Dear Dr. Agriss,
This course was by far the mostly helpful course I’ve taken
in preparing to become a teacher. I loved the fact that we actually read
literature we might teach, or one day want to incorporate into our classrooms.
It seems that in other classes we often talk so much about what we want to do
in our classrooms or incorporate but we never have to actually experience it or
read the material. This class forced us to do and at least personally, I
enjoyed it.
I thought the book talks were a really fun exercise. I
enjoyed picking a book that wasn’t too mainstream and trying to decide how I
can incorporate it into the classroom and whether it would be appropriate. It
was fascinating to see the choices everyone came up with and to see if they
would suggest their choice as outside reading or a class novel. The only thing
I didn’t like about the book talks was I learned the ending to many books that
are on my list to read! But that is just me being a selfish reader, as a future
teacher it was great to receive those handouts that I can now use for a quick
reference or reminder on the text. My choice of book, The Rules to Survival, was an excellent read and I will definitely
use it as an optional read for my classroom. If I’m teaching at a middle school
level (probably 7th or 8th grade) then I will think about
using it as a class novel, as the language is relatively basic.
The mini-lesson was way more fun than I thought it was going
to be. I was really nervous to do my lesson. It worked out that I was going to
have to teach two lessons that day with the earlier lesson being my the first lesson
I had ever taught, and then jumping into our mini-lesson. I ended up loving the
experience. It was incredible to get feedback on my teaching performance and to
put an idea for a lesson into actual practice. It was so extremely helpful. The
other part I really enjoyed with the mini-lessons was getting to see everyone
else’s teaching styles. It really drove home the point that everyone has a
different methodology to their classroom demeanor and not one way is right or
wrong. All the lessons we went through had aspects that were effective in
teaching the lesson. I learned a great deal in watching my colleagues and
taking what worked well from their mini-lessons.
The mini-lesson was really the catalyst that started to get
me comfortable with the unit plan. Dr. Agriss, the unit plan…that was a doozy.
But, you already know that. I am very proud the work that is portrayed in my
unit plan. I’m not professing that it is good, or right, but I am very proud of
my efforts on this assignment. I did the best I could based on research and
what information I could glean off my classmates and people who had completed
the assignment before. As I stated in our other reflection, I sure lost a lot
of sleep over putting this plan together; but what an accomplishment. I am very
interested to look over everyone else’s unit plans. I love to see the
differences in ideas for a unit, as well as learning the strengths of my
classmates. I love that we all go through this together and then can talk about
it afterwards and share what worked and didn’t. It’s just such a great process
to make us better teachers. There is a boatload that I would change with my
unit plan and all that can be found in my unit plan reflection, but for now I’m
going to stick with telling you just that I’m proud of my efforts on this
assignment and that is something I don’t usually say.
The pedagogical study aspect of this class was beneficial
and I liked that we began the class learning what would be the underpinnings of
our development as teachers. The text I enjoyed the most was “Critical Pedagogy
and Popular Culture in an Urban Secondary English Classroom.” It was the text I
identified the most with because it specifically discussed the inner workings
of the urban classroom which is something that interests me for my future teaching
career.
The other text we dealt with that really comes to mind when
I reflect on our class was the newspaper article about the local teacher using inappropriate
song lyrics in class. I thought that was a great exercise where we began to
explore the boundaries of appropriateness in the classroom. We also got to hear
what our classmates thought about the lyrics as well as you chiming in your
thoughts. That was one thing I would have liked to have had more of in the
class, was your opinion. I’m sure it was intentional that you didn’t always
share your thoughts on certain situations or articles to give us the opportunity
to develop our own beliefs, but for my personal preference after our
discussions I would have loved to have gotten your opinions more.
Through my bazillion years of school, I have always liked
classes that warrant discussion over all-lecture classes. I always just thought
it was a personal preference until we read the “Discussion as a way of Teaching”
text. That was the first article that really helped me to realize you need research
to back your reasoning for doing anything in a classroom (and I mean anything
and everything), or especially when you go to write a TPA lesson plan. Aside from those two texts, the other articles
we read were fine, but they didn’t stick with me as much as those two did. The
Paulo Freire text was a bit out there but I could identify with much of what he
was saying, it just wasn’t a favorite of mine. Maybe that just means I need
more experience or need to grow as an educator to really identify more with his
message or methods? Not sure, but it was the only other text I even remember
any content from besides the two articles I mentioned liking above.
In two classes this semester I have stepped a bit outside my
comfort zone in the classroom. In your class I spoke up in the group setting more
than I really wanted, partially because I felt as though we had a quieter group
and partly because I wanted to see what my classmate’s had to say in response to
my opinions. I wanted to learn from them. But…personally, I am more comfortable
taking more of an active listening role until something really strikes my fancy
and then I’d like to chime in on the subject. But for this class I felt as
though our sharing was a bit more reserved or maybe we are all similar in we generally
prefer active listening roles for participation. So, to sum it up and say that
I was not exactly comfortable with how much I spoke in the whole-class
discussion setting would be accurate. I felt like I needed to voice my opinion more
for the sake of discussion in the class, than I would have liked. Maybe that
was wrong move, I’m not sure.
Realizing that I am more comfortable as an active listener and
occasional sharer in class reminds me that my students may be that way too. The
fact that they don’t immediately raise their hand when a question is asked or a
discussion begins does not mean they are not engaged or unprepared for the
discussion. They may just like to observe for a while before voicing their
opinion. It also reminded me that speaking
in class can either empower a student or make it so the other students are not
actively listening to what they say. For instance, if in our class we had an “over-sharer”
(which we didn’t in this particular class unless maybe it was me) students may
begin to tune out to what that student has to say regardless of if the content
was good or not. The fact that this person is sharing, yet again, might
automatically make the other students tune out because they talk too much in
class. Whereas, those students who only share occasionally are at more of an
advantage because what they have to say the other students might view as being
more profound and have more of an impact
on discussion; because they don’t speak up in class as frequently. Just some
thoughts and things I want to recognize and be aware of for my future students.
You always want your students to share their opinions in class as long as they
are relevant to the discussion, but you always make choices who to call on if
there are opportunities to hear from all students not just one.
Thank you again for such a wonderful class. I have really
enjoyed the material we covered in the class (even though my ulcer says thanks
for the unit-plan assignment). I feel more prepared to be a teacher after this
one class than in any of my other classes combined. I’m sure I speak on behalf
of my classmates when I say, “I look forward to taking senior capstone with you
next quarter.”
Thanks again,
Shelby Ramirez
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