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EDS 266 THE RON CLARK STORY REFLECTION

The movie Ron Clark Story includes the characteristics Ron Clark, Principal Vazguez, and 6th
grade students. Clark is a successful teacher who has succeeded in transforming low-achieving
students into high-performing students. The characteristic features of Ron Clark reflect idealistic
and intellectual teacher model. He left his small town in North Carolina and started teaching sixth
grade students who were economically deprived of a public school in New York. He struggles to
gain the attention and respect of his students. He reaches children with the help of a few basic
rules that he has set. He asks students to act like a family. Even if students oppose their rules, he
resists. Then, he did not give up on children to make them well educated individuals and
respected person in the society. Ron Clark is open minded and versatile person towards the
systems and the children. He continues to try new techniques and methods for teaching better, to
reach children’s best potentials. I support the idea behind the character of Ron Clark because
under which conditions that children face with, teacher can have a significant impact on their
learning and lives. As a first step, Ron Clark analyse the learners, when he examined the school
and students, he asked principal to be a teacher of 6th graders because it seems more problematic
than others. He set the class rules and determine the objectives of the class to be able to teach and
communicate them. The learning strategies that Ron Clark mostly used while teaching as it is:
The teacher jumped rope with some children, playing card games with some children, taught
them lessons, and visits most of their families. Clark prepared Rap music to teach students the
presidents of America. He sang and danced with the students. He even liked the students who bet
on how long he could last. Just as he raised the grades of his students in his previous classes, he
also succeeded in here, and that troubled class surpassed even the most successful class of the
school in the state exam. He visited student’s families to learn more about them to learn their
learning style preferences. He gave extra support who need after class. So, Ron Clark are the type
of teacher who give priority to children not principal or their welfare. He cared his children’s
both academic success and personal development and did not hesitate to try new methods. I
support the view that teacher should be resemble to Ron Clark, because he is an enthusiastic
person to teach, and ambitious. Although sometimes he used strict methods such as lots of rules
and reward punishment strategy, Ron Clark was aware of the situations, deficiencies that he was
into so he did not give up, he improved the strategies to deal with it to be a person who can
benefit their students most. It is significant that Ron Clark was carefully observed the children
and set a strategy according to student’s needs and interests. He adopted student-centered
learning strategies for learning outcomes and improve diverse techniques to teach the lesson more
effectively because the class need more extra support and guide. One of the examples of using
technology and media tools are the scene that Ron Clark was ill and recorded a video of the
lecture and utilize the technology properly. The technique can ensure active participation to
lecture and engage them to learn.

6th graders are children who came from low socio-economic status and disadvantaged groups. I
notice that they all find a way to figure out how to live in these situations and develop a strategy
to defend their personalities towards others. Although the education system and principal see
them in a different way, they all have unique and talented personalities which can be improved.
All the teacher who came to this class were not figure out or try how our children can be better or
how can we improve their learning, therefore, children developed a strategy that they looked like
not caring anything about life or school. I notice that children could not see their potentials, or
they did not realize its importance. I believe the scene that a student said that “Everyone thinks
we are losers, Mr.Clark” is the summary of how children are demonstrated in the movie and it
was one of the most effective scenes.

The only request of Principal Vazguez from the teachers is to manage the school with his own
rules and to achieve high success in the state exams at the end of the year. He represented the
state and its mentality towards education. I believe when Ron Clark tried to communicate and try
to compromise about children’s future, principal reacted as a government and reflect its ideas.
Every 6th graders will demonstrate high achievement and talent when their teachers and principals
believe they are valuable and unique as much as other children and worth educated.

The movie Ron Clark Story can affect pre-service teachers' attitudes towards the profession. It
can also enable teacher candidates to analyse and explore the school and classroom environment,
teaching strategies, cultural values about education and communication networks at school.
Watching films about education in our courses can strengthen the reflective thinking skills of
prospective teachers. In this way, they can improve and understand real-life experiences by
adding different concepts and theories about students' lives.