When reading through the syllabus, I noticed that there are three goals of the course: 1) developing your vision of standards-based teaching, 2) developing your pedagogy, and 3) engaging in ongoing self-assessment. I feel that developing my pedagogy is at the top of my list. I also really like the idea of ongoing self-assessment because I think it will be really beneficial to understand myself as a teacher and a learner and where my strengths and weaknesses are.
Another goal in this class that I have is to develop a lesson that I can effectively teach to my students in Spanish (I am in a spanish immersion program). I hope to gain more confidence in my teaching of Spanish through the experiences in this course.
Since Jen warned us about the new literacies project being frusterating in the beginning, I also hope to make the most out of the project. I hope to not only learn from my project, but from those of my classmates as well since I think the idea of new literacies sounds interesting.
Like most future teachers, I plan to teach wherever I can get a job. However, the ideal setting for me would be in an elementary school in a small, rural town, similar to where I grew up. I want to be able to inspire and make a difference in students lives who don't have all the resources that many others do. While I will be certified through 8th grade in spanish and math, I would prefer elementary grades, especially second or third.
(Another, much different, possibility that I have been thinking of is working for the Department of Defense and teaching on a military base, as I am engaged to a Marine).
I feel that the experiences in this course can prepare me for any of the contexts where I might end up teaching. It will give me a versatile teaching philosophy that I will be able to mold to fit my context and students.
I feel that I learned a lot about literacy in 301, so I hope to scaffold upon that knowledge in focusing more on instruction in this course. I hope to learn about how to accomodate different learning styles in my literacy instruction.
I want to "bloom" in any way possible. I want to bloom in incorporating different technologies in my teaching. Although I took CEP 416 last semester, I feel that in my field placement because of the lack of resources there are so few that I could use. I want to bloom as a teacher and a learner in being knowledgable about how I and others learn. I want my confidence in speaking in Spanish to my students to bloom as well. Finally, I hope for my teaching philosophy along with ideas for literacy methods to bloom.
I agree with the three major categories as the syllabus goals for the class, yet I think there are a bunch of smaller goals under these categories that are also important to focus on individually. I agree that developing my pedagogy is the goal that will be my top priority for this class. I was wondering: which goals within this larger goal did you especially want to focus on throughout the semester? For me, developing knowledge of curriculum, planning, and assessment is especially important. I specifically want to learn how to organize content, skills, and strategies that are responsive to the learners that I am teaching. This will be my main goal for this course. Chapter 1 of Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning seemed to share this goal, focusing on how to make lessons more understandable to ESL students. I feel that this book in particular will help me on the journey to reaching this goal during the semester.
ReplyDeleteI also am going into Spanish and I envy your placement because I believe that the hands-on experience that you are getting with Spanish teaching in your field placement will really be useful in obtaining a job in a Spanish classroom in the future. I am certain that you will gain more confidence in the Spanish classroom as the semester unfolds and agree that this is a great goal for the semester. Personally, I want to become more comfortable with teaching in general, as I often get nervous when I stand in front of the class to teach my lesson.
I think many people hope to teach in areas similar to the ones they grew up in. I hope to teach in an elementary school in a suburban area, much like the one I grew up in. I also would prefer to teach third grade, although I have had positive experiences in 4th and 5th grade classrooms as well. I agree with what you said though, that in the end, we will take a job wherever one is available. No matter where we end up, learners will be diverse and what we learn in this course about teaching diverse learners will prove useful.
I also especially want to bloom in the area of technology. Even though my placement classroom has a smartboard, I do not feel comfortable using it yet. After reading over the syllabus, I had some questions that were similar to your placement situation. How do we incorporate technology in classrooms where schools do not have the money for a lot of technology? How do we incorporate technology when some of our students are of lower socioeconomic status and may not have access to a computer at home? I am not sure as to whether or not there is an adequate solution to this problem, but hope to learn more about it throughout the semester.
I agree about the importance of our pedagogy. If we don’t know who we are as teachers how are we going to expect our students to? Since I have written some before I find it very interesting when I go back and reread them and reflect on what I would now change on them as I am learning more and understanding deeper concepts and themes in the teaching world.
ReplyDeleteUnderstanding technology in a different and better way is something that I can completely relate to wanting to improve on with this class. I want to discover new ways that I can incorporate technology into my classroom, especially if I am in a classroom or a community that doesn’t have very much technological opportunities. I can really see it in my placement where I am at now because my CT incorporates no technology into her lesson and doesn’t appear to encourage me to or help me discover ways to incorporate it in my lessons.
I always hope to learn lesson plan ideas and activities that I can use in my own classroom from my fellow classmates.
Both of you two have an interest in Spanish which is different from my own because I don’t know another language at all. I am a TESOL major but I hope to help students in my own classroom with English rather than specific Spanish students. I am in TE 494 this semester, too, which focuses on assessing English language learners so I think it will be very interesting to compare what I learn in each classes and see how they all relate and link together. I actually want to teach in a different area that I grew up in. I grew up in a pretty much suburban area, however, I want to teach in an urban city. I was part of the Urban Educator’s Cohort Program at MSU so my passion has been teaching inner-city students which I will pursue with my internship in Chicago next year.
I definitely relate to the desire to bloom in the area of technology. I can always learn more ways to use technology, especially since it’s changing all the time.