Winter Semester 2011

I LOVE MY MAJOR!

First of all, I just want to say how amazing my major is. I love what I am learning, even if sometimes some of my classes are a little bit boring. These things are so interesting (usually) and applicable! It's great! I just want to take a second and say what classes I am taking and tell a bit about them.

Teaching Reading and Language Arts: We are learning so much about reading in this class! It is fun to see how much really goes into learning to read. It is a wonder any of us actually have figured out how to navigate our way through the English language. We're learning right now about phonics and different combinations and factors that go into teaching students how to read. It's very interesting and I am more excited than ever about words and what they are composed of.

Teaching P.E. for Elementary Teachers: I got to teach 1st graders PE last week and it was so fun! We're learning basically about management skills, all of which apply in the classroom, not just in the gym. It's fun to teach PE as well, it's a time to relax and exercise!

Educational Psychology: This class gets a little bit boring sometimes because it is three hours once a week. We learn lots of interesting things but I wish it were spread out over a few days or shortened or something. My teacher is so cute and funny. This class ties so closely into many of the classes I am currently taking as well as classes I have already had, so this is more a cementing class rather than an informative class. It's good fun though.

Math Education 306: I am not a fan. In my mind, English and Math should be separate, but we are taking mathematical concepts and writing a description of how to do the problem. I know that we are doing this so we can one day teach the things we are doing, but my teacher is a little bit vague and I never can tell if I have it right or not. This aside, I still do like math. It is so fun when you figure it out and can get excited about figuring out a difficult problem. It's like a game sometimes!

Drama in the Elementary Classroom: This is so fun! We just play theater games every week. We are learning how to integrate play into our classrooms basically. There are so many ways to teach a simple concept that you might as well use the funnest way to teach it! Today in class we are practicing our storybook reading. I bought a new book for it. I love books!

Multicultural Education: Very interesting. My professor likes to make us think so he brings up slightly controversial topics each week. He is approaching diversity from a good standpoint though, he is not focusing on the weaknesses of different groups of people but rather on how we can learn to love everyone, including ourselves. The second great commandment given by Jesus Christ is for us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We are learning a little bit about how to do that. Next week we start into how specifically to bring this into the classroom.

Planning and Management: This is the class that is specifically preparing us for teaching. It is exciting! There are four different teachers for this class and they take turns teaching us aspects and important things to remember about the ideal teaching situation and classroom. We are working on forming our personal management plan right now, so I am thinking about what I want my classroom to be run like. I've been thinking that I could use the theme, "Miss Winn's class: A WINNing Team!" I would focus my classroom theme around teams and helping one another find success. We'll see what happens.

The other class I am technically taking is my Practicum class. March 3-30 I will be in a 1 or 2 grade classroom working alongside a teacher. That's basically all I know about it right now. It should be fun though!

I am graduating next April (2012) but before then I have two options. I have applied to the internship program the ElEd department has. If accepted, I would start with my own classroom this next school year. I could have a mentor teacher who I could ask questions when I had them, but this is the ultimate teacher trial by fire type of deal. My other option, if not accepted for the internship program, is to student teach starting next January, and I would hopefully be doing that in Washington D.C.!

So, my life is pretty exciting. I have a lot of homework usually, but it is applicable! I love being in classes where I know why I am learning the things I am learning! Life is good.