Rough Draft Paper 2

Throughout elementary, middle school and high school I have had many different teachers and educators, some better than others. Even though some teachers were definitely better than others, none of them really stand out to me as "life-changing" or "inspiring". For a teacher to really make a difference in a students life, the traits that teacher should have may vary based on the students needs. However, a great teacher should love teaching and educating their students, they should be motivators, and they should have high expectations of their students. Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver and Katherine Watson in Mona Lisa Smile both showed that they have those traits.

In the movie Stand and Deliver, it was very clear to the viewer that Mr. Escalante absolutely loved teaching. He loved it so much that it literally almost killed him. Not only was Mr. Escalante teaching his high school math class at a level far above the administrators expectations, he was also teaching night time classes to adults as well, despite his family's wishes for him to stay home and spend more time with them. As a result of the added stress Mr. Escalante had a heart attack. Some people may call that being a workaholic but Mr. Escalante just loved to teach people and that is a very important trait for a great teacher.

Miss Watson loved to teach as well, she didn't want to teach just anywhere, she wanted to teach at Wellesley College because she was passionate about teaching the young women of her time. As soon as she started teaching, she realized the students had memorized the syllabus already. Instead of just teaching from the syllabus anyways, because she wouldn't be teaching them anything they didn't already memorize, Miss Watson began to teach the students modern art and found new ways to teach them.

Mr. Escalante had different ways of motivating his students. One way was to create a close relationship with the student. By doing this he got to know each student and knew how to push them and motivate them, but sometimes he would push them a little too hard or push the wrong buttons. He also motivated by teaching the lessons using different and unorthodox methods. Instead of just teaching boring math he made it fun by engaging his students and getting them interested in it. His methods may have been unorthodox sometimes but there is no arguing that they worked and he was able to motivate his students to do things that nobody, not even there own parents believed were possible.

Miss Watson's students were all young women, most of them were not married yet but every one of them did not have any intent on doing anything after college except get married and settle down. Even though the students were getting a college education, most of them did not intend on applying it. Miss Watson wanted to motivate her students to do more than just get married and be a housewife. She convinced them that there is more to life than that and when one of the students mentioned that she wanted to go to law school Miss Watson did all she could to help. Without the student asking her to, Miss Watson got an application to Yale and gave it to her, encouraging her to apply even though she was going to be engaged soon. Throughout the story, Miss Watson tries to inspire her students to overcome the expectations for women at that time and motivate them to be free thinkers.

In Stand and Deliver, Mr. Escalante had very high expectations of his students. He knew that students will perform to their expectations whether they are high or low. Everybody thought that he was expecting far too much from the students and that they would never be able to accomplish what he expected them to, but Mr. Escalante believed in them 100%. He knew that if somebody took the time to teach them, they could surprise everybody and live up to his expectations. When somebody believes in you like Mr. Escalante believed in his students it inspires you to do better, to do your best. All their lives the students at Garfield High School never had high expectations and because of that, they never tried to do well in school.

The students in Miss Watson's class were used to being expected to memorize what was on their syllabus and if they did, they would pass the class. When Miss Watson came she realized that the girls wouldn't learn anything if they just had to memorize a syllabus so she raised her expectations and changed the lesson plan. Instead of teaching art history she taught modern art and challenged the students with questions like "What makes good art?" She also expected the students to overcome the stereotypes that women of that time had.

Mr. Escalante and Miss Watson were both very good teachers and inspired their students greatly. Even though the teachers have many of the same traits, they were different in some ways too. Mr. Escalante would laugh and joke with his students in class a lot which I think is good because it makes learning more fun and enjoyable. Miss Watson seemed like she was much more serious in the classroom. Mr. Escalante could relate to his students very well because he was a part of a minority like them, he spoke like they did and he understood them. Miss Watson's students did not accept her very easily because she was not married like a woman should have been in the 1950's and she was more "worldly" then their other teachers. Though these two teachers were from different times and had different styles they both inspired their students to be all that they could be, and that is what makes a great teacher.