts, and looking for something in end. Through his unique teaching style Mr. Stevens made me want to work harder to understand all sorts different things around me, not just Physics, but a wide variety of other subject areas as well. Through his influence he has caused me to value knowledge as a whole, and thus strive to exceed in all of my classes.