Learning Letter -- Blog Post #15
I began this class uncertain of what it entailed outside of the obvious that could be inferred from the course title. Still, I found myself very intrigued by the book talks and the scale of the unit plan, even if the latter made me rather nervous. The idea of book talks, as well as the blog were exciting to me, mostly because I hadn't done a book report in some time and I had enjoyed doing them as a kid and also because I've never had a blog before and I wanted to see what it was like.
I can easily say the Book Talks and the weekly blog posts were my favorite part of the course. My first book talk I was nervous even after I read over the requirements, because I wasn't sure how to place five minutes worth of information about one book into a presentation. I was worried it would be too long, so I zipped through it in my haste. The second I felt a lot more confidence in. I was less concerned about explaining the entire summary, and more so about the book itself. The themes, how easy it was to read, I hadn't written anything about that in book reports as a child.
It was about as fun writing up as it was presenting it, though I've never been that great at public speaking. I also enjoyed seeing others present their books. Several of them have found their way onto my book list for later reading as well. Particularly the Butterfly Garden and When a Monster Calls. Both resonated with me fairly well as I often read more surrealistic psychological horror on my own time than any other genre. The books I chose for Book Talks were a little more out of my comfort zone than most but I thought they'd make sense in a classroom.
The Unit Plan was the one main assignment that made me nervous in this class. This was my first time attempting a lesson plan let alone a unit plan so this was first real shot at writing things up as a teacher and explaining things that students would want to know in the context of the lesson. I liked the building on top of other lessons aspect even if I had rewire myself for technical writing rather than my usual creative writing which took a lot of patience and frustration.
What spoke to me most out of the theories I learned in this class was Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed and the correction strategy of minimal marking. It wasn't the first time I had read about minimal marking since i had read an article about for my Grammar for Teachers course that I was taking at the same time as this class. Also, the importance or rhetorical writing and reading, along with discussion skills being just as important as other skills but unfortunately underused. When it came to Freire's work, I agreed and disagreed with his philosophy. Upon further reflection after I had put up my blog post, I realized that with every theory, I didn't completely agree or disagree with any of them. As a teacher, I think, it's important to wade through theories and build up my own. There isn't a set path on how to teach, but there is a way to improve teaching according to these theories and that you don't have to simply use one and hope it works.
The readings were very supplemental to the course but also well integrated in my opinion even if I didn't enjoy all of them none of them were bad reads or hard to get through other than the context and not the exposition. It gave me a lot to think about when it came to tone and audience. What was okay to present to a certain age group of children and what was not? Teachers aren't meant to coddle their students but blindly placing them in front of a subject and expecting them to just get it doesn't work either. Which is why discussion is very important and understanding the content and importance of lessons is as well. I found that especially true while reading Night and Tovani's I read it, but I don't get it.
Overall, my participation in this course has opened my eyes to different theories of teaching and not just that - learning how to think like the teacher I want to be but still be able to step back and see things from a student's perspective to further improve any curriculum I create or lesson plan I need to teach. That it's okay to not have all the answer all the time but to still be able to talk about things even if they're hard. Ultimately, I had a lot of fun with this course, even if I was initially very afraid of the Unit Plan. I still managed to do it and learned a lot from the process even if I know I can do better and will use that knowledge for next time. Even as a teacher, I am always learning and adapting to new things and outlooks. At least now I have tools to work with and a good idea of where I want to go.
I began this class uncertain of what it entailed outside of the obvious that could be inferred from the course title. Still, I found myself very intrigued by the book talks and the scale of the unit plan, even if the latter made me rather nervous. The idea of book talks, as well as the blog were exciting to me, mostly because I hadn't done a book report in some time and I had enjoyed doing them as a kid and also because I've never had a blog before and I wanted to see what it was like.
I can easily say the Book Talks and the weekly blog posts were my favorite part of the course. My first book talk I was nervous even after I read over the requirements, because I wasn't sure how to place five minutes worth of information about one book into a presentation. I was worried it would be too long, so I zipped through it in my haste. The second I felt a lot more confidence in. I was less concerned about explaining the entire summary, and more so about the book itself. The themes, how easy it was to read, I hadn't written anything about that in book reports as a child.
It was about as fun writing up as it was presenting it, though I've never been that great at public speaking. I also enjoyed seeing others present their books. Several of them have found their way onto my book list for later reading as well. Particularly the Butterfly Garden and When a Monster Calls. Both resonated with me fairly well as I often read more surrealistic psychological horror on my own time than any other genre. The books I chose for Book Talks were a little more out of my comfort zone than most but I thought they'd make sense in a classroom.
The Unit Plan was the one main assignment that made me nervous in this class. This was my first time attempting a lesson plan let alone a unit plan so this was first real shot at writing things up as a teacher and explaining things that students would want to know in the context of the lesson. I liked the building on top of other lessons aspect even if I had rewire myself for technical writing rather than my usual creative writing which took a lot of patience and frustration.
What spoke to me most out of the theories I learned in this class was Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed and the correction strategy of minimal marking. It wasn't the first time I had read about minimal marking since i had read an article about for my Grammar for Teachers course that I was taking at the same time as this class. Also, the importance or rhetorical writing and reading, along with discussion skills being just as important as other skills but unfortunately underused. When it came to Freire's work, I agreed and disagreed with his philosophy. Upon further reflection after I had put up my blog post, I realized that with every theory, I didn't completely agree or disagree with any of them. As a teacher, I think, it's important to wade through theories and build up my own. There isn't a set path on how to teach, but there is a way to improve teaching according to these theories and that you don't have to simply use one and hope it works.
The readings were very supplemental to the course but also well integrated in my opinion even if I didn't enjoy all of them none of them were bad reads or hard to get through other than the context and not the exposition. It gave me a lot to think about when it came to tone and audience. What was okay to present to a certain age group of children and what was not? Teachers aren't meant to coddle their students but blindly placing them in front of a subject and expecting them to just get it doesn't work either. Which is why discussion is very important and understanding the content and importance of lessons is as well. I found that especially true while reading Night and Tovani's I read it, but I don't get it.
Overall, my participation in this course has opened my eyes to different theories of teaching and not just that - learning how to think like the teacher I want to be but still be able to step back and see things from a student's perspective to further improve any curriculum I create or lesson plan I need to teach. That it's okay to not have all the answer all the time but to still be able to talk about things even if they're hard. Ultimately, I had a lot of fun with this course, even if I was initially very afraid of the Unit Plan. I still managed to do it and learned a lot from the process even if I know I can do better and will use that knowledge for next time. Even as a teacher, I am always learning and adapting to new things and outlooks. At least now I have tools to work with and a good idea of where I want to go.
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