Best and Worst Characteristics of an Educator

     Like most, I’ve had a wide ranging experience in my education. I’ve had teachers I really enjoyed being taught by, and others who I struggled to find interesting or learn anything from. If I could come to one conclusion it was that any and all of my favorite teachers or professors had a great sense of humor. Many of them had a sarcastic sense of humor similar to my own, so I often looked forward to attending class if for nothing else than a laugh.
     I have unfortunately also had my share of uninteresting, lifeless, monotone teachers whose classes I found difficult because I found it difficult to identify with them. Everyone has had these types of instructors before, who boringly read PowerPoint slides in one long unbroken sentence. I've found it difficult to pay attention to even interesting material due to the way it was being presented. In short, teachers need to have personality, even if it rubs some students the wrong way it is far more beneficial to everyone if the teacher acts like themselves and tries to instill interest in what they are trying to teach.

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How Other Cultures Shaped Me - DRAFT

     My mother in particular always loved to travel and go to new places, something she never really had the chance to experience as a kid with no money. She always tried to instill that same drive to experience new places in my brother and I, something that really took with me. In doing so she also taught tolerance of other people and allowed me to gain perspectives outside of my own that helps me to understand other people better.
     It’s so easy to become trapped in our small little part of the world where we wake up, come here to class, eat a lot of fast food and go to work then come home at night and watch the new episode of our favorite show and repeat this process week in and week out. Our lifestyle is very much different from many people in other parts of the world and my mother thought it important to teach that to me. Not only is it an important life lesson of sorts, it’s also very enjoyable and rewarding. I’ve always said the ultimate vacation is one where you’re put in a culture or lifestyle you’re totally unfamiliar with. Even the simplest of tasks such as walking into a café and having a cup of coffee with the local newspaper becomes almost an adventure in itself since it must be done in the local language. I find also that many people are as interested in your story as you are in theirs. It is not at all uncommon for people to ask in their sometimes broken English where I am from and if I am enjoying my time in their home. I’ve met a number of very interesting people who wanted to know more about me or sometimes they just wanted to practice their English.
At the end of the day, travel can be as much a learning experience as it is recreation, but the chance to identify with people who can be so different from you is a very rewarding experience and had a great deal of impact in how I’ve grown up, something I believe everyone should have the opportunity to experience.

BELIEF: Travel and the understanding of the culture and history of other places is very beneficial to children and teenagers growing up.

Place Matters - Annapolis, MD

The historic district of Annapolis is a home to many people including myself and is a very important part of our state’s and even our country’s history. Much of Annapolis’ history stems from its involvement in the Revolutionary War, being the home to two signers of the Declaration of Independence, William Paca and Charles Carroll. The small city of Annapolis is also known for its numerous visits by many great historical figures, such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette for instance used Annapolis as a camp for his armies on their march north. Those visits aside, it is also our past and current seat of state government. For a time, Annapolis was even the capital of the United States for a few years following the end of the Revolutionary War. In a more modern era, noted individuals such as Thurgood Marshall spent time in Annapolis as a lawyer, moving on to become the first black Supreme Court Justice. So much of the city’s historical downtown area has been kept up thanks to government and many non-profit organizations maintaining many of the historical sites. Many noted events and decisions occurred in Annapolis, incidents that affected either directly or indirectly the lives of everyone who would eventually live in the United States. As a result I believe this is a small town worth continuing to preserve and enjoy.

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Place Matters - Annapolis (Draft)

     The historic district of Annapolis is a home to many people and is a very important part of our state’s and even our country’s history. Much of Annapolis’ history stems from its involvement in the Revolutionary War, being the home to two signers of the Declaration of Independence, William Paca and Charles Carroll. The small city of Annapolis is also known for its numerous visits by many great historical figures, such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette for instance used Annapolis as a camp for his armies on their march north. Those visits aside, it is also our past and current seat of state government. For a time, Annapolis was even the capital of the United States for a few years following the end of the Revolutionary War. In a more modern era, noted individuals such as Thurgood Marshall spent time in Annapolis as a lawyer, moving on to become the first black Supreme Court Justice. So much of the city’s historical downtown area has been kept up thanks to government and many non-profit organizations maintaining many of the historical sites. Many noted events and decisions occurred in Annapolis, incidents that affected either directly or indirectly the lives of everyone who would eventually live in the United States. As a result, this is a small town worth continuing to preserve and enjoy.

Lafayette - A Noted Soldier and Visitor

What Clothing says about a Student

     Youth style today reflects a much more informal and almost selfish attitude compared to the late 1960’s. The focus of youth style has changed considerably towards the informal over the decades as college attendance has become the norm or even forced by parents, something that is very clear with the style of dress of the 1960’s versus today.
     Youth today are very much more concerned with comfort, and informality in what they wear. What is very evident to me, particularly in the UMBC Skipjack yearbook, was that the only time that I saw anyone wear sneakers of any kind was while they were playing a sport. Any other photos of students in their day to day business they wore leather oxfords or dress shoes, something much more formal by our standards. For men, more formal footwear was accompanied by collared shirts, jackets, and often ties. Look around the campus today and you’d be surprised to find a more formal pair of shoes, much less a tie on anyone.
     As we’ve recently discussed in class, it’s now apparently socially acceptable to go to class in pajamas. This alone reflects a very different attitude towards how you present yourself at a university, students clearly don’t consider how they present themselves as important. In the photos in the yearbook, everyone appeared to be professional. You got the sense that these people wanted to be there, they were prepared and strove to do well. When you look around the campus today and you see people walking around in pajamas or very informal clothing and treat going to school like they haven’t left their house, it almost demeans in a sense the professional aspect of a research university. If changing into a decent set of clothing is too much effort and not worth it, how does that reflect on your performance as a student or your motives for being a student? College attendance is a norm in our culture today, while it wasn’t 50 years ago. This difference in style illustrates how today’s culture has shifted to taking for granted a college education.

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Patrick Stewart changed my life. Yes, I know how that sounds.

I’ve always been fascinated by technology and telecommunications in particular. The ability to share ideas and data in seconds from anywhere on the planet is unheard of in any prior generation. As far back as I can remember I’ve had a knack for all things electronic. For one reason or another, I can’t do calculus to save my life, but when it comes to computers, and other electronics I just get it instinctively. I spent a better part of my childhood and early teens teaching myself to fix things in between episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation even though “inversing tachyon fields” is rarely a legitimate solution in the real world. However thanks to my time spent tinkering and learning by some unprecedented self motivation, I find myself in a datacenter job at age sixteen, working with people who are shocked to find later that a sixteen year old kid saved their businesses thousands of dollars worth of downtime. Now as I’ve moved on to a different company, and am a few years wiser, I find more and more it is the people who have a real passion for what it is they do that makes them good at it. I can say with certainty that all the people who really are good at what they do are the kids who were like me; they were fascinated and couldn’t help themselves but to absorb any and all information like a sponge.

A brief overview of David Brewer

My name is David Brewer, a sophomore at UMBC. I live relatively close by in Annapolis, MD, my hometown, where I work for an IT contractor that ends up putting me all over the Baltimore-Washington area. However, while my work is important, if I had to choose one of the most important aspects of my life, it would be travel. My parents took me to Europe when I was about twelve and it totally changed my outlook of the world and I realized how much I enjoy visiting unfamiliar places. I made a commitment to myself this year to travel more and ended up visiting Boston and Montreal when my schedule allowed. This winter I’ll be returning to Europe to visit friends in England and Belgium. Technology is my talent and my career, but the opportunity to travel, particularly abroad, is what I work for.

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