Every flower needs water and sunlight to bloom and grow...
A Reflective Essay by Erica Lewis
My Original StatementsThese are some of the original statements I had made in my Goals Statement Essay written in December of 2009 when applying to Michigan State University's graduate program. My goals reflected my need to be organized and flexible while taking my masters course classes. This idea shaped how I divided up my time between me as the student and me as the teacher.
"I have not had much training in literacy improvement but based on the data I learned from my internship school there is a vast need to improve literacy in students. I think that through the literacy section I can learn new tools to help my students to read, write, and understand content better." "Part of teaching is actually going out to experience it but I want to continue to read up on the best practices that arise and the controversies that challenge teaching everyday." "My personal goal is to walk away with at least seven different styles to utilize in my classroom to make the environment as conducive to learning as possible. I am always open to new ideas that will improve the learning and comfort of the environment my students are in" | How I have Learned to GrowAfter looking at some of my statements I have come to see that my graduate courses, especially in literacy, have been the sunlight and water that I needed in order to grow as a teacher. Being still fairly new to the teaching field, I still feel like there are many opportunities in the future for me to bloom and grow as an educator and professional.
-After taking my first course in literacy I was hooked on trying to find fun alternative ways to encourage and promote reading. The course, TE 838, taught me to critically look at why we choose certain films and what beliefs they might embed in the students. It made me start to assess what I did in class and why I did it, not just with literacy but with everything I do. -Finding challenges and controversies to question in education does not seem hard to do at all. Implementing positive practices came naturally with the courses. Many courses reinforced what I was already doing or taught me new tools that would fit nicely into my teaching style. - The Seven Things I have Learned: 1. Use unconventional literacy types in my class such as children's picture books to portray historical themes that might appear dull in the textbook 2. Teach students to question Social Studies texts. Just because it is in the textbook does not mean that it is one hundred percent accurate 3. Use different technologies to enhance literacy learning. Do not allow students to just read and discuss but create different outlets that make the experience interesting to discuss in 4. To create comfortable literacy enviroments I must tailor to the literacy levels of each student. Differentiating literacy by challenging students just above their comfort zone in order to challenge and allow success in reading 5. Do not just randomly choose films, video clips, or texts to read because it may reenforce or dismiss certain viewpoints. The reverse is true too because what I do not choose to emphasize might signify that it is less important 6. Allow students to pick and choose the topics they read about. This way they have control over their reading 7. There is always opportunity to help students that have special needs as long as you take the time and effort to meet with the student, special education teachers, and their parents if possible |
In Further Detail...
Looking back on my original goals statement I can see a few instances where I grew in my understanding. I had planted the seeds that I wanted my courses to nurture in order for me to become a better educator. A few of those courses stand out to me when I think about what ingredients that were needed to help the seeds grow.
When I applied in December of 2009 I knew that I wanted to focus in literacy for my concentration. Throughout the program I have seen many different strategies and have thought about many different road blocks that need hurdling. This really inspired me to want to utilize reading in my classroom and to think about my ideas that I use daily in my classroom. As a new teacher, I wanted to grow with my students as well. One thing I wanted to start implementing in my classroom was taught in my TE 865 Teaching and Learning K-12 Social Studies course. The course suggested that we think about why we do things in the classroom but specifically how to engage students in thinking about their thinking when relating to Social Studies. This really hit home for me and made me critically analyze the activities I did in class and why I did them. This idea was also reinforced in my TE 838 course where we had to dive into explaining and assessing why educators might show films in their classrooms and the impacts those films have. I know from my standpoint that I do not just throw in any movie. This course reinforced my beliefs that I choose to do certain activities such as showing video clips with some type of purpose in mind and not as just a time waster. TE 865 helped me to blossom a little bit in my teaching practices.
Learning best practices to use in my classroom came naturally in my TE 846 Accommodating Differential Literacy Learners course. As a teacher I wanted to incorporate the practices that would best make my class and students successful. When thinking about pushing the education envelope educators range all over the scale on how to accommodate special education students and students on various learning levels. As I grew my understanding from a seedling to a small stem, I started to realize that many of the accommodations that were shown to us in the class were things I already did or wanted to incorporate into my current lesson plans. I solidified the practices I was already doing with more concrete research and left the course knowing that my seeds for goals were growing into sturdier stalks.
