...Reflection Paper on Stand and Deliver “At a tough school, someone had to take a stand… and someone did. Together, one teacher and one class proved to America they could… Stand and Deliver” –taglines of the movie “Stand and Deliver.” Jaime Escalante has a steady job but left it for a lowly position math teacher at James A. Garfield High School. Knowing that the school is where rebellion runs high and teachers are more focused on discipline than in academics, he is determined to change the system and challenge the students to soar high in excellence. Of course, the students will not like a teacher who engages them in the things they don’t like. But as days passed, Escalante was able to convince the students and got their attention by adopting unconventional teaching methods and conveying the necessity of math in everyday living. He successfully instilled in the mind of his students that all use math everyday. With his determination and perseverance, he was able to turn gang members, no-hopers, and even the most troublesome teens into dedicated students who are ready to learn. The school board has low expectations on the students and the teachers even called them illiterates. But Jaime Escalante didn’t listen to the concerns and skepticism of his colleagues. Instead, he realized that his students are capable of more than the expectations and criticisms thrown to them. He developed a math program which requires the students to take summer classes, including Saturdays, so that...
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...East Los Angeles, not a place where you want to walk in the streets alone. There, all of the students live and go to school at Garfield High School. Because they live in such an under-privilege neighborhood and go to a school in that neighborhood, they aren’t seen to be as intelligent as someone who lives in Beverly Hills. There was a part of the film during a teacher meeting when Mr. Escalante brought up that he wanted to teach calculus to his students the next school year. This was when the principal laughed and sarcastically said “Boy, that’s a jump.” Because self-concept is developed through interpersonal communication, the fact that even the principal of their school doesn’t believe they could do such a feat like pass the AP exam, they haven’t thought much about their education. School was a joke to them so they focused on their own personal lives at home and with their friends. That is, until Mr. Escalante became their new math teacher. Self-concept can change, but change comes from characterizations by others whom you see as competent and important sources (43). Soon after Mr. Escalante became the student’s teacher, he began looking at them in a different way than all their previous teachers. He gave them “ganas,” desire. With his attitude towards his students, his students started shaping up and took their education more seriously. Their...
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...“At a tough school, someone had to take a stand… and someone did. Together, one teacher and one class proved to America they could… Stand and Deliver” –taglines of the movie “Stand and Deliver.” Jaime Escalante has a steady job but left it for a lowly position math teacher at James A. Garfield High School. Knowing that the school is where rebellion runs high and teachers are more focused on discipline than in academics, he is determined to change the system and challenge the students to soar high in excellence. Of course, the students will not like a teacher who engages them in the things they don’t like. But as days passed, Escalante was able to convince the students and got their attention by adopting unconventional teaching methods and conveying the necessity of math in everyday living. He successfully instilled in the mind of his students that all use math everyday. With his determination and perseverance, he was able to turn gang members, no-hopers, and even the most troublesome teens into dedicated students who are ready to learn. The school board has low expectations on the students and the teachers even called them illiterates. But Jaime Escalante didn’t listen to the concerns and skepticism of his colleagues. Instead, he realized that his students are capable of more than the expectations and criticisms thrown to them. He developed a math program which requires the students to take summer classes, including Saturdays, so that they can rise4 to take AP Calculus in their...
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...individual differences, personality, attitudes, abilities, and emotions next are perception and attributions lastly, managing change within learning environment. Furthermore, when applying our learning in Organizational Development to a real-life situation, Individual differences personality, attitudes, abilities, emotions. From the outset Mr. Escalante (the math teacher) is faced with a challenging predicament. Arriving for his first day of school, he is confronted with a set of rebellious student’s intent on making his life hell. The negative attitude of these students towards learning was clearly evident, as was their low self-esteem. Self-esteem is a belief about one’s own self-worth based on an overall self-evaluation. “If they try and don’t succeed, you will shatter what little confidence they did have” (Menendez, 1988). Through a history of meager facilitators the students believe that their opinions and contributions are not taken seriously, and to exert influence on the class and teachers they must incite physical violence. These traits indicate a very low level of organizational-based self-esteem and provide incentive for Mr. Escalante to improve his pupils, not only as students, but also as human beings. He begins this demanding task by being supportive and showing concern for their personal problems. He actively restrains a pupil from...
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