The Process of Progress - Observation, Reflection, and Refinement

To think I was intimidated by all of this work that this class entails just a few months ago seems unreal. All of the readings and work that this class required were all really beneficial readings that provoked a lot of thought, and I wouldn't change the syllabus one bit. The class as a whole was really warming because of the open discussion that we dealt with each class meeting. It was really nice to hear each persons ideas about a certain topic and their insight or examples to better connect to the topics at hand. I really liked the class discussion, writing prompts that Shannon had us do and especially the blogging. I never blogged before, so it was a new experience and a good one! One thing that I will especially take away from this class is the idea of creatively making groups. Shannon showed us multiple ways that were cool ideas that I'd use in my classroom. I've learned through this class that you should constantly improve your techniques and always add new ways of light to the curriculum. By constantly changing your ideas and ways of teaching, allows for you to reflect on the things that work, keep them, adapt them and make them better as well as fix the ideas that did not go as planned. Since we hardly ever had a class of lecture, it was really nice to see the ways you can implement activities besides the traditional lecture. The gallery activity was a really nice way to allow us teachers to learn about our peers and their views of teaching Shakespeare, what we're afraid of and what we think needs to be implemented in the classroom in order to engage students. I think this was a fascinating way to get us intune with our thoughts of Shakespeare.

This being my first education at Shippensburg, (not all together) I remembered how much work it takes to be an effective teacher. Lesson planning is very time consuming but for the love of the students and the classroom it is definantly worth it. Something I will never forget is all of the advice that the teachers at the pannel gave us. It was extremely beneficial to hear teachers who have been in the game for a long time tell us things they wished they would have known, in order to help us become the best we can be. All of the notes that I took during this presentation were all very useful ideas and I plan on going back to them in the future. It is extremely important to spend time on your lesson plans in order for your students to get the most out of the assignments, just throwing a lesson plan together is not sufficient. It was really constructive to see our peers do the presentations because not only did it help them better understand but it helped each person in the classroom become a better informed teacher.

I think it is reallllly important to be passionate about the subject in order to make unique lesson plans and connect to your students on more than just a surface level. I've learned that it is really important to never pretend about something because students will be able to see right through you. I think it is a really big shoe to fill to be a teacher of English because so many students will rely on you to make them love the subject, and I am ready for the challenge! My passion is not about correct verb usage, MLA, Shakespeare or Chaucer (although always in my heart) my passion is to make students see what english/reading/writing/interpreting all have in store for them personally. I am a teacher of passion who is always learning new ways to implement new activites and engage my students, and this I will be even when I am in my profession. I plan on keeping teaching journals from the very start until the end so that I will always be able to look back on my teaching skills, my students progress and the development and improvement of my classroom. This class was a good start of getting out of the habit of thinking like a student, and transitioning to thinking like a teacher! As a teacher of English today, I plan on continuing to be open minded in order to learn as much as I can in order to be the best that I can be in MY classroom. :)

3 influential songs

My first song choice is I'll be missing you- Puff Daddy because when the song first came out, I told my aunt that I was going to play this at her funeral, I was probably 9. She passed away a year later when I was ten, but because I was so young and didn't really have a say in the funeral, I never got to play it. So whenever the song comes on, I know she's around letting me know she's thinking of me and missing me too.
-Life ain't always what it seems to be
Words can't express what you mean to me
Even though you're gone
We still a team
Through your family I'll fulfill your dreams
In the future can't wait to see
If you'll open up the gates for me
Reminisce sometime
The night they took my friend
Try to black it out but it plays again
When it's real feelings' hard to conceal
Can't imagine all the pain I feel
Give anything to hear half your breath
I know you still livin' your life after death

My 2nd choice is Getting Jiggy With It by Will Smith, for smiliar reasons. My aunt really liked this song and it reminds me of her.
na na na na na na na nana
na na na na nana
gettin jiggy wit it
repeat 3x
what you wanna ball with the kid
watch your step you might fall
trying to do what I did
mama-unh mama-unh mama come closer
in the middle of the club with the rub-a-dub, unh
no love for the haters, the haters
mad cause I got floor seats at the Lakers

My Third Song is A broken wing by Martina McBride because my aunt and I always listened to it. When she first passed away, I would constantly sing this on the top of my lungs.
She loved him like he was the last man on earth
Gave him everything she ever had
He'd break her spirit down, then come lovin' up on her
Give a little, then take it back
She'd tell him about her dreams, he'd just shoot 'em down
Lord he loved to make her cry
You're crazy for believin', you'll never leave the ground
He said only angels know how to fly
And with a broken wing she still sings
She keeps an eye on the sky

As you can see, all three songs reflect times when I was with my Aunt or reminds me of her because she was a big influence in my life and an even bigger one when she passed away.

