I have to say that I was very nervous about Methods. I heard some great stories about the class, but I knew it was going to be very challenging. I, then, kept going back and forth in my head asking myself, "Am I even going to be a good teacher?" and "Am I even cut out to be a teacher?" These questions were making me so paranoid for the class. However, I am enjoying the class and even though it has challenged me already within the first few weeks, I have enjoyed the challenges a lot.
First off, the texts that we have read so far in class have been very enlightening. In all my education classes that I have taken over my four year in college, the textbooks that you have picked for this class (as well as the History and Structures) have been the most useful and also entertaining. The material is not dull or a struggle to read. Smagorinsky's text is great! He has such a great feel for education AND students. The ideas that he has put in are great and ideas that I will certainly try to incorporate into my future classroom. The activities such as the open discussions or the memory box for novels are just a few ideas that he discussed that are incredible learning tools for students of all ages. My second co-op is a huge supporter of activities and games in the classroom to get students involved and grab their attention. I am so thankful for this book, because of all the great ideas. I actually cannot wait to bring in the textbook to his classroom and try some of the activities out with the kids! Readicide is also another novel that is great. Like I said in my last post, a teacher a few years back told me that reading this book would completely change the way I would teach a classroom and he was right. It has definitely opened my eyes to new ideas and thoughts about how our education system is working and trying to run.
Along with the texts, I also have really enjoyed learning about Prezi. Even though I am still super frustrated trying to figure out how to exactly make the Prezi work properly, I have started to use it more frequently and Powerpoint is now a thing of the past for me. I am actually trying to incorporate Prezi into my lesson plan for Tuesday, so we will see if it works correctly! :) I really liked how you made us use and try Prezi within the first few weeks of class. By allowing us to try something new like an online PowerPoint, it gives us many opportunities to gain knowledge about how to use other resources and not just a PowerPoint which most teachers now use. Again, I cannot wait to introduce a Prezi Presentation to the 8th grade students at Mechanicsburg during my lesson on irony! Hopefully they will enjoy it as much as I will enjoy creating it!
Our class discussions have also been a great time to get ideas and thoughts out. Our last discussion on Tuesday was very interesting to me and really got me thinking. Glory was talking to the class about the fact that she has not come across a novel yet that she would teach in the classroom. To be honest, I has not given much thought about the type of novels I would teach in class. I mean, I know what I would like to teach...novels like The Catcher in the Rye, The Color Purple, and The Kite Runner have always been in my mind of novels that I would love to teach. However, when she brought up the points about the material being taught in the book, it made me wonder what parents would think about it. The raping in The Kite Runner, the language and sexual material in The Catcher in the Rye, and the all around material in The Color Purple would cause many parents to question why I am teaching this type of material to their children. However, I am a firm believer in literature and the power that it can invoke upon readers. I do not believe that reading a novel would cause any child to become a bad person or anything along those lines. It would open their minds and hearts in my opinion. I know those three novels completely changed who I was when I read them in 12th grade. I would really enjoy discussing this topic again in class. I can truly only see how novels and literature can help and assist children. I cannot imagine a novel or a piece of literature harming a child.
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