Final Post!!!!

One more week!!! It’s a pretty hectic and exciting time for us English Education folks. Our time as an undergraduate is coming to an end, finals week is rapidly approaching, we’re anxiously awaiting our student teaching placement, and the Unit project for ENG 481 is in the final stages of work. We have been working hard both in and out of class, and the panel that we had for class last week was a great way to wrap up our semester in class (other than our brief meeting this Wednesday). To be honest, I didn’t know what or who to expect when the five teachers came in, since I had never met or seen them, which I think created a bit of a “stand-off-ish” vibe when they first arrived. It took everyone a few minutes to become familiar with one another, but we all had so much in common professionally that the conversation started to flow once we got a feel for one another. The panel discussions were extraordinarily helpful to quelling my fears about student teaching, answering some of my burning questions, and addressing the real challenges of being an everyday high school English educator.

The first group I got to meet with was the two teachers from Team Englewood, Rich and Jason, who talked about reading and writing strategies. They gave me some great insight into what it takes to push students, how to reach the “bottom-half” of the students, and the patience and creativity it takes to helps students achieve. These two teachers were obviously committed to their craft and students, which was evident in the quality of their responses.

I then got to meet with the two teachers, Victoria (I believe! I’m so bad with names!) and Ryan, from Foreman High School, who would be talking about bringing creativity to the classroom. When I heard that this was going to be their topic, I immediately wanted to speak to them, because I feel that bringing creativity is something I could definitely use a tutorial in. I asked them, “What exactly do you mean by creativity in the classroom? Do you have to be creative to be effective?” The response they gave me informed me that you cannot force creativity into a lesson or unit; it has to come organically and tie into the needs of your students and your unit/lesson objectives. They suggested that I embrace backwards design and start with what you want the students to be able to do, then think of different ways in which one might learn that particular skill. They encouraged me to reach out to others for idea generating or ask about something unique they are doing in the classroom that is successful, which was quite helpful for me to hear.

The last teacher I got to meet with was Alyson from (I believe, but I could be wrong) Calvin Park High School. She focused on making connections within your school and how to get hired in education. She gave some helpful tips on networking, reaching out to the staff from top to bottom, and making you stand out in the crowd. Her advice was solid and she gave me some ideas that I will most assuredly use when it comes time for student teaching.

Overall, I thought the panel was a huge help and success. Everyone I talked to got something helpful out of it and I know that I will be using some of the ideas that these educators gave me in the field. I think more time, maybe a whole class, would have been better, but that might be for the next cohort! Nine more days and I am done with undergraduate classes (other than Student teaching) for good! I just want to quickly acknowledge and thank all of my classmates for being a continuous source of help and inspiration, along with Sarah Rutter who pushed and supported us in a time when her schedule wasn’t any less busy than ours. Good luck on finishing the unit and good luck with student teaching guys. I’ll see all of you soon enough!