Learning Letter

The projects were a challenge to me because I have not worked on anything like that in quite some time. That being said, I cannot explain how much it helped me in my learning enough. I should have allocated a lot more time to doing the projects, and there were times when I worked at my job, went home, immediately started working on assignments, and it was all worth it. The 20 minute lesson was great for me because I used to be a terrible public speaker, and even today this still shows. That assignment provided me with a comfortable way to gain feedback, and it was my favorite project.

I am used to teaching pedagogies that are directed at ESL students, so I was nervous about anything that was directed towards adolescent learners with English as a first language. One thing that I had trouble wrapping my head around was in Discussion as a Way of Teaching, where the author claims that there is no such thing as a guided discussion. I felt that my definition of guided discussion was different, and I think that it can be good when it is intended to guide students to develop their own thoughts on the text.

Being a teacher is a lot of work. I say it this way because not only is the act of teaching a lot of work, but everything that goes into the preparation is so much work, and it is this work that goes unseen by so many people. My dad is a mailman and told me that he sees teachers on their porches writing their lesson plans all summer long while he is delivering mail to them. That is a good indicator of how much work a teacher does. Teachers do not stop their job when they exit the classroom, exit the school, or even when school is out. Teachers need to constantly work in order to be up to date and properly prepared, and that is the most important thing I got from this class.

Thanks to everyone for being a great class!

-Michael Cook