Final: Learning Letter

Hey Sean,

I positively loved this course! Because of this course, I have an entirely new outlook on the role literature plays in a secondary classroom. This course has helped me get excited about teaching literature to my students.

First, I really enjoyed the classroom set up we had. I appreciated that it was entirely student run and focused on us as future teachers of English. I valued the regular discussion we participated in because all of us are not strictly English majors, so there was a variety of thoughts and opinions because of everyone's endorsement backgrounds and different teaching experiences. Through the discussions and assigned readings, I learned to appreciate the idea of democratic discussion and the role it can play in a secondary classroom. Democratic discussions allow students to experience human growth and appreciate for the variety of opinions their classmates have to offer. I also have a new outlook on the empowerment literacy can offer a person. Through education and literacy, students have an outlet to better themselves and the society they live in. I cannot convince all of my students to become English teachers, but I can teach them the power literacy can offer. Since reading Cris Tovani's book, I feel that I have added many tools to my teacher toolkit. I have always been a lover of reading, but I cannot convince all of my students to love and appreciate literature like I do. Therefore, through the information, insight, and resources Tovani has in her book, I think that I will be able to help all of my students when they are assigned to read, regardless of whether or not they enjoy reading. I will not be able to foster a love of reading in all of my students, but through her tools I will be able to make reading easier to the resistant reader. If I can teach my students the tools and strategies to comprehend and get through a text, then I will be very satisfied.

My favorite portion of the class was the book talks. My reading wish list has expanded like crazy since the short presentations! My peers have offered many different book choices that I think can be introduced to a variety of students and give them something they may find interesting. In my future classroom, I plan on having a small library, and I want to fill it with a variety of books so that hopefully there will be something interesting for all of my students. Thanks to my peers, I now have a different view of adolescent literature than I did before. I now know that graphic novels and nonfiction texts can have a powerful impact on students, instead of just fiction. They have also provided me with new lessons and activities that I had never thought of before. It was great to hear the types of literature my peers were interested in and the different ways they want to impact their students with the literature.

Finally, because of the mini lessons, I was able to reflect on myself as a teacher and how I see teaching literature to be the most beneficial. My peers have demonstrated some great lessons with ideas that I think will translate very well into any English class. Thanks to the variety of lessons, I now have more tools to add to my tool kit so that I can always try something new with my students. I think that especially with literature, it is important to incorporate a variety of activities and projects so that students can get into the text and hopefully enjoy the experience of reading it. Also, from the perspective of being a student during the mini lessons, I was able to experience what teaching styles worked for me and which ones really engaged me and made me want to participate. I think that it is invaluable to reflect on myself as a student and how I learn with literature, so that I can understand my students better. I cannot assume that all students learn the way that I do, but through my experiences with the lessons and the feedback my peers gave, I can better understand how to make literature approachable and fun to a variety of students.

Overall, this course has been priceless to me! I cannot thank you or my peers enough for the abundance of information and new outlooks on literature I have acquired throughout these ten weeks. It is my hope that when I have my own classroom, I will be able to implement some of the things I have learned, as well as make literature not so terrifying to my students.

Thank you once again for this great experience, and I will see you Winter quarter!
Have a great break and holiday season.

Response to American Born Chinese

This book was definitely different from any other book I've read. I had never thought of reading graphic novels before, and I didn't really know what they were until I got to college. Even now, I feel a little bit of resistance towards graphic novels because they are not your traditional book. I think I am resistant to the graphic novel because I am very comfortable reading a traditional novel with no pictures. I find comfort in creating images in my head based on what the words are saying, so having pictures in front of me is something that will take some getting used to. I noticed that I didn't give as much attention to the pictures as I should have. I was really focused on the words, and not so much the nonlinguistic representation that was happening with the pictures.

Even though I had trouble feeling comfortable reading this book, I think it is a great text for any classroom because it gives students a different way of reading. Instead of so much pressure being put on students comprehending what a text is saying through words, the students can give more attention to the skill of nonlinguistic representation. Students will be able to work on constructing meaning through the pictures instead of through words and paragraphs. The limited amount of text can also make this book more appealing to the resistant reader because there will not be a lot to read. Also, for students who worry about how long it will take to finish a novel, they will feel comfortable knowing that this book will not take them a lot of time to read because there is a focus on pictures instead of words. I think that introducing students to multiple kinds of literature will help foster a desire to read more because once you introduce the students to literature that interests them, they will hopefully go out and discover other books that they find interesting. A graphic novel could be the key to getting resistant readers comfortable with reading.

Response to Night

WOW! What an emotionally difficult book to read! I had never read a piece of literature such as Night before, and let me tell you that I loved it was nonfiction. Reading nonfiction had never crossed my mind before, and especially when it comes to Holocaust literature, I only think of The Diary of Anne Frank. However, I am now immensely interested in reading my nonfiction pieces of literature because those are real world stories by real world people. I think when any student reads this book, they will be emotionally affected and floured at the notion that the details actually happened about 60 years ago. The details in the story are gruesome and very descriptive, but they are the true events that the author witnessed and was a part of. I think that students today can greatly benefit from this novel because it is nonfiction, and it will remind students of the horrors hatred can inflict upon the world. If anything, this novel is a great reminder to appreciate humanity and fight for social justice. If I was going to teach this novel, I would print off a map and highlight the journey the author took and the different places him and his father were taken after they were ripped away from their homes. I think that the visual journey of the author will make the details more concrete to the students and allow them to see how many different regions the war affected. Overall, I think this book is a great piece of nonfiction that should continue to be taught in the classroom in order to ensure that students are aware of the devastation mankind can inflict on one another when prejudice and hatred consume people.

