Learning Letter

                This class has done the most to prepare me for taking over my own classroom. In my placement, I have only taught standalone lessons. This course provided me with my first experience in putting together consecutive lessons. I now know exactly what needs to go into a unit, and this will be invaluable as I prepare lessons and units for my future classroom. Book talks were useful as I was introduced to several interesting books that could be taught in my own classroom. It also allowed me to read a book that I thought was interesting and present it to the class. I will be exploring some of these books more and considering how I can implement them into my classroom. I also enjoyed the mini-lessons and the different topics we had to present them under (pop culture, social justice, etc.). This helped me think of ways to introduce texts to students in more interesting ways.

                Several of the theories and texts in the course were useful to me in developing my teaching style, and several of the ideas I utilized in my unit plan. I particularly like the ideas of shying away from multiple choice exams to test students’ skills and knowledge. Open-ended responses can ask for the same information from students, but ask them to use more skills to come up with the answer. It turns students away from memorizing information and encourages them to use critical thinking skills. I also enjoyed Kelly Gallagher’s book, discussing over-teaching of texts. In my own classroom, I plan to have a loose outline of when students need to have a text read by. I will give them guided reading activities to complete as they wish throughout the text. This way, students aren’t stopped at the end of every chapter to complete a comprehension quiz. Students are able to get into the flow of reading and connect more with what they read.

                This course has definitely changed the way I see myself as a teacher. Every course I take at Eastern adds some new information or teaching skill to my arsenal. This class has added the most to my arsenal throughout the discussions with fellow classmates. Seeing how my classmates would react to certain situations or their philosophy towards teaching shows me many different viewpoints on the subject, allowing me to choose which ideas I want to implement in the future. This class and the people in it have exposed me to the most opinions regarding education. Participating in this class has drastically changed my viewpoint towards teaching (in a good way), and I look forward to trying out these ides in my own classroom.