As I reflect on my own experiences with teaching and writing, I begin to think about what "feels comfortable" when I take part in both. Teaching has become such a large aspect of my life within the past few years. I have learned much about myself, the type of teacher I want to be, my teaching philosophy, and I have realized the importance of critically evaluating my experiences when working with students of many ages. While I have had many positive, rewarding experiences- I have also had experiences that I have learned from or need further suggestive implications for future teaching experiences.
In my undergraduate program I began to observe and take part in activities and classroom lessons from schools within the Rochester area. Following these experiences, I was able to participate in two student teaching experiences from which I taught in a first and second grade self-contained classroom and a fourth grade general education setting. I was able to "feel comfortable" getting to know the students with whom I would be working. It was going to be very important to establish rapor because I wanted my students to feel comfortable with me. I wanted the students to respect me, and most of all, I wanted them to know that they and I would both be responsible for their learning. It would be a joint effort.
I felt comfortable watching my supervising teacher work with the students because I needed to intertwine her teaching approaches and professionalism with my teaching style. I needed to make it my own, but I needed to watch her lead by example. I was able to learn about modeling, challenging, and questioning students. The growth of my level of "comfort" increased immensely by the end of my placement. I felt comfortable being myself around these young students.
I also felt very comfortable in the fourth grade placement I student taught because I worked hard to get to know those students. I felt very comfortable with one of the writing tasks my supervising teacher had me assign the students each week. The students were asked to write in a journal about the books they read and connections they made with texts. Each week I would give feedback about the information they shared with me, and I would prompt for more information if it was applicable. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience to respond to the students's journal entries. It was a bond we were able to share, privately, through writing.
Currently, I have realized I am very comfortable reflecting about my experiences working with students and about my learning experiences in my graduate program. There are many pathways from which I can interrelate my life experiences with the readings and teaching experiences I endure.
(Dr. Jones made me stop!) My familiarity with technology varies. I am not experienced in writing blogs and wikis....
Some challenges I anticipate....
Regina, I really like the color combination you chose for this blog. It is quite chic.
ReplyDeleteI know this first prompt asked you think about a wide range of teaching experiences in order to describe your core principles of writing instruction. While I did get a sense of the range of students you have worked with, I still wasn't sure what you believe your core principles are as a teacher of writing? If you think this is an aspect of your professional knowledge that you are also still trying to clarify for yourself, then I certainly encourage you to focus on this in your future entries. For example, I wonder if, after reading the Hicks chapters and the pieces on Reading and Writing Workshop if you already have a better notion of how to describe the principles that are most important to you when designing quality writing instruction?