What Teachers Make

 

In the poem “What Teachers Make” Taylor Mali talks about how important teachers are for a society and that they deserve more recognition. One night he has dinner with guests and gets mocked by his guests for being a teacher. Instead of starting and argument with them and ruin the dinner he “resist[s] the temptation to remind the dinner guests that it’s also true  what they say about lawyers.”  Then he gets asked “what do [es] [he] make?” He tells his guests how much difference he makes because he “make [s] kids work harder than they ever thought they could.” He goes on to describe a 40 minute study hall lesson in which they have to work in “absolute silence”. Parents tremble when he calls home at around dinner time just to find out that their son had actually done something good for once and reliefs them. He makes them question and criticize everything so that they will be able to have their own opinion and judging skills when they grow up. He ends the argument with saying that “teachers make a goddamn difference! Now what about you?” I like the way he uses parallel structure when he always says “You wanna know what I make?” or “I make them” it makes it easier to memorize what he is talking about and this way he keeps the audience in the palm of his hand.

       As I shuffled into the classroom, I knew that Mr. Van Camp would never believe me. I looked at my scuffed shoes and mumbled, "My homework is not done, Sir. I do have a good excuse though."

       " This is not the first time your homework has not been completed. Perhaps," Mr. Van Camp suggested, "it's time to speak with your parents."

       "Please, you have no idea what will happen to me if you phone my home," I moaned. It looked as if he was going to fall for my story.

      "Well, let's hear your excuse. It better be good."

I sat down on the chair beside Mr. Van Camp and looked him deeply into the eye and I could see his anger and frustration building up. Mr. Van Camp raised one eyebrow waiting for my answer.

I began speaking “You won’t believe me what happened yesterday.”

 There was a break as I trying to find the words to describe what happened.

“I was late, I had to hurry to catch the bus and I didn’t zip my backpack. The paper fell out and luckily however I saw it, but it still got dirty because it fell on the ground.”

I pulled out the dirty sheet of paper but it was also in ripped in pieces.

“I see” started Mr. Van Camp, “but why is it ripped in pieces then?”

“When I got home I started drying it. Î hung it up on a rope. So far so good. My dog, however, decided it would be a good idea to tear it apart.” I stated.

"This is ridiculous. This is one of the oldest and worst excuses that exist"

The Classroom had begun to fill with students that were loud and disruptive.

"Alright," shouted Mr. Van Camp, trying to silence the class, "please be quit. I will start the lesson soon. I'm just having a short conversation with a student here."

His dominant voice instantly silenced the class and the students went to their assigned seat.

Again he looked at me, this time though it was more like a glare because he doesn't believe me.

I continued my story " I already thought you won't believe me, but it is the truth. See, look at the bottom there are dog footprints left." 

I pointed to where there was a slight trace of a footprint left.

It was only light and hard to see. He had to hold it very close to his eyes to actually be able to see it.

"I will let you off this time. But only this time. Remember that." said Mr. Van Camp

With that the conversation was over, he started the english lesson and I got away without my homework.

English 11 Mr. Van Camp Rolf Gotzes                                                                        October 17^th 2014

Bluffing

The short story “Bluffing” written by Gail Helgason is about a couple encountering a bear in the woods and resulting in the boyfriend getting hospitalized with serious injuries. Liam, a man with “thick black hair as fashionably as ever” is not telling the truth to his girlfriend. He is lying because he is selfish and only wants to save himself which ultimately backfires on him ang gets him hospitalized with “skin [that] is all puffed up, mottled, with ridges of shiny, rubbery scar tissue crisscrossing like tributaries on a map”. He can be considered selfish because he lies to the other hikers that they meet, stating that it “might not be such a good idea” “[to go] up to the lake” because there is a “grizzly”. He does that just so he can have the lake for himself. Another reason showing that he is selfish is, that he “[spends] most of his money and outdoor gear” instead of sharing money with his girlfriend for “the lease”.  Another time where his selfishness shows is, when his girlfriend encounters the bear and instead of helping her, he runs “away as fast as he could”. Which means that he only cares for his own life and wants only his life to be safe. He doesn’t care what happens to his girlfriend at that time and he is running as if his life depends on it.

Remembering the old days

As Lucy exhales the smoke out of her mouth, she is relaxing and enjoys the day. She looks like an ordinary 86 year old woman that shouldn't smoke because it's bad for her health. But she does it anyway. That's what she looks like on the outside, but on the inside she is a different person, with and untold story. She only smokes one cigarette a day because she knows it's bad but she actually very lonely because she is very old and all her companions already died. Each time she takes a drag from the cigarette it’s like the smoke is telling a story. The cigarette is the only thing that she has left of her friends and that's why it's precious to her. It helps her remember the good ol' days with her friends. They always used to meet after work at the bonfire. There they would play music, eat dinner together, relax, talk about work or other important stuff. The most important part however was, that they always had a ritual that they would do together to show and proof their friendship. Lucy and her friends would always share the first cigarette of the night like a lion shares his prey with its cubs, so that everyone would smoke from it, as proof of their friendship. Nowadays that all of her friends have died, she is very lonely and smokes a cigarette a day to remember her days, that she shared with her friends at the bonfires.