Learning Letter

This quarter was particularly difficult, as the work load seemed to be significantly higher than it has been in previous quarters. I was still pleased with the work that I was able to put forth, including the book talk, the mini-lesson, and the unit plan. I really loved listening to everyone's book talks and feel like I'm walking away with many more tools up my sleeve. However, I do wish that I had picked a different book. I took a chance on the book that I read, having never read it before, and it didn't bring me the benefit that I was hoping from it. While it was good, it was really geared towards only creative writing students. So, I wish I would have found something to offer the class that had a wider audience. I am still disappointed about the mini-lesson. We should have tried talking through the whole thing before doing it in class to see just how long each activity would take. I have a horrible habit of overplanning my lessons, leaving me cutting chunks out during the lesson or having to scramble to fit everything in. That is my goal for next quarter -- to work on my time management. The unit plan was insanely stressful. I say insane because there were definitely moments where I was definitely pushing the crazy side of the sanity spectrum. However, I am extremely proud of the work that I put in and I think it came out to a very cohesive, well-scaffolded lesson that I actually get to teach in the fall -- YAY. The one piece that really stick out to me that we read were Readicide. I knew that there was somewhat of a reading epidemic going on, but I suppose I had no idea how bad it was. Readicide made that very clear by quantifying it and giving some suggestions regarding how we can fix it. I definitely want to make sure that I start gathering my classroom library and surrounding my students with books so they learn to love reading. I will definitely be incorporating SSR into my daily lessons, and sharing with them the love that I have for reading to be a strong model for them. I think this course definitely made me a better teacher. I liked that it forced us to think not only about what we were teaching, but why we were teaching it. I had never realized the important of rationale before. I appreciate the readings that we were given in this course as well, as many of them are resources that I will use forever. I feel like I have a more broadened understanding of methodology and concepts that are important to teaching, and I think that's truly essential to being a good teacher. I certainly feel better prepared to be a teacher than I did ten weeks ago, and I'm thankful for that.