Learning Letter

The major project for this course was the three-week unit plan, which is easily the biggest project I’ve ever completed in my educational career; at the beginning of the quarter, I had absolutely no idea how I was going to complete the project because looking at all the pieces on the course blog was daunting and overwhelming.  However, I appreciated the accountability that was built into the course, meaning five of the components of the project had to be turned in for feedback from the professor.  This really helped with creating the project because it forced me to be productive and get things done on time.  The lesson plans were the biggest portion of the unit plan, but since there was accountability on the other pieces of the project, I created my own accountability for the 14 other lesson plans; once most of my unit plan was complete and I knew the end goal of the unit, I created my own due dates for the lesson plans.  Lesson plans 1 through 5 would be completed by November 12^th, lessons 6 through 10 would be due by November 19^th, and the final lessons 11 through 15 would be due November 26^th.  When I’d complete a set of plans, I would edit, proofread, and add them to the final unit plan, which ended up creating a lot less stress from procrastination.  The unit plan helped me grow as a teacher because unit plans are done all the time in schools; I have a copy of my placement’s unit plan for Semester 1 and 2 for ninth grade students.  The project gave a glimpse into what we’ll be doing collaboratively in our careers.  Teachers must determine where their students are before the unit, where they want students to end up at the end of the unit, and what activities and informational texts would be effective.  Something this project made me realize is, even though the unit plan is far from perfect, that this is something I can show my future employers as evidence that I at least know the concept of getting students from Point A to Point B and how to support them during the unit.

I think the Book Talk assignment was beneficial and enlightening as an English teacher and a book lover because it exposed me to books I’ve never heard of but would love to read at some point, and it provided new light for teaching opportunities for books I’ve already read, such as the Hobbit.  As teachers, there are going to be times when we want to implement new materials, however, it’s not always as simple as just giving a new book to students.  That’s where the Book Talk was beneficial because we had to think about and predict what an administrator, parents, and students would react to the books we chose.  This is something we would need to do in a real career setting because there are books that students should read but might contain controversial ideas and/or scenes.  However, just because there are sensitive and controversial topics in a book doesn’t mean students shouldn’t be exposed to that.  Teachers must be prepared to present a moving case for the book and inform administrators of why people might object to the book being taught.  It was also awesome to watch all the presenters during the Book Talks; we were all so excited about our chosen books and wanted to talk about them forever.  This is why we are education majors: we love and appreciate the texts and we want to share them with future generations.

The mini-lesson, while great in theory, was a bit harder to grasp as beneficial as the other two projects of the quarter.  The only reason I say this is because it was a 20-minute lesson.  Now, I’m not saying that the mini-lesson wasn’t valuable because it was; the feedback I got from my peers and the instructor, completing a TPA, and using a text that could potentially use in a future classroom was very helpful for growth as a teacher.  However, 20 minutes was restricting, and it felt a bit rushed in terms of what I’m used to teaching in my practicum.  My lessons range from 50 minutes to 90 minutes depending on the day of the week (block schedule on Weds/Thurs) which allows me to do a lot more activities with my students, so I felt like I had to rush with 20 minutes.  However, I think I was still able to present my teaching style and ability within 20 minutes, particularly when my technology failed, so I had to come up with a new plan on the fly.  This is crucial for teachers because it won’t be the last time something in my original planned lesson fails or doesn’t go the way I intend.

The final piece of coursework was the blog posts; I really liked the blog posts because it allowed us to express our ideas about different concepts, theories, and texts we covered in the course.  It also exposes us to different ideas about future materials and resources for our future classrooms. 

  In regard to concepts and theories we talked about during the course, I found everything we talked about very enlightening and I hopefully want to include in my classroom at some point.  I want to highlight two concepts we talked about: Common Core State Standards and Pop Culture.  I liked how in-depth we went into Common Core because there is a lot of information about Common Core, some true, some false.  Our discussion about CCSS was very beneficial as teachers because Common Core probably isn’t going away, so it’s important for us as teachers to understand exactly what the standards are and aren’t to be able to help our students meet these standards.  The biggest piece that was important to know is that Common Core isn’t a curriculum, which is a huge misconception.  While CCSS aren’t perfect, we cannot ignore them, so we should at least understand the concept and the standards because, regardless of our feelings about the standards, we still have to support and guide our students to meeting the standards.  I also think having a class discussion about the standards rather than direct instruction about them allowed for more of our own opinions and facts to be talked about in terms of CCSS.

The second concept we discussed was Pop Culture in the classroom.  The article we read, blogged about, and discussed in class was valuable in my opinion because it’s a different way of thinking in our current education system.  Students get bored and disinterested in the material they cannot connect with; there’s no ifs, ands, or buts for this.  However, something as simple as including memes or connecting texts to current societal topics or pairing a text with a film can take disinterested students to students who want to engage in lessons because they are interested.  Even if you include pop culture, students are still learning, but they are having fun and showing interest in their learning.  Right after reading and discussing the article, I was about to start a three-day mini-unit about reliable sources and making text-to-real-life connections with LOTF.  So, I asked my mentor if I could include some pop culture in my lessons to strengthen students’ interest in the book and seeing the value in reading it.  I wanted to show my students parts of The Maze Runner (2014) because the author has come out and said he was heavily influenced by LOTF, therefore, there are many parallels.  As I was explaining my idea and rationale for using the film, my mentor became more and more intrigued by the idea.  She went as far as to say she wanted to show the film in its entirety at the end of the unit as a wrap up to the book’s value which we established at the beginning of the unit with the Introduction by Stephen King.  I like the idea of including pop culture because, in the end, it’s about students’ learning and if including what my students are interested in grabs their attention and helps with better understanding and progress, then that’s what counts.

Finally, I believe my participation in this course, projects, discussions, and readings had truly benefitted my growth as a teacher and has positively impacted me in how I view myself as a teacher.  I talked about this a bit in my Self-Evaluation included in my unit plan; there have been many instances, especially within the last year, where I’ve been doubting myself as a teacher, if I’m doing enough for my students, and even if I deserve to be a teacher.  And at the beginning of this course, I was still having a lot of doubts because I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to complete the amount of work this course was going to entail.  However, it’s now the end of the quarter, I’ve successfully completed all of the coursework, and I’m very proud of the quality of work that I submitted on all assignments.  Also, many of my doubts have been debunked throughout this quarter; I shouldn’t doubt myself as a teacher because there are no perfect teachers, I am doing enough for my students because sometimes I must make mistakes in order to determine the best ways to serve my students’ diverse needs, and I do deserve to be a teacher because I deeply care about my students, their needs, and their learning.  There is still a lot I have to learn about being a teacher, but teachers are always learning and always growing, even after graduation.  There are still days here and there where sometimes I question if I should be a teacher, but being able to introduce new ideas to my students and seeing my students be successful makes it all worth it.  This course has given me many materials, resources, and concepts that have influenced how I view myself as a teacher and want to see my classroom grow as I move onto my career.