Final blog post!

Sorry to sound so excited about that Dr. Dana, but I cannot wait for the end of this semester, winter break, and traveling for a few weeks! I found this course to be very informative and helpful. I was a skeptic at first as to why I needed to learn about reading to be a biology teacher. However, after taking this course it has become very evident that fosterng literacy skills in students is something that all teachers need to participate in, not just those in the language arts department. The ideas we have discussed in class, those shown in the Subjects Matter book, as well as those that you have had us do in class are all very useful and practical. As far as things that I wanted to learn that I didn't, I don't think that there really are any. I learned more about what reading, writing, and literacy as a whole are in this class than I have been taught before in other classes. Overall I found this course very useful and informative, and thats something that can be hard to come by these days!

Alex's post about books

I think that you have us reading these books so that we can see that being an effective teacher requires much more than a diploma. It requires that we have a kind of tenacity and passion that these teachers displayed. We also have to understand the importance of the relationship between us and our students. You can't really "teach" a student until you connect with that student first. All of these teacher are human and accessible to their students in a way that many modern day teachers could never understand. Because of this, the students were able to view the teachers as "one of us." Another thing that these books reflect is teaching in the real world. These are not romanticized views of how people changed the world with their stellar teaching. Instead, these are stories of how ordinary people refused to let negative circumstances defeat them or abate their passion for changing lives through education.

P.S. I KNOW I AM RED BUT I HAD TO SAY SOMTHING!!!

Why we are reading these books.

I think we are reading these specific books because they each tell the story of a teacher and what they went through. I'm reading Teacher Man and he talks about when he first started teaching, coming here, being Irish with his brogue and all. He started out in a vocational school and his kids were the ones that the other teachers didnt want to deal with. It was not his ideal class. He just wanted to teach English and yet he could not teach them a single lesson. It basically shows teaching from the other side, preparing us for what is to come. Every class can not be the ideal one; you dont know what your class is going to be like. I think it prepares you a bit for what could happen and it shows the changes of teaching from then to now. For instance, he hit a kid in the face with a rolled up magazine and didn't get in trouble. Yet if that happens now, you will lose your career. I feel that this book, as well as the others, gives us insight as for what is to come.

Why are we reading these books?

Why are we reading these books? Well, I don't know exactly why or can't tell you why we are reading them. To my understanding, we all are enrolled in this reading class, we are suppose to read. Although the reading is power, it is knowledge. I enjoy reading because it allows me to learn, think, imagine and feel. I have no idea what the other books are about, but my own that i have choosen to read "Freedow Writers". In class, we were presented with three books to read, in having the privlage to make a choice I choose something I hoped to gain something from. i learn throuhout this book about a young college graduate who became a teacher in an urban district and the struggle of her students success throughout high school. The journals presented within the novel revealed ginuine feelings towards the teacher and thier lives. The teacher's passion for teaching and having thier students succeed is very inspiring for me.

In conclusion, i feel as though the reason we are reading these books is because to learn and gain inspiration in being a successful teacher in the near future. To help students at all times and never give up on kids. "To earn respect, you must give respect" Just because we are teachers and have the title doesn't mean students will respond to you with high authority, we can learn as much from them, they are young and as we get older we need to adapt.

We know our world, and though we may think we know the whole world, we only know what effects ours. Our contained-to-our-family-and-networked world. Reading these books is supposed to flood our minds and figure out our own beliefs according to which ever way our book guides us. I saw some people react to this post as literacy and how it effects us. I agree, without this skill it would be hard to comprehend what goes on in most books, the world, body language... think of how lost we would be if we couldn't record stuff. In our futures based on teaching, we need to know these skills and reading is a way to promote learning them.

Why you're having us read these books

Considering this class is on literacy, it makes sense to me that you would incorporate a few books. You have given us a choice of three different books that we could read and have allowed us to work in groups to design our own literacy based project. I think this has acted as a model that any of us could use in the classroom to incorporate literacy. By giving us a choice on books we were able to pick the book that interested us most. Letting us come up with our own project, and picking our own due date, gave us the freedom to do a project that we might actually enjoy. Also, I have a feeling that all the different groups are going to come up with very different projects. This might also give us ideas as to what sort of projects we could do with our students in regards to literacy. I think you are having us read these books to allow us to remember what is was like to be a student who had to read a novel or do a book report. Even now with all my courses, it's somewhat overwhelming because I feel like I don' t have enough time. It's important to remember how some literacy assignments might feel to students.

Why we are reading these books?

I believe we are reading the books because this is a class on literacy. Reading novels is a good way of incorporating reading into the curriculum and the choice gives students the opportunity to be interested in the topic. Obviously we will all be interested in books about teaching because we will all be teachers and we want as much knowledge of how it actually is to be up in front of a classroom by yourself for the first time.
We are given this example of literacy as well as others to promote the teaching of literacy in all subject areas. Literacy is one of the bench marks for teaching and learning, so it makes sense that since we play both roles, we should become as familiar with incorporating it into our lessons as possible.