My Experiences as a Learner :: Personal Narrative Learning Education Papers

My Experiences as a Learner I was in first grade and her name was Sister Carol Anne. She even spelled Anne the same way I spelled my middle name Anne which made her better. She was amazing she had this way of always making everyone in the class feel equal. We never knew who received the high grades and who received the low grades. We all were working "as hard as we could" she would say and that was all that mattered. Sister Carol also had ways of showing us how to help each other out. If a few students didn't get it then the students who did understand would teach the other students. Looking back I'm skeptical because that might unintentionally separate the students into "smart" and "stupid" groups. However, I remember that at some point or another everyone in that class needed help and everyone was able to teach. She exemplified for us that teaching is more helping and guiding instead of ruling and ordering. I think after that class was when I decided I wanted to be a teacher. It wavered on and off throughout my education but it started there in the first grade. The next significant grades I remember were third grade and fourth grade for the teaching style and the classroom atmosphere respectively. In third grade my teacher was Sister Edwardine (in case there is still any confusion I went to Catholic school my entire life.) I remember her specifically because she taught with stuffed animals. We were taught to respect nature and every organism around us, because we are all equal, by using these animals. Everyday, if we behaved, a few students in the class were given an animal to care for and we had to treat it as if it were a real creature. We didn't get to choose our animal however, and I see now how profound her rationale was. She said we didn't get to choose our animals because in life we don't get to choose who is around us in our community and who isn't. She was teaching us that we aren't always going to have the ability to chose who and what surrounds us but we must respect them all for their differences. I remember specifically the day she bought us two new animals. They were a male and female skunk. And when the students gathered to name them a few students starting mocking and calling them insulting names.