Most DEFINITELY...

Wow, what a semester. It is hard to believe that this semester has come to an end and how much I have learned and changed throughout this semester. I had not realized how much my ideas of Language Arts could change through the semester, but they did. As a student going through school, I always liked Language Arts, so I knew that I would enjoy this class, but now my ideas have changed because of all the knew knowledge that I have gained about teaching language arts. I have realized that language arts is more than just reading and writing, it is also listening, visually representing, and the other arts included in the 6 language arts. Overall, I loved this class, in part because it was an education class, as well as the fact that I have always been interested in language arts. One of the implications of what I have learned this semester includes the fact that I may get consumed with following "by the book" to teach language arts, rather than in just incorporating what the book says with what I know and want to do with my students. From my own experiences in Mrs. Banks' classroom, I have been able to see all of these topics and things that I have learned this semester put into action which makes learning these topics even more real and understandable because of seeing in put to action. Things that I will definitely do in my classroom in the future includes doing read alouds with my students, using the entire writing process, and use mini lessons to help remind students of a topic previously learned that may be troublesome, or just to do a quick recap. At the moment, I don't know of things that I will definitely not do, but I'm sure that with experience and future observations, I'm sure that things will arise.

Thank you so much for a great semester and Merry Christmas!

These are a few of my favorite things...

Thinking back to my elementary school years, I loved just about all types of poetry and writing because I got to be creative and use my imagination. Now, the more that I think about it, the more that I like Free Verse type of poetry. While I do like other types of poetry, I like that fact that in free verse, there are not many boundaries as to how many syllables or words you have to use on each line and how many lines you have to have. With free verse, you are telling a story and rhyming without many other limitations.

In my own classroom, I will teach my students all types of poetry and have then practice each type, but I will probably enjoy free verse the most. Putting limitations on students is not always a good thing because it does not necessarily allow the students to show you their best work because they are to consumed with the limitations that are set before them. In the end, it comes down to what each student enjoys the most and what they can be the most successful in.

Talk...

Talk and communication are very powerful tools used in a classroom on a daily basis. Both the activity that we did in class today, Chalk Talk, as well as the movie clip from Freedom Writers, were both good examples of this fact. I liked doing the Chalk Talk activity because it allowed us to realize how important talking really is to us because we could not talk. And the communication barriers that were broken in the movie clip allowed us to see students felt towards their teacher because they did not feel as if she understood them. By letting the students speak their mind towards her and the other students, they felt more as if she was making an effort to understand how they feel. Being able to have these open communication lines with students allows them to feel valued in the classroom. While talking is not the only way of communicating, it is one of the best ways for thoughts and feelings to be expressed. In the future, I hope to find a way to incorporate this activity, in some shape or fashion, into my classroom!

Peer Conferencing

Overall, I really enjoyed the peer conferencing session that we participated in this week. This is one thing that I do not normally do in writing, but something that I wish I did more often. Sometimes, I do complete a rough draft and have my mom or someone nearby read over and look for errors or places that could be made better. It doesn't matter how many times I read my own writing, there are still things that I will not see. For example, in some of my past writing experiences, I will reread something multiple times, but I will still miss something! So, having someone else read it behind me allows another set of eyes to catch something that I did not originally see.

In the classroom, it is very good for students to participate in peer conferencing for many reasons. It allows students to communicate with their peers and apply what they have learned about the writing process. While there are many pros of using this in the classroom, it can also been see as a negative. For instance, if a child's writing is not "up to par" they may feel hesitant about sharing their writing with other peers. So, while there are positives to peer conferencing, this is also a place that needs to be thought about before applying in the classroom.

Workshops Galore!

Thinking back over my education, the most clear memories that I have of using these different types of workshops and circle groups would have to be our Literature Circles in EDU 255. I really enjoyed doing that, not only because I had a WONDERFUL book (Al Capone Does My Shirts), but I also really liked the idea of doing this, with any age group! This is a really good way for students to read the book and then discuss the book while also gaining knowledge about the book from different aspects because of the different jobs that are brought to the circle meetings. I would say for 2nd graders, the grade I will be student teaching in, that I love to do this because that is a great age for discussion and having students responsible for different "jobs".

The more and more I think about it, I have probably participated in Writer's Workshops, Reader's Workshop and others, but I did not realize that until now. I can now see how my teachers had the class set up to incorporate these things into the class and I never even knew - teachers sure are sneaky like that!

Overall, I really like the idea of incorporating ALL of these into my classroom one day because they are a different way of teaching - they allow the students to almost teach themselves and others. This creates for a great learning environment that is not so monotonous with the teacher standing in the front of the classroom and blabbing all day long - it allows the students to move around and get comfortable so that they can learn the best way possible!

In my classroom...

One of my favorite books that incorporates history into the classroom is "John, Paul, George, & Ben" by Lane Smith. I got this book a couple of years ago when I visited Monticello and it makes me laugh in a different way every time I read it. The general theme of this book is to learn about how John Hancock, Paul Revere, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin all became famous. Some of the tales that we relate to them are brought to life in this book. The main story element that is exemplified is characters because they are an integral part of this book and the main point of the stories. Some activities that could expand students' knowledge would include:

*Have the students create more stories about each of these characters that differs from that in the story

*Have the students research about other famous individuals in history and write a short story about how they became famous

To blog or not to blog..that is the question

Having completed the first half of this semester, I have pretty much enjoyed blogging. It gives me time to just type and think about how I feel about different ideas and topics. It is stressful sometimes because I don't want to type too little and on a few occasions, I didn't know about the blog assignment until the day it was due, so I felt as if I didn't put as much effort into it because I was just trying to complete the assignment. Having time to think about it gets much better answers. Overall, I have enjoyed blogging and I hope to one day find a way to incorporate it into my classroom curriculum!