Mr. Ahmad Farzad: Teaching Strategies That Change Student Attitudes - Essay Example

Mr. Ahmad Farzad: Teaching Strategies That Change Student Attitudes Mr. Ahmad Farzad is my neighbor in our estate. He is 35 years old with an average height. He is well built with muscles and generally, he looks fit. Mr. Ahmad is light skinned with blond hair though one can easily see a bald in his head. He is an Iranian, he resided to our neighborhood a month ago, I find him very interesting with how he conducts himself, and his behaviors are strange but funny. Even the other neighbors find him funny, and everyone around likes him. Every morning I see him running across the yard and in the neighborhood roads with headphones on his ears at some point I see him dancing that is when he hears his favorite songs. He has a family of two children, a boy and a girl and his wife. His children study at the University of Tehran. The family seems a happy family because sometimes I see them in the yard playing games and chatting a lot of stories and they all laugh out loud along with the story. There is a day I woke up at dawn to catch up with Mr. Ahmad in his jogging exercise across the yard. I joined him and introduced myself as his neighbor, and he told me he knew me since he's been seeing me in several occasions. We started jogging around, and that is when I discovered his funny character. He likes to tease a lot and pose many jokes. On several occasions, I was tired, and he came back for me to encourage me to continue with the exercise. He would even tease me and say that they are some bad dogs around which can harm me if they catch up with me, so I find myself running first due to fear. Another funny thing about Mr. Ahmad is when you would see him talking to his dog and even playing around with it. Sometimes I come out of our house and find him laughing hard, and when I try to find out who he was laughing with, I only see the dog. I always get amazed since I cannot imagine what the dog did to get him so moved and laugh to that extent. The dog accompanied him everywhere he went and even in his jogging exercise in the morning. He told me the dog name was, Seyshay. One day I got a chance to ask him about his life, and he did explain a lot what I did not know about him. Mr. Ahmad said “I was once a teacher in one of the private schools in the town, and I taught mathematics and physics. In my case, mathematics aptitude runs all through my veins. My father used to be an engineering professor at the Institute of Technology. Nevertheless, it did not turn out that I will follow his steps and become an engineer. I had a passion also for journalism but math surpass it. My idols were Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, scandal reporters, after being mesmerized by televised congressional hearings on Watergate. During high school, I took the advantage of being an editor and exposed any wrongdoings practiced in the school. Mr. Ahmad began his undergraduate work at California at Berkley, after graduating as valedictorian of his high school. He was still interested in math but still had some passion on journalism. As a result, he chose a course in his first two years that could lead to either English or Math degree. In the end, math turned out to be the best, due to influence from a professor with a character of John Houseman, a law professor in “The Paper Chase movie”. His teacher wrote on the board whirling back and forth, and then he would turn to him to ask for an answer. Ahmad loved going to his class though it was terrifying. The class was joined with others to make it spectacular. When I asked him why he liked to talk and play around with the dog, he told me that the dog seem to understand him more than human beings. He finds it enjoyable when he talks to it, and it waves its tail and does many creepy things to make him enjoy and so he finds that very interesting. “I can spend the whole day and night talking to it because Seyshay always gives me his full attention. Unlike human, I cannot talk to them when they are tired (Armenian 1).” Personally, I find math to be very hard and so I tried to ask him about math. Ahmad said, “Mathematics field in simple stating it requires highly specific areas of study flops miserably to show the unique nature of research into higher math (Willis, 114). Every University department has professors working on highly individual areas of study though; almost any other filed; entire members of the staff can quickly follow any presented paper. It is not the case in math; most of the professionals in the department of mathematics are not able to understand their peer’s work. It is due to math branches that can lead in extremely secluded and disparate directions. To be precise, the details of the problems can be very difficult but mathematicians come up with a significant distinction to make them easy (Courant 183). ” I started to realize that it is not my fault that I do not understand math. He says that teaching is about realizing the points that are difficult for students to understand. It may be obvious, but many people are not able to do that. They do not realize that what they teach can trip individuals up (Lily 20). He then started an experimental program of remedial classes to students with weak backgrounds of understanding math in respect of appreciating the difficulty many students find in math. It is no wonder that many individuals outside the math field remain in the dark concerning the research tasks done by mathematicians (Carpenter, Dossey and Koehler 113). To change the topic, Mr. Ahmad explained how the surrounding at the yard made him decide to come and live there. The pleasant yard across the estate is pleasant. It has nice grasses that are well pruned after some time and well fenced for security. During the winter, one could lie on the grass and get the little sun rays to keep him warm. The place is not around hilly areas; therefore, it was not very cold during winter. The place also provided a comfortable area for exercise. Two of his favorite pastimes are attending major league baseball games and travelling, and therefore teaching is added advantage of him to engage in the activities. He has visited distant lands in his search for elegance. He does not limit himself to pursue research independently; he has collaborated with mathematicians from Japan, Chile, England, Israel and here at Iran. Conferences have also led him to many destinations across the country. It is on these trips within US that he gets a chance to enjoy his interest in baseball. He also likes watching football, and he is a Chelsea fan in the English Premier league. Conclusion In conclusion, clearly, Mr. Ahmad is a successful man with a funny character, and his career has helped him achieve his passion in baseball and travelling. Works Cited Armenian I. Personal interview. 20th august 2014 Carpenter Thomas P. , Dossey John A. and Koehler Julie L. Classics In Mathematics Education Research. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics 2002, 133. Print Lilly Bruce, Profile articles, “issue of Research and Creative Activity Magazine”,26th August 2006. 20. Print Richard Courant, What is Mathematics: Oxford University, 2001. 183. Print Willis Judy, M.D, Learning To Love Math: Teaching Strategies That Change Student Attitudes and Get Results: University of California, Santa Barbara, 2009. 114. Print Read More