Response to Role Playing activity

I feel that this activity does open up us as students/teachers to know how some people are oppressed or looked down on upon by other people that have more advantages than others (business owners, high achieving parents looking down on low achieving parents, and the Teachers Union). I felt that this session was very effective because often as students we will not get to know these emotion-filled situations before our first year of teaching.

Do enthusiastic teachers make subject's more interesting?

Whether or not an enthusiastic teacher can make a subject more interesting completely depends on the student. Personally I have always enjoyed school but have been most interested in the subjects where the teacher had been humorous and would incorporated some sort of enjoyable twist on the teaching of the subject(s). On the flip side I had also encountered student from those classes that had zero connection to what was going on and would still refuse to do anything in the classroom. Is the a reflection on the teacher? I like to think not.

Compassion

John walked into class one day not having his homework completely done. The teacher had told him in front of the class that she would not take it late. john and the teacher both knew that this was the only assignment that he had failed to complete on time. After class The teacher called John over and told him to come to her room after class and finish his assignment. She then explained to John that she just had to set an example to the class that no matter how great a student someone was that there could not be exceptions but since this was the first and only time this would happen she allowed him to finish the assignment after school in the comfort of her class room.
Even though there was no compassion shown in front of the class I felt that the situation more of less set a ground rule of what was to be expected. Without compassion a teacher can't connect with her students but knowing there are reasons/situations where it is either needed or not is true compassion.

Respect

How do you define respect in a classroom?
When you look into a classroom and see that every student is attentive and listening, you can see a degree of respect. When you hear a teacher start talking and his/her students turn their focus to him/her you see another degree of respect.