Personal Reflection

1. Reflect on the work you’ve completed in the course (book talks, unit plans, etc.)

My favorite part of this class was the book talks. I learned about so many new books and found so many interesting topics to look farther into. I found that some books were not my style, but I could see students that I currently have that would be interested in them. As for the articles we did, I enjoyed learning about the edTPA that we will have to be doing very soon. I also enjoyed learning about creating my own teaching statement. These things will help me in the future. The books that we read could be used in history or language art, so I enjoyed finding things that cover both of my interests for teaching. The final 3-week unit plan that we had to work on was hard but very helpful. I found new ways to look at language arts in connect to other subject areas. I wish that I had been able to teach the unit in a classroom and seen how I would have changed it after teaching it.

2. Reflect on the theories and concepts we explored in readings and discussions

I think my favorite theory that we discussed was “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. This was the most informative to me because I have often wondered where the line is between the teacher learning all the information and the students learning how to find information on their own. Often times, articles are given, or readings are given, then we expect students to feed us back the information in a specific way. I observed a change to this idealism this quarter. In my placement I saw students given a couple articles to read. Once they read the articles they had to get onto the online data base and expand their research on a specific part from the articles they already read. This was an argumentative essay that students had to find their own research to support their argument. The entire time the students were working on this assignment I kept thinking back to “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. As teachers we always need to remember that our students are the learners, and for them to succeed we must teach them the skills needed to work it out on their own.

3. Reflect on how you think your participation in this course has influenced your thinking about yourself as a teacher

I know that I need to improve a lot as a student and teacher. We all have room to improve. I work really hard on somethings and not so much on others. I lose focus because of my own personal issues in life and often forget to check back in with my professor to make sure that I am on point. This quarter was hard for me. I had to learn to juggle more than I have ever had to do. Things got forgotten or left on the back burner. I need to do better organization in the future and focus on all that needs to be done well before it needs to be done. If I learn a better way to organize than I will be set.