Response to Romeo and Juliet

I think it is safe to say that Romeo and Juliet is the most well known Shakespeare play. I say it is the most well known play because of the many remakes that have been made about the play, the quoted lines of "Romeo Romeo, where for art though Romeo" and "Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet," and the constant references that are made about two families who hate each other and forbid their children to be together. I think that one of the reasons all high school freshman read this story, is because of the familiarity and connections students can make to the characters, and the struggles they face. I think the play represents a great opportunity for students to connect with the characters and strife's they face as young teenagers. Some students might currently be in a situation where they parents forbid them to date someone.

If I was to teach this play, or any play by Shakespeare, I would introduce my students to Sparknotes No Fear. This sight is found on Sparknotes.com, and it is dedicated to Shakespeare and putting his plays into modern English that students can better understand. One problem I face when I read Shakespeare is his use of old English. Even though that was the standard English at the time, people today do not speak or write like that, so it can be very challenging to comprehend what is being said. Therefore, I think that No Fear Sparknotes is great for any student because it has the original Shakespeare text right next to the modern English version. This is great because students can read the play in modern English while still being able to see the same passage in old English. If I was the teacher have a hard time comprehending old English, I cannot expect my students to be able to. Thus, a modern English version can break down barriers and resistance to Shakespeare because it will be comprehendible to the students, and they will be able to get involved with the story better.

Response to Alexie

This was the first time I had read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Indian, and I loved it! It was such a great story about pursuing dreams and not settling. I also really liked that it was based in Spokane, so I instantly felt a connection to the story because it was set in an area I am familiar with. I think that if I ever got a teaching job in the Spokane area, student would feel an instant connection to the story just like I did. When a story feels familiar to you, it is easier to get into the story and feel a connection to it. I also think this story would be good for any 9-12 grade English class because it deals with issues the students are facing. Issues such as discrimination, masturbation, first love, and trying to become successful. The book is written from the adolescent perspective, so I think that will easily resonate with students and allow them to start personally connecting to the story. Another interesting part of the book is that Alexie includes a lot of drawings to enhance what he has just written about. The pictures will be a great way to break up reading and simplify the text for students who are resistant to reading. It would be a good idea to design a lesson around some of the drawings in order for students to understand the impact they have being combined with text. Another important aspect of the story, is that it is nonfiction. By reading a nonfiction story, students can feel inspired by Alexie's determination to become successful and not another alcoholic reservation Indian like so many people in his community have become. Overall, I think this book is very beneficial for students and is a great reading! I hope at some point in my career, I have the opportunity to teach this novel.

Response to TPA

I like the TPA we got in this class versus the box one I have to complete for the education program. I like this lesson outline a lot better because there is not so much information that I have to include. I find the simplicity of this outline is more compatible for how I think and organize my thoughts. I like the simplicity of it because since I am writing these lesson plans mainly for myself, I do not find it necessary include every single detail of the lesson. I am more of a bullet person because I can visually see what is first, next, and then last in my lesson. That is  why I really like this outline because it is broken down into the main chunks of a lesson and all I need to do is bullet my information for each outline. I believe that for my learning style, I would for the most part be a visual learner, so when I see a bulleted outline, my mind is better able to comprehend the information and apply it, instead of it being in paragraph box form. I think the point of a lesson plan is for the teacher to have a workable outline that is compatible with the way they think. If I cannot process a lesson plan that is written in paragraph form, then it is not a useful tool for me to use. Therefore, I really like the TPA we have to do for our mini lessons because I will be able to work thought it better than the original TPA. Even though the information required is almost the same, the simple difference of changing it's visual appearance makes all the difference to me.

Response to Differentiated Instruction

When I think of differentiated instruction, I think of the section on the TPA lesson plan that asks what I will do for my students when it comes to differentiated instruction. I usually will make comments such as I will do different activities that touch on the different learning sensory, and if I have a special needs student, I will state what accommodations I will make for them. However, after reading my article on differentiated instruction, I now realize it is a deeper process than I initially thought. The article I found stresses the importance of the whole school and staff being involved with differentiated instruction. The principle or vice principle should be readily available with information and support when it comes to teachers implementing differentiation. But once the whole staff is on the same page, changes in the way teachers see their students learning start to happen. First, teachers will establish learning goals for their students and invite them to participate in shaping the classroom procedures, making choices that are the best for them, and thinking of ways to make the classroom more effective. It is important that each student works toward essential understandings and skills. I also like that my article gave examples of what differentiated instruction looks like, so that when it comes to my TPAs, I will know how to better answer that portion. The instruction could look like many things: establishing clear goals, but leaving the way of achieving them open, being reflective and responsive to the needs of the school, students, and teachers, providing support to teachers based on their needs, and having the staff create a range of levels of support for the teachers comfort. The article did mention though that in order for differentiated instruction to take place in the school and be successful, the administration needs to have a course-length development for the teachers, so that they can be aware of what differentiated instruction is and the steps they need to make in their classrooms to make this happen.

I think that this type of instruction applies to ELA because it would require the teacher to constantly make changes and do a variety of activities in order to touch on most students learning styles, and to make the text comprehensible in more ways than just reading and doing questions. ELA teachers are given a great opportunity to implement differentiated instruction because of the variety of texts they are required to teach. In order to make literature fun and meaningful to their students, the teachers need to make activities that are different and always changing, so that the students do not get board.

Response to Tovani Chapter 6-End

I chose to do the text to self comprehension strategy on page 125. I wanted to do this activity because it  allowed me to practice one of the more important reading strategies: applying text to yourself. It can be very hard to find similarities between oneself and a text. I find it hard to relate to literature from my American Lit class because all the texts were written before 1900. Therefore, doing the text to self connection while I was reading an assigned chapter allowed me to break down some of the barriers that arise when I read literature that was written a couple hundred years before my time.