Giving Students Choice Can Allow Less Anxiety About Shakespeare and His Words.

Shakespeare Oh Shakespeare. How you intimidate your readers, yet gain a growing audience that adores you. It is a known fact that our students will feel intimidated by William's language that he uses as well as his character names even seem confusing at times. Our job is to encourage student performance in order to get them excited to read about his plays. I read "Sparking: A Methodology to Encourage Student Performance" by Joan Ozark Holmer and I really liked all of the ideas that was discussed about what students did in order to portray Shakespeare's motifs. First and foremost, Joan identifies sparking as a "flexible technique that allows for and encourages student performance in  various ways but does not mandate traditonal acting"(90). Of course it is always nice to traditionally act our scenes for the class, it is always great to incorporate different ways to do this into the curriculum as well. This allows individual freedom while still bringing performance to the assignment (90). Some ideas of how sparking is illustrated throughout the course is through group projects that plan for class discussion, handouts, acting out performances, and in depth topics such as the Shakespearean theatre, culture and society. Some students used debates, skits, discussions, interviews, traditional acting out of scenes, dramatic performance in order to give it a contemporary twist to it, overall tapping into all of the students interests. Students are encouraged to use primary and secondary sources, music, outside dialouge, bibliographies, explanatory assignments, research on prostitution and brothels, symbolism of costumes, the audience in the theatre, research about instruments of the time period versus modern instruments in order to perform a visual aspect of Shakespeare (92). Joan mentions that "sometimes sparking provides quite unexpected advantages" (93). This allows the students to have a better understanding of Shakespeare's time period and the language he uses in contemporary ways. Teachers should encourage students to even dress up in atire that was typical of Shakespearean time. This allows for the students to make connectoions and comparisons. Even allowing them to perform it at home and video recording it would give them a chance to advance their technology skills as well as introduce the class to the vocabulary of the literature and theatre of his time. I thought it was also a nice add in that Joan mentions a student who studied aboard openly shared their perspective of how different cultures value different concepts, this hopefully can happen in each of our classes as well.
I really like these ideas because it gives students individuality and choice when overwhelmed with Shakespeare. Its a contemporary twist that gives students more options of interest. Such as how the Manga version of Romeo and Juliet does. I liked this version because it gave you a different aspect to look at and read about. Yet it was a bit confusing to me because it was hard to follow the characters visually at first but got the hang of who was who in the end, Similiar to how it is just reading Shakespeare's plays, because he names his characters so close, like Grumio and Gremio, ect.

I think it was beneficial to read these articles and allowing us to have choice in which one we wanted to read because as sparking gives students choice, these articles gave teachers a choice of how they want to conquer teaching Shakespeare.

How far will you go to save your/ families lives? How can Educators Improve Class With Technology

The Hunger Games is by far my favorite book that we have read yet this semester. I'll go as far as even saying the best book I've read in a really long time. I'm even considering the second one as a summer read! I would absolutely love to use this in my classroom and believe that my students could really engage in this book and have empathetic reactions to the characters of their age group. A lot of discussion questions could really be generated and get the students thinking about the situations that Katniss, Gale and Peeta as well as the other characters are involved in.

Such as: the relationships of the characters and how it helps define their personality, specifically Katniss. How does Katniss's feelings of Gale play in the feelings or pretend feelings for Peeta. Are they actually in love? The idea that all of the killings are taped for the population to watch, how do you think the population reacts to this, even though we don't get to read about this aspect. What is the cruelest part of the hunger games? Are the viewers manipulated to think that the hunger games is 'entertainment'?
Student's could write about how they would react if they were forced into such a thing, or think of something else similiar to the hunger games that would effect them. Or even just imagining how it would be if the US changed to the 12 districts tomorrow, and you were forced to invade private property in order to hunt and kill the food for your family. (Just that alone, I couldn't imagine)
Did you believe she had it in her to win all along? OR does the author do a good job at making you think that but then taking it back, as if she doesn't have what it takes.
- I don't know, because when I first started reading this I knew that she was going to win. Even though, at times the author made me doubt what I thought I knew. I even thought about what if both Peeta and Katniss won together, since it was pictured them as a team, all along. And what do you know, they both did. I normally do not like when I am able to predict books, yet this book didn't make me feel that way.

