Dangerous Mind-ch.5 to 9

Ch 5.

Mrs West, you have a lovely daughter- In this chapter Ms J, noticed Callie West, who had a disrespectful behavior. She was always boring and annoyed during the class period. So Ms J tried something else. She decided to send a note to her students’ parents telling them how great they were. And so she did with Callie’s mum and made her feel very proud of her. When Callie found about it, she changed her attitude right away. She was happy and she made an effort to make her best in her studies. 

Ch.6

Thunder bolt Jones

In this chapter Ms. J had a lot of troubles, because she went to work on a summer school. She had problems because nobody wants to study in summer. In this school she had a confrontation with a boy who was named Troy Jones. He was very rude and was involved in lots of fights. She had to inform direction about all the problems she was having. She was very sad to end up her summer job like that.

Ch.7

´´Let’s talk`` by yours truly

In this chapter Ms. J was about to quit her job because she was very down, because her students showed disinterested all the time. She was willing to change it, so she mixed their students. Everybody was working together and they started to know each other.

Consequently, Troy Jones, gave her his essay and it said how a great teacher she was, very concerned about her students and very dynamic. After that, Jones and Ms. J created a strong bond based on enthusiasm and confidence. 

Ch.8

“If Your Only Tool Is a Hammer”

Miss Johnson had a bright student in English-P class. His name was Danny Morton. He was very hyperactive, because he juggled with a rubber ball in classes and if she asked him to stop, he started drumming his fingertips on the desk by accident. Ms. J noticed that Danny had a problem because he didn’t do that on purpose. After she talked to Hal about it, she thought Hal was wrong about Danny doing drugs. Ms. J decided to help him because she thought she couldn’t miss such a bright boy as Danny. So she made him an offer. She invited him to participate in ACL class. After participating in the class, he got real better on his writing and Ms. J was very happy and satisfied with his result.

Ch9.

This chapter is about a boy named Attiba Mack, who was really disrespectful boy and had a lot of trouble. He used to fight with everyone and everybody was afraid of him, also teachers. That’s why they let him do whatever he wanted.

Ms J, tried to help him, but he refused her help because he just didn’t need anybody’s help.

Dangerous Minds. Ch1 to 4.

Ch.1 Chapter one is called ´´ my dog ate it``. This first chapter is about a teacher Ms. J who is teaching inside the classroom. The main character of this story is called Raúl Chacón, who was outside Ms. J’s classroom getting wet because of the rain. Ms J went outside the classroom and went to talk to Raúl and asked him why he was standing in the rain shivering and getting wet. He told her that he was trying to win a bet: if he stood up in the rain for 20 minutes he would get 20 bucks. Ms J asked him why he wanted to win the bet and he told her that he needed to pay a jacket he had bought on the streets. The teacher lent him the money but with a condition: if he graduated highschool , he would be able to pay her. So Raúl felt quite grateful because she trusted him and he promised her he would graduated and he would do his best to make it. So then he started to make real changes in his life in terms of homework and studies.

 Ch.2 Okie Dokie, Artichokie is the second chapter of the book dangerous mind and it’s about the teacher Ms. J getting a new job in a school to teach a class which needed a permanent teacher. At first Ms. J was very frightened because of the behavior of the students, because they were very rude and unrespectfull . Untill Hal Gray (one of the teachers) told her a story about a girl who once answered to him ‘’ Okie Dokie, Artichokie`` that was a very unrespectull way to talk to a teacher. And Hal told that despite the rudeness of most students he was willing to skip the obstacles. So these words were sacrate to Ms J, because they gave her strength to carry on and she walked right into the classroom and the students looked at her, and the students in that moment understood that she had came to stay. And then they made a list and a kind of rule on how should an effective teacher supposed to be and how an effective student should be.

 Ch.3 This chapter is called ´´Fire in my heart``. Ms. Johnson went to Hal’s class. She was invited by Hal Gray to go and see how his students behaved. She was perplex to realize his students were a mess. Hal noticed and he talked to her and told her he was about to retire. And it was very common in younger teachers to start very excited and then became very tired and exhausted. Ms J disagreed with him because she thought she had fire in her heart, which means she was very passionate about teaching. Then, Ms. J did her best effort to give better classes. She encouraged her students to read Shakespeare.