Lastly, I wanted to allow all my seeds to be in full bloom by truly implementing what I learned in my courses throughout these past two years. In order to do that I wanted to learn at least seven new practices or ideas to incorporate into my current curriculum. TE 843 Reading, Writing, and Reasoning in Secondary Education was just the course to do that. The course implemented various teaching styles that could incorporate all different learning styles. I learned many different techniques such as utilizing technology in Voicethread and Webspirations. Plus, I learned the useful skill of reworking my current lesson plans to incorporate more critical thinking concepts. From ED 870, I have taken away the idea of how easy it is to set up a website and have learned some potential for what I could use a website for in my classroom. Utilizing children’s historical books can also be promising in a history classroom. I learned this in my TE 836 Awards and Classics of Children’s Literature course. Despite the fact that I teach high school, there is potential for children’s history books to make an impact and be educational. These are just four ideas that I want to utilize in order to fulfill my teaching seeds that I wrote in 2009.
The seeds I planted during my original goals statement have more than bloomed. They spread like wild flowers, creating who I am as a teacher currently. Some of the courses acted like a structure to reinforce the ideas and practices I already believed in while other course acted as the ingredients such as sunlight, dirt, and water that needed to help the seeds grow. My courses have allowed me to reflect on who I am as a teacher and have also encouraged me to grow into a resourceful, critical, and enthusiastic gardener of educational thoughts and practices.
When I applied in December of 2009 I knew that I wanted to focus in literacy for my concentration. Throughout the program I have seen many different strategies and have thought about many different road blocks that need hurdling. This really inspired me to want to utilize reading in my classroom and to think about my ideas that I use daily in my classroom. As a new teacher, I wanted to grow with my students as well. One thing I wanted to start implementing in my classroom was taught in my TE 865 Teaching and Learning K-12 Social Studies course. The course suggested that we think about why we do things in the classroom but specifically how to engage students in thinking about their thinking when relating to Social Studies. This really hit home for me and made me critically analyze the activities I did in class and why I did them. This idea was also reinforced in my TE 838 course where we had to dive into explaining and assessing why educators might show films in their classrooms and the impacts those films have. I know from my standpoint that I do not just throw in any movie. This course reinforced my beliefs that I choose to do certain activities such as showing video clips with some type of purpose in mind and not as just a time waster. TE 865 helped me to blossom a little bit in my teaching practices.
Learning best practices to use in my classroom came naturally in my TE 846 Accommodating Differential Literacy Learners course. As a teacher I wanted to incorporate the practices that would best make my class and students successful. When thinking about pushing the education envelope educators range all over the scale on how to accommodate special education students and students on various learning levels. As I grew my understanding from a seedling to a small stem, I started to realize that many of the accommodations that were shown to us in the class were things I already did or wanted to incorporate into my current lesson plans. I solidified the practices I was already doing with more concrete research and left the course knowing that my seeds for goals were growing into sturdier stalks.
Lastly, I wanted to allow all my seeds to be in full bloom by truly implementing what I learned in my courses throughout these past two years. In order to do that I wanted to learn at least seven new practices or ideas to incorporate into my current curriculum. TE 843 Reading, Writing, and Reasoning in Secondary Education was just the course to do that. The course implemented various teaching styles that could incorporate all different learning styles. I learned many different techniques such as utilizing technology in Voicethread and Webspirations. Plus, I learned the useful skill of reworking my current lesson plans to incorporate more critical thinking concepts. From ED 870, I have taken away the idea of how easy it is to set up a website and have learned some potential for what I could use a website for in my classroom. Utilizing children’s historical books can also be promising in a history classroom. I learned this in my TE 836 Awards and Classics of Children’s Literature course. Despite the fact that I teach high school, there is potential for children’s history books to make an impact and be educational. These are just four ideas that I want to utilize in order to fulfill my teaching seeds that I wrote in 2009.
The seeds I planted during my original goals statement have more than bloomed. They spread like wild flowers, creating who I am as a teacher currently. Some of the courses acted like a structure to reinforce the ideas and practices I already believed in while other course acted as the ingredients such as sunlight, dirt, and water that needed to help the seeds grow. My courses have allowed me to reflect on who I am as a teacher and have also encouraged me to grow into a resourceful, critical, and enthusiastic gardener of educational thoughts and practices.