While creating this blog a few things came to my mind. What does it mean to be a pre-service English Language Arts teacher? What do I have to bring to the table - when the table is a very cluttered internet full of amazing and sometimes a bit mystifying styles of teaching. What I intend to do with this blog is to highlight some innovative strategies of teaching mid-level students. These strategies will often include the use of technology and other creative resources to take students beyond the simple read a story and answer the questions approach that plagues many classrooms today.
Something I learned while reviewing a few teaching blogs that are out there, is that personal experience is key. While I do not have my own classroom - yet, I will work to include as much of my classroom experiences from the various practicums I have taught. The main focus of this blog is ELA teaching, I will draw from other disciplines as well - a theme that is being used throughout middle school education today. I will also strive to keep this blog organized and easy to read.
I do want to stay away from simply regurgitating lesson plans that have already been used or technology that is readily available. I will not regale you with stories of my successful uses of a Smart board. Those stories have been written a thousand times over - but an innovative use of a Smart board is fair game in this blog. Also I am not to a point in my career where I feel it is fair to say a teacher is absolutely right or wrong for teaching one way or another. I will never degrade a whole style of teaching here simply because I have never seen it in action. I do not have a problem speaking from my own experience about the classrooms that I have taught in and what worked and what didn't work. But I will not tell you what to do and what not to do. I am simply here to offer new ideas to refresh the teaching of English Language Arts and getting students excited about what you are teaching them.
I really like what you are going to try and do with this blog. This will help me out as well. I am always looking for different strategies that will help my own classroom out. Since language arts isn't my focus, I am not as confident in this subject matter. I'm really looking forward to getting tips and hints from you and your blog.
ReplyDeleteRyan
Your blog seems to have a lot of valid and good information. I think that it really does show that blogs can be filled with helpful information and your blog seems to not be biased towards a direction, and it seems as if you maintained a middle ground when commenting on things. Great to read!I think this was a great blog to subscribe to as it seems that it will be helpful getting the input of a language arts concentration!
ReplyDeleteKarlye
I really like how you organized your blog. While reading it, I felt that it had a great structure. I felt a great sense of passion from your writing towards teaching, which makes reading your blog even better! I can't wait to see more of your ideas!
ReplyDeleteYour blog is very well put together. I am interested in learning more about what you have to say about language arts. That subject has been difficult for me in the past and look forward to learning more about it.
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