Steve Berg Period 2 08/28/10 Descriptive Essay Making History Fun Mr. Leonard is the AP American History teacher at Horizon High School. He has been teaching for more than twenty five years and uses his experience to educate the minds of young Horizon students. While Mr. Leonard can be a bit much, he always gets his point across. And if the student shows up for class and pays attention they will be forced to learn the material, even if they don’t realize it. To some, history can be a dull and boring subject but Mr. Leonard makes history an experience.
He’s been to historical sites and has seen the things he teaches which helps him explain these historical events to his students. A teacher cannot teach directly from a book, anyone can do that; a teacher must use their own experiences and their own knowledge to truly enlighten young disinterested high school students. Mr. Leonard is a very strange, very loud, and very well educated history teacher that can pass his own personal knowledge down to open minded high school juniors. While some teachers bore students to death with monotonous lectures that seem to last for days; Mr.
Leonard shows students that lectures, even in high school, can be interesting. He takes events from that past and tells stories that seem to almost have no point, but while studying or even taking his tests those stories stick in student’s brains and help them remember and understand events and concepts relevant to the time period being studied. Even though he can be a little over the top his methods are proven. Generally, almost all of his students at least pass the Advanced Placement test with the score of a three.
This shows his off the wall teaching techniques don’t just work on his tests, but also work on college level exams. Mr. Leonard is a very interesting and extraordinary teacher that prepares his students with outrageous, yet proven, methods. Most high school educators could care less about the students they teach. These lazy teachers would rather talk nonsense for fifteen minutes, and then turn their kids loose for the rest of class. When these under taught students take their tests it isn’t surprising they fail, but it is surprising at how little remorse their teachers feel for not properly preparing them.
Mr. Leonard always prepares his students, even if they don’t realize it. He can lecture for the entire hour and some kids in class feel as if they’re only there for fifteen minutes. This is a sign that the man actually knows and cares about what he teaches. He has visited all the battlefields and all the monuments. He doesn’t just teach history, he has a passion for it, and this passion gets passed down to some of his students. This approach of “stealth teaching” evokes thoughts and ideas never before dreamed of by young high school juniors.
If students really want to succeed, they can look to Mr. Leonard not only to help them with grades, but also provide them with knowledge that will make them better overall students and people. He sheds light on history and life, proving to kids that school can in fact be fun and interesting, teaching them things that will help them later on down the road. It is these qualities and much more that make Mr. Leonard one of the best teachers in not only Horizon but in the entire Paradise Valley Unified School District.
