Passion in Beauty
"Ah!" a series of short screams fill the classroom. Sora Park, who was my first math teacher in middle school, walks down along the line of students who did not do their assignments, pinching the inside of their upper arms. This is how she punished. She always did this whenever her students did not do their jobs. I was not a kind of student who worked hard on assignments and that is why the pain from that pinching comes across my mind far ahead of her outstanding beauty. She was really beautiful. No one could catch it from her appearance that she was a mother of two sons. She was slim and tall. Her long hair was dark brown and softly curled. She had big brown eyes and great smile. Although she was a completely native Korean, she resembled Jessica Alba a lot, which made her a quite local celebrity around my neighborhood.
Mrs. Park was not only well known for her beauty and the painful pinching but for her effective teaching skills. She was the most effective at improving learning outcomes from her students. Mrs. Park was a diligent teacher. She always prepared a lot before each class and did her best to make hard concepts easier to understand. The most distinctive characteristic of her teaching was the strong emphasis on review. She had us review what we learned and keep a so called "math diary," a note where we wrote what we learned from each math class "in our own words." It was the main assignment in her class and that was what made us get pinched. At that time, I hated that she forced us to spend so much time to review in such a demanding way. But as I grew and went to high school, I thanked her a lot. Most of what she taught me remained in my head, almost sculptured in my brain while mathematical concepts that I learned from the other math teachers mostly faded away.
Mrs. Park had a special passion toward learning. She was not only herself a very passionate teacher but also the most passionate learner. Although she was in her early thirties, she never stopped engaging herself in something new. At that time, she was learning about Art therapy which was clearly far away from her profession. Art therapy is a mental health profession in which clients, facilitated by the art therapist, use art media, the creative process, and the resulting artwork to explore their feelings and deal with clients' psychological or behavioral issues; reconciling emotional conflicts, fostering self-awareness, developing social skills, improving reality orientation, reducing anxiety, and increasing self-esteem. She was taking a graduate course to become an art therapist. She willingly shared what she learned with us after school through the special class she made up. She must have been very busy with the care of both her own job, which is teaching, and the graduate course. But she showed us that doing what we want is not a reasonable excuse for neglecting what we have to do. Mrs. Park was the most beautiful woman as well as the most energetic and passionate teacher I've ever met and will be throughout my life.
Peer response
ReplyDeleteTo 201201914 An yumi
From 201001450 Park Hyun-ju
1. Write one sentence to sum up what this person is like.
Mrs. Park was a diligent teacher
2. List three details from the essay that support your sentence in step 1.
1. She always prepared a lot before each class and did her best to make hard concepts easier to understand.
2. She was taking a graduate course to become an art therapist.
3. She willingly shared what she learned with us after school through the special class she made up.
3. Put a check next to each of the methods below that the writer uses to reveal the person’s character. For each method that you checked, give one example from the essay.
- What the person looks like
She was really beautiful. No one could catch it from her appearance that she was a mother of two sons. She was slim and tall. Her long hair was dark brown and softly curled. She had big brown eyes and great smile. Although she was a completely native Korean, she resembled Jessica Alba a lot, which made her a quite local celebrity around my neighborhood.
- What the person does
1. She pinched the inside of her student’s upper arms and she always did this whenever her students did not do their jobs
2. She had us review what we learned and keep a so called "math diary,"
3. she never stopped engaging herself in something new. At that time, she was learning about Art therapy which was clearly far away from her profession.
4. She willingly shared what she learned with us after school through the special class she made up.
4. Were there any things in this essay that you did not understand? If so, what were they?
I understood teacher’s ability to teach math and her passion towards learning. But one thing the part of the graduation school , study of Art therapy, even the writer said that it was far from her profession so it was great to start learning new thing. I don’t understand fully why she tried to learn that subject.
It was not clear who are neighborhood in the sentence that her teacher became a celebrity among her neighborhood.
5. Why do you think the writer chose to describe this particular person?
I think the writer learned a lot from her teacher’s passion of learning and way of thinking, etc. And I guess those teacher’s characters gave a good influence to young writer who was a middle school student .
6. Write one or two questions about the person described in this essay that you would like the writer to answer in the next draft.
I want to see more detailed explanation about what the writer learned from her teacher. And also I wonder if there was any reason or motivation of teacher’s passion.
To An yumi, From Choe Kyung-Yo
ReplyDelete1. Write one sentence to sum up what this person is like
Mrs. Park was the most beautiful woman as well as the most energetic and passionate teacher I've ever met and will be throughout my life.
