This course as a whole was great. I am really glad I took
this course. The assignments we completed required much thought and planning.
Every lesson must have a plan and must have been well thought out. With the
book talks, our first big assignment, I did mine on “The Kite Runner”. Now,
“Kite Runner” is a long book; about 300 pages worth of information and my first
mistake was to read this whole book in one setting. Not one of my brightest
ideas but I did it. Reading this book in one setting of 6 hours, though I had a
sense of accomplishment, was shown through my lesson. There was not as much
preparation for this lesson that there should have been but it all worked out.
Should have spent more time but it opened the door to other assignments.
Our other
big assignment was our unit plan which I also did using the “Kite Runner”. This
was a much different assignment than I had ever done before. Very time
consuming and not fun but I also really enjoyed it. Just to be able to see the
amount of and planning it takes to go into one day’s lesson and each of the
assignments. Made me really think about how I can make this apply to the
students. So many hours of planning, typing, and asking questions; so many
hours well spent I must say.
The other
assignment was the mini lesson. This was an exciting assignment and really got
me to thinking about the theories and stories we read in class. Why they are
important and how would I go about communicating the objective to my own
students. The lesson plans really helped me see why, as teachers, we are
supposed to plan out every lesson. When
teaching this lesson, I had to account for what my students knew and did not
know. None would have gone as well as it did without the planning.
As for my
participation in the classroom, I found that classroom contribution plays a lot
but does not mean you have to comment all of the time. This course as a whole
has been great. I think the discussions, novels, and assignments we did taught
me so much. Education requires so many different key parts like TPA lesson
plans, novels, and teaching examples and I am glad we got to experience this as
a class. I think I learned a lot this quarter and I plan to use what I learned
and the texts we read as a teacher in my future.
