This year I came into my AP Psychology class planning to switch out right away. The class wasn't a priority of mine, and I wanted to take it next year. As soon as I had walked into the class, I instantly wanted to stay. This was all due to the fact that the teacher of the class, Mr. Ott, had already made such a good impression on me within the first hour and a half, which caused me to immediately change my mind. I remember leaving that class that day and telling my friend Michael on the bus about how I definitely did not want to switch out and how Mr. Ott had been so kind and witty.
Throughout the next few classes, we were constantly told about how we needed to take the class seriously and that if we weren't going to we needed to switch out considering it had been an AP course. We were immediately given notes, and were told that we needed to study them because we were going to be having a lot of upcoming quizzes. My biggest struggle is the fact that I procrastinate and often feel discouraged to do the things that I need to. Due to this issue of mine, I ended up getting a terrible grade on the first quiz given to us.
Even though I ended up getting a horrendous grade on the last quiz, it surprisingly didn’t motivate me for the quiz that he was giving us in two days. What did motivate me was a comment I received right before it though. I believe that when I saw Mr. Ott right before our next quiz it was due to the fact that I came in late that day and that he was the teacher who had to sign the slips for students who came to school late. I'm glad that I did come in late that day because that little conversation that he probably didn't think twice about had impacted me greatly. He had told me that he thought I should stick it out in the class, and he could tell that I was truly serious about class. That small conversation had encouraged me to work a lot harder. The night before our second quiz, I studied for a few hours and ended up getting a decent grade which had been a big improvement from my last. My quiz and test grades had only gotten better from there.
I began taking the class more seriously, and felt more motivated to do the things I was supposed to considering I was getting encouraging comments from Mr. Ott along the way. Typically in classes teachers don't interact with all the students enough and tend to just pay attention to the students on top, but Mr. Ott is different. Regardless if you get low or high grades, if you sit in the back of the class or the front, or if you are quiet during his class or loud, he manages to interact with every single student and engage everyone in the lessons he teaches. Whether it is through him asking certain people questions, or just simply using someone's name from the class in an example. I believe the fact that he can engage and interact so well with every student is because he is a very adaptable person to any personality type, which is a trait that is lacking in most school teachers nowadays.
Another thing that I find very remarkable about Mr. Ott is that he doesn't look down on students as if he is better than us because he is our teacher. He listens to students and allows them to speak about a lesson he is teaching and add a few points in if we feel the need to. The respect between the students and Mr. Ott isn't forced like it is with other teachers. There's a mutual respect given without him having to demand for it which I think shows a lot about the good natured person he is.
I don't think I would be so successful in AP psych if I had any other teacher. It's rare to find a teacher that truly cares about your grade and is willing to help you out as much as you need it. I know that as I continue on in this class throughout the school year I continue to get more and more motivated by Mr. Ott, and I respect him to the point where I want to get a good grade on the exam so I can represent what a phenomenal teacher he is.