Communication:

As the semester came to a close, I became increasingly comfortable communicating with my students, and they with me.  They would often joke during our session together and speak about ideas amongst themselves.  At the beginning of the semester the students were hesitant to offer up ideas about the poetry we were creating, and often waited for instruction before quietly working on their writing projects.  I became more comfortable in the position of authority, and learned that the students love to express themselves in front of others once they are comfortable with the group dynamic.  They became open in their communication and contribution to the group.  By our last session together, the Tibbetts students not only wanted to contribute, but also enjoyed doing so.

Research:

The Internet became an invaluable source for me over the semester’s span.  Anytime I needed ideas for a lesson plan I would search the internet for ideas.  There are several web sites designed for teachers needing lesson plans pertaining to poetry.  I would then take an idea presented on the web page and adapt it to suit my particular grade level.  There were several times that I also spoke with other UNM students to find out the kinds of projects that they were doing with their Tibbetts students.  I spoke to my sister for ideas as well, as she is a teacher and has experience with poetry.  I also learned about the different forms of poetry and took examples from books I read for the literature aspect of the course.

Technology:

In searching for the literature material to fulfill the genres required, I utilized the computers at the Farmington Public Library.  The catalog provides detailed information regarding specific genres and book information.  In teaching my students I accessed the Internet to find fun and creative things to do while we explored types of poetry such as ballads, free verse poetry and sonnets among others. 

Collaboration:

The students at Tibbetts were very open and responsive toward the end of our sessions together.  They enjoyed the poetry circles and were very adept at coming up with similes, metaphors and adjectives for our group poems.  We adapted the group poetry circle technique to suit the individual creation of poems that were meaningful to the students.  Our group discussions revealed the topics important to each student, and I focused on getting them to use the emotion they felt about their topics to create poetry.  As my group consisted of all boys, we used humor to diffuse and uneasiness about the emotion that the poems created.  They were able to create meaningful poems about their families as well as other topics that were relevant to them.  The students enjoyed the group projects and discussion the most, although they individually created poems meaningful to them.

Confidence and Independence:

My confidence and independence has grown tremendously through the experiences of this semester.  The first day of class with my students was extremely uncomfortable and intimidating.  The last day of class was relaxed, enjoyable and heartfelt.  I have grown in my ability to lead and instruct the students.  As I gained experience with the students, my lesson plans became more challenging as well as fun and creative.  I have learned that I am capable of accomplishing what I set out to do and that I have the ability to relate to the students and make learning fun for them as well.  Not only did I learn how to be a teacher, but also how to be a leader in many regards.  My responsibility to my students has taught me the value of being dependable and productive.  I feel that I have gained the independence needed to instruct in the future as well as the confidence to relate to my students.

Knowledge Content:

This course has taught me much about children’s literature and genres.  I hope to use the knowledge I have gained about children’s books and apply it to teaching my own children someday.  Through this process I have come across books that I remembered reading as a child.  It has brought fond memories and helped me to revisit the past.  I was previously unaware of the impact that illustrations have on the meaning of a story.  Not only are the words important in picture books, but also the pictures themselves aid in the cognitive construction of small children.  Different genres of literature can expand the knowledge of the world and the ways in which it is perceived.  Throughout this course I have learned much about literature and teaching but I have learned the most about myself.  I have new preferences regarding literature and have found the value in teaching my students.  I have learned that stories shape us and our views and that in each of us, a story is waiting to be told.

Skills and Strategies:

As I spent more time with the Tibbetts students it became obvious that in order for them to enjoy the lesson plans I created, I would need them to relate to the topics we wrote about.  While doing group work, I would ask the students to pick topics that they found interesting.  Although they didn’t always agree on what was interesting to each, we would often come to a consensus about what we would do our group poems about.  The topics that they individually enjoyed would be assigned as a take home project.  Playing games with the students was one way that inspired the most involvement.  After creating our poetry, many of the students were very hesitant to share their work.  Anytime I shared my poetry first, the students felt more comfortable sharing their own work. At the end of our time together they were actually excited about who would be first to share their poetry among the group.  I would often share my feelings about a subject and told them about my views on topics.  This let them feel as though they could share as well, and usually led to great discussions.

Use of Prior and Emerging Experience:

Prior to this course I had little knowledge about teaching students and about the many ways in which to make poetry interesting to younger students.  As the semester progresses I became very familiar with literary elements.  Although I had learned them in the past, it had been many years since I had covered them.  The book genres were unfamiliar to me at first, but I am now able to identify a book using this method.  Overall I gained a lot from this course.  My new knowledge in working with students will be valuable for the field I wish to purse.  This course made me feel more confident in my ability to teach and relate to others.

Reflectiveness:

While teaching my students, I constantly asked them questions about the lesson.  I wanted to make sure that they understood the material and I wanted ideas from them on how to make it more interesting.  I would come home from my teaching session and look over what we had done that day and tried to come up with an idea that would help the students make connections to the material that we had already covered.  I often went on the Internet to look for activities that they would enjoy.  I would take the ideas that we talked about in class and incorporate them into games and writing activities.  I thought deeply about what they would enjoy based on their interests and opinions.