My High School Experience So Far

By: Landon Ramos 

A Little About Me

Hi, my name is Landon Ramos, and I am a junior in high school. I have been going to Southwest High School for the last two years. So far at Southwest, I have played football for two years, track for one year, been on the math team for two years, and served on the Student Council for one year. Over these last couple of years, I have had 15 teachers, and about half of my teachers have really stood out to me as my favorites. 

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Things That Have Helped Me In High School

  1. Stay off your phone during class, because the year flies by. If you miss a section of information, your grade will drop on the test. 
  2. Have a good relationship with your teachers. If you have a good relationship with your teacher, they can and will give you extra attention so that you can do your best and succeed. 
  3. Do extracurricular activities. Extracurricular activities are a good way to meet new friends, relax your mind, and enjoy yourself. Also, they look good on resumes and job applications.

Things That My Favorite Teachers Did

  1. They gave us a lot of freedom about how we could do the work.
  2. They were very relaxed about the rules; they let us talk to each other, just as long as we were on task.
  3. They helped the whole class as much as we needed, and gave us as much one-on-one time as the we needed to understand the information. 
  4. They understood that we were more engaged if we were having fun, or studying something that interested us, so there was a lot of freedom and choice in each of our decisions. 
  5. They gave us opportunities to raise our grade if we did something that lowered it–like a test, or a big assignment, or if we weren’t satisfied with our final grade.
  6. They gave a lot of work out, but it was manageable to do if you were on task. These things made their classes a lot easier to follow and understand.
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Teachers Of Color

In schools in the Twin Cities, there aren’t enough teachers of color. While this might not seem like to much of a problem, it affects the mindset that children have toward diversity. Most kids don’t have any teachers of color in their elementary or middle schools, and without teachers of color, students of color usually don’t relate to any of the teachers–making school an annoyance, instead of something to look forward to. Also, making kids unconsciously discriminate and segregate, making a negative mind set. Teacher diversity in Minneapolis and St. Paul today is very important, because the two cities have a lot of diversity. Without a diverse teaching force, our future generations will keep on discriminating and segregating, moving farther and farther away from peace and racial equality.

About the Author:
Landon Ramos is a junior at Southwest High School in Minneapolis. Landon spent the summer of 2019 as an intern with Generation Next.