 Ch.4 ‘’George shouldn’t of shot his homeboy’’. This chapter’s got a very powerful message. Ms. J tried to prove ACL students weren’t that different from English-P class. She talked to a group of teachers saying that their marks weren’t so different. She asked why they divided the classes because ACL students would attend to school. She thought of making an experiment. She assigned the same book for the different classes. In the ACL class, she got excellent results, but P class, was a bit difficult. It was hard for the kids to give opinions, so she did some exercises to make them improve their skills.

Draft Magazine

Interview. Why did you want to become a teacher? What do you teach? How many years have you been teaching? According to your view as a teacher, what is education? If you were the minister of education, what changes would you make?

Short Story

''It was raining. It was raining and I didn’t have any cigarette. Have you realized smokers always smoke more than usual when it’s raining? Yeah, I’m the kind of man who does that all the time’’. I lived in the city, but my mum needed to move because of her sickness…she had a heart attack a month ago. The doctor said she needed some clean air…some changes in her life. Besides, her mind wasn’t that lucid and she barely could walk. So you may wonder where I am. My current residence is in Puerto Natales. If you don’t know where that is I can make it easier for you: It’s almost at the bottom of the world. I had to make an effort to keep her alive. I don’t know if it’s worth it now. Samantha, my sister is coming from Iquique this weekend. She said she was staying the whole month. I don’t think I can handle this. We never got along. She arrived and I went to pick her up at the bus station, because she didn’t know where our home was. When she saw me, she run to me, she looked at me and she started to cry. I held her and she hold me. She wasn’t crying normal, she was yelling and sobbing and crying… I don’t know why! God damn it I wanted to run away. When she decided to let me go, she looked at me with a weird gaze and said ‘what is wrong with you?!’ I kept my mouth shut and looked away. I was driving home and she asked: -So…how was she? -Cold…I don’t know. I didn’t want to look. - She looked at me and started to cry again ‘oh my god, oh my god, oh my god- she howled. - oh come on!- I said. SHUT UP! – I yelled. You weren’t even there when she died! She suddenly stopped crying. When we finally got home I didn’t know what to say nor do. I was very uncomfortable and I knew she was too, but she didn’t say anything. She asked me where her room was, it was late, cold and it was a long way from the north. She wanted to lie down for a while. So I took her bags and said ‘follow me’. I went to the first floor and made myself a drink. I sat on the couch and lit up a cigarette. It was a lucky strike. I saw the smoke moving and dancing and fading away. I closed my eyes and my mum’s image came right away with those big- lost –eyes of hers , saying ‘where are we? I WANT TO GO HOME!’ I opened my eyes, drank a sip and smoked a drag. I was shuddering. Suddenly I heard noises, steps to be specifically. It was my sister. She had put on a wool sweater because it was really cold. -Nice sweater- I said gently -Thanks, mum nailed it for me. - Oh really? And why was that for? - I said ironically. -OK! Stop it! What is with you!- she yelled. I stood up and asked her. ‘Do you want a drink?’ she agreed. We were both sitting on the couch, drinking and smoking without saying a word. ‘’It was raining. It was raining and I didn’t have any cigarette. Have you realized smokers always smoke more than usual when it’s raining? Yeah, I’m the kind of man who does that all the time’’. I suddenly said. She looked at me strangely but wanting me to continue. I never thought that day would come. I was so exhausted. Changing her dippers, trying to explain her everything, feeding her… everything. I was so tired of everything and so angry at you because you never were here. I was feeling lonely and sad. I use to think a lot about her death. I always thought ‘’ when she dies, I’ll go back to Santiago and live my life again…maybe find a girl and make a family’’… I never thought I would feel like this…so lost, so defenseless. ‘’It was raining. It was raining and I didn’t have any cigarette. Have you realized smokers always smoke more than usual when it’s raining? Yeah, I’m the kind of man who does that all the time. So I went to tell her I was going to buy some, she looked at me with a strange look, like saying ‘’don’t leave me’’. She tried to tell me something, I think she was trying to say she was feeling weird and her chest hurt, but I thought she was trying to call my attention, so I told her I’ll be right back, mum. I won’t be long. When I came back I went upstairs to see her and she was lying on the floor. I got scared and took her in my arms… she was already dead. I knew that but I called an ambulance anyway. The doctor said she had a heart attack and there was nothing else I could do’’ She had a heart attack, Sam… and I had gone to buy cigarettes! If I hadn’t gone, she would’ve survived! It was my fault Sam! It was my fault. I let her die! I cried. ,