I liked the articles we had to read this week as well and it made me think that I need to show my students how much media influences their daily lives even though they might not realize it. As well as how media influeces our identities, morals and choices. The more that students use media in their literary lives the less resistant they will be to reading. The more teachers use media in their classroom the less difficult it could be to motivate the students to read according to the articles we read this week. I appreciated all of the research that Tarasiuk did as well as the activities she did. As well as how the students reacted! I really liked the digital book talks. This experience shows how much teachers should be involved in their students lives and learn from them. All of this reading makes me more and more excited about learning how to teach and actually getting into the classroom!

What matters the most is our students - What they can handle, take on, and even challenge.

This weeks readings were really valuable to us because I do not think we realize how often censorship occurs in our classrooms. We think since we are the sole commander of the classroom, we should be able to put anything we want into our classroom, yet this is not true. It is important to remember your values and what you believe in when deciding which books to use just as much as it is important to understand your students/parents/adminstrative board. I think it is a really scetchy subject and quite frank I am a little scared to have an encounter. Yet, knowing myself I always stand up for what I believe in, so if I ever encountered a situation like this, I know I would do and fight for what I believed in, especially if it deals with my students whom I will value very much. Its a hard topic to discuss because during adolescent times, students want to read things that relate to them, and this just so happens to be topics that do talk about reality whether that be- race, drugs, sex, divorce, highschool gangs and drop outs, violence and sexuality. They are trying to find themselves and by reading things that deal with how others handle situations are important for them. So why can't we talk about stuff that include race and vulgar vocabulary!? I will be a part of their coming to age, so why can't my literature that I choose reflect this?
- I liked NCTEs The Student's Right to Read because it had a lot of good information in it. It is important to have the community involved whether to back you up and to talk offence (even though we don't want this) we want involvement! They need to support us and defend us like the article talks about. This article talks about how censorship poses a threat to education. - "Censorship leaves students with an inadequate and distored picture of the ideals, values, and problems of their culture" . Here even what we as teacher look up to are stating this loud and clear. So how is it that we still have problems with literature that just try to keep students in touch with their realities? Students miss out. They are "denied the freedom to explore ideas and pursue truth wherever and however they wish" IF you didn't get a chance to read this, I really recommend reading it and having it on file in your binders for later date because it really defends us and our choices of books in the classroom. As it talks about establishing committees, getting others involved and even putting together a portfolio of which books are chosen and why they are in order to have documentation for those who disagree which I think is fantastic.
- It was hard to identify completely with Ch.6 of Web because I haven't had the pleasure of reading Huck Finn but I did enjoy the article and learning of its controversy.

- I think Feed was an interesting book to read and it would work well to find out how students would react to it. I think there would be cool connections of eras and to see where our reality is at and how close it is to the book, and what it could become due to technology and the people's increase of wanting and feeling that they need the latest technology out. Will this take over our children? (hence picture)
 Although I really liked the chatting in the head, because communication matters to us so much, yet as a Teacher I fear it. I wouldn't want my students talking in their minds and me not being aware of it. This would be the biggest distraction I could think of for my students. We think that small talk amongst each other near by is a problem we have to deal with, imagine the secretive talk! What could this lead to?! Even the bad things like where would bullying play in? Isn't this what our kids face today, imagine if it went straight to their minds. AH! (shaking my head to get that terrible thought out) But anyway, this book is a good book to view culture and how it influences us so much in our daily lives. I would introduce to this book in a fun way in order to get my students involved despite the language and the ideas of 'going to the moon'. Otherwise, I see teachers having fun with this book, and that's what our kids can appreciate the most!

Chatting about Characters, Conversations of Prose, Speaking of Critical Thinking: What's inside your classroom?

"English is a language; we use language to communicate ideas; history and culture are the exchange of ideas; language is history is culture is power" (Cook, 20). This is really well said and it makes me just imagine my discusison based classroom full of communicative ideas about the history and culture of authors and time periods as well as plots of books, ect. ect. This "communicating, questioning and listening" is all that I want in my classroom. Literature is not memorizing formulas or important dates but instead discussing topics, analyzing data in forms of novellas. These reflective responses are what draws me into loving literature and envisioning being in a classroom. The idea that my job revolves around talking about language, ideas, history, culture is just that- powerful. The emphasis of critical thinking is one that I appreciate greatly.
As Wink discusses, although my classroom will be full of literary conversations, those conversations will be ones that challenge students and allow each of them to connect to one another's thoughts and contributions to the conversation. Wink believes "A teacher is a model of courage" (88). I hope to encourage my students to want to read, to want to analyze articles and look for another way to see the same piece of literature. I hope to instill courage in all of my students, so that they acknowledge that they can take on harder peices of literature.

