My MEL experiences

• Student/ Teacher Relationships: While I often times dreaded the work and was intimidated by the concepts of physics, my physics teacher was one of my favorites which helped me to learn to love the subject. After he knew everyone well enough to playfully make fun of them he would write all our test and quiz questions about kids in the class. Questions like "In a desperate attempt to be tan before prom, Bridget sat outside in a lawn chair..." and then would create a problem about the suns rays and how long it would take them to reach earth. Tests were less dreaded because they involved humor that everyone in the class could enjoy because the teacher created an environment where laughing at ourselves helped us through the tough work.
• Learning Styles: My AP English teacher was fantastic at teaching to all the learning styles in the classroom. Before starting a new era of literary work, he would show us a slide show of art from that time period, with music from the period playing in the background as he explained to us the popular art forms and famous artists and musicians and how they influenced the writers of the time. This drew in musical and artistic students and gave them a chance to see how their interests effected the works we would be reading. He also had us do Shakespeare scenes and encouraged movement, such as the Macbeth-Macduff fight scene played out with light sabers which really engaged bodily-kinesthetic learners. Once, we even we outside and made snowmen that represented authors we had studied and had to guess who each group's snowman represented, which really pulled in the naturalistic learners. His ability to reach out to all the intelligences in the classroom gave everyone the ability to learn in their strongest intelligences and strengthen and explore their less-used ones.
• Connections: The teachers in my high school had great relationships within and outside of their departments. They would talk to each other about their subjects and what was being taught, and quite often in math our teacher would relate it to what she knew we were doing in physics. An English teacher might drawn upon our knowledge from aquatic biology and ask us to relate it to Moby Dick. Once, my AP English teacher even asked if anyone saw CSI the night before, because they quoted Lady Macbeth. The connections they made between classes were crucial for me, seeing a network of my knowledge grow larger and more complex made me realize that no subject stands alone, and all subjects are practical outside of the classroom, in the "real world."
  
• Avoid Rewards: My government teacher had a bad habit of bribing students to finish their work or get a paper in on time. He might offer to bring certain students in donuts if they turned in their essay on time. This led to the students he rewarded to not doing anything without a reward. No extra credit for doing the required homework? Then they didn't do it. By giving rewards this teacher taught students to never do anything unless they get something out of it.
• Helping Students Succeed: My junior year English teacher was probably the hardest I ever had. He set very high expectations and didn't accept excuses. He was known for being a tough grader and many people didn't take his class because they were afraid to work hard. While his expectations seemed high, they were always achievable, and he made sure everyone in the class who did the work they were asked reached the goals he set. Tasks that seemed impossible were really just assignments that asked a lot of students, and forced us to work, think, and brainstorm more than we ever had before. By the end of his class, I felt like my B+ was the best grade I'd ever received, even though it was the only A I didn't get that year.