I liked the way the activity was organized because it was a simple handout that required me to dig into the text in order to find passages that I could relate to myself. A really hard part with old literature is understanding what the author is trying to say, so by finding three quotes that I could relate to myself, I was also able to better understand what the author was trying to accomplish in the story. I will definitely make copies of the activities Tovani has provided in the back of the text book because I believe they will be of great use to all of my future students.

Response to Tovani Chapter 1-5

Wow what a great read! I loved the first five chapters in the textbook. Based on the information that Tovani wrote about, I was able to reflect and understand myself as a reader and also understand my boyfriend as a reader too. As readers, we are both opposites. Kris is definitely a word decoder in everything he reads, and I am a more advanced reader where I subconsciously apply reading strategies that help me with my comprehension. However, I realized that when it comes to college textbooks, I am definitely a word decoder. I realize now that this happens to me because I have hardly been told what my purpose for reading is. As a result, little comprehension happens with college textbooks.

Over all five chapters, I really liked the real world examples Tovani gave of her students because she was able to write about how she answered their questions and help alleviate their uneasiness with reading. I definitely highlighted the different reading strategies for when comprehension fails. It never dawned on me until reading this book, that there are deeper processes for comprehension instead of just rereading a confusing portion. This textbook is great because even though Tovani is giving suggestions to help students, the points she makes allow me to reflect about myself as a reader, and if I can better understand how I read for comprehension, then I will be a better asset to my students. However, the thing that will stick with me the most out of the first five chapters, is that reading is not word decoding, and comprehension cannot happen if a person is a word decoder. Reading is an intricate process that requires a lot more from the reader than simply sounding out words.

Response to A Response-Based Approach to Reading Literature

I really liked this article because it talked about some ideas we have discussed in class about the banking concept of teaching. The article touches on the idea that exists in literature where teachers have an end goal in mind for their students, and they guide their thoughts and reponses in a direction that leads them to the conlusion the teacher had in mind. The author does not agree with this form of literature teaching because it leaves little room for students to expand their horizons and think differently about the literature. Through the article, the author focuses her attention on the idea of horizon literature where students explore the possiblities of the literature. The readers are focused on going beyond the information and looking at the different characters, setting, and conflict, and how these things interact to create the story. Also, they take those same elements and apply them to the reader's everyday life. This form of "horizon of possiblilties," allows students to move beyond the surface level of the literature and the "ideal" interpretation of the story.  

When the author addressed how literature is generally taught in the classroom, I think she made some excellent points. Teachers generally go into a lesson about literature with an end goal in mind for their students, and they buil their lesson plans around that end goal. Therefore, when the lesson doesn't go according to plan, the teachers sort of panic because the class has strayed farther away and the teachers see it as digressing instead of engaging in good instruction. I think at the heart of the article, the author is trying to prove that digression from a lesson plan should be a good thing because it means the students are moving toward a horizon of the literature and not simply reiterating what the teacher hoped they would. I think that good literature teaching should promote digression and students applying the story to their lives because that is when some real literary gains will have been made. I think as a future ELA teacher, I have a great opportunity to show children all the possiblities literature can hold, and that there doesn't have to be a set end goal for them to reach. Unfortunetly though, like the article mentioned, it can be easy for teachers to have an end goal in mind which determines how the literature is taught. I hope that when I become a teacher of literature, I can foster an enviornment where students help guide themselves to the end goal of the literature because when a classroom is guided by student thinking, that is when I as the teacher can take a step back and allow the students to be self-guided learners.

Response to Social Justice

Social justice can be described as justice that is exercised towards a society and the various social classes of a society. In order for there to be social justice, society needs to understand and value human rights as well as recognize the dignity of every human being. This definition that I found on Wikipedia is a great way to lead into the article I found online about marriage and how it applies to social justice. Although I do not agree with the articles perception of social justice, I think it applies to the definition I provided above because it excludes the values for all human rights. The article stresses that marriage between a man and a woman is a matter of social justice. In the article, the author argues against redefining marriage and marriage equality because marriage as an institute protects the rights of children, and with same-sex marriages, those rights are not being protected. The argument that marriage is a social justice institute for children is supported by the fact that when people support same-sex marriage, they are focusing on marriage as a purely sexual adult institute instead of one that promotes the well-fair of children. The worry about a redefinition of marriage is that adults will think of it as only the desires of adults and those outcomes will produce bad social outcomes for children. Furthermore, the article throws in research that states children are better raised with a mother and a father. Because of all the evidence I have listed, I really think this article applies well to social justice because it is ignoring the rights of all people and their dignity. I think that this article does not address social justice as well as the author thinks it does because it is not accepting of all humans and their rights. I understand that children are a huge part of marriage, but they should not be the only focus. There is a larger picture of social justice than only marriage between a man and a woman. The article is afraid of social justice because children will be the result of bad outcomes, but it does not address that thousands of children are already experiencing bad outcomes from a marriage that involves a man and a woman. I do not think that it is okay to argue that same-sex marriage will negatively affect children because thousands of mothers and fathers already give their children bad outcomes. This article should not act as if they are supporting social justice because they are discriminating against a group of humans and their rights. Social justice needs to include all humans and their rights in order to better serve society and the well fair of humans in general.

Reponse to Critical Pedagogy

Within the first couple pages of this chapter, I read a lot of infomation that was a lot more tied to education than the two chapters of oppression. I liked to passaged about macro and micro objectives. The difference between these two is that macro is designed to allow students to make connections between the content and structure of the course and how it relates to the larger social reality, while micro is about the course content the purpose of the content. I think I understand critical pedagogy better than oppression because it focuses on how and why knowledge gets constructed the way it does and how our everday understanding is produced and lived out, and how knowledge applies to social functions. Also, critical pedagogy is concerned with understanding a relationship between power and knowledge. As the chapter discussed, there is a dominant class that hegemonizes lower cultures. By this, there is a system of power and dominance over classes that does not have the power to resist a system of educational oppression. The dominant class uses their power and knowledge to give information to the lower class without teaching them to question the system that they are in. Even still however, I am not quite sure of how hegemony ties into my understanding of critical pedagogy. Like all of our discussions so far, after class I will have a greater understanding of this article after I talk with my peers. I like collaboration over our assigned texts because each students takes away a little piece of the text, and when we all come together, there is a full picture of the article.