2. List three details from the essay that support your sentence in step 1.
(1) She was slim and hall, and had dark brown long hair, big brown eyes and great smile. She looked like Jessica Alba.
(2) She always prepared a lot to help her students understand math more easily.
(3) Even thought she was busy doing her job-teaching, she broke up her time in order to learn Art therapy that was totally different from teaching.
3. First, the writer used What the person looks like.
=> She was slim and tall. Her long hair was dark brown and softly curled. She had big brown eyes and great smile. Although she was a completely native Korean, she resembled Jessica Alba a lot, which made her a quite local celebrity around my neighborhood.
Second, the writer used What the person does.
=> She always prepared a lot before each class and did her best to make hard concepts easier to understand. / At that time, she was learning about Art therapy which was clearly far away from her profession.
4. Were there any things in this essay that you did not understand? If so, what were they?
Everything is very clear.
5. Why do you think the writer chose to describe this particular person?
Because Mrs. Park impressed her more than any other people she has ever met. Not only was she very beautiful, but she also gave the writer a valuable teaching that “doing what we want is not a reasonable excuse for neglecting what we have to do.”
6. Write one or two questions about the person described in this essay that you would like the writer to answer in the next draft.
According to your essay, Mrs. Park looked like she was very satisfied with her job, a math teacher.
In your essay, however, it seemed like she was trying to become an Art therapist. Is she trying to change her job or just to have two jobs? Plus, I also wonder why she chose an Art therapist, because it looks like having nothing to do with her major, math. Is there any particular reason that made her choose it?
201201914 An yumi 2nd draft
ReplyDeletePassion in Beauty
"Ah!" a series of short screams fill the classroom. Sora Park, who was my first math teacher in middle school, walks down along the line of students who did not do their assignments, pinching the inside of their upper arms. This is how she punished. She always did this whenever her students did not do their homeworks. I was not a kind of student who worked hard on my assignments and that is why the pain from that pinching comes across my mind far ahead of her outstanding beauty.
She was not only one of the most beautiful teachers I met but also the most beautiful woman I ever seen with my own eyes. No one could catch it from her appearance that she was a mother of two sons. She was slim and tall. Even the mediocre match of casual blue jeans and T-shirts she wore so often made her look stunning. Her long hair was dark brown and softly curled. She had big brown eyes and great smile. Although she was a completely native Korean, she resembled Jessica Alba a lot, which made her a quite celebrity around my neighborhood.
Mrs. Park was not only well known for her beauty and the painful pinching but for her effective teaching skills. She was the most effective at improving learning outcomes from her students. Mrs. Park was a diligent and cheerful teacher. She always prepared a lot before each class and did her best to make hard concepts easier to understand. She made up many chants of which lyrics are all about math concepts. "Ahn, ahn, bak,bak," which means "Inner, inner, external, external," was her favorite chant to explain that the each value of mutipying two inner terms and two external terms are equal in proportional expressions. It was hillarious to look at her singing her self-made math chants with some weired, impromptu dances.
Above all, the most distinctive characteristic of her teaching was the strong emphasis on review. She had us review what we learned and keep a so called "math diary," a note where we wrote what we learned from each math class "in our own words." It was the main assignment in her class and that was what made us get pinched. At that time, I hated that she forced us to spend so much time to review in such a demanding way. But as I grew and went to high school, I thanked her a lot. Most of what she taught me remained in my head, almost sculptured in my brain while mathematical concepts that I learned from the other math teachers mostly faded away.
Mrs. Park had a special passion toward learning. She was not only herself a very passionate teacher but also the most passionate learner. Although she was in her early thirties, she never stopped engaging herself in something new. At that time, she was learning about Art therapy which was clearly far away from her profession. Art therapy is a mental health profession in which clients, facilitated by the art therapist, use art media, the creative process, and the resulting artwork to explore their feelings and deal with clients' psychological or behavioral issues; reconciling emotional conflicts, fostering self-awareness, developing social skills, reducing anxiety, and increasing self-esteem. She was taking a graduate course to become an art therapist. She willingly shared what she learned with us after school through the special class she made up. She must have been very busy with the care of both her own job, which is teaching, and the graduate course. But she showed us that doing what we want is not a reasonable excuse for neglecting what we have to do. Mrs. Park was the most beautiful woman as well as the most energetic and passionate teacher I've ever met and will be throughout my life.