Another Step of the Journey...

Although the class I was posting to this blog for is over, I figured why not continue adding to it. At the least, it might be interesting for myself to look back at in the future and see how my thoughts, fears, etc. have changed (or stayed the same) over time! Tomorrow marks the beginning of my student teaching placement. I will be working in a middle school, specifically with a seventh grade teacher. I recently was informed that I will not only be responsible for teaching the students language arts, but math, social studies, and possibly science, too.

I am extremely nervous about this, but see it as a great opportunity to expand myself as an educator. I feel the most important thing I need to learn and practice is not how to "teach." I think what I need to focus on is standing in front of the class and feeling comfortable doing so. I also need to work on just general classroom organization. I hope, and have confidence, that with these things in order, everything else will come naturally to me. I know there is no other way for me to succeed than to simply jump into this experience head first!

Inspiration...

Today at yet another observation (still not done, but getting closer), I spent some time with the teacher I was observing during her planning period. Earlier in the morning, she had just introduced Sandra Cisneros' collection of vignettes The House on Mango Street to her freshmen English class. Now, she was looking through one of her friend/coworker's unit plan on the book. When she was done looking through the binder for ideas, she passed it over to me and let me peruse it. As the thick 3" binder thudded on the table in front of me she said, "This is her bible."

I flipped through the pages and was flabergasted. After recently finishing my first complete unit plan for my content area class, I was like a kid in a candy store with these lesson plans. She was so detailed, so meticulous, so engulfed in the book. I was inspired. Now, I'm not sure I will place each page of each lesson plan into a plastic page cover, but looking through this binder, I realized how "easy" this binder must make the unit for her to teach. She had almost become the book. There was a rainbow of post-its with her reflections and changes after every time of going through each lesson. Things that worked well. Things she could have done better. Although it seems time consuming, this is the teacher I aspire to be. Constantly changing, revising, reminding myself of ways to improve. And to do this even when other people are flabergasted by my work.

I was also very inspired by these two teachers' willingness to give and take their ideas. I am sure that both of them are better teachers due to this openness to share.

Vocabulary

A few days ago, I talked to a middle school language arts teacher and she gave me a great piece of advice. She said the most important thing a middle school teacher can do, no matter her subject area, is help students develop their vocabulary. She continued to say that this is primarily the responsibility of the language arts teacher. She said that the language arts teacher should help all the other teachers on her team to help incorporate the teaching of vocabulary into every curriculum.

The next day, I did an observation. In one classroom I observed, the teacher spent roughly one-third of the class period talking about one vocabulary word. She said she begins every single class period that way and also showed me a curriculum piece that she had developed fully on her own to make vocabulary a strong focus in her classroom, as well as the other classrooms in her school.

After these two experiences, I intend to search for a variety of ways to help make vocabulary a main component of my language arts classroom.

Reality...

For the past year and a half, I have been working as an elementary ELL (English-language learner) Teacher's Assistant while attending classes to become a certified teacher. Today, I turned in my letter of resignation to my principal effective after winter break. I did this because as soon as I return from "winter break" I will begin my student teaching placement. This was a bittersweet moment. For a year and a half I have been raving about how badly I want my own classroom. I love my current position, but there is definitely something to be said for eliminating my label as assistant. Usually I do not think the day can come fast enough when I have my own classroom and can carry out all the language arts lessons I envision.

However, sometimes I think that I might not be ready for this. Now, the perfectionist and overachiever inside of me constantly points out that I would never be satisfied if I were to remain an assistant. But then I wonder if I have all the tools necessary to be the sole teacher in a classroom. I guess only time will tell...

The Odyssey

I recently finished rereading The Odyssey by Homer for a class for my teaching certification. I read it for the first time when I was a sophomore in high school, about eight years ago. I have always loved reading, especially challenging, "classic" books. However, I have a distinct memory of absolutely despising The Odyssey. I remember misinterpreting multiple parts of the story and being strongly opposed to sitting down to do the assigned readings. However, reading The Odyssey the second time around gave me a newfound appreciation for it. I saw it as a well-crafted and interesting story, not to mention well-written. This makes me wonder about high school reading assignments. Perhaps it was because it was assigned reading that I did not like it, but then again, it was an assignment this time around too. Perhaps I did not like The Odyssey the first time because I did not understand it.

This makes me question the idea of assigning challenging books to high school (or middle school) readers. For the eight years in between my first reading and second reading of The Odyssey, I had the mindset that this was a terrible book. Maybe I simply read it too young before my mind could comprehend such a complicated text. So, where does this leave me as an English teacher? Do I never assign my students challenging texts or do I accept the fact that they probably will not understand/appreciate the texts I assign? Or do I simply find some magical way to ensure that every single one of my students loves Homer?! Not an easy task...

Technology in an English Classroom

During an observation last week at Deerfield High School, I overheard a freshman student telling her teacher that something had gone wrong with her "forum post" for that week. After the student left, I told the teacher I had overheard part of the conversation and asked her what they were talking about. She told me that the class had an online forum in which the students were able to respond to teacher prompts and occasionally converse with each other over the web. I then explained to her how I was utilizing a similar forum in one of my teacher-certification classes. The teacher seemed so excited about the possibilities the forum presented to her students, both in terms of content and simply becoming familiar with the technology.

Next week for the same certification class in which I am partaking in the online forum, I am doing a "hot topic" presentation on the use of technology in English classrooms. In my opinion, it seems like this topic should not even be up for discussion. Given the artistic nature of the subject of Language Arts, the possibilities for incorporating technology into the curriculum seem endless. Furthermore, when taking into account the multiple intelligences, technology seems to be the perfect medium in which to appeal to various learning styles, such as visual and auditory, to name just a few.

One of my main goals as a Language Arts teacher will be to consistently introduce to my students new ways to use technology to assist them with their study of the subject. Some technologies I see being extremely beneficial in the classroom include Podcasts, online discussion forums, audio books, and countless computer programs created for just that purpose. As a (hopefully) soon-to-be teacher, I feel it is my responsibility to build up my knowledge in all of these technologies, as well as others, to make myself the best possible teacher for this highly technological generation of students.