Learning Letter

During this course there was a lot that contributed what I learned during the quarter. All of the assignments that I had to do made me learn a lot about teaching and about how I want to teach my future classes. Obviously, completing the unit plan is the main factor in how I feel after this course. Completing this assignment was very challenging and made me realize a lot as a future teacher. Before I did this assignment I did not realize how much time and effort went into planning each lesson. I never really thought about how difficult it would be connecting each lesson to each other; I thought it would be much easier than what it was. Completing this assignment was hard but it was the most beneficial assignment I have done so far to help me as a teacher. Besides the unit plan, the other assignments were also helpful in my development. The mini lesson helped me actually experience teaching while being able to get feedback of how everything went. I liked how it was a "mini" lesson because it was helpful but not as stressful as the unit plan. This assignment helped me with the actual concept of teaching than the planning part, which is majority of what I do in my classes. The book talk was good, but not as helpful towards my actual teaching. I enjoyed listening to the books that everyone chose and liked sharing my choice. The books that we read in class, especially the Kelly Gallagher text were helpful as well as the assignments in showing me how little students are expected to read now in school. Gallagher talked about different statistics and talked about how teachers are more focused on standardized test, which I completely agree with. When reading this it made me think more about how I want to teach books in my classroom. I know the importance of incorporating reading and  will make sure to have students read frequently. The articles that we read in class, honestly I did not find to be that thought provoking. Most I actually found kind of boring and not super helpful. I know that it is important to read about the state standards and grading, but I feel like some of the advice the articles gave is not something I would think about and do. I am not saying I won't include some of what was said but if I were to include them it wouldn't be because I referred back to the article but found something similar said during my time of teaching. The articles had good things to say but nothing too thought provoking to be memorable enough to to remember them. My participation in this course influenced my thoughts about myself as a teacher by how I realized even though the work can be time consuming, requires much energy, and sometimes can be annoying I am absolutely positive I want to be a teacher. My participation reassured me that I am sure that this is what I want to do with my life. I know I have much that I need to work on but I know it will be worth it. I feel that if I would not have participated in this course then I still would be a little skeptical of my want to teach others and my ability. I am now aware that I am capable of teaching students and even though I have much to work on I am able to at least develop an idea of what I need to do. This course helped me come to the realization that teaching is really what I want to do and no matter how much work is required I can do it. There are some parts of teaching I am not fond of like the numerous TPAs to write and the connects every lesson must have, but I do realize the importance of it even if I do not like doing it. I know that eventually it will get easier and I will become much better at all of it.