The week before midterms, I had to write four, five paragraph essays. This got me thinking about whether or not teachers should be using different teaching methods. I found it odd that out of all of my classes, almost none of my teachers could find a creative way for us to show our learning. After watching a video Mr. Bart showed us, I realized many teachers think just because we memorized something means we have learned it, which is not the case.

Memorization is not learning because after a while the information goes away. Almost every week I have to memorize twenty vocabulary words, and on friday we have a quiz on it. After the test, I can not recall any of the words. Last week I had a vocabulary test which I got a 99% on. A week later I can not tell you one of the words or definitions that I memorized for the test. Yes, I got a good grade on the test, but the whole point of vocabulary is to be able to use it for future pieces of writing. How am I supposed to use these words in my everyday life, if I can not even remember them the next week.

There has to be a better way for students to learn besides memorization. In video production almost all of our work is group based, and because of that I can remember almost everything I have learned in that class. Not only is the work group based, but we also make videos to show our understanding of what we are learning. This also helps because it is a creative way to show what we have learned which makes us remember it because it is something we enjoy doing. If Mr. Bart just gave us the information and tells us that we were going to have a quiz on it, I am almost positive I would only remember the information and then forget it after the quiz.

Mr. Gogeon brought to my attention that we do not remember things from day to day. He says that it is not our fault because most teacher just expect you to know something for the quiz and not long term. In chemistry you build upon what you have already learned, which makes it hard for us because we are not used to doing that because of what we have had to do in other classes.