Lessons Learned

I had a great experience at my PDS. My host teacher is great and helps her students to the best of her ability. She is new to the high school level so it was nice to learn as she did. She's given me handouts and active knowledge that will be useful for me in the near future. I have learned a lot through the tutor expierence.

The first thing I learned was to trust in my own opionion. I walk around the classroom while I'm there and try to help student to the best of my ability, however I do doubt myself often-- but I have gotten better.

Students love to be a part of something fun. I did a mini lesson on day on the Cantebury Tales and made a dialoge sheet for each character. Instead of having them follow along to the story while looking at the text I read the narration and cued them in when their character spoke. It was a fun interactive activity and the students enjoyed it.

I can honestly say that teaching is my passion. I like creating fun activities and coming up with new ways to engage students in the lesson. I was a little scared going into this; i asked myself "what if I don't like being in the classroom or student teaching, what will I do then?" I am glad that I am in the classroom and am getting first hand experience with a teacher that is learning herself-- that fact is reasuring as well.

Lessons Learned

My first semester in a classroom has been an exciting one. The particular room I was in at first did not seem to be the ideal one to observe. The students in my class were taking freshman English for the second or third time and did not seem to have any interest in passing the class. However, before I realized it, I caught myself enjoying being in this class.

The first thing I learned this semester was that every student can try when they want to. My teacher asked me to work with a boy who did not usually turn in any week. I was to work with him on a character analysis essay. He seemed very enthusiastic about it when we were talking, but I figured he would go home and forget about the assignment and never finish it. However, the next week I walked into class and he came up to me and said, "Hey did you hear? I turned in my paper!" He now turns in most of his work.

The second thing I learned was that you can have fun joking with your class. Though the class I am in is a rowdy one and I am sure my teacher gets frustrated them, she always seems to be in good spirits and does her best to joke around and be nice to them, rather than scold them.

The last thing I learned about during this experience is that I truly believe teaching is what I will spend the rest of my life doing. I was unsure going into all of this, but seeing and experiencing the classroom has made up my mind that teaching is not only what I will do for my career, but I will also actually enjoy doing it.

Instructional Technology Integration

The difference between technology use and technology integration is simple. Technology use is when a teacher uses technology themselves, however they don't use it during classroom instruction. Technology integration is when the teacher uses technology in their classroom. Powerpoints, online exercises, and group projects using the internet are examples of technology integration. Integration allows the students to be involved with the class lecture. It also helps students learn. If they see a powerpoint or even an overhead usually students learn the material better.

Action Research Wonderings

The wondering I chose has to do with lit circles. My host teacher has not used lit circles specifically, however she uses creative lessons to teach the students what they should learn. This week the students presented characters from The Canterbury Tales. Teaching other students information from a book is a method also used in lit circles. Each student was assigned a character and had to give a presentation on that specific character. They told the class about their character's personalities, what they looked like and wore, and their character's profession. The students also had to have a visual. Some students spent time on this and were very pleased with the end result while others simply cut and paste pictures from the computer along with words on a poster board.