It's hard to discuss topics of hardship in the classroom, but I think it is very valuable to students. It should also be implemented through "lighter" activities. It's hard to express my thoughts, but basically talk about the Holocaust in ways that can be brought upon in a less emotional/ views etc. (idk)

-Due to the prior unit on graphic novels, while reading my chosen novel of "Maus" I really could appreciate it more. I really liked this novel and I think it liked it even more because it was so personal to the characters. I love that the readers learn of the family history just as Artie does. The use of animals really helps analyze the actual accountings without really putting labels and stereotypes on people yet making it known that there were some. This probably helps students connect to the novel more as well. Although I was upset that the novel just ended with Artie leaving saying "Murderer" I still liked the chosen ending because it shows how upset he was that he lost his mothers thoughts of what she went through. Although I would have liked to hear more about his mothers suicide.

How can words move your students?

When looking at The Book Thief and realizing the length of it, I wondered how am I going to get this done on top of everything else that is being asked of me?! So I dedicated my entire Saturday to The Book Thief, and am happy to say that I am glad I did. The story line is one that is so touching to the soul that as a reader I was filled with empathy for many of the characters. Zusak does a great job at connecting the audience to the characters, that it was never confusing and always a nice easy read. I loved the relationships that Liesel made with each character as each relationship was different, and told you more about her as a character. Liesel and her relationship to her brother (and mother), Her and Pappa, mama, Ilsa the mayors wife, Rudy - and the list goes on. All of these friendships had faith. I specifically liked the relationship of Max and her. What she did for him especially when he was sick touched my heart as a reader and allowed me to become even more interested in the story line, quickly getting through the amounts of pages. Zusak's choice to incorporate the "pages from the basement" allowed me to love Max even more than I already did. I loved the idea that everything that was happening in the plot relied on language - words. What words do to each other and how they can affect you. Liesel's reading - Han teaching her, stealing books, (with Rudy) making a connection with the mayor's wife, her reading to her elder next door neighbor, and most all her reading aloud making the sirens background and stories frontline was fascinating - to see what words can do to others.
- The story of the "Word Shaker" was shaped from Liesel's words. This story was fascinating.

Elements to Ponder on: (Random thoughts/ symbols throughout the book)
The repetition of Jesus, Mary, Joseph- The element of dreams - Language - Those who got chosen to enter war (Steiner & Hans) -Family (The immediate connection btw. Liesel & Papa) - Importance of Symbols (accordian, books, food - for Rudy) - inspection of the basement - Isolation of Max, the Chance that the Family takes- How & What effect does her brother dieing have - Since Hans was a painter, they used painting on the wall as a way to learn words- this significance- Change of characters ex: Rudy from stealing to handing out bread etc.
- The fact that it was written in 1943, yet the words on the page do not make you feel disconnected due to the time period - the themes are relatable

- I would use this book's idea of 'The Word Shaker' and 'Pages in a basement' to allow my students to create similar ones with their interpretation included or imagine how an event could have gone if it went differently. Also Role playing a scene would help portray the overarching themes to students due to this literature connecting to real life situations. This book would also be extermely appropriate to use SSR (Wilhelm's idea) creating cutouts of scenes - stealing, war, basement interpretations, or objects like the accordian, the jobs of the parents. etc

- This book could be an intimidating one due to length when attempting to introduce it in a Literature Circle. Yet, I think that once the students began getting into the key topics of the books, it would not be one that students would regret. Especially if students alternate which books they read, other students projects and discussion topics can move students to read this book as well. I liked how LC's concentrated on Student choice and allowed the students to mature through their reading based on working harder individually, due to the teacher being a facillitator. I also admire the balance of reading and writing (silent, group, guided, interactive/shared, independent) Shared leadership and responsibility should be instilled in all groups, this is where the facillitator checks in. The potential of collaborative reading/ writing/ and learning is important and makes these groups successful. I do agree that it might be hard to fit these Literature Circles into the curriculum due to the managing of LC's and other required concepts, yet the Daniels makes important points of shared time that allow you to believe as educators that these LC's could very well fit into lesson plans. Although this book did not affect me as much as YGBB did, I still think it is valuable to see these proposals and use these conversation groups to get students thinking about questioning, evaluating, and noticing elements of literature.