Learning Letter

Dear Sean,

Over the course of the quarter I have gained a lot of knowledge about the pedagogy that goes into being a teacher. This was hands down one of the most difficult quarters I have been a part of here at Eastern. I enjoyed the sections and coursework throughout the class.

In this course we completed three main tasks throughout the quarter. Starting with our Book Talks. The book talk was a good opportunity to explore the world of young adult texts. Our goal was to pick a text in the young adult world of fiction and dissect it as a piece of work we could or wouldn’t use in our future classrooms. My book was “Gathering Blue,” by Louis Lowry, and I would not use this book in the future. The only reason I chose this book was because I felt that most of the class would not be familiar with it. The book I originally wanted to do was “The Giver,” by the same author but the book is widely known and I felt that choosing the sequel, the class would be more intrigued. I found that the giver was much richer in context and in meaning. It had that it factor and really grabs the reader and when I was reading “Gathering Blue” I found myself bored and really out of it. I wanted the protagonist to have the same characteristics of Jonas, but Kira was her own person and had her own problems. I would not see myself using this book in my classroom, but I would see myself using “The Giver.”

My mini lesson was the first actual teaching of a lesson in this class. I chose to use the Graphic Cannon and cover one of my favorite Hawthorne stories, “The Scarlet Letter.” I felt that the story holds great imagery and the characters in the story are explained in great detail by Hawthorne. It was a success, I found that the picture in the Graphic Cannon aided one of the sections in my lesson. That was to picture what Pearl did after she inherited all of the money. The class was issued the task to come up with a story to finish the life of Pearl, and doing so by looking at the picture of her in the Graphic Canon and with images from the web. This lesson actually helped think about the pedagogy that went into teaching flat and round characters, which my lesson revolved around. I loved this opportunity and felt that it helped me grow as a teacher.

On to the unit plans. Hands down the hardest assignment I have ever done here at Eastern. If it was not the hardest, it was definitely the most time consuming. So right off the bat, time management and the way that we met up with you individually helped me tremendously in finishing my final product. The hardest part of the assignment were the EdTPAs, I do not enjoy doing them and quite frankly I am tired of doing them. I feel that a lot of teachers feel the same way, but as teachers, they are a part of the game and we have to get used to them. I enjoy the thought that really goes into coming up with the pedagogy of any lesson. Revolving a lesson around one topic and finding a way to teach it to your students so that it will stick is the real challenge, but I love it.

In this class we had a bunch of out of class readings that we had to do. One of the most influential readings was “Readicide.” Kelly Gallagher is a teaching genius. He really influenced me to allow my students to read things that they actually liked. I enjoyed all of his points on how teachers are killing their students inspiration to read and he influenced me to fix this when I become a teacher. I don’t want my students to be reluctant readers as I was, I want them to love reading and find things that they really want to read about. I want them to be able to tell me about their favorite books and their favorite authors. The goal as an English teacher is to be like Gallagher. Learning about the Common Core State Standards is something that I will carry with me after this class. They are set out for a reason. My goal is to be able to incorporate the standards in a way that they will stick with my students, and also being able to find a silver lining and transitioning from one standard to another in lessons will be the trick.  My goal is to master that.

This course opened my eyes on how I really want to be as a teacher. It showed me that I don’t want to be a traditional teacher, and much more of a contemporary teacher. I will find ways to influence my students to want to do well in school and a good way in doing that is by empathizing with them. Bring in pop culture as Morrel stated, or even just showing them that you are willing to try new things to get them to participate. This class showed me that being a teacher has much more to it than just teaching a lesson.

And for that I say, Thank You

                                Cecilio Aldaco