When reflecting on my goals for this course, immediately I am met with the hope to gain a 4.0, and some deeper understanding of teaching. However, a great goal manifests itself within me, one that I hope to achieve throughout this semester. My biggest goal is successfully being able to incorporate what we are learning in class, to the future classroom. Many times I find myself digesting information during class, and then later, when it comes time to use the information, forgetting what I learned, or not appropriately applying the technique. It is my wish that I take what we learn in the classroom and apply it to my teaching in a way that benefits not only the students, but me as well.
I hope to someday teach in a high school special education classroom. It is my dream to one day close the gap between the disabled world and the able bodied world. I agree with what Brenner, Jayroe & Boutwell write that "it is our responsibility as educators to help parents and children understand the power of literacy." I am however, indifferent to where I teach, or the community that I am in. I would like to believe that I am capable as Brenner, Jayroe & Boutwell write to provide students, especially struggling students with "authentic learning opportunities." I feel strongly that wherever I am placed there would be a reason for my placement in that area, and I would try to make the best of that situation. I know that these words come off as nothing more than a young man’s naïve hope for becoming a successful teacher, but to me, it is more than success, it is the opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life. I am ready to go anywhere, and I believe that my schooling here as prepared me for that.
This course can help guide me in my preparations for the future by exposing me to elements of the classroom that I am unfamiliar with. For instance, I have never worked with ELL students, and know little about their needs in the classroom. As Tompkins writes "culturally responsive teachers/teaching empowers students." With this is in mind I would like to challenge myself to become more culturally aware and responsive in my teachings, and I know this course will help give me the appropriate tools necessary to do just that. With the lessons I will learn in this course, and the opportunity I will have to apply them to my own teaching during the semester, I know I will learn valuable approaches to teaching students of all “ability” levels. I welcome the challenge of this semester, and look forward to all the new experiences that lay ahead.
Literacy instruction is an interesting topic to me. I hope to learn how to incorporate interesting and new ways of teaching literacy to the classroom. I like how we are taking a technological approach to our learning this semester, and I hope that I can apply our personal experiences with technology to my future classroom. I feel I have a lot to learn about literacy, and I know it is not a good enough answer to say, “I want to learn all I can about teaching literacy,” but honestly, I do not know where else to start. Our education has prepared us with the content knowledge we need in order to be successful literacy teachers. I suppose now I am ready to learn the tools to teach literacy to others. It is my hope that these tools take us from being “good” teachers, to “great” teachers. I am sure that this semester will help all course members become stronger in their teaching. I look forward to watching the transformation.
After reading Fleming’s piece about teaching in the urban classroom, I am even more aware of my shortcomings in this area. I know that I will do my absolute best to give my students as much as I possibly can, but I worry that I will not be the best fit in an urban classroom. The article referenced how beginning teachers struggle to find a balance between caregiver and teacher, and that description sounded like it was written just for me. Even though I am not in an urban classroom currently, I have been, and the struggles of my students had me obsessed with thinking of ways in which I could improve their lives, inside and outside of the classroom. The article also mentioned that teachers can better, or I should say, more easily maintain classroom management in a setting that is most akin to those of their upbringing and experience. I do, however, agree with Matt in that I believe that this program has prepared me very well in other aspects of teaching, so it is my hope that if I end up in an urban classroom, I will be able to synthesize this knowledge with my general desire to have all of my students succeed, in order to be able to teach them literacy at the correct pace.
ReplyDeleteI also realize that, like Matt, I, too have a lot of knowledge about literacy content, but want to learn about the tools to teach literacy. I know that he will be an excellent teacher, even this year when he has an opportunity to explore teaching literacy aspects to his students!
My concern, of course, lies in that my placement teaches literacy of Spanish. I am eager to see the results of the third graders’ MEAP tests, to see how exactly the Spanish-weaning, English-introduction system works in the school. My students are currently learning the 5 Spanish vowel sounds, as well as 28 consonant sounds. While these sounds exist in English literacy, the Spanish letter are not necessarily a match to the English sound. Since my kids speak English fluently, they sometimes switch back and forth between the English and Spanish sounds. I think both this course and the support of my classmates will give me ideas in order to meet this challenge head-on!
Devon, you honestly took words right out of my brain! I could not agree more with your personal belief that urban schools would not be the best fit for you. I feel like can easily relate to your feelings. When I have been placed in the Lansing schools, it is so unlike the schooling experience I had growing up, that I do not quite know how to handle myself/ understand how to connect to my students. However, I can also say that I would not feel comfortable working with ELL students either (301 was my first experience dealing with that). I spent my entire grade school and high school in Lutheran school districts, and thus I did not have many opportunities to experience with people from drastically different backgrounds as myself. While I do not regret my schooling for a minute, I just know I still have a lot of learning to do in order to become the best teacher I can be for the students that I will one day teach.
ReplyDeleteWith saying how I feel, my classes at MSU and especially 401-402 have/will better prepare me to teach to a wide range of students. The readings for this week were very inspiring for me and gave me several ideas that I know I can use in my future classrooms. The Gibbons reading and Lenski article that I read both dealt with strategies to use when teaching ELL students. The thing that struck me the most was how these ideas can be applied to the English curriculum for all students, not just the ELL ones. Ever student can benefit from teacher modeling and distinct teaching of different literacies.
I am most excited for the new technologies we are using alongside regular class instruction. Technology has never been my strong suit so I look forward to learning how to incorporate it into the classroom setting. Hopefully this class will inspire me to become more tech-savvy. Needless to say, I am very excited for this semester and hearing more in depth what my blog group has to say :)