Learning Letter

Learning Letter

            Throughout this course I feel like I have come to a deeper understanding of what it means to be an Educator. There is so much more that goes into being an effective teacher that I have failed to think about prior to this course.

            I feel very satisfied with the work I’ve produced throughout this course. The book talk was my favorite assignment overall. I liked being able to provide my peers with a text that they could use in their classroom or that they could just read in general for enjoyment. I don’t think I would do anything different in regards to that concept except maybe change how I presented the text. I could have probably used a PowerPoint or some type of visual aid, but I do not think not having visual aid hurt me. I enjoyed listening to my peers as they presented their books to the class. I even bought some of the books that were presented. It was a fun assignment that I may try to adopt in some way for my classroom.

            The mini lesson went over well even though we did only earn a 90%. Ryan and I worked well together and we developed a lesson that was fun. We also created a lesson that was designed for a twenty minute time slot which is something that other groups struggled with. I am proud of the work we accomplished although I would like to change the things that caused us to get a 90%. I enjoyed teaching with someone else in a cooperative manner. It was a fun assignment and I am proud of the work that we produced. It definitely was one of the highlights of the quarter.

            Overall, the number one hardest thing that I had to do for this course was designing my three week unit plan. It was an assignment that was much larger than I thought originally. Creating a whole unit takes a lot more work than I could have ever imagined. I do wish I used my time more wisely throughout the quarter to turn my drafts on time. I also wish that I could have finished my unit before the last day of instruction but life got in my way. One of the things I learned doing this lesson is how hard it is to find and develop activities that build on top of each other for my unit. I am glad I decided to switch from The Bell Jar to Romeo and Juliet because it made research and other aspects of the project a little easier. I also learned to save everything from all my education classes because the materials I did have from my previous courses did help me come up with some ideas for lessons, and the material provided some of the theory I used to support the activities that I used within my unit. This project was difficult but it was a needed difficulty because it showed me how much work it is to develop units and it basically previewed what I can look forward to when I become an educator.

            The unit was also very useful in helping me become comfortable with the lesson plan template. I finally feel like I have a grasp on the different aspects that go into the lesson plan. For example I am much more comfortable with the parent and community portion of the lesson plan. Before I was always unsure how to connect my lessons to parents and the community but it was simpler than I expected it to be. Doing 15 lesson plans that built upon each other was helpful and it was a nice change for only developing lesson plans for lessons that are independent of each other.

            The readings throughout this course were inspiring and useful as I developed my unit plan and I began to think about how I want to shape my future classroom. Although I enjoyed all of the texts, I am only going to talk about the texts that made the biggest impact on me. The readings I enjoyed the most were, “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed” and the team teaching text.  

One of my favorite readings that we explored was the “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. The introduction to the idea of the banking model of education is something that opened my eyes. I know in my personal education there have times where I have felt like a bank in terms of what I was learning. I absolutely agree that the banking system of learning leads students to be passive not only in terms of their education, but also in their life. I do not want my students to be passive. Instead I want to create an environment that supports active learning and thinking. This text was probably one of my favorites from the course.

            Another text I found helpful was the documents on team teaching. I am not sure if I will ever be put into a team teaching situation but if I am the text will prove effective in helping my partner and I develop our teaching style. It was useful when developing my mini-lesson and is definitely something I will hang onto.

            Overall, I think I have come a long way from the start of the quarter. Everyone has always told me that being a teacher is a lot of hard work and I finally see why. Although it has been a challenging quarter I am happy with what I have learned and I am happy the growth I have seen within myself. Although I do wish I could go back and make my unit plan better, this quarter has been amazing and I will truly miss this course.