Walking into room N196, I already had an idea of what I was in for. Hearing countless quirky and strange descriptors used to bring alive the seemingly fictional teacher that was Mr. Freeburg, I had already set a bar for this man. Words of positivity and passion flooded my mind as I took my seat which had been assigned. The first words to touch my ears are, “Alright puberty, who’s ready for their first speech?”, followed by an assortment of random exclamations of woo! and raspy metal like yells.
My expectations had already been surpassed.
To describe Mr. Freeburg, I’d say he is like a wild fun dog that has an extensive knowledge about graham crackers and knows how to destroy a person with a few words. As an educator, I don’t think that I have met a more well rounded person to teach people about what it truly means to know how to communicate with others. His words run through the class and are universal like water. Judgement, to him, should be nonexistent in the classroom. He believes that everyone has their own way of doing things and nobody should be able to tell that person whether they are right or wrong. That is truly something to be proud of.
I took Organizational Communications, a class he made, to better myself in the realm of public speaking and communication in general. Mr. Freeburg keeps me along with the entire class engaged in our discussions. He knows what students want to do and hear from a teacher and he delivers. One discussion I remember vividly was that of how to dress. He describes that how one dresses not only affects the thoughts and judgements of every human eye that scans the horizon, but it affects your personal mood. Then, he directly pointed out me and about 4 other males around the room and said, “these guys get it!” He then describes girlfriends and moms as being a ‘panacea for a bad dresser’.
The teaching stylings of Mr. Freeburg as far from conventional as the Andromeda Galaxy is from Earth (approx. 2.5 million light years away). Our first formal speech was a doozie. We were put into groups of three and assigned a persuasive, informative, or entertaining speech premise. However, we were to speak in this fashion about none other than a bar of soap. The speech was nothing short of a challenge. It made the class think critically not about the soap, but how the audience wants to hear about the soap. The assignment was pure genius and it segwayed us into a personality building, bright semester.
From skateboards to sorcery, and appallingly bad public speakers to astounding, Mr. Freeburg’s knowledge and educational teachings have entertained and enlightened the young minds of the 21st century. His magnetising enigmatic personality makes him not only an entertaining teacher, but an astounding educator as well. He has made my last semester the most memorable 18 weeks of school experienced. Go Freeburg!