Response to Pedagogy of the Oppressed Chapter 2

This chapter for me was a little bit easier to understand because it applied to elements of oppression to education, instead of being abstract like the first chapter. However, the chapter seemed to lump the banking concept and problem-solving teaching too close together for me to distinguish the two. Under careful examination though, I think I can see the difference between the two different roles of teaching and how they apply to oppression.

To start, I think that the banking concept really was a part of everyday classrooms for many years, and in some classrooms, it is still present. How I remember the banking concept is "knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing." This quote applies to education because the teacher is always looked at as the beholder of knowledge and the students are the receptors of that knowledge. This can be problematic though because the students are never given the opportunities to apply the knowledge they are suppose to have received, in order to really make the content concrete. The quote also applies to oppression because the oppressors often see their victims as things who know nothing and need someone to feed them the necessary information. In this sense, oppression and education are the same thing because there is always an authority figure who throws information at listeners without making sure that the information is tangible and can be applied to the listeners' lives and knowledge. Also, in this sense the teacher or oppressor can dominate the audience and sway them to think or feel a certain way about issues.

For the problem-solving concept however, it embodies the essence of consciousness and communication. In this concept, the teacher's role is to create dialogue in which the students and the teacher learn together and are jointly responsible for their growth. This is an important factor of problem-solving because it stimulates true reflection and action upon reality. This idea is really important for decreasing oppressio in education because through problem-solving education, people develope a power to critically look at the way they exist in the world and that the world is in transformation. Being able to think like this, allows individuals to not beecome victims of oppression because they are able to think for themselves and realize that they are not "things" of the world, but active parts in it.

Response to Pedagogy of the Oppressed

This weeks reading was very different from anything I've ever read before that could apply to education. Some portions of it were kind of confusing, but for the most part, it was very insightful. At first, I thought it really applied to people in poverty and countries with over controlling governments. I think it applied to impoverished people because poverty is a very difficult cycle to break apart from and more often than not, there is a government or wealthy population that has forced people of lower status into molds where they can be oppressed and controlled by people who have more than them. Also, the article described victims of oppression as thinking they deserve that treatment and are unaware of how badly they are being treated because they have learned to identify with the oppressor. On a different note, that last sentence also to me described Stockholm Syndrome and how it is a real phenomenon.

I think that the article really related to people in poverty and that in turn directly relates to education because poverty is a real issue in our education system. Oppression directly relates to education because there are thousands of students who are in a cycle of oppression with little roads to get out of it. Minorities and students of poverty are daily oppressed because they have few outlets for bettering themselves and people who look down upon them verbally speak against them being able to better themselves.

During our class discussion, I hope to have a better idea of how oppression applies to education and the processes we as future teachers can go through to try and fix the cycle of oppression that is evident in our country and education system.

CCSS Reading Standards Response

I'm not going to lie, but the CCSS are difficult to read and understand. However, from what I can gather, I think that the creators of the standards have very high expectations for our students. It appears that there will be no room for slacking because every skill in each grade level is crucial in order to advance smoothly to the next grade. On the plus side of this, I think the reading standards will be a great way for students to be better prepared for the rigorous reading amount they will encounter in college.

To continue, I mainly focused my attention on grades nine-twelve because I am placed in a high school classroom, so I felt it was best to familiarize myself with them. I initially noticed that with both literature and informational texts, each skill builds upon the other and increases in difficulty with each grade. For example, in RL.9.2, it says "determine a theme or central idea of a text" where RL.11.2 says "determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text." This is just one of the many instances where a great level will one up the previous one, while still keeping the same standard concept.

I also noticed that there was specific reading material listed required for certain grades. For example, 11-12th graders are required to read one play by Shakespeare and one by an American dramatist. This falls under the craft and structure section where students will determine the meaning of words as they are used in the required text and analyze in the impact certain word choices have. Currently, to meet this standard, my 11th grader American Lit class, the students are reading  the play The Cruicible.

Overall, I feel like the CCSS have great intentions and will really prepare the students academically, but they are also difficult to understand, and some of them, I would have trouble applying.

Response to Discussion in a Democratic Society

This weekend's reading gave me a lot of insight to classroom discussions that I didn't know were factors of a good discussion. For one, I did not know about the term democratic discussion. This type of discussion is what teachers should strive for to have in their classrooms because all discussion participants will have the opportunity to share their strong views and devote their attention to their peer's words. At first it didn't seem like democratic and discussion go together, but the article makes the good point that those two terms are inseparable because they both strive to nurture and promote human growth. I think that democratic discussion is a great discussion strategy because with collaboration, students will be exposed to different points of view than they normally would have, thus employing human growth. Discussions are also great because they allow students to reach a more informed understanding of a topic, enhance student's self-awareness, foster appreciation for diverse opinions, and they help take informed action about the world. When first getting to this portion of the article, I thought to myself, well of course this is what discussions should do for students, but then as I continued to read on, I realized that a lot of discussions in the secondary classroom are guided by the teacher. A guided discussion is where the teacher asks questions and points of topics that the students start discussing, instead of starting with a topic that is brought up, and a discussion follows based on the students opinions, insights, and experiences. It is true however, that teachers will have to ask follow up questions and point out ideas of interest when the discussion begins to slow down. This is okay as long as the teacher does not take over with questions and control the flow of the discussion. A discussion is best run when students share their ideas and experiences because then the students are learning from one another, and expanding their world view through each other's experiences.

