This has been an amazing learning experience for me. In the past whenever someone brought up the concept of literacy it put me a bit at edge, but, thanks to this Literacy class that I have taken over the summer I feel much more at ease with the subject. I am able to understand now that in order to provide my students with the upmost learning experience I must make sure that the learning environment is welcoming and open and accepting of everyone’s ideas. The classroom must be a trustworthy environment in which the students are able to open up to share their feelings and thoughts.
As educators we must assess our feelings and thoughts about our teaching strategies and our ideologies and philosophies of teaching. Through life experiences and the trials of this class I have come to understand that even thou some of us (educators) think that we are trying to do the best and have the best intentions for the learning of our students, we are really hurting them because we are not aware of their needs or without knowing it we might be revealing biases that we were not aware exist within us. This is why we must constantly self-evaluate our thoughts, teaching strategies, and feelings.
This has been a challenging, but at the same time rewarding class for me. I have learned so much from this class and it has sparked something inside of me to continue my pursuit in learning more about how to reach each student through their needs and through the planning and use of differentiated lesson plans. I will continue to post my blogs to express my thoughts and feelings about new experiences I encounter about literacy and expand it to other concepts of the world of education.
