Wow. When reviewing my posts for the past 6 weeks, I have definitely noticed some recurring themes I had not been expecting. I was expecting that I would talk about all of the readings. I was also expecting that I would have mentioned some ideas I found useful. What I was not expecting were two things that I mentioned each time that I did not really realize I kept repeating:

1. I told a story about myself, or at least mentioned something personal, in every post. This struck me as unusual, since I usually shy away from writing about myself, particularly when I know other people are going to read it. Perhaps this means I’m growing more self-confident in my own ability to express personal feelings in writing, which has always been a goal of mine, and something I had not realized I am now better able to do than I was when I was 13 and cringed because my teacher made us write a personal essay, and I was embarrassed to have anyone read it. Haha. There went another personal story!

2. I have spoken a lot about ideas I have found practical to apply to my classroom, and for ideas that were too advanced for my class, I tried to work out ways I could adapt them for my class. This was interesting because I can really see myself learning and trying to implement things I read about each week. As a second year teacher (and one who has no teaching degree), I am trying very hard to learn everything I can about this profession. While many things I do in the classroom work for my students, I have seen a great many things I can improve on to give them more of an edge and a love of literature. Using the Blog as a way to work through myown “difficulty” of adapting ideas for the middle-school classroom has been most helpful.

This has, by far, been the most practical class I’ve ever taken. It’s exciting for me, as I was rather thrown into the world of teaching, without a very good lifejacket. I have loved every minute of it, and the people with whom I work have been more than helpful; so thus far, it has been a very positive experience. But until now, the only things I have relied on for lesson plans have been reading books on my own about teaching, thinking back to my own middle school and high school experience, and using my own creativity. It’s refreshing to be in a classroom with people both in my position and people of experience. It’s fun to listen to other people’s ideas on teaching, as well as reading what the professionals have to say. I must admit, I feel far more confident in my own teaching ability now than I did six months ago. Part of that is experience, but part of that is also the excitement of learning and implementing new ideas. So I look forward to learning more and growing in my chosen profession!