Because of this information, I looked back at my experiences as a student with discussion, and as far as I can remember, I did not participate in a democratic discussion except for my college Harry Potter literature course. I think that every class meeting, we had democratic discussions because the teacher would ask what stuck out to each of us through out the novel, and what were interesting thoughts we wrote about in our reading responses. Based on our answers, she would write a list of topics on the board, and say okay, someone pick one and start a discussion. Because we are college students, we did not have a problem starting the discussion ourselves, but other times, the professor would start with a topic she thought was important and have us discuss it. My Harry Potter class was always democratic discussion because the teacher was an active listener and student. She did not guide the discussion or overthrow someone's ideas. Instead she acted as a student, shared her experiences, and commemorated the students experiences/ideas. She did have to ask follow up questions, but she never guided the discussion for us. Since I was able to experience this type of discussion, I was able to conclude that my high school discussions were not democratic. They  had democratic intentions, but more often than not the teacher would guide the discussion. I think it is easier to guide a discussion in high school because the students are more self-conscious, and may not have a big world view, but it is still possible. Teachers should not give up and guide a discussion to force communication. With practice, any classroom can run a democratic discussion.

Introductory Letter Assignment

My name is Hollie Clouse. This is my senior year in college and my second quarter doing my observation hours. In the spring, I will be doing my full time student teaching. My experience so far as a teacher candidate has been more amazing than I thought it would be. I am learning so much from the methods courses! So far, English 408 has been my favorite course in the education program with Education 309 in second place. I have loved these two classes the most because they have given me the most insight for the role a teacher should play in the classroom. To often, teachers are a sage on the stage where they facilitate information to their students, but the students rarely get to do work where they can apply the knowledge they are suppose to have acquired. 408 and 309 have given me a better picture on how to not be a sage on the stage. From 309, I have learned that to have a functional and manageable classroom, the teacher needs to be able to foster relationships with his/her students. A relationship is the key to everything. With a good relationship between students and the teacher, the classroom will run more smoothly, students will be more engaged in the discussions, and it will be easier to solve problems when they occur. I also learned to believe with my whole heart that any student is capable of learning and doing great things, and it is critical for the teacher to prove to the students that they can do great things. One of the greatest moments in my life was when my 11th grade English teacher told me that I was very insightful and good with literature. This is one of the greatest moments in my life because my teacher told me I had potential and I was really good at something. I had never been told that before, and because of my teacher, I chose to enter the teaching field. I want to be the teacher that changes a student's life and shows him/her that he/she is capable of wonderful things, and can do anything he sets his mind to. In 408, I learned to love writing! It's a weird concept to be a potential English teacher and not enjoy writing. However, at the end of this course, I loved writing and became extremely exciting to be a teacher of writing. I learned to appreciate the outlets that writing can provide, and I want to show my students what a wonderful thing writing can be. Writing is a wonderful way for someone to open their eyes to themselves and the world around them.

So far, I think my greatest weakness as a teacher candidate is coming up with creative and unique lesson plans that engage the students and provide a meaningful way to apply knowledge. I think this is a common feeling among beginning teachers, but sometimes I catch myself thinking that I might not be a creative person in general. I know this is foolish thinking and eventually I will prove to myself that I am creative, but at the moment I feel self-conscious and constantly compare my ideas with those of my peers. I expressed this concern with my cooperating teacher, and she told me that every beginning teacher feels that way. She told me that for my first year and maybe my second, I will beg, borrow, and steal ideas from other teachers, just so I don't drown. Then after my first two years, I will have a good idea of how to handle a classroom and present material, and I will be start applying my own personal touches to a lesson plan. My cooperating teacher is truly amazing! She has been giving my copies of every little handout she has so that I can keep them and reuse them whenever I am required to teach this material. She is amazing because she is looking out for me. She remembers her beginning years as a teacher, and she wants to help me succeed as much as she can. I thank her tremendously for that. On a more positive note, I think one of my biggest strengths as a potential teacher is my love of learning. I know that sounds like something I am suppose to say as a future teacher, but I truly love learning! I think this is a strength because with my enthusiasm for learning, I will be able to express this with my students, and make it daily part of my classroom. My students will always know I am committed to them because knowledge and learning is power! Even if I cannot convince all of my students to love school, I hope to be able to help them love learning. Learning any piece of new information is a great feeling, and I want my students to learn to be active learners in any specialty field. I also think this a strength for me because I will always be learning knew information for myself and thinking of ways to incorporate that knowledge into my lessons.

Finally, my goals for this course are to be able to have a book, and think of a multitude of lessons for my students. I have this goal in mind because it will help me get over my weakness of designing lesson plans. I want to be able to think of lessons without help. I worry that I won't be able to do this by myself, but I want to learn how. Also, as my minor is ESL, I would like to have new ideas for how to make texts comprehensible to my ELL's. This quarter, I am completing my last class for my minor, and I am required to do a project where I research any part of ESL that I want to learn more about. Because of this project, I would like to apply my knowledge from 493 to my ESL class, and make my project about how to make texts comprehensible to ELL's. This project will be great for me because I want my first teaching job to be over seas teaching English and I want to learn as many methods as I can.

Funny ass movie

This afternoon I finished my online class! I went and took the final at 2 and I already submitted my questions for the last chapter and made a discussion post, so now after tomorrow when I respond to two people, I will be officially done! I didn't do very well on my midterm or final very well, but luckily my final grade was still an 85%. That's good enough for me for an online summer course. After I was done with my final, I rewarded myself by going at watching We're the Millers. Talk about a funny ass movie! I loved it so much. I think I laughed at about 80% of the movie. It was lonely though because I watched a movie alone for the first time. I thought I was gonna hate it, but I thought it was fun. I munched out on candy and laughed the whole time. It was a nice two hours. I know that I really liked the movie because I would watch it again. That is how I usually judge if I actually liked the movie. I think that a lot of people would find the movie funny; the whole theater I was in laughed.

