Learning
Letter
The workload of the course was
probably one of the highest workloads I have ever had in my college career, it
brought a lot of stress and a lot of late nights. That being said, I think that
all of it was valuable. I have been very vocal with my cooperating teacher
about how I am worried about being able to plan well. One of the final projects
of this class involved planning for a three week unit, which is by far more
difficult than the individual TPAs I have had to write until this point in
classes or for teaching. While initially I thought this to be an incredibly
daunting task, it turned out that even though it was very hard it was
incredibly beneficial to think about. One of the things that I found was that
planning does take time, but is actually not as difficult as I once thought.
Even though I say this without having taught that unit, I do feel proud of what
I accomplished in it. Additionally, I also recognize that I will probably make
several changes to the lessons as I teach them, and that’s something that I
think will make me a better teacher.
We discussed many theories in class,
some of which I find very interesting and useful and others I am not sure how I
will incorporate them into the classroom. The person that I found most
important is Dr. Tovani, I feel like she has many important ideas that can
prove very beneficial in the classroom. Many of her worksheets and inner voice
ideas for reading text I find to be very beneficial in really any setting. They
can very easily be modified to be easier for younger students and the more
difficult for older students. I do plan on incorporating many of her ideas into
student work during novels or other types of work.
Many of the things that we discussed
have helped to prepare me to be a better teacher and I look forward to
experimenting with some of them in my student teaching quarter. I do especially
feel better equipped to function as an English teacher, which was something
that I didn’t feel incredibly comfortable doing. However, the mini-lesson and
unit planning were incredibly beneficial for me on that front. I am actually
much more excited for my student teaching quarter than I was before.
