Math, History, English Oh My!

Have you ever noticed that when teachers bring the subjects of math, history, and English students seem to shutdown a little. I do not believe that it is because they dislike these subjects more than any other, but perhaps it is the way in which these subjects are being taught. I remember in Elementary and Middle School my teachers would just teach us the facts in one set way without giving us room to discover another way to reach the same answer. Those years were often frustrating though at the time I did not fully understand why; the mixture of this is the right way attitudes from the teachers and the you can do anything attidtudes from home often confused me as a child. As I teacher I hope to provide my students with the knowledge that there are many ways to rationalize different ways of doing even the simplest math problem. I also hope that my students will learn to not only memorize the facts behind history and math, so that they may regurgitate it on a test, but that they will learn the reasons why these facts were listed in their textbooks in the first place. I learned at a young age that learning just the facts that the teachers think you should know often led to problems when I was taking a test and asked to place those facts into the context of that time. With English, my Middle School teachers would ask us to write stories about made up places and people. I found this effective because I loved to write stories and poems. In sixth grade, we were asked to write poems in several styles, like Hiku, I found this very rewarding since I strongly connected my poetry to my life. During High School, my teachers would tell me that my poetry had no focus but I knew that they did not understand the free-flowing style that I used on a daily basis. One night while watching a poetry slam I found a new style that I adapted to very easily and soon became the basis for one of my longest poems "Conformity" which asks the question "Why are people judged on apperance and not what's inside". This poem also became the reason I want to publish my own book of poetry, which would track my life from the young carefree years of Middle School and early High School to the more troubled years later in my life. How have the different styles of teaching math, history, and English effected your learning experiences from childhood on? What type of learnign works best for you, seeing the material, being able to touch the material, or hearing the material spoken? Personally I respond better to hearing the material as well as writing that information down to cement it in my memory. Did any of the ways your teachers taught English change your outlook on life and the influence that your experiences had over what you write for assignments?
~Emilie