I'm happy that wednesday is the last day of school, and I'm getting a new tattoo! I am getting it on my right foot, and I'm worried it's gonna hurt because the other one on my hip hurt really bad in some spots. But i'm just getting simple script written in my parents handwriting, so it won't take more than 30 minutes to do and its only going to cost about 60 bucks. I've been planning this tattoo for a while, and I'm glad I finally have the cash to get it done.

Conflicted

My night didn't turn out how I wanted it to at all. One of my best friends jeremy is going to vegas for four days in october and he want kris and I and our other two best friends to go with him. He said that it would be about 500 per person for a flight and hotel. That is a decent price, but it doesn't include alcohol money. Well I am also going on a week long cruise to Mexico in December and I have to pay 800 for my ticket to that in october too. I'm pissed because I'm positive that I won't be able to afford both, and im totally paying for the cruise because I really want to go on that. It really sucks because kris will go to vegas without me and still have enough money to pay for his ticket on the cruise, and katreena and jord'enn are going too. So that leaves me, no going to be able to go to vegas, and I hate it. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm miserable just thinking about it. So I guess we will see what happens. I'm not really in the mood to even think about it because it makes me angry.

Catching up on my posts

So here I am again on my couch with my dog and watching netflix. My same boring daily routine, but there's nothing else for me to do. It gets lonely living alone with no friends around but you get used to it. I don't mind my personal time after I was around people all day at work. I had to go to another supervisor meeting today at 4. Once again my bosses have nothing to say except negative things. You get used to it though when no compliments are given except you guys made a lot of money this last weekend and payroll was good. I really hope that they fire this one employee Britny though. Part of the meeting was talking about things she had done recently that were bad because my bosses have been watching her for a while. So they wanted to check in on her and my main boss Sergio was like well I already plan on having a serious conversation with her, so I'll add these things to the list of things to talk about. I'm hoping they fire her, but that's just my opinion. On a different work note, I had to train a new employee today. It was mine and the other supervisors job, but I was the only person to introduce myself to her, and I stepped up and started showing her things right away while the other supervisor just stood there. I felt bad after a while because I was the only one showing her how to do things, but then I thought well I had the initiative to help her first, and it's natural for me to show people how to do things. At the end of my shift I thought to myself, teaching people is natural to me; it feels comfortable. I think that's why I think being a teacher is what I'm suppose to with my life. I feel comfortable teaching people and I get a sense of accomplishment when I do it. I can't wait to graduate and have my own classroom. 

Interview with Marc the superhero

Marc: Superhero by day and by night.

He was born a superhero and is still acting as one today. When asked why he became a superhero, his was response was simply “I did not choose this, it chose me. I chose to embrace my calling instead of running from it.” Well said by such a humble superhero who. One of the great things about a superhero is his powers, and does Marc have plenty of those! He likes to think that is greatest powers are super speed, kung fu fighting, x-ray vision, and a not so great one but still useful, being the greatest chef in the world. His powers leave him with many defenses when he is saving the world, and at night when he comes home, he can cook himself a great meal to relax! 

Next, Marc was asked what he likes to do when he is not saving the world with his great abundance of powers. He said simply that he “tries not to interact with people,” and instead keeps to himself as he fishes, plays videogames, and knits his favorite sports colors into fashionable scarves so that he can where them to baseball games. On a more personal note, his comment about dating will leave many young women crying: “I don’t date because I am super.” Sorry ladies! But this superhero cannot be tamed by the likes of simple non-super women such as yourselves.  

It's been a while

Well I gotta say I haven't been good at all with doing my blog regularly. Honestly, most days I don't even think about it, and when the thought does cross my mind, I find reasons to push it aside. But tonight, I thought man this assignment is due in one week, and I haven't done a lot with it. Therefore, I decided to sit down and write before I decided on  a reason not too. And so, here I am writing randomness and watching a new show on Netflix call "Orange is the new black." It's about a woman who had a 10 year relationship as a lesbian and was smuggling drug money, so now she is in jail for it. It's pretty good and it gives me something to watch, besides Gossip Girl. Man Gossip Girl is getting so annoying! It's the same thing every episode, something bad happens to one of the gang, and then there is a revenge plot or scandal that happens. It's getting old very fast. I like to watch tv shows on Netflix because it means that I always have something to watch when I turn it one instead of having to search for a movie every time. But now I've seen all the good ones, so now I settle for anything that has a lot of seasons.

On a random note, I hate how this program won't capitalize my I's or beginning of sentences for me. My pinky is getting tired of having to move so much. Oh also, I only have 150 pages left in Harry Potter and then I can stop reading! Man I am getting so tired of it. There is so much reading in only 7 days! But now I'm getting tired of typing, so I'm gonna go make myself some brownies and ice cream :)

What am I looking forward to about summer

I am looking forward to only having to worry about work! My job is really easy, but it is time consuming because I am not allowed to work on homework while I am there, so it has been a big juggle of energy to manager work full-time and then school full-time during summer. I've managed really well so far, but since there are only 2 weeks left of school, I know my mind has checked out. Besides only having work to worry about, I am looking forward to reading the my wish list that I created at the beginning of summer. All of the books are ones that my placement class will be reading all year long, but unfortunately I have only read one book out of the 8 that my students will be reading. So, I plan on doing that so I can be a source of information for the students and be prepared for when I start doing my observation hours over the course of the year. I have been placed at CVHS and their first day of class is September 4th, so I plan on busting out a ton of observation hours in the couple of weeks before I have to start school. In the fall, I am required to do 90 hours in the entire quarter, and I already know, my schedule is going to be very difficult to work with in order to get the hours in. Therefore, I want to do as much as I can while I have the most free time. I cannot wait for the day when I can only focus on teaching instead of being a student and teacher in training. It is a fun exciting experience, but it gets really exhausting after a while. Finally, I want to sleep!! I have had the weirdest sleep schedule this summer because some nights after work, I don't get home until 12:30 and then will have to wake up for either work or school the next day at 9. I have class two days a week that start at 9 and when I work the morning shift three days a week I have to start at 9 too. So I haven't gotten to sleep in a whole lot this summer. I feel my body begging for sleep, but I am the type of person who doesn't like to take naps during the day because I feel lazy every time I do, so I usually go about my day feeling really tired. In the end of this summer quarter, I know that it was worth it. Because I took these classes and had a really busy schedule, I am on track to graduate in the spring and complete my full-time student teaching the last 3 months of my college career at EWU.

