I really enjoyed this class and I can honestly say that the
culture of the classroom allowed me to make my first college friend. By discussing
much of the content with my peers, I was able to make connections and
relationships with people I normally wouldn’t have. I enjoyed the book talks,
mini- lessons, and unit plans. I thought the book talks were incredible because
it provided me with 20 different titles of books to explore and read. It also
provided me insight into what different people like to read and inspired me to
widen my interests. The mini-lessons in our book circles were also a great
tool. I enjoyed seeing everyone’s different ideas on how to present different aspects
of a book. There are so many lesson plan ideas I have now based on my
experience with the mini-lessons. I also liked how we each read the books but
we all presented in “groups” on specific books. That way, we were all benefiting
from reading but not required to do a full report or project on each.
The unit plan was also a great experience. I was really
stressed throughout it but I learned a lot about lesson planning and myself as
a planner, student, and as a teacher. It scares me to think about how much
time, effort, and thinking will go into creating my lessons for the first couple
years of teaching. I am told it gets easier and easier but the lesson plan
provided a great way to think about all aspects of a unit. I also liked the
added information to the TPA lesson plan because it required me share my
thinking and planning in more ways than one and helped me to become an expert
in teaching persuasion.
I was extremely overwhelmed after our first reading. I was
unsure I was fit to participate in the class. After we discussed the article,
and I realized I was not the only one totally lost, I felt more comfortable. Through
the discussion, I made connections with some really confusing parts of the
article. I re-read the article after our discussion (it was still confusing)
but I did understand more of it than the first time. I really enjoyed talking
about oppressors and the oppressed and how it applies to teachers and students.
That was a theory that rocked my entire view of teaching. I now see the theme
of oppressors and oppressed in other literary works. Plus, teaching what I had
been taught in class to my mom and dad was so fun! Many of the articles we read
in class I discussed with my family and was inspired and amazed by the amount
of information I remembered and how I was able to present it in a way other
people understood.
This class inspired me to include more discussion in my
classes as a teacher. I have never had friends in classes in school. When I missed
a class because of an illness or stress, I would wing it because I had no one
to call or contact. Often professors became friends and helped me through the
process but there is something important about creating relationships with
peers when it comes to learning. I also noticed that once I had established
relationships in the class, I was more willing to participate and contribute to
the conversation, even if I wasn’t 100% or sure of my ideas. I also liked all
the different reflective activities we did. I have been practicing on being
more reflective in my life and I am amazed by its power. I also enjoyed all of
the constructive criticism and feedback we provided for each other in class. Therefore,
all of knew the expectations but we all trusted each other and reinforced
learning and ideas. I learned so much from this class and I was always excited
to attend. Thank you for working so hard to make this a great quarter.