Response to Murray chapter 7 and 8

            It is nice to get back to reading the Murray text because he is good at talking about all aspects of writing that will occur in a writing class. In chapter seven, the focus was on embracing the diversity of your classroom. By embracing diversity, the teacher allows the variety and uniqueness of knowledge that the students bring to shape the classroom and way students write. Each student will have a different upbringing, different educational opportunities, and different struggles that they face every day, and these things will shape the way each student writes. Murray pointed out the 50 years ago, schooling was left to white males, but in our current years, schools are filled with students of all different ethnicities and woman who are able to advance through society with an education. The current condition of our schools is so diverse that it would be foolish not to embrace the differences students bring to class. The differences are what will make each student unique as a writer.

            Chapter eight was filled with ways a teacher can hold a one on one conference with the students. Conferences can be a great opportunity from the teacher perspective because comments can be the most helpful when drafting a paper. The use of oral comments from the teacher will allow the student to respond, defend himself, and/or agree with the teacher. When we have done our workshops in class, I have found the comments of my peers to be the most useful because they have helped frame my thoughts into what I need to do to get my paper to where I want it to be. One of the things that I liked the best about individual conferences was where Murray gave a list of questions that should not be made while conferencing, and then a list that should be used in conferences. It is easy to say this is good, this is bad, but these sorts of comments are not constructive in helping the students. Questions such as what do you plan to do next or where do you think you got off track, allow the student to respond and give ideas for what direction he thinks he needs his paper to go in. The author of a paper is first reader and he knows what he wants to accomplish with his paper, so allowing the student to share his worries, likes and dislikes of his paper will make the conference more worth the student and teacher’s time.

Free Write

I had the best weekend I've had in a long time. I got to spend all weekend with my boyfriend at a wedding in Sunnyside. It was a lot of fun because it was a cousin of his from his Canadian side of the family. I love his Canadian family. They are really loud and so nice. The really fun part about the wedding was the reception because they had a bartender who was serving beer all night, and then when the dance started, they brought out cases of hard alcohol. Kris and I immediately took advantage of the free alcohol and were drinking vodka lemonades all night. It really reminded me of my best friend's wedding last December because Kris and I got drunk off the exact same drink there too. It was funny because at first, when there was only beer, wine, and champagne to drink, we were getting kinda bored because its hard to get drunk off of that stuff, but then when the hard alcohol came out, we danced all night. The dj played a mixture of music, but hardly any of it appealed to Kris and I, but after our first drink, we didn't care and danced all night. One of the funniest parts was when Thrift Shop by Malcemore came on because Kris and I were each wearing a shirt from a thrift shop, so of course we felt legit because I'm positive no one else was wearing something from a thrift shop. I even got complemented on the shirt I was wearing. It was so much fun because it was just kris and I hanging out all night, dancing, and getting drunk.

Response to Weaver Chapter 6

For the last chapter in the Weaver textbook, she once again gives examples for how to successfully teach grammar concepts to students and what some research says works. The one thing out of the chapter that I really enjoyed, was the idea of mini lessons. Mini lessons can work well with any grade level because it takes a small portion of grammar that my students are having trouble with or will find useful and then I give them a mini lesson on what the rule is, how it functions, and how they can use it properly. I think that this will work well with any group of students because the mini lessons will be tailored to the individuality of each group of students and it will be less overwhelming because they will be taught only one lesson at a time. It can be extremely overwhelming to learn tons of different grammar rules at once, but mini lessons can make the grammar more memorable because the students will have time to focus their attention on one rule instead of ten at a time. Also, Weaver made a good point that with the mini lessons, I cannot expect to never retouch that rule again. I cannot expect that after one mini lesson to have the students memorize the rule and be able to apply it correctly. I think that after each mini lesson, it would be best to focus most of the attention on usage because that is the most difficult part of learning grammar. It is easy to list a rule and it's function, but it is another thing to be able to put the rule into practice. Focusing a lot of attention on usage will make the rule more concrete in the students head, and it would be best to  try and put the rule into practice with examples  of the students' writing. The hardest part of teaching usage is finding examples that are relevant to the way students write. Therefore, it would be 100 percent useful to have the students practice usage on their own writing, so that hopefully, the mini lessons will positively affect the way students write.

The nice refreshing taste of a Coors tall boy

I was just outside sitting in the grass infront of my apartment painting my fingernails while Pricilla was running around outside getting some fresh air before I have to go to work. It is so hot outside today that I thought man a beer sounds really good right now, so I went and bought one. It is as delicious as I thought it would be! I'd have to say when it comes to alcohol, I'd take beer any day over hard alcohol. I guess I get that from my dad ;) Since I moved away to college, every time I come home for a visit, he offers me a beer and we sit down and talk and hang out. It's our little form of bonding, just like with my mom we drink coffee on the front porch every morning.

On a different note, I just got off the phone with my wonderful friend Lacy. We have been best friends since age 5 when I moved across the street from her, and her and her mom came over and introduced themselves. When she moved to Seattle to go to Udub, and I moved away to EWU, we drifted apart more than we thought we would, but nothing could sever our life long ties. She knows exactly my train of thought and how to make me feel better. It freaks me out sometimes how well she knows me. I was talking to her about my boyfriend Kris because on September 5, it will be our 4 year anniversary. I don't know how I went off on a tangent with her, but I think it started when I told her that for our anniversary, Kris and I are going to go to my families cabin in Montana for 3 days for a little get away just us two. Since I told her this, before I could stop myself, I started telling her how since it's been 4 years, I cannot stop my mind from thinking about how badly I want to marry Kris. I have a gut feeling that we will one day get married. I mean he is my person and I know that I am his person. We are meant to be together, and we have always had the plan to wait until we were done with school before we get married, but since it has been 4 years, I am having a hard time keeping my mind under control. I mean that I am so excited for our future that it is hard to be patient. Everyone close to me has told me that in 2 years when both of us are done with school, we will get married, but it is hard to be patient. I'm so excited that my mind gets carried away and it is hard to be patient. Being patient is a battle I am constantly fighting, but good things come to those who wait, so I need to tell myself that all the time, every day.

Something people should know about, but don't

Well...my mom just returned from and Education First Tour (EF) with a group of students from her school district. Every 2 years since 2009, a group of students from Royal High School raises 3,000$ per student to go on a 10 day tour of any destination that they chose from the booklet. The last 2 weeks, my mom was traveling through Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It sounds like an amazing trip! She got to go see a concentration camp in Germany, and traveled to the top of the Alps in Switerzland. Once she returned from her trip and we were having a 2 hour conversation on the phone, she told me 2 interesting facts about Germany and Switzerland that I had no knowledge about. First of all, the lead tour guide that travels on the trip with my mom and the students is always a native of the countries that they visit. So, they had a tour guide who was born and raised in Germany. She told them as they were on the bus driving through the city that they will notice there are no German flags being flown. They are not in front of banks, city halls, or schools, like you would normally see the American flag. You will see Bolgerian flags being flown, but not German. This is because after WWII, Germans are not 100% proud to be Germans, so they do not fly the flag of their country. In 2008 after Germany won the soccer cup, it was the first time in decades that the German flag was flown abundantly. Also, you cannot find any sweatshirts or t-shirts that say Germany. My mom was in Munich, so she was able to find a sweatshirt for me that says Munich on the front with the Bolgerian flag, but none that said Germany or with their flag.

Next, when they were visiting Switzerland, the tour guide told them that Switzerland is a very proud country that does not let many outsides live in their country. So there 3 ways an individual can live in Switzerland, 1: you were born there, 2: you married someone who was born in Switzerland and is a citizen or 3: you have a business license and work for a business in Switzerland. Besides those 3 reasons, any person cannot live full-time in Switzerland. The tour guide hinted that this was because they are a very proud country for remaining as a safe-zone during WWII.

These are very 2 interesting facts that I did not know or my mom did not know until she traveled there.

Listening to some Dillon Frances

Well I'm listening to some amazing Dillon Frances which makes me the mood the dance all by myself. I remember last summer when I saw him play at the Paradiso Music Festival. Talk about mind blowing! Electronic music speaks to my soul.

Anyways, I just finished revising my paper for my final draft and I felt like writing in my blog before I go on to making my 2 grading procedures for tomorrow's class. I feel pretty good about my final draft. I am worried though that I sound too biased for an informative essay. It was really hard to write and not make an argument about the topic I am writing about. But I guess it should be easy to turn it into an argument paper for our last assignment since I feel really passionate about rural schools being underfunded.

It has been way too long since I wrote in my blog when it wasn't in class. It is one of those things I say I'll do later, but then never gets done. I find excuses not to do it and then before I know it, the day is over and I start the same cycle again the next day. I do feel more comfortable writing now, but my time management skills suck ass. I know every one has the same excuse, but my life is so busy lately. Taking 15 credits over the summer takes some serious motivation, especially with a huge reading load (thanks Harry Potter) and work 35 hours a week and finding time to go see my boyfriend who lives 2 hours away right now. The only good news is that last week in Harry Potter, my teacher told me that if we are re-reading the books, we can skim them, especially since every book is over 800 pages long. And let me tell ya, I am skimming the shit out of those books. I love the story to death and I know it by heart, but it is impossible now to read 800 pages in 7 days with everything else that is going on in my life. Sure, now I'll miss out on reading the whole book with new academic eyes, but since I've taken this class, I can carry those same academic eyes with me the next time I read the books from cover to cover for joy. There are certain things we talked about in class that I can't overlook the next time I read them.

Also, today I got an email from my Bible Lit teacher and we have a midterm due on Friday :/ That class is really interesting because  I am learning about all different ways to look at the bible, but I do not have specific passages about the bible memorized and I do not know specific people that the textbook mentions but does not expand on. The only thing I know for sure is the general messages about creation and salvation. Anyways, I will never stray away from my faith in God, but I do think that the bible has strayed away from it's original messages and has been altered too much by man who thinks he can dictate what God said. Because of this class, I will not take the bible as the 100% truth but as a tool that man uses for a religious foundation to make sense of the world and our place in it. I have always been reserved towards organized religion because churches are the biggest hypocrites of all. They claim to follow God and his teachings, but they discriminate more than anything I've ever seen before and claim to speak the truth. Well let me tell ya, no mortal man can claim he knows the truth. Only God can dictate the truth and since man has had a sinful hand in earth, I do not think us mortals can claim to be right and speak the truth of God. We can spread his messages that the bible has written down, but even the messages in the bible have been altered to the will of man and they cannot be fully trusted as the truth of God.

Well I'm going to stop there. I don't know why I went on that religious tangent, but it felt good. I guess its because I was talking about those same ideas with a couple guys at work this afternoon and they were still fresh in my mind.